W15...

Woo,hoo on time today!

In fact the only thing I've worked on this week are these. I've even worked on some of them today!  

I've been making these for the Pittenweem festival. I really need to have a whole load of work done for it and only have a few more free weeks to work on stuff. Oops, obviously left it to the last minute as usual! 

These are a few of my little textile leaves that I thought would make good necklaces. Well it's really a wire choker but I'll just call them necklaces.

The textile pieces are all about 2 1/2" x 1".

Just my usual style, layers of fabric topped with lots of free machine embroidery on a felt backing. The cottons I've used are my own hand dyed pieces and hand coloured velvet. I've used a selection of bought sheers and silks as well. 

I've tried to make my machining a bit more scribbly this time. 

I'm hoping they will prove to be successful. I like to have something new for the festival. I quite like the idea of a series so I may do some matching brooches.

Think that's it for now.

Byeee!

x 

w 12 ... late!

Ok so it's now Friday!! I've been busy clearing out the garage to take the stuff from my studio! I posted the photos of the view from my studio a few weeks ago. Incredibly the next day I received an email saying that everyone was on a months notice to leave. Boo Hoo...I couldn't believe it. Making it public was like the kiss of death! Ok so that's a bit over dramatic but I was really dissappointed. I suppose all there is to say about is...next!

Back to reality and I'm still fiddling about with the little stitched landscapes for my class.

My usual jumble of stuff in the making. My new one is to the right of the picture before I added the flowers. 

Here it is finished, well at least the front is. I still have to put on a fabric backing and the brooch pin.

A bit of duplication on the next few pictures. I'm always amazed how the work looks in close-up. These flowers are really quite small and now I see them blown up some are not all that well stitched! They're a teaching aid, I want people to think that they can stitch them as well. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! 

Until next week, byee!

x

Wednesday...

 Here we are Wednesday again. I've only taken a few photos this time. I was working on a project this morning which I hope I can reveal later but for now it'll have to be what I did this evening.

 I've had a few bits and pieces lurking around for a while so I decided to try and revamp them. I added a little more machining in another colour on the flowers. I had a few pieces that basically haunted me, I could never get rid of them! So I decided to add a few snips of fabric on top then a quick whirl of contrasting stitching.  

Sorry the photos are a bit dark. That's what happens when you take them under an electric light with no flash. Basically too late at night doesn't help.

Another blast from the past, this one definitely has been around for a very long time. I was determined to do something to enhance it so I did some free (motion) machine embroidery in a dark blue thread. I think I can use it now.

This one I like but am a bit concerned that it looks like an eye! That'll probably annoy me.

Also I see that it looks like I've added beads but it's just the lurex thread catching the light.

Got to go, I think I'm into Thursday now and that'll never do for my working Wednesday!

Byee...x

PS> I'll probably use these on cards...surprise, surprise!

www 7....

...this weeks Wednesday work...wow, three 'ws' . I have to say that Wednesday started well. Met a friend for tea and bacon rolls, loads of chatting then cream cake and cup of tea! We were there for quite a while!

Didn't start this until late afternoon, break for tea then a bit of work into the evening. Just more of my usual strips of fabric, mostly silk and a few hand dyed pieces a bit of a break from the sheers, I've couched on a selection of fancy yarns. I knotted one of them first which you can see below.

Nothing new, just some of my heart shapes cut out to make into cards. Not quite sure if I've got them right or not, it's a while since I last made them.

I've added the usual button and a few little kisses (cross stitches). I've even cut out a flower shape from lace. I don't normally do hand stitching on my cards as they are usually free machined. These I felt needed a little extra touch hence the kisses.

Sorry if these photos don't show up well, the light was going, I took some at the window with the remaining light (don't think I've used any of these) then used the flash on most of the others. Think the last one was taken under my light rather than with the flash.

I'm off to finish some more....no changed my mind I'm off to bed, falling asleep infront of the screen!! 

Byee.

x 

www...4? I think!

Busy tidying, not my usual pastime I must say. Well it's more of de-stash time...it has come to a head. Stepping over things just to get into my room, then there's the clearing the table before I can start to do any work. Driving me nuts!

 So here are a couple of photos of my start. Sadly there seems to be more notes of 'keep' on these magazines than there is 'out'.

I just had to stitch the other day, withdrawal symptoms kicking in. I had some room at my little table-top ironing board (Ikea x) and my sewing machine so I made myself a background piece of cloth. Just my usual style, nothing too complicated you understand. Strips of fabric machined down onto a felt background with some further details on top.

 Unusual for me but I decided to do some hand stitching as well as my usual free machining (free motion embroidery).  The above photos shows the pink felt base fabric and the stitching on the reverse.

Above are some shots of the work so far and as I have done some of the hand stitching today I've included them in the 'Wednesday work' post.

The flowers, I have daisies on my mind at the moment so I think that's where they came from. The work is so much more colourful than in my last post. Maybe it's a reaction to all the neutral work I've been doing lately.

I do love a bit of colour. :o)

I hope to have more to report about the clear-up by next Wednesday.

Bye for now

x

www...2

Wednesday was working ... until I tried to upload my photos!

I'm having internet connection problems so I'm going to make this quick and hope it uploads. As you can see I did manage to get some stitching done today. Some free machine work on hand dyed muslin. I love how you can get it to go into holes. I will post the rest of the photos on my Flickr page when the internet problem is resolved. The engineer is due to come on Friday morning.

Until next Wednesday...happy stitching!

x

WWW...

Will Wednesdays Work?.........

I've been having a think, dangerous I know. How could I start to blog a bit more often?  

