This and That!

I am at the moment making Christmas stockings. Both in felt as those above and also in crazy patchwork. With the weather as cold and miserable as it is it doesn't feel at all strange to be doing this! I want to organise some kits to sell and it seemed as good a time as any to get started. I'm also thinking of making a kit for the armchair tidy below as several people have asked for the pattern!

The collage below is of some embellishment stitches that I have used on other pieces of crazy patchwork. I'm particularly fond of the lilac and had great fun doing this.

The small bag below featured some applique and machine embroidery that I devoped from a picture of lilac but I used a heart instead of the flower. It makes a lovely evening bag!

Tomorrow with my class we are going to be making faux chenille cushions. Faux chenille is such fun to do. Below is a bag I made using a piece of special dyed fabric in a faux chenille panel. I have used this technique several times in bags as well as using mandala dyed pieces in cushions. The faux chenille shows off the dyed fabric beautifully! 



From Start to Finish

This is a step by step journey from inspiration to the finished article. I was inspired by this picture.

I had a piece of hand-dyed fabric that looked like the table top with shadows and light that would be marvellous for a background. 

The first thing I did was to play around with the above picture in Photoshop and see what effects I could get. 

 




 


















The above are some of the results but I was most taken with the last two and in the end I used the very last one with hints of the one above to inspire me. 

I stitched the outlines onto the background fabric adding plastic and wax, and used a small heat tool I cut out areas of the plastic and heated the wax so that it ran unevenly. 

I added more stitching and overlaid threads and wool. I worked heavily into the fruit shapes to make the stalks look solid.

Then I used net to get the shadowy effect and to highlight certain areas. 
 

And below is the finished piece. I worked on it for about a week perhaps a bit less. Once I got started I was full of enthusiasm and worked every moment I had. I added the shaped border to represent a table cloth. The fabric background highlighted the apple shapes and continued the theme of light and shadows. All in all I was pleased with it!