Gifts Given and Received

My 'arty' friends and I like to hand make something as a gift for Christmas.

So I had my drawings printed onto linen fabric to make tea-towels. The edges were stitched.

These are photos of the actual fabric.

These are images of the design

These are the handmade gifts from my friends

I also made these fabric tissue pouches for other friends. Four of the fabrics are my designs.

Fabrics available at Spoonflower

Handmade Gifts

These are the handmade gifts I received from my 'arty' friends.

A tree from Marian with ribbon wrapped around the base.

A bagful [handmade of course] of goodies - clay decorations, felt house, decorated jar, pebble.

A doll from Gillian.

I love her curly hair.

A bauble picture from Vicky. It was difficult to get a good picture of this because of the glass reflection.

I've got some talented friends, haven't I?

Gifts to Friends

You saw the gifts I received from my arty friends yesterday, today you see what I made them.

A chicken doorstop - Gill keeps chickens so this is one she doesn't have to feed. I hand painted and stamped the fabric. I used real feathers for the tail.

A handmade book for Marian to keep notes for inspiration perhaps. I hand painted some fabric [the coloured strips] which were layered with other fabric, distressed and embellished with hand embroidery. There was also layers of vintage lace, which was also distressed and some vintage buttons.

I used free hand machine embroidery on the back instead of hand embroidery.

inside I printed her name

there are a few pockets to keep bits in

and an attached book mark

For the dog lover Helen, a dog doorstop.

I used a knitted cardigan for the main body and head and felt and faux leather for the eyes, ears and nose.

And for Vicky, a needle book. You may remember seeing this fabric before as it was a sample page for my TAST stitches. I was going to use it for a book but when Vicky said it was her favourite page I thought I would put it aside for a Christmas gift and decided on a needle book eventually.

inside are felt pages for needles and pins etc.

hand painted fabric, devore, hand embroidery, layered.

All Present and Correct

These are the lovely handmade gifts I got from my talented arty, crafty friends.

Bags of things from Gillian.

I love the way she has done this button.

An unusual house in a cup pin cushion from Marian.

She's used tweeds and felt for the house and has embellished with hand embroidery.

She also made the lovely cup and hung a verse on a tag from the handle.

Helen made each of us a full book of inspiration, all different.

She has collaged images relevant to our interests and included other bits and bobs like the little bones on the dogs turbans.

And sparkly gems....

and buttons...

and a butterfly envelope complete with butterflies...

and a pocket with vintage postcards, etc....

Vicky has screen printed a pink Christmas tree design on a bag.

She has used this tree on a fabric called 'sugar coated Christmas Tree' on a background of stars, also with coordinating fabrics, which are available at Spoonflower .

She has also made this cute little brooch with the same tree with a laser cutter.

Didn't I do well?

WIP Art Quilt and Dubai Gifts

My friend Marian has recently come back from a holiday in Dubai and she brought me some gifts in the cute little bag above.

Inside the bag were two other bags and in the blue one were some empty tea bags. We have seen art made with teabags and assumed that people emptied them to use in art but it appears you can buy them empty and in different sizes too.

In the pink bag were these adorable miniature embroidered shoes or slippers. I should have put a ruler next to them so you could tell how big they are but I never thought at the time. Anyway they are about 5" long. 

Love those curly toes.

Even the underside looks great.

WIP - art quilt

This is a start for an A4 art quilt of a hare on a bank of flowers overlooking the fields and hills. The background was painted with inktense blocks, the hare was a print on fabric done on my inkjet, and I've added some embroidery, first on the machine then hand ......but I'm not sure about it. The hare is quite pale [but they don't want to get noticed in real life either], the background is quite bright. I don't like the sky. Anyway I don't know whether to carry on with it and hope it looks better when it's done [some things do] or leave it and start something new. I have spent quite a bit of time doing the embroidery but there is a lot more to do. If you click on the image you can get a better view... any thoughts?