Local Landscapes

Early yesterday evening my husband drove me around to take some pictures of the local landscape. Whilst the quality of the photos is mostly quite poor (probably operator error!), I am really quite pleased with some of the compositions and am starting to play around cropping and reshaping.

Tudor Windows

Another piece of drawn thread work ............



....................... made into a little bag. This was originally one of my C&G samples, "Tudor Windows", and framed with a crunchy gold metallic paper behind it ............. I loved it (except the frame). After ditching the backing and frame, I just couldn't find the "right" gold in a fabric so have had to compromise - it's not the same but I don't think it's too bad.

Having spent the last few weeks "tidying up" some of the pieces laying around, it's time to move onto something "new". Problem is, I have so many ideas it's deciding what to do next!

Herb Garden Bag

The purple dye (top end of the picture) didn't take to the hessian very well but eager to get on (and don't chive flowers turn this colour when they are past their best?), I proceeded with the stitching. Still being disappointed with the dyeing, it didn't get framed as intended but has lain around since summer of last year. Now being on a mission to complete some of the "unfinished" pieces, I thought about making it into a little bag .................

Selecting the fabric to place behind the stitching was quite a challenge. Nearing the end of a whole afternoon searching through and trialling different fabrics I found one that didn't enhance the bit of murky (purple) hessian - polka-dot lime cotton!

Transfer Painting

Green powdered transfer paint from Omega Dyes sprinkled onto wet paper, left to dry and ironed onto 100% polyester fabric.



The same ironed onto synthetic velvet produces a softer effect. I love these beautiful surfaces - almost too nice to embellish with stitch - and I like this green so much more than that of the other branded transfer paints I have tried - either green products or by attempting to mix greens.

Rock garden

The "shell" for this vessel was another discarded sample using wireform - transfer painted organza laid over a fine cotton with rows of straight stitching was too rigid for what I wanted at the time.


Venetian & woven picots, cup stitch, bullion knots and a few beads provide lots of texture.

Rock Pool Treasures

Not exactly recycling but putting to use some samples and other bits and pieces that have no real use in their present state and don't very often see the light of day. The hand dyed velvet "cup" was a discarded prototype for part of a larger piece. With a wireform insert, it holds it's shape nicely so I thought it might make an interesting little "bowl".



Probably one of my most treasured experimental samples! A machine embroidered sandwich - fragments of glitzy fabrics and threads trapped between clingfilm and water soluble - provided just the fabric for the insert. It was hard to part with but it's done now!

Llots of crunchy beading to depict the treasures of the rock pool - a very tactile piece!

"Citrus Fruits" Bag

A bag of many guises! The design for this started with an idea for spiral shells, then grapes moving into a contemporary interpretation. I saw a magazine picture of a celeb wearing three co-ordinating vests in yellow, orange and green, thought the colours looked good together and bore this in mind whilst doing some colour trials. Before I knew it, the ideas moved to techniques (and a similar colourway) from an old C&G sample (rocks).

Of simple shape and design but loads of texture - hand stitching, beads and trapunto on transfer painted poly/cotton. Aside from the colours (orange, yellow and lime), I think the finished design looks very much like cut citrus fruits - segments within the rind!