Another week

I have had a really busy week again, but I have manage to fit in an hour or two for practising my free machine embroidery skills. By drawing with my needle, I have stitched two butterflies.

I first painted them onto pelmet weight vilene using Koh-i-nor watercolours.  The top one here, based on a Peacock butterfly, I covered with a piece of 'shot' polyester organza to give it it some shimmer. I then machine stitched using a straight stitch varying the top and bottom threads, often tightening the top tension to bring up the bottom thread to break the colour.

Here I have scanned the two pieces.  I added a bit of hand stitching to the Peacock one.

This is the reverse side which is also quite nice, but the colour is less intense without the painted background.

Here I have photographed them with a packet of machine needles for scale.  Since taking the picture I have cut out the peacock one, using a fine soldering iron which has sealed the edge of the polyester organza.  I am experimenting with making it into a small book. 

 I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile I have done a few tasks in the garden, cutting the the grass always makes such a difference, even if nothing else is done.  I was pleased to see this frog in our little pond guarding her great pile of spawn.  As I was shooting into the sun I used the integral flash to add a little detail and sparkle to her eye.

I was also pleased with this shot of the water iris and its reflection, not looking quite real.

I seem to have yet another busy week coming up, but hopefully I'll manage to fit in a bit of creativity.  I think another week of sunshine is too much to hope for,  but a few more days of fine weather would go down well.

I hope you are having a great weekend, and have a good week.

Another week, another project!

This week I have been mainly machine stitching. On Tuesday I went to the first session of my Machine Embroidery for Beginners with Marian Murphy at Art Van Go. Although I have picked some basic ideas from books and video clips it was brilliant to have a whole day with an expert. We played around with different tensions and threads and just practised free machining.  We then went through a couple of design processes. Marian's design book was an inspiration in itself and made me want to be more disciplined in developing ideas.   But knowing what a butterfly brain I am,  I don't hold much hope!  However the practice gave me the confidence to infil the petals and background on my daffodil book with machine embroidery.

I want to embellish it a bit more with some more hand stitching and beads as I want it to be quite 'rich'. I also prepared the inner pages today, tearing them to shape and leaving them stewing in a lovely Brusho mix of yellows and green. Unwrapping the pages is a treat and a surprise - I will try to remember to photograph them, but as it is a messy process the camera is usually well out of the way.

At the workshop Marian flipped through my 'doodle/ideas' sketchbook I had taken with me and spotted this doodle and said it was the sort of thing that could be translated into stitching so I thought I woudl have a go.

I traced off the face onto tissue to transfer the outline and then just tried to use the needle like a pen.

I was pleased with the result and could see its potential. I just need to apply these ideas instead of going off on another tangent. Here are some details.

I chose a few favourite areas and created a collage

I was pleased with the colours - I just had to work with what I had got, but feel there is potential for development.  There is a couple of weeks between the workshop sessions, so plenty of time to work up a few ideas.

Meanwhile here are some waxed papers I was working on. I may have a go at a couple more boxes/pencil pots!

On the homefront I have managed to wear my new shoe inserts all day and walk to the corner shop for the paper. It just feels like a hard ball of cotton wool in my shoe instead of a pebble, so things are improving ( I have given my feet the day off today) and Marvin the cat continues to live with his diabetes with no immediate problems.  Mr T is cataloguing his entire CD collection (He has hundreds/thousands) which is keeping him quiet. A walk round the garden in the grey dampness this morning revealed a few buds on the verge of bursting, so a bit of sunshine this week would really be good.

  Whatever you are doing I hope the sun shines for you, have a good week.

Jill