And finally for this time ......

Another hoop of embroidery has joined my growing collection.

For some time, I have been wanting to do a piece of embroidery with a void, or negative space as some call it.  We were away and my work on the denim jacket had come to an end so I had a go using a hand print as the negative space.

I was very limited in the threads that I had with me and loath to buy any more as I have found in the past that I always buy what I already have, I made use of what I had and went for a variegated blue look.

It was really an experiment and has evolved as I did it. 

I used lazy daisy, straight stitch, crosses and French knots and started m
by working just under and inch all the way round the hand print.   I started at the bottom with a variegated thread, changing for the middle third to a mid blue and then finally a light blue for the top third.   When I had done this it looked a little odd so I evened out the shape but it looked more like a mitten with a hand inside it!

Once I was home I tried it in a hoop and decided that it really needed to have a circle of stitches around it and went for one smaller than the final hoop I mounted it in.

The jury is still out about this - maybe I've got it out of my system and will not repeat it but time will tell.

Keeping myself occupied

From time to time I find I have nothing to keep my hands occupied, not often but it does happen.

Last time I found myself like this, I made some doilies which came from Round and Round the Crochet Hook by Emily Littlefair, another crochet designer I found on Instagram.

At this point, I really think I should plug Instagram for all you creatives out there who have not yet ventured into Insta World.   Since joining early last year, I feel I have widened my knowledge of what is going on in the creative world and hopefully made some new friends along the way.  Give it a go if you haven't done so already.

Back to the doilies - I used Scheepjes Catona which I find is one of the best cotton yarns around.  I made quite a little collection which are now spread around the house under various pots and vases.  I will no doubt make more when I have the next lull in my creative world.

Two Little Boxes of Crochet

When the June Little Box of Crochet arrived it included two lovely patterns from Coastal Crochet, one of my favourites on Instagram.  One was a lovely nautical shawl plus a bonus pattern for crochet pebbles, something I've been meaning to have a go at for some time.

I already had the May box waiting to be done but I'm afraid the shawl and pebbles won out over a crochet cup and saucer!

 Really enjoyed making this as it was my first experience of Filet Crochet.  Just love the anchor design plus the little anchor charm hanging at the bottom.

The pebbles were so much easier than I had imagined and I plan to make some more which I think I will try putting outside our house among the gravel and see how they weather.

As you can see from the next photo, the crochet pebbles have joined my Summer display on the mantle shelf.

The cup and saucer pattern by Kate Bruning was designed to celebrate the royal wedding in May.  Yet again my relationship with tension means mine looks a little odd but nevertheless, making it was a new experience for me and one I enjoyed.

  

A little bonus in the box was this little felt corgi from the Make Arcade.

Further work on the denim jacket.....

I have been cracking on with the embroidery work on my denim jacket and I can see the end in sight.

The next panel to be completed is the bottom of the central panel and I decided to include beach huts as I just love them and always photograph any we see on our travels.

For the middle beach hut I used some of my own dyed fabric as it covers a seam and I thought would be easier than stitching over the seam.   The other two are embroidered, the left hand one with stripes of satin stitch and a door of split stitch; and the right hand one has lines of running stitch using a variegated thread and a heart on the door which was again satin stitch.   The beach around the huts was a combination of straight stitch, French knots and cross stitch and the sea was wavy lines of back stitch.   The two fish were done using a variety of stitches including fly stitch, French knots and straight stitches, all outlined with chain stitch.

The bunting was worked in satin stitch on a line of back stitch.

The next panel I worked on again reflects more important things in my life - stitching, crochet and patchwork.

As you can see some hexagons were using English Paper Piecing method, some were crocheted and the rest were embroidered.

Stitches used on the embroidered ones above include cross stitch, fly stitch, woven wheel, outlined with stem stitch; and running stitch, fern stitch, and pistol stitch, outlined with chain stitch.

In this next one I used straight stitches, French knots and satin stitch, outlined with chain stitch.

And for the final two, lazy daisy, fly stitch and ermine stitch, outlined with blanket stitch; and blanket stitch, French knots and straight stitch, outlined with back stitch.

I have an idea what I'm going to do for the final panel but it involves input from my grandchildren so it won't be done until the end of August.

Embroidered Dandelions

My love for embroidery still continues and for the past few weeks I've been working on a series of embroidered hoops based on a dandelion design.

The first one was inspired by a wooden block I have which features a dandelion clock.  The ends look just like fly stitches so I felt it cried out to be an embroidery.  I decided to do this on a navy blue background so I could use cream thread so the seed head looked more realistic.

I then moved on to design number two which incorporated fabric in a side panel and one of the dandelion heads.  I chose yellow to reflect the yellow of the dandelion flower.

For this seed head I used French knots at the end of a long stitch.  I did try it with pistol stitch but I wasn't pleased with the result and felt the French knots looked better.

For the final design I printed some of my dyed fabric with the wooden block that had inspired me.  I used discharge paste so the design is quite subtle.  Circles of the fabric were bonded to the background (I used misty fuse to keep it soft) and then secured with buttonhole around the edge.  I used French knots again for the 'seeds' around the circle and used a few long stitches to give the impression of the stalks.   The stems were whipped backstitch.

I've loved doing all three of these designs and have a head full of more!

What I did with snow dyed fabric!

You may recall that earlier this year we were blessed with snow, the first time for some years and as a committed dyer, I did some snow dyeing.

At long last I've used the fabric I produced to make some mats and a tablecloth for our caravan.  The designs were simple so I could get them done quickly and out of the fabric from this year's dyeing I made mats for the table and coffee table.

These two used all the fabric I had so delving in to my stash I found some more fabric that I did some years ago using either snow or ice - I can't remember which!

The colours are much deeper than this year's batch so I don't know what I did that was different. 

For the tablecloth, I used a wooden block to print a leaf design using discharge paste.  I had intended to do this with the first two mats but I forgot to do it!

It was a great exercise as it showed me how different coloured dyes react - some of the squares only had a very feint print whereas others were very clear.   I haven't done much work with discharge paste but I was so pleased with this work that I'll definitely do more again soon.

This month's Journal Quilt

For this month's green quilt I printed some of the fabric using skeleton leaves on the gelli plate.  The results were not as clear as I really wanted but that's the fun of a gelli plate - you never can tell how it will come out!

However, once the fabrics were cut the results were not as bad as I thought.

For the log cabin bit, I started with a uneven corner shape and then cut each of the strips into even widths as I added them.  Once complete, I quilted the strips of plain fabric with a leaf shape to tie in with the leaf prints.  It's a design I used last year on my March quilt and as I like it so much I will no doubt use it again.

When this part of the quilting was done I still felt it needed a bit more so I stitched in the ditch on all the strips.  I chuckled to myself as I did this as it doesn't seem that long ago I did the minimum amount of  quilting I could get away with whereas now I prefer as much as I can get away with!

When I was sorting out the quilts I've done so far this year, I noticed how good they looked in a stack, so good I had to take a photo!