Tuesday 30 September 2014

Vegetable Drawing

My plan was to post a photo of the new TAST stitch which I have done but I didn't notice that my camera wasn't set right and the picture looked bad. So here is a drawing of vegetables to be going on with.

Monday 29 September 2014

Thursday 25 September 2014

Tree, Flower and Helen's Quilt

A couple of creations drawn on my tablet. I used one of the brushes in sketchbook pro for the tree stump and branches.

I don't know if anyone remembers that I was going to enter a quilt in a competition [Imagine - Patchwork Europe] but I didn't finish it in time for entry. Well I didn't enter but my friend Helen did and this is her lovely quilt 'In the library at night'. I'm not surprised she won a prize - well done Helen! Click on the image for a closer look.


Wednesday 24 September 2014

Beaded Lock Stitch

Take a stitch Tuesday [TAST 131]
Three variations of beaded lock stitch. Stitched on an aida band with cotton pearl threads.
I think I should have straightened the beads out a bit on the left hand row before taking the photo, they're supposed to be opposite each other.
Join in the challenge at Pintangle or see more embroidery.

Monday 22 September 2014

Wood Nymph Doll

I finished my cloth doll about a week or so ago. Been waiting for a bright day to take photos.
The pattern I used for the doll body was Anastasia from the Jane Horrox book - An introduction to making cloth dolls.




For the body, arms and legs I dyed the fabric with spray on color wash by Adirondack (pesto and butterscotch). Then I applied freehand machine embroidery to the arms and legs. I used filmoplast instead of using an embroidery frame which made it easy to embroider, but it made it more difficult when I came to stitching the limbs onto the body because it was very hard to get a needle through. I probably shouldn't have embroidered right to the edge.

I used layers of organza for her outfit and decorated with beads.

I used a feather boa for her hair and I coloured a small fascinator for a hat. The fascinator I found in the pound shop. I already had a little chair that she sits nicely on.



Friday 19 September 2014

Stumpwork Heads



This week the 'play day' with friends was at my house and I decided we should make stumpwork heads. It is years since I've made anything like this but was reminded about stumpwork after looking at a head on Queenies blog recently.
Marian made a girl with bunches
and Helen had Christmas on her mind


Thursday 18 September 2014

Variations of Lock Stitch

Take a stitch Tuesday [TAST] 129 - Lock stitch and 130 -  Double lock stitch.
Lock stitch is made up of a row of vertical stitches which are then laced. I alternated the size of the vertical stitches on the top row, two tall, two short for variation.
The fabric was a small roll I picked up at the pound shop, sold for crafts and card making.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Clay Play

My friends and I had a clay play day the other week and this is what I made. It was air dry type clay and I painted my creations afterwards. I tried different kinds of paints such as watercolours and acrylics. In my mind I wanted to create a lovely dolls head or something like that....guess I've got a long way to go!







I pressed some little wooden butterflies and flowers into the clay to make the marks and included holes so that I can sew them onto something eventually.








Tuesday 16 September 2014

Three pages from my sketchbook

Brusho inks. The strips of striped paper - this was paper I used to protect the next page in my sketchbook for quite a few pages, hence all the colours. The flowers are real.

Brusho and a small doyley.

Envelopes made from recycled envelopes, the envelopes have envelopes as decoration.
These are the last pages of book 36.

Friday 12 September 2014

Mediterranean Bells

The flowers are called Nectaroscordum Siculum (clever eh? remembering that! actually I can't even say it never mind remember it) or Mediterranean Bells although the colours are not really quite as bright as that on the real flowers. If you look closely at the scraps of collaged paper you will notice the pattern is made up of tiny little envelopes, this is the inside of a recycled envelope.
I also used Brusho inks, liner pen, labels and inktense pencils.

Thursday 11 September 2014

Wednesday 10 September 2014

TAST 128

Take a stitch Tuesday - Interlaced Up and Down Buttonhole stitch.
It's an easy stitch to do, however I forgot to do the interlacing on the top row apart from the first stitch so I've stitched on beads where the interlacing should have been.
The bottom row I did almost correctly and included beads just for decoration.

Monday 8 September 2014

Hare Patchwork

Last week my friends and I had a play day with fabric scraps. Helen keeps all her off cuts which have already been backed with bondaweb, which makes it very easy to make patchwork. After ironing in place on a piece of fabric I sewed all around each block with running stitch.





I took the bottom two photos with my tablet, I wanted to compare with the camera photos above.