My new community site for textile folks

Waving to everyone in very excited manner this morning! For l those with very sharp eyes. Last night a little bit of text appeared in my side bar which reads “Visit stitchin fingers a new community site for stitchers.” Well for anyone who noticed great work!

I have finally got around to doing something I have meant to do for ages and that is create a stitchin/textile community site over on Ning.

For a long time I felt that the community needs a hub that can act a depot to spread news of events etc. Ning is a social software site that helps people build communities. I think may provide the service the textile folks need. Ning looks to be good place to make announcements, share news and photos hang out online etc.

I have called the network Stitchin Fingers So far I have put a forum on there, and since Ning has an RSS feed so you can subscribe and new activity will appear in your reader. It is an ideal place to act as a hub for all sorts of news and activities that the whole community can make use of. So all are welcome to use it and be as active as you choose on the site.

It is free and looks like members can have up to 100 photos. Members can load their own photos, create albums, share them etc. This feature alone would have made it ideal for any of the challenges I have run. It means people who don’t have to have a blog can join in on activities and for those that do have blogs they tell us about them there! But its more than simply that. As I say its a community site - or I see it as that and I will keeping pure self promotion at bay . People can use it to spread the word about textile related events but I don’t see it as an avenue for business to peddle their wares.

Last night I spent far too long trying to decide on a theme and I will organise some sort of image in the banner. I don’t want to spend an age designing something only to find not one is interested. Basically I will polish it the more people join and use it.

Since its free you have nothing to lose head over to Stitchin Fingers, sign up, join and leave a hello message and we can see what develops from there. Bloggers and those on lists please help spread the word because it will not work if people don’t know about it. This is a community site so lets hope it builds!

I have described it as “The group is open to all who are interested in textiles both contemporary and historical. Since many textile practices cross or inform each other all areas are welcome “
Actually I will reshape the description when figure out how to describe the group as I am sure it will shape itself!

If you are not sure what a Ning site is take a look at the fiberarts mixed media group as you can see it is for anyone who is interested in contemporary fiber arts and its a good example of what a group site can look like

This is what prompted me to finally get this network site going as Tricia of Lets Create contacted me as she is establishing a group for people who are interested in challenges. Go and check out her blog here This is the sort of news that is ideal to spread on the Stitchin Fingers site.

On another note I thought I would bring this link to Designer Bookbinders to the top as kimsarahtillyer left a comment point me to it. Designer Bookbinders was founded over fifty years ago and is a society devoted to the craft of fine bookbinding. There is some delicious eye candy in their gallery so do go and gobble some up (after you have checked out Stitchin Fingers that is)

 

Vintage needlework magazines

I love curling up with a magazine and I have pointed to the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics hosted by the university of Arizona as a wonderful resource for anyone interested in textiles. Many of these copyright free online books are not only of historical interest but are also a fantastic design source.

Today I want to highlight a few recent additions to the site as recently 8 issues of the the Home Needlework Magazine form 1914 and 1915 have been published on the site. These magazines have a dated charm that delights us one hand and yet many of the designs in them are very modern and can be easily adapted to a contemporary piece.

For instance look at these two designs I found in the Home Needlework Magazine March 1915.

For readers who are interested in historical or vintage knitting, crochet, tatting and lace patterns you will discover plenty between the covers of this magazine.

They are well worth downloading these PDF files and browsing during a quiet moment.

 

Update

A big thanks to Pat of Altering thoughts as she picked up the fact that I had mistitled this weeks TAST challenge stitch. I called it week 49 when we are at week 48. It has now been corrected. I guess I am so much in Christmas countdown mode I am getting ahead of myself. Thanks Pat!

Berceste also left a great link to this site on Oya lace on my post about this interesting form of Turkish lace. (The link to the article on Oya is in the side bar)

 

How is Oya Lace made?

Now this is one of those strange coincidences that happen on line. First Barbara Blankenship has an article Oya lace in CQMag online. The lace illustrated in this article is the lace I know as Oya. Next Allison featured her collection on her blog, then I received an email from from Elizabeth of Quieter Moments (check out what she has done with this weeks stitch it’s fantastic) who pointed me to Sunshine’s Creations who is also asking questions about this form of lace.

There is very little online about this type of lace. This brief definition in Art of Oya describes Oya as a knotted lace but the image featured does not match what I know as Oya. The same article suggests that another term this lace is known by is Bebilla but the lace that I have seen was not the same as the lace illustrated here. I saw Bebilla lace in the Victorian and Albert Museum and it was the same type of  Oya that Barbara and Allison have.  The lace I saw was fringed with little 3 dimensional shapes of flowers and fruit and did not lay flat, like the lace in Allison’s and Barbaras collection. It may be a knotted form of the lace but when I saw it I thought it was a 3D form of needlelace.

