What the Elves left behind....

Teeny tiny shoes that may have been made by Elves.

Stitched onto cotton organdie, embellished with free machine embroidery using lustrous viscose thread and metallic beads. The shoes were carefully assembled with tiny blanket stitches.

Oh the joy of a new sewing machine!

In stitches

You wouldn't believe how happy this simple star makes me!  Not the star itself, not the fact that we are in the season of advent but the act of doing embroidery with my new sewing machine is just a joy!

For those of you who know me, I have been vascillating over a new machine for years.  I have been put off by the endless choice and complicated functions of new machines and concerned that I would loose control of the creative process.  My old trusty workhorse was repaired in the summer but when it came back it was unable to do free embroidery.  I didn't feel too disloyal when I started to look at new alternatives.  

My quest took me to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate and with the support of my friend Melanie I plucked up the courage to go to the stands selling sewing machines.  I was horrified to watch machines churning out computer designed patterns with no human input.  What was the fun (or creativity) in that?  Thankfully the staff on the Janome stand were extremely helpful and in next-to-no-time I was sat in front of their new DKS-100 machine.  Decision made, my new machine was delivered last week, albeit delayed by the thick fog and by the weekend I was happy stitching.

Simple patterns using variegated viscose thread was impossible on my old machine.  I'm buzzing with all the ideas for new things to try..... happy sewing.

How do you like your potatoes?

I'm running from one project to another at the moment with little time to prepare. Luckily I've done this before but not as a taught workshop and I need to make sure that I've got all the right equipment to hand.

It's a simple concept of potato printing but I've been inspired by the work of Julia Burns who creates the most stunning wildlife prints.  Cutting potatoes is no mean feat but once you've got some good knives and a sense of what is achievable you can get some great results.  

I made the echinacea flower in two stages: a cut with two petals that I printed in a rough semi-circle (don't worry about overprints) and then an oval shape for the centre that had been textured by piercing holes with a kitchen skewer.  All very low-tech but the results are great.

Why not take a look at Julia Burns' website Red Hen Originals and see all her lovely work (pheasants are my favourites!)

Gone....

My little girl is all grown up and has started her new life in Cambridge!

I have sent her with some home comforts including this quilt with a few of her favourite things. Too many to squeeze into a photo but they include Yorkshire tea, a dormouse and some teacups to remind her of her sisters, cocktail glasses, cake and right in the middle, a yawning cat.

Here is our last view of her as she walked back into the college last week....

End of the line

My poor sewing machine is on it's last legs.  I worked it too hard earlier in the summer and it broke.  Happily it has been fixed, but now it will only sew in straight lines - no more free embroidery for me!  Which leaves me with a bit of a problem. I really need to buy a new machine but I'm in the middle of making a quilt for my daughter to take to University in October and I haven't time to shop for such a difficult item right now.

 I have managed to coax a little bit of appliqué out of the poor machine and here is the result.  I'll let you see the finished quilt in a couple of weeks.

Inspiration on a plate

Who would have thought that the remains of a lazy lunch in the sunshine could provide such a rich source of inspiration?  A mezze dish of green beans and tomatoes left beautiful pools of oil on my plate - I just had to draw it......

..... and then turn it into stitch.

The colour palette was dictated by some wool that I was given for the Embroiderers' Guild regional Chairman's challenge.  The result is a contemporary crewel work design which will form part of a patchwork of squares submitted by Skipton Embroiderers' Guild.

Viewing practice

Last week (although it seems a million miles away now I'm on holiday) I did a mini workshop led by Claire Hignett.  It was a back to basics lesson in drawing, but in particular, learning how to switch off your mind and draw what you see.  For me, the warm up exercises were the most telling.  We were asked to sign our name and then produce a mirror image. Easy!  I'm a chemist, I spent a great deal of time studying the shape of chemicals and working out lines of symmetry.  The trouble is that when you are so familiar with a shape, like your signature, you fail to see what is really there and see what you know is there. I fell into the trap and produced a copy rather than the required mirror image. Lesson learned.

At the end of the 2 hour session I had begun to re-evaluate my drawing skills.  It taught me not to worry to much about what I thought it should look like, but make good use of what I had achieved.  The outcome was a simple stitched motif that would happily embellish some piece of fabric.

To learn more about Claire's workshops, see her website www.clairehignett.co.uk.