Orchids at Kew

 5th March 2022

On Thursday I visited the Orchids exhibition at Kew which was from Costa Rica took lots of photos, hope you enjoy....

...wonderful sculptures using a wire frame and plants...

...a stunning display in the central pool...

....loved these sea turtles...

a beautiful bird

..playful monkeys covered in moss...

...exquisite archways...

...pillars covered in exotic plants...

...an amazing exhibition with so many beautiful colours and shapes!!!!

Next I visited another exhibition by artist ZADOK BEN-DAVID....

this was stunning!!!

Cut out aluminium painted black about 5feet tall, all his structures have shadows. loved it!

This room was amazing...

all these small floral structures were black as you entered the room...

...waking round slowly revealed the other side was painted in beautiful colours....

...this photo does not give justice to the beauty of this creation!

Contemporary tulips fabric collage

 23rd February 2022

I wanted to make a tulip picture for my wall and trolled through Pinterest for ideas and came across a painting by Keesvanderwettering which really inspired me!

Selected background fabrics from my hand dyed stash....

....kantha stitched the silk and machined the others with variegated threads...

....drew out the design and traced then cut out the templates, however I forgot to reverse the tracing strips so the next stage doesn't look quite like this!!!

I backed the silk fabrics with bondaweb to help prevent fraying....

...all pieces in place...

...finally stitched with a darker thread...

....I didn't notice the two little threads while taking the photo!!!

This 6" square canvas is now on my wall and I rather like it!

Not sure what I will do next, maybe one of my unfinished pieces from my stash....

Snowdrop Fabric Collage

 19th February 2022

Hello everybody, thought I would share my latest collage with you.

I  had a MASSIVE sort out in my craft room and came across this piece of fabric which I sponge painted ages ago, the perfect size for my 6" square canvas....

....painted another piece of cotton then used pastel to give this effect....

...backed this with bondaweb so that I could cut out the leaves...

....I had lots of small pieces of white fabric already backed with bondaweb from a previous project so cut up into snowdrop petals...

...used a dark green thread and free machined and finished with simple hand stitching.

I covered a 6" square canvas and it is now on my wall, already started the next one.....

....watch this space!

Cards

18th January 2022

A belated New Year to you all. It is so long since I wrote a blog and I really don't know why !!

I needed some cards for birthdays coming up this year....

...using fabric from my stash I stitched a long strip, hand dyed fabrics layered 

....held down with machine stitching...

....cut up into squares.

Hand embroidered...

....this was some indigo fabric with simple flowers hand embroidered.

I have also made a jumper for my niece on circular needles from the neck down, a challenge but was pleased with the result. Unfortunately forgot to take a photo!!

Also made an aran jacket and hat to match for my grandson but again forgot to take a photo.

Hope to be back soon x

 

Mixed Media

 12th September 2021

I started this in July, inspired by the beautiful wild flower meadows in the London Parks....

....I layered up various fabrics, some hand dyed/painted and different textures, pinned in place on cotton wadding, then used my embellisher..... 

....I changed the sky to some indigo dyed silk rather than have the dark blue in the previous photo!

Free machined some grasses in the background....

....added french knots, poppies and daises with hand stitching...

.....more hand-stitching, decided to leave it at that.

If I made something like this again I would do a lot more background stitching before adding the flowers, but it does bring back happy memories of park visits with the grandchildren!

The embellished background idea came from Emma Wigginton, textile artist, who gives free demos on You-tube

Cards

11th September  2021

Lots of work in progress here, these are some cards I have made using items from my stash to raise funds for McMillan......

...Kantha stitched hearts for an anniversary...

....pressed flowers on hand made paper....

...little girl on velvet...

.....machine embroidered seed heads on hand dyed fabric...

....mixture of machine/hand stitching on a painted background...

....machine embroidered seed heads on hand dyed linen....

....bird on organza background...

.....hand made fabric heart on hessian....

....seed heads on organza background.

Another flower inspired by Wendy Dolan

 12th July 2021

I decided to make an iris with help from a book by Wendy Dolan...

....drew an outline on tracing paper with help from Google and copied onto 'stitch and tear' paper...

...the fabric background was made from a variety of torn strips and some hand embroidery for extra texture....

....painted with dyes...

...organza was tacked onto the front...

.....stitch and tear was stitched around the template from the reverse...

...stems were machine embroidered...

....more texture was added using layer of organza, fleece and french knots...

....I have really enjoyed the process and am planning at least 2 more so watch this space!