Why do I say I think it’s needle lace? Apart from seeing the samples in the V & A I have worked needle lace and know that you can work it into 3d structures. Below is an image which is part of a crazy quilt block. The little flowers have a cup into which I tucked a bead. They are three dimensional and built up using detached buttonhole stitch which is the foundation of all the variations of stitches found in needle lace.

There is more information on needlelace structures and an example of needle lace worked in a three dimensional fashion. Take a look and you will see what I mean. Here is a contemporary needle lace also worked in a 3D fashion. Finally if you go to this site, select needle lace and then click small you will see Oya being sold online. As I have said I could be wrong but I think Oya is made using a needle rather than knotting thread. I could be totally wrong. Any lace makers out there know the answer?

 

Free Ebooks online of interest to stitchers

This month the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics has loaded 3 more free ebooks that are of interest to stitchers.

Dentelle Teneriffe, is part of the early DMC library. This book on Teneriffe lace work is of course in French, but the illustrations are understood easily. You can see why DMC established itself as their publications are still usable today, even given the language barrier. The advertising at the back of the book is a delight too particularly if you are interested in collage.

The Album de Dentelle de Venise, by Hardouin is in two parts. For anyone interested in needle lace this will be and interesting book. It also has a small section on Broderie Anglaise. The image above came from this book.

Orsoni’s book Le Filet Brode covers Embroidered Filet, Drawnwork, (this section looks good) and the final section covers what we would call today surface embroidery stitches.

All the links to these books are to PDF files so you need acrobat reader installed on your computer to access them.

 

Archive of Tatting Books in the Public Domain

Many tatters will welcome this list of titles of Tatting Books in the Public Domain. The books and magazines are archived in PDF files so you will need Acrobat reader which is free. Instructions are on the site.

 

Tatted Christmas Wreath

This free pattern by Samantha Melnychuk for a Tatted Christmas Wreath is ideal for crazy quilt projects that have a Christmas theme or it could be attached to a hand made Christmas card.

 

Pigmy Possums and Chocolates with no calories!

These Needlelace Chocolates are calorie and fat free and a great contemporary interpretation of needlelace by Jacky McDouall for a Valentine’s Day competition.

Olwyn Scott’s Needlelace is an example of contemporary needlelace from Australia. This time the motif is a Pigmy Possum. This is an exceptional piece of contemporary needlelace do take look.

Perhaps he is after the chocolates…

 

There is a puzzle to be solved over at Gina’s

Gina of Patra’s Place is trying to identify an piece of vintage lace that is an inherited UFO. It is a form of Tape lace but not the most commonly known which is Battenberg Lace .

Another form is Princess lace but it’s not that either!

I could not find too much under the term tape lace as nothing looked quite like Gina’s piece. The pattern clearly has Dickel Lace written on it but I can find no references at all to this type of lace in google or my books on lace. I was left thinking that perhaps Dickel Lace was a local firm which used this naming convention in Australia. Just musing on the possibility here – I don’t know and lace is not an area I know a heck of alot about.

Can anyone help Gina identify this piece? Take look and see what you think.

 

Turkish Oya needle lace

I am still a big kid at times. This morning I opened my mail to read an email from Sennur in Istanbul. Sennur’s interests are in crochet and embroidery and she has gone to the trouble of writing her blog nursbasket in English and in Turkish I really admire people who tackle a blog in their second language.

Now this is one of those strange coincidences that happen on line as last week there was a discussion on the CQembellishers group list about Turkish lace. Take a look as I think it is a form of needlelace

This type of lace is used to edge garments and is apparently also known as Oya or Oyalari. The lace features small floral motifs. Needless to say I went scurring around the net trying all sorts of google seaches and came up eith snippits of information. The Encyclopaedia of Turkey makes reference to it and this brief article on Oya Lace has some illustrations at the bottom of the page.

In Ottoman Empire Period Turkish Embroideries the author suggests that it was a form of needlework that made use of silk cocoon husks but I sense it has developed into a form of three dimensional needle work. This brief definition in Art of Oya indicates that the craft is shifting toward fine crochet work. Another term this lace is known by is Bebilla , which may be a knotted form of the lace I am not sure. Any lace makers out there know the answer?

These illustrations of contemporary turned up on an ebay , so it is a form of lace which is still being made. Here another Turkish trader is offering the lace Take a look at the needle lace neck piece you will see that it is three dimensional. Another trader here is offering Oya lace trim that is embellished with 1 inch chili peppers

Of course everyone on the list was asking how it was done or better still seeking to find patterns. As this form of work is three dimensional I think the style is interesting enough to try and figure it out. Firstly I am going to turn in the direction of needle lace. I have written about needle lace before so I will be digging out my books on lace, needle lace, and perhaps even stump work. I am not likely to be able to work out the correct way or a traditional method for working this style of work but as I said it is an interesting point of departure for a contemporary interpretation.

So I guess I have just set my self a challenge. Perhaps it will be suitable for this months contribution to the 6 x 4 lives . Last week I was searching all over the place looking at Lagartera Embroidery what a strange mix the two would make!