artcloth......... cells and windows...... ongoing......

.... cells and windows...... musings on an artcloth.... what am I building with these stitches?

........................frayed edges, holes with no meaning, windows bursting with black drapes................................

Sewing Circle - Ive Been Thinking of You

This is work I was working on during the sewing circle organised by Katherine Eves. The blog of the work done by the sewing circle is here.

This piece is ongoing and unfinished. It is paint on canvas with machine embroidery and handmade felt. This is just the beginning.

stitch practice

Been practicing some decorative hand stitching on small piece of felt. I dont think I have quite got the hang of it yet! Also I think its a bit harder to make straight lines in felt, its much thicker than cotton or linen. Oh well. Practice makes perfect. Hand to needle, needle to cloth.

Felt Egg Cosies

Forgot to show you all my felt cosies I made just before Christmas. I intended them to be egg cosies, but the first one (the turquoise one) shrunk a bit more than I expected so it will only do to cover very small eggs, perhaps quail eggs?

Second one (no pic of that one) was better and I gave that to my sister for Christmas. Third (the red one) was the best size wise. Was thinking of doing a tutorial, but need to take some step by step pictures for that, so in the future...

New Embroidery Foot on my Elna

My new embroidery foot for my Elna 2600 has arrived! It is fantastic! Just been messing around seeing how it works. Writing my name, things like that. :)

Getting back up to speed - Workshops and Blogs

I have to say I have been a little slack in the blog world of late and am trying to make ammends. Which means several blog posts on the same day. So much to tell.

The Christmas Felt workshops went really really well. Here are a couple of pics:

I have been checking out some interesting blogs recently too and came across this exciting Sewing Circle called 'I've Been Thinking of You' who are organising a world wide sewing circle day on the 13th Jan 2010, anyone can take part anywhere, check out the rules and more info on their blog. I will definately be joining in:

Wise Words to bring in 2010

I have just been reading some of the blogs I follow and have found a post with the wisest words you are going to hear all year. Elizabeth's blog 'Studiofelter' is one I regularly read and thoroughly enjoy seeing her work, it is, as I am sure you will agree, amazing work. Her post reminded me that its ok to feel stuck when in the studio, but the trick is to 'just start'! And its the advice I needed to stop myself from worrying about getting it all wrong and making a mess of things. Thank you Elizabeth.

So now here are some images of some work I started on News Years Day:

I took an piece of abandoned knitting I did ages ago and added some orange embroidery thread, I just wanted to see what happened, and if I could reserect something that was long forgotten.

This piece is a new beginning. I took a piece of felt I had made a few months ago while demonstrating the technique in a workshop and cut it into a long thin strip. I played around with different bits and in the end added a strip of an old painting with machine stitching on, I secured this with a piece of scrim and some orange zig zag stitching. The green circle is yet to be attached. It is another piece of handmade felt cut into a circle, and although I think the colour works really well, I am unsure of the placement. Something to work on.

I hope everyone can benefit from Elizabeths wise words of advice. The need to make is there in all of us. Just start. Happy making everyone.