I thought I should share with you what I’ve been working on for the past several weeks… As you know, I’ve been working with my mom, Noreen, to create a set of memorial textiles (antependia - or sacred textiles) for my grandmother’s church.

It’s been exactly a year ago today that my beloved Nana passed away and it’s been deeply moving process to create a tribute to my grandmother, together with my mother. The sense of repeating the same actions that women have been doing since to dawn of time (weaving and hand-sewing) has been a lovely way to honor my Nana.

I used rayon velvet for the tops and 100% cotton sheeting for the lining. The embroidered motifs were part of the church’s last set of runners & banners. I carefully removed them from the old runners and then stitched them to the new ones. I think that this is the third time the embroideries have been re-stitched to something new, judging from the layers of thread on the back!

Noreen wove strips of brocade on her inkle loom and I hand-sewed everything together - I’ve been hand-sewing daily for weeks now!

The altar cloth:

Embroidered detail from the altar cloth:

A runner for under another memorial:

It was important to have the textiles labeled, so I created a computer-printed label using pre-treated silk sheets. It’s archival and a great way to permanently label any kind of fabric artwork.

The pulpit banner:

And last, but not least, a matching pair of table runners:

I found the whole process was deeply moving and am so grateful that I was able to create the textiles!

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Christine, our resident scrapbook guru at the Mad Cropper is holding a “Random Acts of Kindness” contest to win one of these fabulous Kodak Easyshare 5300 all-in-one printers:

The catch? You’re not entering to win something for yourself - you’re nominating someone that you feel deserves to win!

Go spread the love and enter :-)

image source: Kodak

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Is the glue completely dried (if not, don’t try to sew it - you’ll end up with a big, gummy mess)? If it is, you can start to embroider!

I want a loose, free line of embroidery, so I’m not marking anything onto the surface of the silk paper. I do know where I want to embroider though - using a graphic design program can be a great way to help you plan out where you want to stitch.

I’m using plain black sewing machine thread for this piece, with a free-motion foot and dropped feed dogs:

I’m essentially making the same black lines as the first sample, just with thread, not paint. I’m not trying to outline the flowers, but to show their sense of movement and enhance the composition.

I still haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to touch up the embroidery with a little bit of black paint… stay tuned, I’ll share my decision with you tomorrow :-)

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Do you still like the way your canvas background looks? I like how this one works with the painted silk paper:

I’m going to baste the silk paper onto the canvas using some good quality fabric glue (I’m a big fan of The Ultimate) You don’t have to glue the silk down, but I find it’s easier to have it mounted on the canvas before I start embroidering it.

Make sure to only put glue on the thicker parts of the paper - like this:

If you put glue on the thinner layers of the silk, it will do funny things as it dries - like leaving clear polka-dots! If the underside of the paper is completely opaque, it should be safe to glue.

Let it dry on a flat surface for a couple of hours, or until it’s completely dry.

image source: C Findlay-Harder

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Hello my lovely Tangled Thread readers - I hope you had a wonderful weekend & Mother’s Day :-)

Ah, back to the silk paper… In my last post, I showed you how I was using wax crayons and fabric paint to color a background to mount the paper on. I’ve now embroidered on the canvas using two colors of variegated rayon machine embroidery thread:

I’ve used different floral motifs and the red thread to enhance the red & pink stripes. I used a simple zig-zag stitch and yellow thread to enhance the thinner yellow stripes.

Now, you could sew the paper onto the canvas at this point, but I’m a firm believer in letting artwork sit over night in between major steps. It allows you to come back into your studio, with fresh eyes in the morning and be a little more objective.

So let’s meet back here tomorrow and keep on creating!

image source: C Findlay-Harder

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