We can do it

Hello!!!!! Yes long time, no see but I am back and at slightly snuffly, fighting fitness. The snuffle comes from another night sat outside in a beer garden in the rain. I know, ridiculous. I think I am finally giving up the fight when it comes to the Barrels (the local pub) and just not going. A pub should only be allowed to give me a hangover, not a cold.

Anyway snuffles aside I have had a very good break, there were birthday's - some big ones, some less big ones, there was a trip to Berlin which has been wonderfully inspiring for my final pieces, there has been a lot of time sat in front of my computer trying to map out my future and write a presentation on it, and of course there has been some personal crafting. The first piece of which I can finally share here now as it arrived safely in its new home yesterday.

I have spoken before of my most lovely friend SilverLining, and in her home she has what I like to think of as her wall of irrepressible women. On this wall there are several versions of the We Can Do It WWII poster (AKA Rosie the Riveter), including a brilliant Czech one. Inspired, I decided to embroider a version for her christmas/birthday present.

This first version was a straight up line drawing interpretation which I gave up on because I wasn't getting the texture I really wanted from the piece. I am not very good at filling stitches like satin stitch and the idea of having to fill big sections of this filled me with dread, so I went back to the drawing board and decided to incorporate some other textiles. And this is how she turned out:

As you can see I added a fabric headscarf and a shirt, which was hand folded and tucked and then stitched in place - the creases are meant to be there, in fact I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out if it was too crease-y.

I am so pleased with how the shirt came out, the collar stands a little proud of the rest of the piece and those folded back sleeves were very effective.

The We Can Do It banner was machine appliquéd which kept it looking very graphic and tidy, making a nice counter point to the hand stitched Rosie the Riveter. You can also see in this picture a little glimpse of the roving I used for her hair. There was one particularly rough moment in the sewing of this where I decided to do her eyebrows using roving as well. Let's just say it ended badly for all involved and the stitched brows are by far better!

I am so happy with this piece and judging from the tweet squeals of joy last night SilverLining loves her too. I may have to play with this stitched collaging a little bit moreover the summer.