Shopping, a rant, painting fabric, and a new idea…..

My new embroidery idea

Just in case you are sick and tired of seeing fruit embroideries (’as IF’ I hear all the teenage girls cry!) I thought I’d show you what else I’ve been doing. I’ve been painting silk for backgrounds for my next embroidery project. I am planning to do a coral reef scene similar to this one by Anne Huntley. I saw this hanging on the wall in her shop and it is absolutely stunning. The little seahorse is only a couple of centimetres tall, if that, and is exquisitely done. Of course I really can’t remember any of the details – she has used a lot of stump work and/or Brazilian embroidery techniques for the coral, and she hand painted the background, and that’s all I can remember. I did buy some threads from her, in order to try and recreate a similar scene. I am thinking of basing my picture on this photo (and others) I took at SeaWorld (having never actually seen a coral reef in real life – I do not go into water, shark infested or otherwise).

Purchases:

These are the threads I bought, plus some other threads from my stash that I am planning to use. The Needle Necessities thread from Cheryl I think will make great jelly fish, and there are a pile of the Stef Francis threads from Karen. My purchases included Oliver Twists, The Thread Gatherer Silk ‘n’ Colours in a great green called ‘camouflage’ and some thick rayon floss by Oliver Twists that is absolutely stunning, but I just know is going to be a pig to stitch with!

Rant:

I bought some hand dyed silk (by a company that shall remain nameless) to use as the background. I bought a piece of habotai silk and a piece of crinkle chiffon both pre-packaged and labelled as 28 cm by 30 cm. When I got them home and opened them this is what I found:

They don’t look the same size to me! (The chiffon wasn’t crumpled like this – its post purchase creasing.) I contacted the company and queried the discrepancy only to be told that the chiffon is measured with the crinkle stretched out of it, and if I wasn’t happy to return it to the shop where I purchased it. L I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t going to drive a 3 hour round trip to return a $9 purchase either. I responded that I thought the labelling was misleading, but didn’t hear back again. I guess it is a case of ‘buyer beware’. I am annoyed too, because I buy a lot of their silk threads and I really like them, so I can’t bring myself to boycott the company, even though I’m grumpy with them! I thought the silk was, although beautiful (my photos don’t do it justice), rather expensive. So I decided to make my own backgrounds.

Cheap, tight:

I am fairly tight when it comes to spending money on my hobby. I do spend a lot on threads etc, but I am always looking for a cheap option. Not because I’m tight, per se, but because I want to be able to feed and clothe the children. And I do feel guilty that I don’t actually contribute financially to the family, and yet manage to spend an inordinate amount on thread and fabrics.

Painting fabric:

Anyway…..for whatever reason I am unwilling to pay a lot of money for everything I need/want. Fabric paint is a case in point. I considered buying expensive fabric paint and dyes, and brushes etc. And then I saw this fabric paint in a cheap shop (one of those $2 shops that stock craft supplies). It cost less than $10 for 12 colours, and I bought some cheap brushes and sponges to go with it. I figured I’d start of cheap and get more expensive if needed. I bought a metre of silk habotai for $17 and started experimenting. Well I mixed the paint with water, brushed it on (covered one sample with salt), hung it out to dry, ironed it – and it looks and feels fine.

Admittedly the feel isn’t quite as good as the bought one, and for some reason the piece I sprinkled salt on seems to have shrunk and is a bit crispier than the other (not sure if it was the salt, or the amount of paint), but I am happy with the result so far, (I haven’t washed them to see if they are colourfast, but they are supposed to be). I think that these paints will be adequate for my needs. The feel of the fabric will not be noticeable as an embroidery background, and the silk still has sheen to it. Again my photos don’t do the fabric justice – the colours are a lot more vibrant in real life. And there are a lot of 30 cm square bits of fabric in a metre of silk, so even at $17 a metre, I am way better off than spending $8.80 a piece. I happen to have some white crinkle silk chiffon in my stash that I can paint too, and I’m sure the crinkle wasn’t stretched out of it before I bought it either!