Front Garden 2018

My front garden had really matured in the two years since it was built, and this year has been a brilliant year for my roses. The rampler over the garage is a Pauls Himalaya Musk.

We have eaten eight artichokes this year from these plants.  There are still a few to mature.

Persian Eyes bought at the Hampton Court Flower show one year.

Capability Brown Embroidery

I am a member of Newbury Embroiderers Guild, and we were asked to take part in an exhibition to celebrate the 300 year anniversary of Capability Brown. Our guild was paired with Blenheim Palace and we took a trip there last summer to form some ideas and take some photographs.

My piece of work was inspired by one of the small bridges that spanned the Great Lake.  I liked the way the lines of the bridge contrasted with the softness of the surrounding foliage, and decided to study the bridge from three different viewpoints. The piece is approximately A2 in size.

Although I did take a great many photographs on the trip, I was more inspired with those taken by my friend Gail who kindly shared hers with our group.  Thank you Gail!

My piece of work was constructed of papers, various fabric, wool, ribbon, photo transfer and paint with machine and hand embroidery.  The exhibition starts on February 13th and runs until the 2nd May 2016

TextileArt07 Christmas Decoration 2015

Happy Christmas!

The Christmas challenge set by the TextArt07 group this year was to do something with a small double metal hoop.  It did not have to have a Christmas theme but I was very short of time and thought it could be my Christmas decoration tutorial.

Then I came down with a dreadful chest infection and although I had finished the wreath, missed the party and did not have time to do the tutorial. I did take a few photos and so decided here on Christmas morning to show you how I made it.

 This is rare I might add as I usually host Christmas Dinner for lots of people but with all the building work going on we were invited to family. This means I am calm and relaxed instead of running around in a flap.

I painted the hoop with some white paint to soften the colour.  I then made lots of small sandwiches of angelina fibre, silver fabric and lace, and organza, covered with a layer of chiffon and placed it in a large sewing hoop.

I then free machine stitched some five petalled flowers with silver thread.

I cut each one out with a border.
I then took some silver wire and knotted on some crystal beads leaving gaps.  I wrapped the wire in the gaps along a pencil to make them curly. 

I made a circle of angelina fibre and laid it at the back of the hoop.  I stitched the flowers on the front of the hoop, through  onto the angelina at the back, and added a crystal bead in each centre.  I then carefully wound the wire around and around the hoop.  I touched the wire up with a little white paint to highlight it in places.

Being very short of time this year I decided to place the wreath on the top of my Christmas cake.

Hanging on a cupboard door.

Have a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

Apple Blossom Appliqué - 3

I decided to mount my apple blossom applique on to some medium weight Lutrador ( a versatile man made fabric which may be purchased in different weights),  which I had spray painted with various green paints over some crayon doodles.

 I trimmed the Lutrador with a rotary cutter leaving a 3cm border.

I wanted to attach a channel on the back of the embroidery so that a strip of wood could be passed through for hanging, so I cut a strip of Lutrador and pinned it in place.

The strip had to be sown on before the Lutador backing was attached to the embroidery so I separated the two pieces while I did this.  I sewed on the top edge of the channel and then added the wood strip while I pinned it in place.  This was because the wood was curved and I wanted to allow extra room so that it would not distort the finished piece.  Once I had pinned the channel in place I removed the wood and sewed along the bottom edge.

I then laid the embroidery back in position over the Lutrador and sewed the two pieces together around the embroidery edge, making sure the hanging sleeve was at the top.

The border was then trimmed back to 2cms and I sewed on a curtain ring just above the wood channel on the centre back.

The embroidery was finished and may be hung as is or framed.

Apple Blossom Appliqué - 2

After all of the flowers and leaves had been sewed on I added one more larger flower on top as a focal point.  This was also bonded and stitched down in the same way.  To knock back the piece I then used a roller to add some white acrylic paint in areas.

To add some interest to the flower centres I used an automatic daisy pattern in three colours, followed by some hand stitched French Knots.

The piece just needs to be signed, trimmed and mounted.

Apple Blossom Appliqué - 1

I have been working on a new textile piece in my apple blossom series.  The background was constructed out of collaged fabrics which I had painted, stamped and stencilled.  After I had arranged the pieces on a calico background,  I stitched them all down with rows of running stitch by sewing  machine in a slightly haphazard way so that the look was not too perfect

I then took some simplified flower designs from my apple blossom sketchbook, traced them onto bondaweb, ironed them onto the backs of different fabrics and cut them out.  I played around with the arrangement until I was happy with the spacing and ironed them on after removing the backing paper. I then sewed around the edge of each one with a free machine embroidery stitch using black rayon thread.

I bonded on some more blossoms and some leaves in the same way and stitched them on with some green and pink rayon threads.

I have stitched around each piece several times so that edges are not too precise.

Textart07 Textile Group

I  belong to a textile group called Textart07 which was formed  in 2007 by a group of sewers who had attended a City and Guild Machine Embroidery course with Sandra Hardy.  Over the years some people have moved away and new people have joined us and we now have a membership of 13 people.  We keep  to a low number so that we have enough table space when we meet up, which is every other Tuesday from 9.30 to 4.00 pm at Chievely Village  Hall in Berkshire. 

 During most meetings we work on our own projects, but we sometimes also set ourselves challenges and  hold mini workshop, taught mainly by other members of the group.  Two years ago we held our first exhibition and we are currently planning another one for next September.

One of our little challenges one Christmas was a pin cushion which we swapped with each other. The one I made was this mouse.

Another challenge we ran consisted of each member contributing some fabric or other sewable material, which were then devided into equal packs.  We were presented with a pack and also a small canvas frame on which our piece had to be mounted in some way.  This was my piece of work and my pack of materials. I often use both machine and hand embroidery in my work.

When we held our exhibition two years ago we all made a piece of work as part of a central exhibit with the title of "Shades of....". My subject was "Shades of Time" and was inspired by my younger sisters wedding.

Late Delphiniums

I have never been able to grow delphiniums except in a very poor neglected area of the garden and they are truly magnificent if I say so myself being well over 7 feet tall.  I was surprised that some of them produced a second smaller flower and I picked them because of the windy rainy weather.

 

    I love the colour combination of the plants, jug, vase and plants.