Embroidered Brooches

B11 - Dyed fabric, hand embroidery.

B7 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery

B8 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery

B9 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery [French Knots]

B12 - textured fabric, hand embroidery

Last day! of

OK, I'll confess, I didn't do the brooches today or even this month, but I was thinking today that I had never done a post about them, so here they are. I have been creating today but I cannot show you as it may spoil the surprise for someone, but all will be revealed later next month.

TAST 33

Take a stitch Tuesday - the stitch this week is Pekinese stitch which is a fairly simple stitch. You start with back stitch, then thread through the stitches with another thread.

The stitch is not new to me but I decided to work the stitch on some crazy quilting which is a first for me.  I have come across some really lovely examples of crazy quilting while checking out other peoples TAST samples which inspired me to try it.

It is only a small ATC and I used vintage fabrics to make it. I would try CQ again and hope to improve, having said that, my embroidery does not seem to get any neater the more I do [lol].

Hand Embroidered Painted Fabric

The fabric [butter muslin] started as a wrapping cloth for steaming digitally printed fabrics so it had some colour and stains on it. I then used a handmade rolling stamp to add more colour and painted it when it was dry. I've used running stitches, French knots, bullions and some other embroidery stitches for decoration. Click on the image for a better look. I'm wondering what to do with it now - a book cover maybe?

Art Buttons on Art

I have an article in the new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors about making art buttons. Well they are more like recycling than making from scratch. I use old buttons together with art work or found images. These are samples showing some of the recycled buttons. The buttons on the ATC above was actually an inkjet print that didn't print quite right but it was in my stash of papers. So it came in handy one day. The ATC was made from craft vilene and painted with acrylics, then stitched with running stitch and French knots.

The art on the blue buttons below were painted and roller stamped. The background is paper, with bits from a music book and bits of doyley which were both painted. Again hand embroidered.

I used brush pens and liner pen on the button man below. The background was hand painted and roller stamped paper. Button man was made from a book page, painted and applied to the background, then hand stitched.

For the one below I used a found image [not sure if it was from a book, a ticket or something else] which I had coloured with brown ink. I used a bought tag but altered it by applying painted music to it before attaching the button with metal thread.

TAST 16 and Orange Bird

Take a Stitch Tuesday - the stitch this week is French Knots. I like this stitch and I use it a lot in my embroidery. On my fabric journal page I also have running stitch, feather stitch and blanket stitch. The base is a patterned upholstery fabric and on this is transfer printed lace [2 pieces], a small square of digitally printed fabric [my design] and a flower which was machine stitched and adorned with beads and French Knots. If you would like to see more of my embroidery look here

I made this little felt bird last week, both sides are embroidered but differently.

Handmade Buttons and Book

Continuing from yesterday - handmade gifts. I made buttons for two friends and a sketchbook for the other. I made three different kinds of buttons. The clear ones were hand drawn on shrink plastic, a great idea I first saw on this blog . I bought the wrong plastic and the wrong size punch so they are quite small buttons. Also some were not exactly round - but it adds to their uniqueness, or so I tell myself. 

These are made up of French Knots sewn on a non fray fabric [fliselina/vilene] then glued to 'Dress it up' 'make-a-button' button shanks.

These I made with the 'prym easy cover button shells', lace on silk.

These are also on the easy cover shells, French knots and two kinds of fabrics inspired by Karen Ruane's lovely work

For the button cards I started with labels from The Graphics Fairy which I altered, printed and distressed. They looked like this to start with.

For the book I made, I used unused printed patterns {passap knitting patterns} and the insides of used envelopes - have you ever looked at these, there are lots of different kinds of patterns, great for collage and backgrounds.

All the pages shown below, click on the images for a better look.

Bookmaking - Album 2

I've been making another book, another album for Emma's step Gran.

I don't have a sewing frame, so I just used the edge of the desk.

For the ends, I cut up an artists canvas board [I got some in a sale at the supermarket] and covered it with white cotton fabric [& wadding]. The fabric was deocorated [before covering the boards] with a photo I printed onto a heat transfer sheet [T- shirt transfer] and two strips of lace. The lace was held in place with Raised Chain Stitch - the foundation stitches were in two colours [I had stitched them too far apart, so stitched in between with a different colour - it looked quite attractive without the chain stitch]. I also stitched a few French Knots on the lace and all around the photograph.

 

Friendly Plastic and Embroidery

This is a City & Guilds sample using friendly plastic [it comes in strips & you melt it to make shapes - strange stuff] with embroidered french knots and running stitches.

Newcastle/Gateshead on the Rocks

Another one from the 'Illusions of the North East' set. This one is fabric, digitally printed with a picture made up of photographs from around the area, and then heavily hand stitched, mainly french knots to enhance the moss on the rocks.