MrXStitch » Curegreed

The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – Vintage at Goodwood

Mr X Stitch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:00:10 +0000

~~People often ask me… A person asked me once…~~ I thought I’d take some time to tell you about what I’ve been getting up to out in the real world. It’s always exciting when I get to go and play in the real world and have stitchy adventures, so when I do I shall share them with you here.

August was a fantastic month for stitchy shenanigans.

First off I was invited to run a cross stitch workshop at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival. You may have read a bit about it in Curegreed’s post this month – it was a very groovy festival and a terrific honour to be invited to participate. We ran the workshop from 11am to 4pm and could have gone on for a lot longer.

We provided people with the basic materials, and a couple of alphabets as guides – they were invited to choose their favourite colour and stitch a phrase or word of their choosing. Curegreed and I were accompanied by our good friend Jess Aldred, stitching goddess from the Royal School of Needlework, and all the proceeds from the event went to Fine Cell Work.

It was fantastic. We taught people of all ages, boys as well as girls, and a good time was had by all. It’s great fun teaching other people – it helps you appreciate the subject in new ways. I like to use the waste knot technique to start my stitching, and it’s tricky to explain, but the joy of helping someone get going and then watching them become absorbed in the process of stitchery is priceless. I hope we get to go back next year!

I also got to visit Chicago in August and hung out with some fantastic people – but I’ll save that for another post!

Curegreed’s Holiday – Vintage at Goodwood

Curegreed — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:02:31 +0000

Hullo! I’m Curegreed, and every third Friday of the month I’m supposed to be telling you all about what goes on at the degree in The Royal School of Needlework. However I’m on my holidays now, so from here until September the posts’ll be varied and (hopefully) interesting. Here goes nothing!
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Last weekend Mr X Stitch, Jess of Bright Star fame and I helped out Fine Cell Work by putting on a Cross Stitching Workshop in their name at the new festival Vintage at Goodwood.

This mainly consisted of us girls wearing nice dresses and Mr X Stitch pulling this face a lot:

We taught people of all ages and all sexes and they all managed to produce a nice little thing- from a child stitching ‘Bowie’ to a hot girl stitching ‘Ruby’ which was her erotic pen name. Takes all sorts.

We helped raise the profile of Fine Cell Work and we all had a great day. Hoping to go back next year!

photos by the world famous Jessica Aldred

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If you want to see my other work then my personal blog is a pretty good place to start: My Little Stitches
If you want to know more, please get in touch! You can email me at: prettyguns.rosa[at]gmail.com

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

Curegreed’s Adventure – The New Black

Curegreed — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:00:15 +0000

Hullo! I’m Curegreed, and every third Friday of the month I’ll be telling you all about what goes on at the degree in The Royal School of Needlework. I’m a student and I’ll be sharing as I’m going. It’s nothing official, but Mr X Stitch thought it’d be interesting. Here goes nothing!
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It’s our last project of the year- and it appears to be our heaviest. There were no smiles when that timetable was given out, I tell you now.
However there is a marked change- we’ve been offered freedom from stitch. No longer do we have to give in singular final pieces, a range of samples is OK. No longer do we have to use stitch for our final outcome- simply something inspired and informed by stitch is OK too.

The stitch that we have to be informed by is Blackwork. Oh what I’ve learnt of Blackwork! I had no idea it was all tonal- those background patterns? They’re supposed to fade from dark to light! Either by adding/taking away shapes or by changing the thickness of the thread. I literally had no idea. You’re probably laughing at me for this, but we’ve all got to learn.

For Blackwork we found ourself looking at a lot of old paintings in Portraiture Museums. You know the sort- Elizabeth I with her big leg-of-mutton sleeves and her sceptre, men looking fiercely into your eyes whilst trying to ignore their fluffy collars. That’s because that’s where all the true Blackwork designs are! And none enamoured a bud and I more than The Cholmondeley Sisters. And so, for a side project, we made a ‘cover version’ of it.

And boom! We got ourselves a Blackwork Project. The RSN is no longer all Tudor Roses and dogs on cushions.

