A Day to myself

Yesterday I had the whole day to myself - well apart from all the animals.  Once they had been walked, fed etc I settled down to play.  Since reading an article by Erin  Partridge in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine which described combining a drawing on artists vellum with felt and stitch I had fancied trying something similiar albeit in my own way.  Erin used overdyed commercial felt with hand needle felted accents as a background.  I decided to use transfer paints to create an impression of a landscape on white felt.

This is the felt after ironing the transfer painted paper onto it.

The next step was to embellish wool tops and felt fibres to create my landscape.  This came out of my head but was inspired by the wonderful landscape here in Allendale.

I drew the sheep on artists vellum using a permanent drawing pen

The next step was to cut him out and apply him to the background with Acrylic Medium

I also tried two more using images of moorland birds

I think I like the birds best but they all need some stitching to finish them.  These are approx A4 size but I think I will also try some larger ones as I really enjoyed building up the landscapes with the fibres and also being able to get really fine detailed drawings.   All I need now is another free day............

A Belated Happy New Year

I can't believe it is February already and how long it is since I have last posted - where do the days go. Four weeks of snow didn't help. When it first came it was too tempting to take Oscar for long walks as everything was so beautiful and as all was frozen he couldn't get muddy but then it froze and driving and walking was such hard work. I did get some stitching done though and finished Fiona's quilt and a textile figure inspired by the weather. I have called her Frost and really enjoyed stitching her. I used tyvek layered with chiffon and machine stitched and beaded the fabric before using the heat gun and iron to shrink the tyvek and I used angelina fibres to make the sleeves. I hand stitched while watching old musicals like South Pacific and the King and I which I haven't watched for years. I also stitched an A4 size mini quilt which I haven't photographhed yet so will write about later. Actually writing this makes me realise that perhaps I haven't been quite as idle as I thought although I have spent too much time playing Wii games with the girls. Now I have lots of work to do to prepare for workshops in the coming months and need to get motivated again. I have so many ideas and things I want to make - just need to get stuck in.

Stitch Challenge

Do you find that you tend to use a small number of stitches that you are comfortable with and forget the huge variety that you could use? I know I do and also that I don't always explore and stretch familiar stitches enough. On the Hand Embroidery Network Blog, Sarah is featuring a different stitch each day with instructions for working it. I have decided to challenge myself to try and work a small sample of each stitch each day using different weights of one colour of thread and aiming to try and use it creatively. E.g perhaps to work it diagonally, or haphazardly, or meandering, etc. If you fancy having a go leave a comment to let me know and from time to time post a link to your blog and photos so we can see how you are getting on. If doing a stitch a day is too much perhaps aim for one or two a week? Anyone interested? Today's featured stitch is Algerian Eye and there is a link to the blog on the right.