Viking metal fragment/Wikingerfragment

I'm so excited about the fragment I did today, that I have to show it to you right away:



As so often, my inspiration was boosted when I read my friend Elizabeth's posting, where she had put a very interesting link to a historical documentation on Vikings.

What catched my eye first when watching the film were the metal helmets, and so I began stitching the outlines on a fabric fragment, using a couched split stitch. While working on it, I pondered which filling stitch to use - until I remembered having some beer can metal hidden in my stash - Irish beer, mmm ...

Then I added a couple of antique sequins and beads - and there it was, the Viking metal fragment!

Even if I'm aware of that I'm spoiling you rotten by adding yet another fragment - I think this one is so closely connected to the first, that I don't have much of a choice:



If you want to see the original rock carving - the picture is published on the homepage of Bornholm's Museum in Denmark and first linked to by Elizabeth/Landanna again - here is where you'll find it.

For this 'rock carving', I've used the antique sequins again, and the stitches are - well, a bit of free style.

If you have followed the link to the historical documentation on Vikings (which I can really recommend!) and maybe had a look at the rock carvings, too (interesting!) - I think you are now prepared to lend your ear to some Viking music as well ;-) ...

and I'm pretty certain, that if you don't happen to have a son that particular age, you've never heard this sound before - click to hear here (Swedish "Amon Amarth") and here (Icelandic "Tyr"). Give it a chance - it's not that bad when you get used to it :-)!

(German summary: Ein neues Fragment, für mich aufregend, weil ich es hier mit einer Art Metallapplikation kombiniere - Bierdosenmetall, recycled ... Es geht viel um das Wikinger-Thema, als historische Dokumentation, Runensteine, Metal-Musik ... bitte folgt einfach den Links!)

Moons and stars fragments/Monde und Sterne - Fragmente

I always found it difficult to appliqué a piece of round fabric to a background - until I suddenly realized I could draw a circle with a 'Magic pen' (you know, the one that disappears by itself or when sprayed upon with water) on the background, and then follow these outlines when sewing the fabric down ...

To me, these are moons and stars - but of course you could see them as dots as well - and if they are to be dots, I guess I should link you to Jude, who's done a lot of investigation about dots!



And then I started pondering (oh, I love that word - it has been used in several blogs lately :-)) - if the Magic pen-method would work out with a more complicated form - let's say a star - too ...

Well, yes, it does!



I must admit that the fabric chosen is extremely light and soft , but a person more accurate than I am could surely do this with a normal cotton fabric as well.

I worked grain stitches through all layers to fix the yellow gauze better to the background. Filling stitches, like the grain ones, turn out very nice with a variegated thread - and here you can use up a lot of short ends, too!

In this case, both the gauze and the threads are self-dyed - products of Sara's and my dyeing last summer - and as you may recall it was very hard work - so therefore I really honour every scrap of it!

(German summary: Für die heutigen Fragmente habe ich den 'Magischen Stift' - der, der von selber verschwindet - zur Hilfe genommen, um einen Kreis vorzuzeichnen und dann entlang den Konturen die runde Applikation festzunähen. Es funktioniert auch sogar recht gut mit einer komplizierteren Form, mit dem Stern.

Die kleinen Körndl- oder Füllstiche sehen besonders gut aus, wenn man ein Stickgarn mit Farbverlauf wählt - auch Reste sind da gut aufzubrauchen!)

A very inspiring book!

This week I bought a very inspiring embroidery book: it' s "Painting With Stitches - Creating Freestyle Embroidery by Hand" by Sue Dove. I think it's an amazing book; bold, free, colourful - reminding me a lot of Marc Chagall - and I instantly fell in love with this unconventional approach to embroidered pictures!

Normally, I would not copy, but - I just had to have something cheerful like this for my own ... So I picked a detail of Sue Dove's drawings and coloured it my own way. I'm going to wear it as a broche to lighten up the dark days to come!