Jayne has very kindly written a blog post describing her journey through Nicky's fun pdf workshop:

​I was really excited about doing a remote ‘workshop’ with Sutton Coldfield Creative Stitchers.  Usual weekend workshops would include raiding the sewing room of resources to pile into the car to unpack at the other end and hope, with fingers crossed, that you had all of the necessary equipment for a day of creativity. 
‘A day of creativity’ can be a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, a whole day to be absorbed in fabric, stitch, print and to engage with so many like-minded, passionate, inspiring people is an absolute dream.  On the other hand, the pressure to feel the need to produce your ‘best work’ or explore new techniques during the day can somehow squash the creativity and opportunity or permission to simply have a go! 
Nicky Barfoot, an art and knitwear designer, provided a PDF with video mini tutorials to ‘build your confidence and broaden your horizons’ through a ‘Stitched Selfie Workshop’ with a virtual follow up meeting via Zoom.  Exploring techniques and design this way provided the step-by-step scaffold to work through at your own pace, at home, with all of the resources needed at hand.  The videos brought to life the text and provided a real insight into the design and creative process. 

So, here we go… 
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The first obstacle to overcome was to take a selfie, not something that I am comfortable doing, but in the confines of your own home and with the benefit of filters and technology, an acceptable image can be ‘created’.  I then traced a simplified drawing of the image onto tracing film.

 before tracing the outline onto tissue paper.

Using back stitch and 2 strands of black embroidery thread, I worked the main outlines onto the fabric. 

Having completed the initial thread tracing, I arranged a selection of threads and fabrics that I thought I wanted to use that both reflected my personality and represented my image.

Nicky Barfoot talked about the importance of the ‘pout’ and selecting a few important features, I therefore stitched the lips first.  When you look at yourself in the mirror, you look at your eyes and you recognise the person you are looking at, I felt it important at this stage, to get the eyes right in thread in order for the selfie to take shape. 

Something I had not tried before was to incorporate colour through pencil crayons.  My dad, who enjoyed drawing pictures of work colleagues using 4B and 6B pencils, letting the pencils show depth and texture; explored painting with watercolours, taking photographs, and drew technical drawings amongst many other creative things, passed away last April, due to COVID-19, and left a treasure trove of materials.  I decided to use some of his coloursoft crayons by Derwent to begin to be more creative with my selfie and to push some barriers of conformity, that I know, many stitchers feel. 

‘Artistic decisions’ was the next step to take, and I began to think about layers of design by arranging drawings onto the selfie and ‘placing’ materials before taking a photo, to see the effect. 

I continued to add stitch to my selfie, adding colour and shading.

The hair then began to take shape with couched thread, adding a bit of silver as the natural highlights of age emerge!  Adding red acrylic paint for the jumper, after using a heat'n’form block to obtain an impression from a recently completed hand knitted cotton jumper, increased the number of exploratory techniques used in this piece. 

​A little ‘chipping’ using fabulous silver bright check purl to highlight leaves on the cheekbone and then all that was left was the background – depicted by wrapped curtain rings, creating ‘bubbles’ and further couched threads and French knots.

The follow up meeting with Nicky and members of Sutton Creative Stitchers served as a fabulous occasion to share, explore, push more creative boundaries and to learn so much more from each other. 
And therefore, so much more than a days’ workshop.  An exploration of techniques, creativity, ideas and a personal reflection through a stitched selfie workshop.  

We were very happy to welcome Nicky Parmenter via zoom on Thursday evening.
She told us about her work, using plastics and machine stitch in the most colourful and creative ways. Her amazingly intricate works were spellbinding. 
Much of her work is inspired by artistic traditions from around the world, and often created using the most obscure materials found in hardware stores, but all to the most beautiful effect.

​Nicki will be joining us next year for a workshop. We very much look forward to meeting her in person, and seeing some of her lovely work in real life.