keen newcommer to newsgroups main interests textile art machine embroidery
gillian furlong
I love fine art and embroidery and machine embroidery. I would be pleased to
hear from anyone who has any information to help me along in particular the
best websites to visit. Thanks
kcgee
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Dianne Lewandowski
to be *careful* with words so as not to offend <smile>.
*In my opinion* <grin> machine embroidery and hand embroidery are
competing and causing consternation for those of us who *do* hand
embroider.
That being said, I have seen some machine work, and designs of machine
work, that are lovely. I also realize that many persons find themselves
"at one" with the *machine* and are quite comfortable spending time
making pseudo tatting, lace, satin stitch, smocking, shadow work and the
like with their machines. I don't understand it - as it's an emulation
and can *never* duplicate the original work. It takes time and skill. I
have some gorgeous comparisons (photos) of different types of machine
(industrial) and hand-made lace. some of the machine lace is quite
lovely - still . . .
If you truly are a textile lover and a fine art major - I hope you
explore designing for surface embroiderers. There are many designers of
counted work (mostly samplers), including cross stitch, as well as
canvas work. What is sorely lacking is beautiful designs for the
*other* kinds of embroidery. And putting those designs on high-quality
fabrics.
I'm sure others will have other opinions. I welcome them. Not certain
what sites to send you to . . . but I know that others will come forth
with exciting places to visit.
Welcome to RCTN!
Dianne
JVTOPAZ
competing and causing consternation for those of us who *do* hand >embroider.
I do both and enjoy both. While there is more pride and sense of
accomplishment in what I do by hand, I will continue to do both. Beautiful
work can be done both ways. Why should there be consternation or competition?
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply
is a niche for both types of embroidery. I don't want to spend the time or
effort required to do hand embroidery on bath towels but I will do them on my
machine. OTOH, I would never use the machine to do that stuff that is supposed
to "look" like cross stitch! IMHO, there is no comparison between the two
types of work. They both have a place and for me, those places are NOT
interchangable. Comparing hand embroidery to machine embroidery is like
comparing apples to oranges -- both belong in the same general area but they
are NOT the same :-)).
I like the machine because I can do up something fairly quick as a nice gift
for someone who is not "special" or a good or close friend. When the niece of
our mardi Gras friends graduated from HS last year, we were invited up to SC
for her graduation party. I bought a nice set of towels at Costco and
embroidered her initials on them so she could take them away to college with
her. No way would I have done any hand needlework for her because I just don't
know her that well.
Also, for me as a seamstress, I can offer machine embroidery stuff to my
clients at a reasonable price. Most of my clientel wouldn't want to pay the
$$$ I would have to charge if I did similar work by hand.
But I do understand what Dianne is saying. There are dedicated stitchers
who think the embroidery machine is anathema and it spells doom for hand work.
I think that's probably another area where we will have to agree to disagree
:-))). The embroidery machine has it's place -- it's atool that should be used
. But -- it should NEVER take the place of doing or learning to do hand work
of all kinds. Hopefully, there will always be a group of die-hard
needleworkers who appreciate hand work and want to keep the skills alive.
Now -- her's the clincher. I have that wonderful $2000 home embroidery
machine that DH & the babies got for me for Ma's Day last year. I have used it
a grand total of ONCE -- to make those towels for the niece of our friends!
But I have done a *bunch* of hand work -- go figure :-))). CiaoMeow >^;;^<
.
PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^<
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!
Visit my albums @ http://www.picturetrail.com Username is tiamary
Karen C - California
>machine that DH & the babies got for me for Ma's Day last year. I have used
>it
>a grand total of ONCE
When I needed a new sewing machine a few years ago, I had my eye on one of
those $2000 beauties. When the shop owner found out I wasn't a professional
seamstress, he refused to sell it to me, because so many people buy one and use
it once. Now I have a nice sensible Singer ... which I've used once.
--
Finished 5/2/01 - Humbird Snowglobe
WIP: getting my health back, Calif Sampler, Holiday Snowglobe
Paralegal - Editor - Researcher
http://hometown.aol.com/kmc528/myhomepage/profile.html
Don't risk your on-line privileges! I report all Spam.
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen
Huhhh , finnally a Normal & needlework discussion that is very
intersting and daily on my mind.
I hope you will read my post, and answer ne in your usuual
professional way.