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If you want to see my other work then my personal blog is a pretty good place to start: My Little Stitches
If you want to know more, please get in touch! You can email me at: prettyguns.rosa[at]gmail.com

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

Needle Exchange: A Sampling of Samplers

Penny Nickels — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:40 +0000

Hi everybody! Last time we looked at the history of early American samplers. If you missed that article, click HERE to read it. This week I trolled Flickr and the Phat Quarter pool to find some examples of modernized samplers. Although we learned last time that samplers tend to include the maker’s name along certain motifs, it is undeniable that these current pieces give a snarky nod to the past.

First up we have Mina’s Cross Stitch by Sailor Corscant.

Click HERE to see it larger

I love the keyboard alphabet, and I can’t get over the teeny emoticon border!

Next we have curegreed’s sampler featuring a Dale Spender quote-

Click HERE to see it larger

In the comment section last time we had a fascinating conversation about women’s roles in needlework, specifically being expected to make samplers as part of their education. This piece’s use of a quote about feminism really brings the history of the sampler full circle for me.

Here we have Beefranck’s Dr. Horrible Cross Stitch. While not technically a sampler, it does incorporate the text, flower, and human motifs that are typically found in traditional samplers. And it says “Penis”.

Click HERE to see it large.

Although I try to not to play favorites by featuring more than one piece by any artists unless I am writing specificly about them, I just couldn’t pick one piece by Bren Ahearn.

Sampler #3, See it HERE.

Sampler #1, See it HERE

I’m totally blown away by how powerful these pieces are, despite their simple palettes. The first one reminds me of the history of ritual needlework pieces used in wedding ceremonies, while provocatively exploring the idea of who is allowed to marry. The second piece with its simply stitched alphabet and numbers, really contrasts boldly with the text, “When I refuse to fight, I am called a pussy.” I love the date and age included too, it really gives the piece a personal narrative touch that feels like I’ve glanced a diary entry.

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks dive into modern samplers! If you want to see more, check out the Phat Quarter pool on Flickr.

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Penny Nickels is a printmaker that started playing with needles with tremendous effect. She and her husband, Johnny Murder, have been described as “The Bonnie and Clyde of Contemporary Embroidery” and you can discover the power of her creativity at her blog.

Curegreed’s Adventure – Kits and Giggles

Curegreed — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:00:32 +0000

Due to the Easter Holidays appearing in the middle of this unit, Contemporary Applications (AKA Kit making) is *still* going on. It’s been a very odd unit compared to usual- all business and research, less creativity than we’re used to, but it’s nice to rein it in every now and again.

I have been using this unit to my full, unadulterated advantage, I will not lie. I chose to explore craftivist kits, which basically means I can chat to my pals and call it work. Be it via email to Rayna at Radical Cross Stitch, or over a cup of tea and some stitch with Sarah and the other kidz of The Craftivist Collective, I’m workin’ hard! That’s the beauty of doing a course in something that is so integral to your life anyway- you can mould it to suit you and play to your strengths. Sure, I’ve been working hard to create a pattern, brand and identity of my own, but it fits into everything else. I’m not in a position yet to show you how far I’ve come, so instead you may have some pictures of the fun that The London Craftivist Collective and I have been having.

I made some patterns (as far as the RSN are concerned, they are practices for my final outcome… Capsice?) for the Craftivist Collective’s current campaign – trying to encourage people to vote in the upcoming UK election. You can see one being practiced by a first time stitcher in the above photograph, and to stitch your own you should go to The Craftivist Collective’s site.
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If you want to see my other work then my personal blog is a pretty good place to start: My Little Stitches
If you want to know more, please get in touch! You can email me at: prettyguns.rosa[at]gmail.com

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

Curegreed’s Adventure – Kits and Ass

Curegreed — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:00:19 +0000

This month, we’ve got something rather different on… It’s our business module! Named ‘contemporary applications’ it is a five week programme designed to show us how to make money from this bizarre little craft we’re learning. And how are they teaching us to do that? With kits! Our task is to design a counted stitch design for a particular market. We may choose whichever market we like, provided we do our research into that market and attempt to make a commercial product.

Emily Peacock comes in three times a week to talk us through the process of becoming a kit making goddess, we’ve also had lectures from experts in bespoke to order kit making from none other than The Royal School of Needlework, and essentially we just get to play around with some simple cross stitch. It’s like a dream! I’m finally getting round to stitching up all the craft kits from Radical Cross Stitch I’ve been meaning to forever, and now I can call it work! May these five weeks stretch on forever.

