Birthday postcards

Had to take a break from the EmbellishStitchEnrich work this weekend as i had to get some Postcards made for some upcoming birthdays. I suppose it wasn't much of a break as I embellished sari silk for the background and added hand stitching and buttons to finish.

Competition entry

I've entered the hanging I made for Samuel in this week's Quilting Gallery contest. Visit http://quiltinggallery.com/photo-contests/weekly/themes/ to vote.

Lesson 2 - EmbellishEnrichStitch

Here are the samples I've done for Lesson Two of the Embelllish Enrich Stitch course.

The first one is my interpretation of a beach landscape I took last year at Pagham. I've put the photo with it so show the inspiration. The background was made with small pieces of fibre, threads and fabrics felted into a piece of black felt. Piece of fabric were added for the plant in the foreground and the two posts. Hand stiches were added to finish.

The background of this next one was made from small pieces of fabric, fibres and threads which were felted into a felt background which had foil applied to it first. I then felted a piece of chiffon over the top, zapped it with a heat gun and added some hand stitches and beads.

The background for this next sample also had foil applied to it first and then felt and organza squares were added with buttons and beads. I felted yarns to create the "cross hatching". The background was a bit brighter that I anticipated!

The following piece was shapes cut from a piece I made from felted fibres and threads on a flet background. These shapes were in trun felted on to black felt. I then added some shapes cut from fusible foil, felted organza over the top and zapped it with a heat gun. I have found that when using the heat gun on felted organza it doesn't melt as much as when I've used it on machine stitched work. Not too sure why, it may be that the fibres have gone so far into the felt that there are less to burn?

Detail of above

This was strips of different fabrics felted into a piece of felt that had had paint applied on a piece of Bondaweb.

This final sample is one of the small sample pieces I am making as I go. It was done again using small pieces of fibres and fabric which were covered with organza, felted and then heated with the heat gun. I added hand stitching to finish.

More embellished samples

Here are some more samples from Lesson one of the Embellish Stitch Enrich course I am doing.

This has wool and silk fibres felted into a felt background, running stitched in varigated cotton perle and finally two flowers, made again from wool and silk fibres felted into felt, attached with french knots.

This was a piece of scrim over black felt. The dyed felt heart shapes were felted into the surface and then I felted heart shapes from the back. I think the shapes came out a little heavy although this was improved when I added the running stitches which does break up the black. The hand stitching was again done with varigated cotton perle.

This was the final challenge piece for lesson one. The background is strips of sari silk felted into a felt background. The flowers were again made with wool and silk fibres felted into felt and attached with two layered buttons. The stems were also sari silk.

These final three are small pieces -about 3.1/2 inches square - which use different techniques from the lesson.

They are made on a base on 4mm thick felt and I am going to make similar ones as I progress through the course.

Embellish Stitch Enrich

I've spent the last week working on the Embellish Stitch Enrich course and have been very pleased with some of the work I have created. These are really just try-out pieces which I have now developed into more complex work. I don't think the photos really do justice to the colour and texture of any of the pieces though.

Wool and silk fibres and threads on scrim

Wool and silk fibres on felt

Fibres on felt with chiffon on top

Pieces of silks, organza and other fabrics on felt

Strips of Various fabrics

Wool and silk fibres

There are several other more exciting pieces which I will get photographed and add in a few days.

Can't break the resolution

I've just realised that it's a week since my last post and I just can't break my resolution!

I went on Saturday to the Spring Quilt Show at Ardingly. I have to go every year as it's only just down the road and it would really be silly not to! Yet again it was very good with a good selection of quilts to see and plenty of traders to spend money at. I very stupidly forgot to take my camera which was a pity as there were one of two quilts that I particularly liked and would have definitely taken photos if I had remembered the camera. I was quite restrained on the buying - just a few silk fabrics and some dyed threads, and the yellow star buttons that I needed for Samuel hanging.

I've signed up to an online course with Dale Rollerson called 'Embellish Stitch and Enrich' which I hope is going to help me make fuller use of the embellisher machine I bought last year. I have spend this evening making a start on lesson one so hopefully in the next few days I will get some photos posted. So far I have created some lovely surfaces which are crying out for stitches so it's looking as though my embroidery roots will be coming to the surface again.

Watch this space......