As many I learned my first `embroidery` by several uneven stiches on a
piece of cloth , than learned a sampler of Stiches , working them
neatly Row after row on cheap cloth, I embroidered aprons , bibs ,
bags , tablecloths , etc....somewhere in my early teens i becamer fond
on Applique ,,, having patched and darned many clothes by than, i felt
rather good with using the needle and placing patches and repairs in
What was called in those days ` Artistic Repairing ` [ while it was
infact a neater word for invisble repairing!!!!!]
Thus I appliques and by the age of 16, I was bedridden with illness ,
thus read the whole public library and began making my own
embrtoideries, fancy plants and animals , were made by me on Jutah
washsedbags [ rather hard for the fine stiching -but I managed some ]
and i combined my learned stiches with aplique, and made some nice,
decorative works .[ Just washed one ].
For many yeras I enhnaced my HAND embroidery skills , and sort of
looked down on Machine embroidery. But I used pieces of cloth and
ready made ribbons and zigzags. Several years ago as my old sewing
machine went to Machine heaven, I bought a new machine that has some
Embroidery functions , [ not all worked 100% since I bought an On
display machine]. At first i said I wil use Only The Zigzags , for
finnishes , But than i learned top make Button holes , and Mongrams ,
so neat that i started to use them , slowly I beegan to regard this
embroidery abilty not As A stand in for my regular hand work , but as
An Added technique , an enrichment of my vocabulary. Just as in
Painting i can use either pencils , chalc acrilic etc.... Or i could
Combine pencil drawing with water color with???
In some of my art works i have combined both ,,, to better and more
richer results.
for example in one of my works i appliqued a light blue cloth that
needed lines of sahding , Black machine embroidery filled that need ,
another gray part needed pink addition , machine again helped ,,,, But
single lines , dots , knots certain diffinite shapes of all sizes are
jhand embroidered by me , sometimes Over the machined embroidery and
TOGETHER they give the wanted effect , not disturbing , nore
belittling ,just COOPERATING for the FINAL result wanted. which is
afterall our main reason for the many hours we spend on our works.
while hand embroidery is the poetry , machine embroidery is the prose
!!!
>competing and causing consternation for those of us who *do* hand
like having more fruits in your Salad !!!
mirjam
Elizabeth O'Rourke
> That being said, I have seen some machine work, and designs of machine
> work, that are lovely. I also realize that many persons find
> themselves
> "at one" with the *machine* and are quite comfortable spending time
> making pseudo tatting, lace, satin stitch, smocking, shadow work and
> the
> like with their machines. I don't understand it - as it's an
> emulation
> and can *never* duplicate the original work.
People who are doing that are creating wonderful original work which
takes real skill - they are not just scanning and pressing buttons or
inserting disks <smile>
Liz (donning the flame proof underwear)
benmax
I don't do X-stitch at all; I do creative embroidery, both hand and machine.
I think there's often a misconception about machine embroidery...that a
pattern is programmed in and the machine does it...that is not my idea of
machine embroidery!!
I don't use a programmable machine...I do drop the feed dog and
free-machine, change the tension to get textures, hand wind the bobbin with
alternative threads to achieve a different texture etc. I machine onto
metal foils, papers, plastics and fabrics etc
There are some Yahoo groups which may be of interest to you, and you can see
some of the work of other members. If you are interested, mail me and I'll
send you the details.
Nan
gillian furlong <kc...@MailAndNews.com> wrote in message
news:3AF7...@MailAndNews.com...
pat.porter
"designers" - you only have to see the adverts promising to "change your
photograph into a cross stitch design for £10.00 (or whatever). For the
low fees charged all you can expect is a "scan and press a few buttons",
which results in a lovely picture, maybe, but a really weird hodge-podge of
scores of colours, many of which are "orphan" stitches. I`ve read of so many
complaints from people who received a chart which was both huge and
practically impossible to stitch.
To do it properly as I`ve said many times before, takes many hours of work -
the photograph or picture gives you just the bare bones. The design work
means adjusting colours, changing the position of objects to advantage
sometimes even nature needs a hand!), a bit of simplification,
clarification, and much imagination at times. (artistic licence!).
I use my camera as a tool to record scenes that I may paint later, or for
the sake of speed, use with the scanner. I`m not one to sit outside
painting in all weathers in our climate, thank you very much!!! When I
paint the scene it`s usually from a photograph. To be honest it`s MUCH
easier to do a design from a scanned painting, as so much of the
clarification, simplification and deletion of unwanted features is already
done.
