Bear block progress
This is the progress on the bear block. It is coming together, I think. This piccie might make my intentions a bit clearer, which I will tell you all now, since the fantastically talented Julia correctly guessed a Teddy Bears Picnic. How original of me. I bet no-one else does it....
Anyway, my teddies will be sitting on a blanket, on a hill, under an apple tree. The apples are sequins, but the sparkle hasn't shown up. I will be adding a spray of flowers at the base of the tree, and some more on the bottom right, and something to resemble clouds. My aversion to white is gonna bite me in the backside here, I don't really want an overcast day! The teddies are 3 buttons that I bought. I am a bit concerned, because the rules for this, and the type of embellishment they want used, are quite strict. They want 'good quality' buttons and charms and 'silk' ribbon for any SRE. Well, I can only afford cheap craft store buttons, and I've never even held real silk ribbon, let alone stitched with it ! but I am going to soldier on regardless, and hope that the overall finished product is acceptable, despite the below standard resources I will be using. I have to say, this whole CQ elitism thing kinda fucks me off. I do good work, even if it is with 'crap'. I am spending my time to stitch this block, at no-ones expense except my own, and I feel that if anyone takes the time to create something for a cause like this, it should be accepted regardless. Not that I think it will be sent back, but these guidelines may have discouraged people from participating because, like me, they simply can't afford all the desired supplies.
5 comments:
This is going to be gorgeous! I know what you mean about the supplies. When I did City & Guilds our college had two groups, one made up of people who had been doing the course privately in a very affluent area but had to move to the college because the teacher wasn't awarded accreditation on the new syllabus and us, a good mix of people but definitely less affluent on the whole. The syllabus was prescriptive in stating that certain fabrics and threads must be used, amongst them silk, silk threads, linens and very high quality metallics. We got around this by making very small samples, but all of our other work, including our assessment pieces were 'make do and mend'. We got really good results with silk dyes on fine cotton voile or lawn and did 'experimental' counted thread work on all kinds of bits and pieces. Our work tended to be much more innovative and interesting than the other group, who stuck to expensive silk and cashmere type supplies. Certainly we were not marked down by the assessors when the time came for certificates to be awarded. Can't stand that kind of snobbery myself. I find that synthetics are so good these days that sometimes I have to test them with a match!
Really looking forward to seeing the finished piece.
Wow - that would piss me off too! Part of creativity is making do with what you choose or have on hand....not the prescribed best stuff. Geez. That's not very innovative and sure it looks/feels pretty but why wouldn't it? No challenge there. You go on and do it YOUR way!!! It looks great!
Amen sister! I feel your pain, I don't join in lots of things for this very reason.
The "snottiness" of CQ is why I started a Yahoo group with my friend. See my blog (probably 3rd post) and if you or anyone else would like to join us in our "non-snotty" group, feel free!
Your block looks stunning and when it's finished, it will be a gorgeous talking piece .......
Jo, when I hand dye next,will send you some silk ribbons and thread to play with .... it won't be for a while as I am 'snowed under' at the moment ..but will let you know when I post.
Hugs 'me'
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