Christmas Cards

Suddenly realised I'd not posted about my Christmas Card makes for this year and didn't want to do it after Christmas!

It's a bit of a cheat this year as I discovered I had a large stock of cards made in previous years that had been left over plus some I'd made to sell and never did.  I decided that I would used these up and just make some new ones this year for the special people in my life who I know really appreciate a handmade card.

I returned to my love of inchies and created some red and green needlefelt that would become my inchies.  So long since my needlefelting machine had been out so I must reacquaint myself with it properly in the new year.

I'm always amazed when I look at the base felt when I make inches and wonder at how they change into little gems of loveliness!

To each little square - just over an inch square - I added combinations of sequins, beads and stitches and then buttonhole stitched around the edges.

 

Each set of four were mounted onto backing paper together with a hand printed "Happy Christmas" and then mounted on to a card.

Really pleased and already had compliments from some lucky recipients.

One more completed project - my November Little Box of Crochet which was a lovely mandala in Christmasy colours that was a delight to make.  Lots of overlay crochet which I love.

It was designed by Amanda Williams (@yarn_house on Insta) and worked in Yarn and Colors Must Have Cotton.

A bonus was a little wooded reindeer who desperately needed a coat so some of the left over yarn was put to use.  As you can see from the photo he is already hanging on the tree!

That really is all for this year so have a great Christmas,

Progress on Beach Inchies

The beach themed inchies are taking shape!   Having needlefelted the fabrics and fibres in my previous post, I have been busy hand stitching and embellishing the beach and sky inchies.   I've used a variety of threads, although my favourite is Perle no. 8 so I used this the most.  As well as beads I also embellished the beach inchies with fragments of shells.

The Sea still needs some work but the inchies are all cut ready for stitching.

I needed to dye some threads for these as I wanted some deeper turquoise blue so they are different from the sky so I had a dyeing session with the following results.

Ready to go now to get the sea finished and mount the results.

I'm on  roll with inchies!   I find they are handy little things to have to stitch in front of the tv or when my mind needs a rest.   I also find them handy to take away so this lovely pile of felt, fibres, silk, organza and threads will be needlefelted ready for me to cut up and take away.

Watch out for seaside theme inchies.

Hello Again!

I'm rather embarrassed about the length of time since my last post.  Started off with the excuse that we moved to Dorset but that was now over three months ago so I'll just move on.......

We have settled well in our new house and as it was brand new, we were able to move in without any further work.   We have had the garden to do so that has taken some time recently but as it is quite small, I can't use that as an excuse.   I got my workroom sorted quickly too and the best thing is I have my own room so no more having to clear away when the grandchildren come to stay.

It's not massive but I managed to get all my things in and with less space, I have to keep it tidy. So far, so good!

My only regret is that my large Perspex table that I used with my Bernina is too big for the desk so at the moment I have had to resort to the small extension table that came with the machine.  I have seen that Cotton Patch do a similar one (a lot cheaper than the Bernina one!) but I am having trouble deciding which size to get.

I have been busy with a few projects......

... the first one was a quilt for a friend's new baby boy.   We are caravan neighbours so I went for a seaside theme.   Baby Paul has now arrived and Mum and Dad loved the quilt.

 

 

I have also decided to have another go at selling online, this time giving Etsy a go.  I will start with some of the items I already have ready and will also include some of my framed textile art.  I've also planned to make some mounted arrangements of inchies, something I have done in the past as part of my themes on rust and maps.   For these new ones I am going to have colour themes but choose colours that can relate to occasions and anniversaries.  So far I've done purple (just because I like it!), red (Ruby Anniversary) and white/silver (Weddings and Silver Anniversary); will go on to gold next.

 

For each set I started by creating a felt base on my Embellisher, incorporating various fabrics and fibres including organza, scrim, netting and silk.  I then added beads, buttons, sequins, ribbon, lace or hand stitches before finishing the edge with buttonhole stitch.

 

 

 

I have also done some work in my sketchbook, but not as much as I wanted to.    The first two pages are based on some of the many photos I have taken of beach huts we've seen since we moved.  I've included photos, some gelli plate printed deli paper, some stitched applique and some hand stitching.   I found the colours particularly inspired these pages.

 

 

 

The second page uses car park tickets as the background which I printed with the gelli plate, adding some cut lettering to finish.

 



 



 

Hopefully there won't be a long wait until my next post.

 

 



Glacier River

For each Thread and Shutter exhibition I always like to create some pieces of work that are directly inspired by Brian's photographs.  Luckily he travels to some exotic places and as one of his more recent holidays was to Iceland, I used two photos on Jokulsarlon, a glacial river he visited.

 

The first piece was a felted panel for which I used wool and silk fibres, Angelina fibres, silk and cotton scrim.   I needlefelted the various materials together into a sheet of felt and hand stitches were then added, along with beads an sequins.

The panel was then stitched to a hand dyed cotton background which had been machine quilted with icicle shards.

 

 

    

 

The second creation is a quilted wall hanging  which uses the actual photos.   These were printed on to cotton fabric to form two larger panels within the quilt as well as smaller patches throughout alongside my own dyed and printed cotton fabric.  

Icicle crystals were then machine quilted and further ice shards were also quilted before finishing with foil, beads and sequins.

 

     

 

Seen From Above - One Inch to a Mile

I just love "Inchies" and sooner or later I make some to fit with my current theme.  And Seen From Above is no exception.

I started needlefelting various fibres, fabrics and yarns to create a fabric which I then cut up into inch squares.   These were first edged with blanket stitch and then embellished with hand stitches and beads and for some I added scraps of old maps.   The Inchies were then assembled and mounted on old OS maps which in turn were mounted on board and framed.

As some of the maps I used were old enough to have a scale of one inch to a mile, I didn't have to think too hard about the title.

 

 

The left overs were then mounted on maps and used to map greetings cards.

Textile Art for craft fair

I have created some unframed textile art and felt art for selling at the craft fair I am doing this weekend.

The felt art is similar to work I have done in the past.  I first created a felt base using my embellisher and then added hand stitches in toning colours.   Buttons were added to finish.

        

         

I also tried out some new ideas for the textile art, with a mixture of patchwork, mixed media and fabric collage, all finished with hand stitching and some with buttons.

 

 

 

Both the felt art and the textile art are stitched to cream board and are sized to fit an 8" x 10" frame.  If any remain unsold after the craft fair, I will be putting them in my Folksy shop.

What am I up to at the moment?

I've been busy recently creating lovely little things to sell at a craft fair I have booked in August.  Sadly that hasn't left me much time for creating my textile art.

However, I am very pleased with the things I have made which include several items using cover buttons using vintage and vintage-style fabrics.   There are buttons, hair clips and bookmarks.

 



There are also some brooches, some made from felt - both needle made and wet made - and some from fabric.

I've also made some heart hangings which incorporate a lightly stuffed heart mounted on a decopatch covered board and include a 'heart' saying such as "Home is where the heart is" and  "A heart that loves is always young".

I also have some textile art that I have previously made so I will also be including them.

 

 

Many of these items can be found on my Folksy shop, Created  by Lynn.   I also have a page on Facebook under the same name.