Take your flame proof knickers off, Liz - they`ll make you walk funny! LOL!
Love
Pat
East Anglian Xstitch Designs
http://homepages.tesco.net/~porter
Beautiful old Village scenes
"Elizabeth O'Rourke" <eoro...@dcthomson.co.uk> wrote in message
news:92C86633CFBED411AD54001083FC4D371CF4E1@MAILSVR...
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply
I think that Dianne was talking about the new computerized machines. The
ones -- like mine -- that youpur a little computer card into the slot, choose a
pre-programmed design, thread the machine with the proper color thread, set up
your fabric in the special hoop, push a button and then walk away from the
machine while it "does" the stitching.
I call that machine embroidery. What Nan describes is what I call "Free
hand" machine embroidery -- as compared to "programmed" machine embroidery.
The free-hand stuff can be every bit as involved and skill intensive as regular
hand embroidery. Machine embroidery is, IMHO, sort of cheating. I have the
machine, I plan to learn how to use the machine and ALL of its functions. But
it will never repalce hand embroidery. Using the machine requires only
learning to follow the directions. You do need to determine your thread colors
and the proper position of your chosen design. You also need todetermine your
thread pallet. It does take skill to make machine embroidery look good but it
certainly doesn't take the skill required to execute fine needlework done by
hand.
Like I said before -- comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges
-- both in the same family but world's apart. Free-hand machine embroidery is
somewhere in between and probably closer to needlework -- it takes much skill,
experience and ability to achieve a quality item. CiaoMeow >^;;^<
Dianne Lewandowski
grin> And I have seen some very modern machine embroidery works that
are absolutely beautiful. And I think they're stunning even though I
generally don't prefer modern art <smile>.
My concern about machine embroidery is conversations I have had with
students, fellow "retail" embroiderers, and others who have discovered
that one problem with machine embroidery is the watering down of
understanding. Gosh. How can I say this clearer. I'll make an
analogy:
Hubby and I have taught MIDI (electronic) music. When some much cheaper
sound modules were available, novices grabbed them up. At the same
time, commercials, tv networks, movie producers were using a LOT of MIDI
music. What happens is that the "general" population (who has never
been to hear a live concert orchestra or heard good recording of same)
can't tell the difference. These same persons developed such "tin" ears
that they couldn't tell the difference between a high-end device and the
cheaper devices. They would adamantly profess there's was just as
good. It was laughable - had it not been so sad.
I hear this from machine embroiderers who have seen little "fine"
embroidery. This is my main concern. It isn't the knowledgable that
I'm worried about. it's the "others". It's very easy to dumb down a
population.
Dianne
Dianne Lewandowski
different concern about this. I posted it in another message.
Sometimes I'm glad when I post because I often come from such a
different prospective <big grin>. And it always brings out the best in
us as we go back and forth with ideas, thoughts, experiences.
I think machine embroidery can be a wonderful adjunct - and in someone's
hands like yours - true art.
Dianne
Dianne Lewandowski
all proud.
Dianne
Dianne Lewandowski
old Viking - I can attest to the "skill" part <very vry big grin>
Dianne
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:
>
Bea
Recently went to my local sewing machine store and they were exclaiming over the
new machines that did cross stitch! I didn't have time to look at any samples but
I find it hard to believe that I could do an MLI on a sewing machine. I looked at
the woman like she was crazy. May go back and check it out just for chuckles when
I have time.
Bea (delete the hi to reply)
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:
> I, too, do both types of embroidery -- hand work and machine. OTOH, I would
Susan in Alabama
>
(snip)
I didn't have time to look at any samples but I find it hard to believe that I
could do an MLI on a sewing machine. I looked at
the woman like she was crazy. May go back and check it out just for chuckles
when I have time.
.. Actually you'd be surprised what is doable in machine embroidery. Ellen
Maurer-Stroh offers machine embroidery versions of some of her designs, and she
is not known for skimping on shading, color changes, etc. As far as personal
experience, my friend's mom successfully machine-embroidered a logo onto hand
tie-dyed t-shirts for a church retreat that we were leading. I thought the woman
was insane to even attempt it. DH did the drawing, and his style is very
"hand-wrought" (his terminology) ... lots of uneven edges, jagged spots,
overlaps, numerous colors ... . But she did it! And I think they look great,
even though I don't machine embroider myself. I also would make the point that
she didn't just pop in a disk and go. Because of DH's drawing style, she had to
do a lot of work with the file to make the project possible and stitch numerous
samples until she got something that really looked nice. For the record, she has
hand-embroidered for many years and said this helped her immeasurably in making
decisions with the machine.
