Crayon Monsters

A few weeks ago there was a contest for a fabric for crayon drawn monsters and these were some of the first drawings I did. I didn't really like any of them so I decided to use a handmade knitted primitive doll as a model.

And this is the resulting fabric

Print and Embroidery [Tast 112]

A few weeks ago at Gill's we had a printing play day. I printed the above on fabric with a mixture of manutex and brusho powders and I used a dry leaf to make the marks.

I've layered sheer fabrics on some of it then stitched it. One of the stitches I used was feathered chain stitch [Take a stitch Tuesday 112] and the rest are running stitches.

Growing.........

Gray Day

Butterflies and Rhododendron

This butterfly found it's way into the conservatory yesterday, doesn't it have lovely markings. I managed to get it out in one piece I'm pleased to say.

A butterfly I did a few weeks ago.

This rhododendron has been in my garden almost from when we moved in and that is about 30 years. In that time I have only ever seen two flowers, and not in the same year. As you can see there are over 30 flowers this year! Amazing.

Dude

Man in a Tunic

Tast 106 and 107

Layered and distressed sheer fabrics, net, metallic fabrics.

Take a stitch Tuesday 106 and 107 which are looped cretan stitch and beaded looped cretan stitch.

The other stitches I've used are running stitch, feather stitch and pistil stitch. 

Vegetable Man and Patterns

Stylised Tulip

Drawn on my tablet using 'autodesk sketchbook pro'. 

I made this one into a repeating pattern for fabric, wrapping or wallpaper.

Private and Confidential

Aquamarkers and a re-used envelope including the window.

TAST Embroidery

 

Some more catching up.

Above is variations Tast 102 - Beaded triangular buttonhole stitch and

Tast 103 - Beaded butterfly chain stitch

Below are variations of Tast 101 - Triangular buttonhole stitch

Stitched on aida fabric with cotton pearl threads.

If you would like to try some new stitches go here to the Pintangle site or just go to look at some lovely embroidery.

Envelope Flower

I re-used an envelope for the flower and used brusho and aquamarhers for the background. I made the marks with bubble wrap and a hand made stamp.

Seahorse Collage

The sea horse was cut from a used envelope again. I also used aquamarkers and brusho.

Cat Collage

I recycled envelopes for the cat and flowers and the flower pot and fish was made from the back of a receipt. Coloured with Brusho and Aquamarkers.

Growing

Inspired by watching the Chelsea Flower Show

Distressed Layers Embroidery

I've started a new fabric book as I have a stash of sheer fabrics I want to use. I used a soldering iron to distress them in places and to fuse them together with the background. I'll not be doing it again unless I buy a better dust face mask. There are several layers so it would be better to click on the image to see them closer. 

I thought I would include a couple of TAST stitches {Take a stitch Tuesday} as I haven't done any for ages. If you go to the tast faq page there is a whole list of stitches to try.

Above - I started on the left with a zig zag coral stitch [Tast 111] and in the v's I used a detached chain stitch and fly stitch and then applied a bead in each detached chain stitches. Other stitches used are running and cross.

Below - I didn't use any of the recent tast stitches, I used running, fly and cross stitches. The sequin leaf was part of the fabric.

Below - there are a few metallic fabrics on this piece and sequins. I used Tast 108, rice stitch. This is normally stitched on canvas, aida or linen but I used it in a free form style so it is untidy. Maybe I should call it distressed rice stitch to match the fabrics.

Paper Mache Mushrooms

I got together a few weeks ago with friends and we had a go at paper mache. I used a paper plate to get the shape of the big one and built it up with paper. If you fancy a go there are plenty of recipes to be found on the web.

Flowers, Creatures and Biscuit

A friend brought me this cute biscuit back from a trip to Japan.

It was a wafer with a choccy centre.

In my garden at the moment I have lots of bluebells.

I don't know what these lovely pink flowers are called

and pink bluebells

I don't normally like to see snails, but this little one was quite cute.

This wasp spent a long time, more than a day crawling around on this orchid but I found it dead on the soil the morning after.

Spring Time

It was a nice sunny day today so here are some Spring time doodles.

Onion Lady

I think I must have had onions in mind when I did this.

Cotton Silk Fabrics

My last order from Spoonflower included a 2 yard piece of fabric for a quilt which I will show when completed. The quilt area wasn't quite as big as 2 yards so I filled the spare with other designs. I've already shown a swatch of painted fabric (above) and doodle trees (below) on cotton but this fabric is larger [20"x20" and 10"x20"] and is printed on cotton silk. You can see stitching on the top one if you click for a closer view.

I've not shown the design below before. [20"x10"] It was a collage in my sketchbook which I really loved. I printed it on paper with my inkjet but it didn't look so good, so it was an experiment to see how it printed on fabric - and I love it. I've just got to work out how to change it into a repeat pattern, I did have a couple of attempts but I didn't like them so much.