Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Brandywine Chapter, Embroidery Guild of America, Fiber Art
My EGA Brandywine chapter had a challenge to stitch on paper. I had saved a print from New American Paintings, a catalog of the fourteenth open studios competition, a juried exhibition from Feb 1998 at a flea market. Many of the pictures were interesting, different, and colorful. I did Fruit Basket by Stacy Thomas-Vickory last time when I had suggested stitching on paper to my ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter (search ‘fiber’ on my blog). This time I have a print of leaves by Jamie Brunson, an artist in Oakland, CA. I used 1 strand of DMC 935 to stitch the veins on some of the leaves. The rest of the leaves won’t be stitched.
At our last meeting, I exposed my ANG Main Line chapter (outside Philadelphia in Devon, PA) to the world of Fiber Arts by sharing the work of this artist, http://ingejacobsen-inge.blogspot.com/search/label/Sewing (thanks to Linda from ANG Yahoo group who shared this link a year ago for http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/hand-stitched-vogue-covers).
I thought it would be fun to have our members give this art form a try. So, I bought New American Paintings, a catalog of the fourteenth open studios competition, a juried exhibition from Feb 1998 at a flea market. The pictures were interesting, different, and colorful.
In advance of the meeting, I started stitching one to show them what it would look like in person. And, the one I selected is this fruit basket piece. I contacted the artist of the Fruit Basket, Stacy Thomas-Vickory (you can find anyone and anything with google if you try), and explained what I was doing & included a photo of the half stitched piece. I told her I’d like to blog about it with a photo of the finished piece but I wanted to be sure she’d be ok with that. I don’t want to violate any copyright issue. And Stacy, a professor at a College of Art, agreed saying, “I would be thrilled to have you make a needlework piece from my painting. If possible could you send me a large size jpg of the finished work, so I can have it for my records. The project with your guild sounds like a great contemporary twist on such an old form. I liked Inge Jacobson’s work as well. Thank you for opening my eyes to this direction in needlework.”
So, I’ll send Stacey the jpg & a link to my blog. Thanks again Stacey – I love your painting! And, next month when Mary Smull visits to talk about the Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlepoint (SPUN), we should have several examples of this fun fiber art form to share with Mary!!
As I told my chapter members, you could do this to any photo & it might really impress your kids & grandkids especially if you stitched some photo of them. I think the heavier weight paper makes it easier to handle. I didn’t block it. and I used a fine thread – you can do any stitch you want – no rules!! All I did was couching of a copper color metallic filament thread, Accentuate (228). I think it turned out great.
And, a close-up:
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