Finished work now mounted

A couple of projects that I have already mentioned, although at the time I was undecided how to mount them, are the cross stitch Mandala Owl and the crochet Mandala.

The owl was finally mounted in a plain embroidery hoop so it could sit on the window ledge amongst the owl collection.

For the Mandala, I mounted it on a stretched canvas frame which I had covered with a piece of my own dyed fabric.

Keeping busy over Christmas and New Year

The few weeks before Christmas found me with nothing to do so I found some wool I had bought a few months ago and made myself another virus shawl.  It was once again a quick and easy make and filled in an empty slot!

As I have mentioned many times, I am not one to sit and do nothing!   This is even at times like Christmas and the New Year when there are other things going on - if I am sitting, I have to be doing something!

Thankfully Little Box of Crochet and Craftpod both came to my rescue with projects to fill my time.

The December Little Box of Crochet was a Toft pattern for a delightful little dog.   Not that I am particularly a dog lover or a fan of amigurami, but it kept me occupied!

Even I have to admit he's cute!

The Craftpod box had two 'makes',  The first was an embroidered mistletoe sprig in a hoop which was joined by a felt fox. 

I really enjoyed both of these makes and although I have resisted a subscription to Craftpod, I am usually tempted once I see what's on offer!

End of another year

This is probably my last chance to post this year as I can already see how busy it is going to be between now and 2019, so it's time to update my creations of the last few weeks.

More Ecoprinting

I had another go at ecoprinting making a slight change to my first try by soaking the fabric and paper in the iron solution instead of painting it.  I wanted to try 'cooking' it in the oven but was unable to find a brick to weigh it down so that will have to wait until next time.

I used a variety of leaves, flowers and onion skins with differing results.  I must admit some of the leaves were very dry and crumbly and the flowers weren't exactly fresh so I feel there is still room for improvement.

I want to make some books with the printing I have done so far and hopefully my next exploration in eco printing will be with fresh leaves and plants and maybe using alum as the mordant.

Winter Display

For the Winter display I made a wreath, all be it a small one.  I've always wanted to make a crochet wreath but just didn't have the time to do a full size one so thought this was the best option.  Yet again I turned to Attich24 for my inspiration and guide, choosing two of her hellebore flowers for the decoration.

A little snowman also joined the display, along with some snowflakes hanging from a twig.  I also stitched a snowflake in cross stitch to display in a hoop. 

  

And put together .....

No sooner was the display up when Christmas preparations began and took over the mantelpiece.

The snowflakes stayed in place and the hoop was replaced with a crib scene worked in redwork plus all the lights and bits collected over the years.

Mandala Owl

The final stitch has been crossed on the Mandala Owl and although washed and pressed it hasn't been mounted yet.   I can't decided whether to put it in a hoop or frame and it will probably end up being the one I can get most easily!

Really pleased with the end result so hope the little people like it too!

Beginnings of an eco home

I've long been aware of how much single use paper and plastic is used in our home and feel the time has come to do something about it.

My first change was to buy cotton fabric serviettes to save us buying paper ones this Christmas.  Available at a most reasonable cost on Amazon, it seemed something much easier to do than I thought.  With more planning I could have made them myself, and my intention is to make another set in a different colour at some stage.

I wanted to personalise them with some embroidery so used some small mandala designs I have in a book Mandalas to Embroider  by Carina Envoldsen-Harris.  I used a blue/grey palette of embroidery threads to match our décor which I feel have given a great result.

These are some of my favourites......

     

There are still creations in hand as well as those planned to get me through Christmas and into the New Year, so I will be back!

October Update

By the skin of my teeth, I have finally got round to a few updates of crafty makes in October.

First, I made a few additions to my Autumn display - conkers and a pumpkin!  The conkers were from a pattern by Coastal Crochet, one of my favourite designers.  You will have seen more of her designs on here in the past.  The pumpkin was a pattern on Pinterest which sadly did not credit anyone.

