Stumpwork Portrait: Irma

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

I came across a stumpwork portrait tutorial by Queenie’s Needlework some time ago and finally had the gumption to give it a try. One of the last steps Queenie offers is to give the portrait a name. This lady doesn’t look very much like anyone I know, but for some reason I felt my great gramma Irma was in there somehow.

She lived to be 93, having passed away from “old age” in 2005. My great gramma always represented a strong female to me, having raised 11 children after my great-grampa died in 1954 (for perspective, she had 31 grandchildren and I was one of 40 great grandchildren – and she already had 9 great-grandchildren!). She lived on the same family farmstead that they got when married, in the same slate-roofed house (which is on the state’s registered architectural Landmarks list). Since my gramma lived on the farm plot just next door, I saw my great gramma often when I was little – especially because a few of her grandchildren, which she babysat, were near my age. And since she was the matriarch of the family, every Christmas saw all her descendants gather at a rented hall to celebrate, so I had much closer connections to “distant” relatives than probably any of my friends.

She was an avid hand-quilter and I have inherited an 8-point star quilt she always kept on the bed. If she wasn’t quilting, she was cooking. Every Christmas she gave us a bag of fresh baked cookies – so many kinds! Monster cookies, sugar cookies, and butterscotch chip cookies were my favorites. And any time I stopped over, there was a giant pot of soup boiling and never a short supply of goldfish snacks. Her third passion was her religion, which is why I added a cross necklace.

In grade school, I had had an “interview” assignment where I was to come up with a lot of questions about something in history and ask an older person for the answers. I chose great gramma, of course, and asked her about life in the 20s. She giggled when I asked if she was a flapper, acting like it was such a nonsense question. Now, older and wiser, I understand why she found that so funny;) She never learned to drive (since she didn’t need to with all the children to help), and never remarried (because she still was married in her heart). My great gramma also kept a turtle in the basement, but I rarely had the pleasure of seeing it as it was very good at hiding. And she was creative; aside from making patchwork quilts, she taught me to make ornaments out of pasta or how to play Jacob’s Ladder with a string, and often wrote poems. I also have a jar of heads she made – adorable pantyhose doll heads! And she told me how she use to carve apples into heads and let them dry.

I don’t doubt that the relationship I had with my great gramma is part of why I am interested in history as an archaeologist. Through her, and that long-ago assignment, I felt connected to a past at a young age rather than the past being some boring concept written about in books that had nothing to do with me. One of my prized possessions is a book she wrote with her children, titled “Heaven with Eleven”, where she recalled many events in her life, old wive’s tales, and commentary on the old times – lots of photos were included and she wrote a little bit about each of her children, too. I never met my great-grampa so I was intrigued to learn about what kind of man he was, also. I had her sign it for me, which she thought was silly, but I don’t think she realized how important her history was to me.

As far as construction goes, I followed Queenie’s super easy tutorial and thought about some things I picked up from Salley Mavor, like using wire for glasses. I stripped the green paper off of some floral wire, found an appropriately sized knitting needle to wrap it around for the lenses, slipped the wire through the ground fabric, then buttonhole stitched the top of the frame carefully (the glasses are only connected at the nose piece and “behind the ears”). Beads became earrings. Felting wood became hair. Krenik thread is the necklace chain, and a cut gold leaf sequin became the cross.

For the backing, I used foam board (this piece is 3.5″ x 3.5″, by the way), covered everything up with some felt you’ve seen ’round these parts before (and a bit of string for hanging), then tacked on some pretty blue trim to finish it off.

This project is easily done in only a few hours! I was really impressed by that. Go try it yourself! 😀

 

See more posts related to:

2 Comments

  1. Queenie Patch

    Hi CaLynn
    I am very pleased to see your delightful stumpwork portrait of your great grandmother, and am glad you found the tutorial helpful. You have done a great job, especially the eyes and the glasses. At first I thought you had threaded beads on the wire before bending it into two circles. Salley Mavor makes such charming figures and has many neat tricks to dress and accessorise them.
    I hope you will make many more portraits. Remember they don’t have to be of a person you know. Let the creativity flow.

    Reply
    • CaLynn

      Queenie, thank you so much! Your tutorial was so easy to follow, I really had a great time with this project. I do plan to make more portraits in the future:D

      I used metallic thread for the glasses, which might be why they looked like beads, as it sat more upright than floss might – I also varied the direction of the buttonhole stitch, because the thread was curmudgeonly at that tiny scale. I think the glasses are why it reminded me of my great-gramma, because I had seen photos of her wearing fancy 60s glasses;)

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Queenie Patch Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Looking for more cases of the Crafties?
Hexie Dreams 18

Hexie Dreams 18

My fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt is coming along. All the flowers were stitched into rows and the rows are being stitched together now for the final push. I also share some of my dear sewing supplies!

read more
Stitch Club: Maue

Stitch Club: Maue

TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club with Joetta Maue prompted a stitched piece from a photograph and I’ve recreated an adored image of my late grandparents.

read more
Hexie Dreams 17

Hexie Dreams 17

A quick update on my fussy-cut EPP hexie dreams quilt. A whopping 131 flowers are now complete, yay!

read more
Stitch Club: Weighton 2.1

Stitch Club: Weighton 2.1

Haf Weighton lead another TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club workshop on architectural layering, and I was inspired to render New Albany’s Culbertson Mansion based on a photograph by Daniel Andis.

read more
Stitch Club: Sproule

Stitch Club: Sproule

April Sproule led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club using a spiral concept. I felt like this would be a nice project for a friend and asked her for a color palette, hence the unusual-for-me color theme.

read more
Collaged Slow Stitch

Collaged Slow Stitch

I made a quirky and weird slow-stitched collage to try to push through a creative slump. It was much more about doing than the outcome.

read more
Stitch Camp 2023

Stitch Camp 2023

I stitched this mixed media piece following Gwen Hedley’s instruction through TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Camp.

read more
Tea Cup study

Tea Cup study

I was inspired to stitch up a stack of tea cups which lead to starting a second project that I’m still thinking about.

read more
Stitch Club: Clover

Stitch Club: Clover

Jette Clover lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club using scraps and a stamp. I used a country farm stamp with a big red barn as inspiration.

read more
Stitch Club: Tume

Stitch Club: Tume

Kate Time lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club on narrative bead texture, and I was inspired to have a play!

read more
Open Press Project

Open Press Project

I ordered a small print press from the Open Press Project and have begun experimenting with pressing leaves.

read more
Stitch Club: Notman

Stitch Club: Notman

Emily Notman lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club where we would learn to make a jar wrap, and I was inspired to create a scene along a lakefront at sunset with cattails blowing in the wind.

read more
Stitch Club: Bliss

Stitch Club: Bliss

Oliver Bliss lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club recently centered on color blocking, and I was inspired to stitch up a skull with flowers.

read more