Different Foundation Samples Jan Haines

Working from right to left, the first sample at the top was on Woollen Blanket. I used a small hook and wool fabric, T-shirt, medium rug wool and thick rug wool, they all worked reasonably well but pulled up the fabric somewhat. For the centre piece I used a #14 Punch needle and wool yarn.  I did not like this much and moved on to the prodded square on the end, I cut the fabric 1/2” x 2” long and prodded through every other hole. I would be happy to use this  backing again.

The bottom righthand sample was worked on 16 count Tapestry canvas.  I used the #14 Punch needle again and it worked well and I would use it again on small projects. The prodded area is in Polar fleece cut 1/4” wide and 2” strips, it worked quite well.  The hook I used for the next area was a small one again, first row was a 1/4” cut of  wool fabric and it was a little tight to get through, the next rows were 1/8” cut and worked fine, nylon jersey fabric and satin ribbon all worked well in the following rows.  For small items I would use this again although it makes your fingers quite sore.

The final piece is on Silk scrim.  The hooking worked really well, I used wool fabric cut 1/4”, T-shirt and 1/4”cut Polar fleece and was pleased with the results of this.  The prodded area worked really well too.  The Punch needle area did not work, the silk is too slippery and as it is scrim it is not a tight enough weave, hence the poor display in this area. All the samples were worked with the fabrics in tambour frames. 

Different Foundation Samples Janet Hull

Floor Cloth
May try to make something in the future with it.

 Scrim
This is used for upholstery and was good for needle punching.
The Scrim is soft and sags a bit in a frame.

Wool blanket
Hooked well but did not like the punch needle as the threads split

Wild and Beautiful - Jan Haines

 

My design idea came from travelling along the Eynesford valley in Kent with husband driving and looking out at the winter hedgerows when all of a sudden the sun came out and the whole hedge lit up, the colours were fabulous.

The colours I used were many and they are the colours I saw in the sunlight that morning, the branches and twigs took on a purplish/red and the rose hips were like little light bulbs (I will always think of them as nature's light bulbs in future).  The lighter green grass on the bank in front of the hedge gradually darkened as the grasses grew up into the hedge.  It was a beautiful sight and there and then I knew I had my design.
I sketched the hedgerow on a small piece of paper, it looked OK but once it was coloured in I could see how it would work in fabrics.  I decided on the size and enlarged the draft on the photcopier.  I had decided to work on wool warp backing, so I traced off the design onto a piece of wedding veil  net (not mine I might add) and then onto the wool backing fabric.
The size of the piece was determined by my photocopier (it only enlarges to an A4 size) and as I wanted to get started I went with that size.
The materials I used was mainly wool fabric, some wool/acrylic mix yarn and also pure wool yarn and handmade felt.
The rug was hooked with a fine hook and when the wool yarns were'nt thick enough I used my hook to crochet them into a chain and then hooked them in. I had not done that before but it was helpful in keeping the colours working in between thicker cuts of fabric.  A lot of the fabrics I trimmed down to the size I needed as I went along.
The backing fabric I used was wool warp which was lovely to use.  It is like a woolly form of Monks Cloth.  It was easy to use and when it came to finishing off the back I crocheted around the edges close to the last row of hooking and folded the back over on the bottom edge and two sides and then folded the top edge over last and made a sleeve from it to run a dowel through to hang the work from.
I chose all the colours that I remembered seeing in the hedge at the time and gathered them all together and cut with my rotary cutter  a 1/4” to 1/8” so I had lots of little piles of fabrics.  I piled them all onto my cutting mat along with the yarns and the whole thing looked like an artist's palette.  I then started hooking, taking colours as I thought they would work – the main details were put in first as usual but the best bit was choosing which colour to put in next and what it would go next to etc.  I can sketch but always wanted to be able to paint like a real artist, I covered this with A level Art, but found I was better at the history than the painting.  This project made me realise you don't have to use paint to make a picture, wool is far more tactile and does'nt smell as much.

Wild and Beautiful - June Gregory

The piece is 9”x9”  worked on Monkscloth, with wool yarn. I had difficulty deciding on the pattern as there is so much beauty around us, and I am not very good at drawing, but  I walk my son’s  dog and so I see lot’s of fungus, the Toadstools that I have worked are poisonous and beautiful, I punch hooked the piece as I find punch hooking quicker and I like the overall effect you get with wool yarn when using a punch hook.

Wild and Beautiful Miranda Auckland

My first thoughts for ‘Wild and Beautiful’ were a landscape of the moors or perhaps a wild flower but whilst waiting to pick up my grandson from school I saw a beautiful, small bent pine tree. I sketched it and decided that it was beautiful and I have put it in a wild setting.

I decide to use the punch needle I bought at Reeth which I had not used. I began on a piece of Hessian but it was unsuccessful so I used some Monk’s cloth. As I was working from the back of the fabric I had to reverse my design.

I found the punch needle difficult to use but persevered. I did the green grassed area first, then the tree and finally the sky. I used rug wool in a mixture of shades for both the sky and the grass areas.

I then made the pine needles from wool, fixing them into place with a bead and used small blue flower-shaped beads on the right-hand side under the tree and orange wool for the flowers on the left. The finished piece is 8” in diameter but I felt it needed a border which is card with wool wrapped around it.

Wild and Beautiful Barbara Wilder

The piece I decided to do was inspired by the Great Whale Conservancy. The colours were a bit of a challenge and I have to admit were pulled out and altered on an almost regular basis!
I used monkscloth as a backing, and drew the design directly on to that, being a small piece I felt quite happy about tackling that, the piece it self is only 9" by 6".
It was worked mostly in wool #3 cut, I also used wool yarn to add texture, I really wanted to show the water falling from the whales tail and struggled to find the right effect, and ended up over hooking some slightly shiny wrap that came with flowers at Christmas. I finished the work by glueing felted material to the backing.