Busy January, New and Old Activities

I made a New Year's resolution to spend less time using the internet and social media and more time in my studio. As I've given up organising my own craft fairs, I've found a few to do this year as a trader and I now feel so relaxed about my sewing.  My other resolution was to be more creative - by this I mean to make more things from scratch, rather than rely on the Pfaff embroidery unit!

I've been caught by the bag making bug and joined the Bag of the Month Club - the January pattern was the 'Ring Sling' by Samantha Hussey - Mrs H - I loved this pattern and this was my first real attempt at bag making and I was pretty impressed with my effort, even though I do say it myself.

This bag has been very closely followed by these:

Absolutely Blooming

The Lily Bag by Quilting Antics

And today, the Sedgeford by Charlie's Aunt, Emma Brennan

The snow caused TextSet to cancel our meeting this month but I've been working on one of my pieces which I've called 

'Flowers for Bees'

This is a positive approach to man's impact and I view it as a 'preventative' approach to the decline of bees.  I cut strips of fabric, stitched them together again and then cut out decreasing circles and stitched those back together with sari silk waste couched over the seams - these will form large, stylized flowers.  I plan to pleat and pad them but need to experiment more.  I've created a patched background for these flowers and have stenciled bees and flowers onto it (but haven't taken a photo of that.) The added advantage of this piece of work is that it recycles fabrics that have been found in charity shops or are samples from upholstery books.

Lastly, this is just for fun and how much have I been enjoying this - just like being a little girl and doing a jigsaw - a rooster collage with a Facebook group - Collage Quilt along with Emily Taylor - there's a lot of tracing and cutting out to do but it's strangely relaxing and comforting - he is pinned ready for securing before stitch and quilting.

Till next time - Carry On Stitching!

The future depends on what we do in the present

Mahatma Ghandi

Finished One Project ..... Start Another!

I have added some fancy wool to the black piece from Embellisher group this Monday, some machine embroidery and it's produced six cuffs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had my first play with my gelli plate and I'm quite pleased with the results, particularly the orange/bronze/gold one - imperial/India/influence!

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 





 

More Darning and Books, Books, Books

the finished piece of darning

now made into a book

The piece of darning finished, lined and neatened with satin stitch, and made into a book.

another book in the making - machine couched threads

another finished book

hand bound style books

folded pocket wallets

As is obvious, I'm slightly obsessed with making books at the moment - I've used the hand stitched bound style for three. This involves making signatures of the pages and binding them together. The hardback outers are covered with fabric, two here are hand dyed or hand printed and I really liked the little piece of japanese fabric for the small one.  The pages are black and white card, hand made paper and cartridge paper painted with brusho.  The darned cover and machine couched cover books are made with soft outers and the spine is tyvek - a small amount is bonded over the centre of the flat piece of fabric before the lining is added - this spine is pierced from the back, in two places, through the pages and then through the front cover and tied - with beads added. This means that pages can be added or removed and is a very useful way to make books and is so quick!  The pages are plain cartridge paper here because I wanted them to be ready for the Wessex Country Market today.

The two other little gems are folded pocket wallets and have numerous little pockets all over and are very useful - I credit Lynda Monk with the idea!

Darn It!

Yesterday was an extra meeting for our branch of the Embroiderers' Guild - the original had to be cancelled in January due to the snow! As that is often the case, we usually have members leading the workshops. This time we had three workshops for members to choose from; Darn It, Scrunch, Paint and Stitch and finally, Altered Textiles.  I chose to do Darn It and we were presented with hessian potato sacks (by one of our farmer's wife members) and we used a variety of threads, wools, ribbons and strips of fabrics to create our own patterns - very relaxing. I plan to make it into another book cover (my current obsession).

The tutor's sample - a cushion.

Paint, Scrunch and Stitch was painting acrylic paint onto brown paper, when dry, applying it with bondaweb to felt or a suitable fabric, crumpling it up and applying gold wax or markel stick. covering with another layer of bondaweb and covering the whole thing with a chiffon scarf to change the colours. A background ready for stitch.

Altered Textiles was taking the most awful pieces of upholstery fabric (which is always donated to textile lovers by well-meaning people) and once again, painting with acrylic to alter, change, disguise the background ready for stitch.  Further photos can be seen on 
www.blackmorevaleembroiderersguild.blogspot.co.uk