So the finished display now looks like this.

With only one more month to go I have been thinking about my winter display which will of course give way to Christmas later in December.

So far I have made a cross stitch snowflake for the winter display and have a few more ideas which also involve snowflakes and snowmen.  I'm finding it hard to come up with ideas for winter that don't end up looking more like Christmas.

And for the Christmas display I've made this redwork embroidery using a colouring design found on Pinterest.

Other creations this month

I was a bit late with my Journal Quilt this month.  It was done within September but for the past few years I have been ahead of myself so I felt quite guilty that it wasn't done until the middle of the month.

This month I reached the "blue" month so decided to have something linked to the sea for the gelli printing.   I've made my own print blocks with polystyrene in the past so used this method to create some texture on the plate inspired by waves and using fabric paints, printed some of my dyed blue fabric.  I used two or three different shades of blue fabric paint but once again I found that you don't get the same definition as you do when using acrylic paint.  The results were good though for the task in hand.

For the Log Cabin part of the quilt, I've again used the Courthouse Steps as the basis of the design with a bit of a twist.   For three of the sides I used different shades of my own dyed blue fabric and then the gelli printed fabric for the fourth side and the binding.

For the quilting I used a stitch on my machine which gives the appearance of waves going up and down.

It's time for a change of season so my thoughts turned to ideas for an Autumn hoop for my mantelpiece display.   I love the colours of Autumn - I always think it is because I was an Autumn baby!- so I knew it had to be something to reflect the colours.

My choice was a simple maple leaf (another favourite, particularly at Autumn) and luckily I found just the pattern I needed on the internet.  I've gone back to cross stitch after many years absence and as I enjoyed it so much, I think there will be more.  So therapeutic!

The display in coming together but I want to add some sort of foliage in a vase so am still thinking about that.   The other hoop and owls are from a Craftpod box I did last year when I began my seasonal project.

The garland of Autumn leaves is another pattern from Attic24 which I made using the ends of yarn left over from her Woodland Blanket which I made earlier this year.

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.

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!

Summer Hoop

Continuing on my plan to have a seasonal display on our mantelpiece, I created a hoop ready for Summer.

There was really no great planning to this as my first thought was to have beach huts as we spend so much time on one beach or another, particularly in Summer, and beach huts appear on all of them. It's only when you are designing within a hoop that you realise how little space there is so I did plan a bit so I got the size right.  I wanted three huts and it was a bit of a squeeze but I think they look okay.   Like the Spring hoop, I couched the same border of thread not that they will ever be displayed together, but my OCD mind required this!

The beach of sand and shingle is hand embroidered in French knots and close fly stitch with a few straight stitches between huts and beach.  The fabric for the huts was bonded and then hand stitched with back stitch and running stitch.

It just happened that week before I learnt a new stitch on my Sew4thesoul project - Eskimo lace stitch.  It starts with a running stitch and then a loop is added from below through the straight stitches - not a good explanation but there is plenty of info on the net if you want to know more.  I experimented with various colour combinations and then tried stitching it in a circle.  It worked so well I used it for the sun, adding a spiral of split stitch to fill the centre.

The pieces of shell were stitched on but I had to cheat with the shell which was glued on!

The hoop is in its place wait for other creative bits to be added.

Craftpod Giveaway

My two daughters are always entering giveaways and have far too much success for my liking!  Recently I entered a giveway for Craftpod, tagged my daughters who in turn entered and blow me if Clare went and won!

Knowing she was most unlikely to suddenly take up embroidery, I offered to do it for her.  

There were two projects, a hoop of botanical stitching and an embroidered project bag.  Really enjoyed all the stitching, learning a new stitch - catkin stitch.

I added a design to the other side of the project bag so there is stitching on both sides.

I'm always moaning because I never win the giveaways I enter but all this has now changed as I have won two tickets for this year's Festival of Quilts so I know where I am going in August!