Ok, so here's what I've come up with...Wednesdays! Original, I know. There is a plan, may have failed by next week but here goes.

Post every Wednesday....tah,dah! Ok, the plan is that I will post a stitched or not stitched photo every Wednesday. I will add some words for good measure.

Here's my photo from today (which will finish in about 15 minutes so I'll make this quick). I have made five birds today and have just finished mounting them about half an hour a go. I will take some pictures of the rest tomorrow. I may just pop them on my Flickr page...because it won't be Wednesday!!!!!!!!

Got to go, be back next week.

Byee!

x

PS. There are some real birds on my Flickr page at the moment. A couple of little Red Polls, worth a look.

Problems...

 This is my third attempt to upload photos to blogger. I'm not sure if it's because I'm on my netbook and it's slower or if it's because it's a really busy time. Anyway, third time lucky and I've managed to upload three out of the six I'd intended to show. Better than none I suppose.

These are from another set of birds although the one above looks as if it's a birthday cake!

I really like the pink and green flowery fabric but I'm not sure if I've got much more of it. I'm sure there will be another 'favourite' to take it's place soon. In fact I rather like the little bluebird fabric below.

Yes, if you can read them, the words on the song sheet in the background say 'Goddess of the blue'.  I suppose you could use these random words or sayings that appear when you work in mixed media as inspiration for another piece, or at the very least you could use it for the title ...if you had time...that is. Just a thought.

Oh well, I'll give uploading another shot soon. I'm starting to build up a number of photos to post. Until the next time, byeeeeee!

!:o)x

Little snips...

 from my new bird designs. You can see the full picture of a few of them on my other blog.

 They are little collages that are a mixture of paper and fabric finished off with some free machine embroidery. I love scribbling with the machine.

 I had great fun making them and will be making lots more in the near future. They are a great way to use up all my tiny snips of fabric and lace. It's a bit worrying as I'm now keeping the teeny, tiniest wee bits of fabric...help!

I love how they are all basically worked the same yet each one is unique. Some end up wth chunky birds and some with skinny birds. it all depends how I machine them. That's the last thing to be done after the collaging, the free machining so I really have to be in the mood as I can ruin it with one miss judged line. I've been lucky so far any dodgy lines have added a little character to the bird, whew!

That's all for now.

Back soon!

:o)

Hi there! Thought that I'd share what I was doing the other day.

I was dyeing fabric and had such a good day that I thought that it was the perfect way to get this blog up and running again. I'd thought about giving all the excuses of why I'd not been posting but hey, that's history so lets just scratch the last few months and start again.

Here is my start...

The one on the left had been folded down the length and the one in the middle was folded across the middle. I hadn't realised at the time but really liked the result. Will probably try that again.

This one was at the bottom of a bundle of fabric and the dye wasn't able to penetrate down to it. When I noticed it was too late to do anything about it. I thought that it turned out pretty good but probably it'll be a complete one off as I'd probably never be able to reproduce it.

This is a piece of silk velvet that I space dyed. I just love velvet!

Well sadly that is all for now as blogger seems to be taking ages to load my photos and out of the nine that I had lined up it only loaded the three above. I'm also having a fight with the font that I want it just doesn't want to retain it between photos. There are more glitches but I'll not go on. Not exactly the start that wanted, but it's a start all the same!

Bye for now.

x

PS. Not only have I had all these problems but I went and posted this on my other blog!!!! aaaargh.... I've now taken ages to copy and upload the photos one at a time to get to this point...again!!!!!!! I'm away this time, I hope!
! :o)

A selection...

Not a great picture but this is one of my unframed pieces that has been lurking around for a while. I had worked it on a backing of calico but all my unframed pieces are usually worked on a base of felt. This is probably why it was in the lurking pile! I added it to a piece of felt with the embellisher and some more rows of free machining, problem solved! I've mounted it on the horizontal for a change. There's a kind of landscape thing going on with it... with a bit of imagination!

This one is actually another one on calico but this time I've decided that I'll window mount it, so it'll not need to be put on to felt. It's very much a work in progress as I've not stitched the flowers yet.

I quite like how they look without the flowers being stitched (I'll take some more photos of them later) but I think that's because it's a close up which I find always looks way better than the actual size. 

I've used a mixture on this one of hand and free machine embroidery with some work on the embellisher as well. I love to combine techniques when it suits.

These are a couple of quite small pieces, actually I think I may have shown them before, or maybe on flickr... anyway I decided that they had too much work on them to be put on a card (I try not to do any hand stitching on my card pieces...a personal thing!) so I decided to whiz a zigzag stitch around the edges, add a brooch back and voila!...  a couple of instant brooches... As to whether anyone will want them or not remains to be seen but at least I'm happy as I feel like I've used them!

This is a before picture...

and this is the after...

The addition of a few straight stitches and some little flowers makes all the difference. I didn't notice until after I had mounted and packaged this one that I hadn't done any of my little French knot flowers. It obviously didn't need it otherwise I think I would have noticed at the time.

Some of the machining looks really messy when you see it in close up!

The photo above and the few below are from a landscape that I finished last week.

The colour doesn't seem quite right in these two photos. I may have had the flash on for this one as it was probably getting dark by the time I remembered to take some photos!!

The last photo here shows this piece before I did the extra hand stitching and free machining and I think the colour is better. You can see the extra details that I put on it in the close up photos.

I'm pleased to say that this piece sold at the Morningside Makers Market on Saturday !! I really liked it and wouldn't have minded if I'd had to keep it for a while....maybe this will be the start of a new series.......! :o)

Bye for now!

x