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

Curegreed’s Adventure: Goldwork & Gavin Fry

Curegreed — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:00:45 +0000

So this month it’s goldwork! I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of it… It consists mostly of laid work and what I like about embroidery is the fact that the decorative threads become part of the fabric, not the case here. I also like how most embroidery can be done fairly cheaply, which obviously doesn’t apply when it comes to stitching with gold. However, it’s still learning skills and is still fun and exciting!

Alongside the stitch, we’ve had a fair few visiting artists talks. We’ve had them all along, sure, but this month we’ve had some really good ones. We’re currently working with artist Kirstie MacLeod, so she’s been around a lot and she’s a wonderful influence on us. But I wanted to talk to you mostly about Gavin Fry. He visited last week and was wonderful. Whereas past visitors have given a brief presentation of their work, he gave us a presentation on work made by both he and others that he thought would help us with our current project (for which the theme is identity). He also brought in his own work so we could handle it, created booklets for us, gave us postcards of his work and took the time to have one to one tuition sessions with each of us. He really put in an effort for us and it felt great to be treated with such respect. Not only that, as I’m sure you all saw yesterday, his work is brilliant and he’s a nice guy! It was a truly excellent experience for all of us. That’s something that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. For as much as artists do come to degree courses and give talks, in bigger institutions there just isn’t the time to concentrate on each of the students, and you’d be lucky anywhere else to get time to talk to the artist. Not at the Royal School of Needlework. Everyone is a VIP. I am very grateful for my chance to study there.

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

Stitchgasm! – Gavin Fry

Beefranck — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:00:06 +0000

Thanks to our own curegreed for alerting us to the works of Gavin Fry.

Gavin is a talented artist and embroiderer who has been exhibiting his artwork since 1984.

His embellishment of prints on cloth are especially inspiring to me.

See more of Gavin’s work at his blog – and be sure to come back tomorrow to hear about his visit to the Royal School of Needlework from curegreed herself!

NSFW Saturday – Curegreed

Beefranck — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:00:20 +0000

Hooray for Saturday! Time for some sophisticated adult stitching. If you’re ready, scroll past the puppy and let’s get to it!

WARNING!
NSFW SATURDAYS WILL CONTAIN CONTENT THAT IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
IF YOU READ THESE POSTS, AND ARE OFFENDED, WE’RE SORRY BUT WE DID WARN YOU!

Today’s offering is from our very own curegreed.

This gorgeous embroidery details some of Sappho’s adventures on the isle of Lesbos. Rosa bravely stitched this in many public places and said the piece was well received by on-lookers. It’s nice to see something new from Rosa outside of her schoolwork – and something so beautiful, too. Be sure to show her some love at her blog or her flickr photostream.

NSFW Saturdays are brought to you in association with
Subversive Cross Stitch, the original snarky stitching site!

Curegreed’s Adventure – Needle Painting the Town Red

Curegreed — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:29 +0000

So our current project is ‘Painting with a needle’, AKA Silk Shading. The very prospect of this filled us newbie stitchers with dread. The margin for error had shrunk dramatically, this was no longer Jacobean crewel work with its nice big crude stitches and little attention to reality, this wasn’t canvas work with it’s safety net of “provided you counted properly, you’ll be fine.” This was silk shading. Our stitched pieces had to look as the object would look in real life. The lighting had to be correct, the colours had to flow into one another, it had to be spot on.

Anne Butcher was brought in for our technical stitch lessons. And as teachers should, she taught us not to be so scared of it. She gave us hints and tips until we’d gained enough courage to try, which is the hardest step. Once you’ve started trying and you’re not scared to fail, it’ll be ok, eventually. So the entire project has been based on two stitches- split stitch and long and short stitch. Split stitch outlines, long and short fill and cover the split stitch. It’s best to remember long and short as ‘long and longer’. Short stitches have no place in colour blending. Work back into the work, work on top, stitch, stitch, stitch. Add more stitches. Put in enough stitches so it just becomes a mass and no individual stitches can be picked out. It’s not regimented, it’s random. It’s trial and error. It’s silk shading.

So, days of work, and what do you end up with?

A leaf with a turnover. *sigh*

See you next time for stories of …Goldwork!

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Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?