In any event, there is no way I could have hand-embroidered 70-some-odd logos in
the time available, and as I said DH did do the tie-dyeing himself. Our big
chuckle for the weekend occurred when pal Nancy made the comment "Wow ... these
are better than head shop t-shirts!" And when someone raised an eyebrow, Nancy
just reminded them that most of us mis-spent some portion of our youth in some
fashion or another :)
Susan in Alabama
heat
JVTOPAZ <jvt...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010503192443...@ng-ci1.aol.com...
I also do both. In fact a lot of the time when the machine is doing it's
thing I'm stitching right by it
Randi
Lollee Roberts
catwo...@aol.comnekoluvr (Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply ) writes:
>HI Guys,
> I think that Dianne was talking about the new computerized machines. The
>ones -- like mine -- that youpur a little computer card into the slot, choose
>a
>pre-programmed design, thread the machine with the proper color thread, set
>up
>your fabric in the special hoop, push a button and then walk away from the
>machine while it "does" the stitching.
> I call that machine embroidery.
I like your distinction. I agree with you. I saw a show on PBS about that type
of embroidery - after they had the fabric inserted into the hoop and placed in
the machine, the program host actually said, "It's usually a good idea to stay
at the machine while it stitches, just in case." LOL! I have an image of
someone leafing through a magazine, drinking coffee, glancing at the stitching
every so often! I don't know that I would feel much of a sense of
accomplishment after doing something like that.
Lollee
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply
>at the machine while it stitches, just in case." LOL! I have an image of
>someone leafing through a magazine, drinking coffee, glancing at the
>stitching
>every so often! I don't know that I would feel much of a sense of
>accomplishment after doing something like that.
>
Oh, there's a sense of accomplishment!!! It's when you finally decipher the
instructions that are written by someone who speaks English as a second
language :-))). I spent 2 days reading and re-reading my instruction manual
before I got it all figured out -- STILL made some mistakes too -- LOLOL!
Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply
>my friend's mom successfully machine-embroidered a logo onto hand
>tie-dyed t-shirts for a church retreat that we were leading. I thought the
>woman was insane to even attempt it.
>I also would make the point that
>she didn't just pop in a disk and go.
>she didn't just pop in a disk and go. Because of DH's drawing style, she had
>to do a lot of work with the file to make the project possible
>In any event, there is no way I could have hand-embroidered 70-some-odd logos
>in
>the time available
I agree with you completely. THIS is the perfect time to use an embroidery
machine. It's not too often you hear about people who do their own designs and
go thru all of the work that requires. I would be willing to bet that most
home machine embroiderers buy the commercial cards, pop them in and walk away
once it is all set up.
did this woman have the special scanner that is used with some of the
machines or did she use her home computer? I have a friend who makes her won
designs and the work she goes to is unbelievable. Her designs are quite
lovely. they are totally different than hand work but the pl;anning requires a
LOT of skill. The skills are related but different and the kind of machine
embroidery your friend did is NOT the kind I originally described -- it is a
type of machine embroidery that not too many have the skill to do -- and that
includes me :-))).
As for needlework designers doing machine embroidery designs -- DVG offers
them for her International Bears! CiaoMeow >^;;^<
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen
Have read all your other answers in the other posts , and must admit
,, that i am a bit wondering about those Fully authomatic machines [
that work on their own !!!!] there too i am thinking about The Art
part ,, stil have not seen any work yet that has made me Blink !!!!
Maybe in future I will ,
Generations come and go and the need to be more thorough will Ebb
again , just like with knitting , people were already Whining about
it`s fading away ,, when Boooooom , all is knit and teenagers all over
wear Knitted [ preferably Hand knitted ] items !!!! Not aweek passes
by when we do not see more and more women ; " suddenly having this
Urge to knit again after XX years " Thus with embroidery , maybe there
was such a peak ,, that it slows down a bit !!!!
Many trends Jump over a period ,
mirjam
JVTOPAZ
>thing I'm stitching right by it
>Randi
I do that too. My big project for xstitch is Marbek's Nativity.