TAST 13

 Take a Stitch Tuesday - this week is a catch up week for those who are behind. Sharon set this challenge for those who are not -

Mini challenge 1

Take 3 -6 of the stitches we have have done so far and create an interesting visual piece that will encourage  new hands or busy hands to learn and to "catch up". In other words create some eye candy for those who are falling behind, either because of busy lives or because they are new hands. 

Mini challenge 2

Share a tip on how you manage your stitching time. How do you juggle family, work and stitching? Are you organised about your time and workspace? Do you plan and schedule in your stitching time into a busy day? That is a topic people love! Either blog about it or leave a forum post on stitching fingers.

 I decided on challenge 1 but I ended up incorporating all of the stitches we have done so far.

It will become part of the fabric journal with the other samples.

The stitches are fly stitch, buttonhole stitch [around the edges of the pages], feather stitch, cretan stitch, herringbone stitch, chevron stitch, detached chain stitch, couching, running stitch, whipped wheel, alternating barred chain [I used this to couch down a ribbon, then added the running stitch later].

The sample includes various types of fabric, printed lace, ribbons, beads, sequins, butterfly charms [these were actually part a candle holder which I recycled], machine embroidery.

A Bird, Two Pigs and Bird Pig

Collage - watercolour backgrounds. The bird drinking tea was added digitally [bird from The Graphics Fairy]

The other pictures are traditional collages using glue. Both the pigs and the bird below were found images, but the bird didn't have a pig head of course. Watercolour backgrounds.

All about a Hat [TAW]

The Take a Word challenge this week is 'All about a hat'.

The top painting of watercolours on paper is from my 'shelter' series - frogs finding shelter. This little froggy has found shelter under a hat.

"Cyril frog needs to shelter

And then he spots a hat

Under he goes, nice and safe

A good place to hide from the cat."

Now the collage below is a little weird, I cannot remember what creature the legs were from, maybe a little pony but the upper half is cat, he is holding a bird and wearing a hat.

Watercolour background and found images of animals

TAST 12, Catkins and Chinese Lanterns

Take a Stitch Tuesday

The stitch this week is 'barred chain stitch' and 'alternating barred chain stitch'. I have never done these stitches before, in fact they are not even in my stitch encyclopedia either. I did have trouble at first, my excuse is that I was trying to remember from memory how to do it, but  think I got it right in the end.

The work which will be a journal page is on a background of navy fabric which looks black from here. The other colours do not look as they should either, it does look better in life but it is not my favourite. The four patterned pieces are actually paper, two are hand printed/painted/stamped and the other was a laser print which I painted. There is also machine embroidery, painted lace, bits from a patterned sheer bag, French Knots, a section of tape measure and a flower charm. Click on the image to enlarge.

It is the season for some lovely catkins, this is a small willow tree.

I actually did this digital collage last year, but forgot to post it.

A friend gave me these skeleton Chinese Lanterns, aren't they great?

I like the shadows on the lower two photos

Three Pages from Sketchbook 13

The picture below was inspired by artists who do 'messy' pictures that look good. [I can't think of any artists names at the moment], so myself and a friend had a challenge to try to do a messy picture. My friend thought the flowers on the penguin looked to neat.

Liebster Blog Award

I have been given an award for my blog from Masha who sews lovely embroidery.

This award is given to bloggers who inspire you and have less than 200 followers. The Liebster Award takes its name from the German word meaning ‘Beloved, Dearest or Favorite’ so I am honored to receive this award.
Here are the rules:
The tradition with this award is that it is passed along to five bloggers who have motivated and inspired. To accept the award, you must ~

Link back to the person who gave it to you, and thank them
Post the award to your blog
Give the award to 5 blogs with fewer than 200 followers each that you appreciate and value
Leave a comment on those 5 blogs to let them know they've been offered this award.

And here are the blogs to which I give the Liebster Blog Award:

aileenclarkecrafts - Aileen makes wonderful felted art and jewellry

mardispeth - Mardi does wonderful watercolour and ink paintings of animals

moonflowerstudio - Julia does some lovely fabric collages usually to do with her local area which she chats about too

rhissanna - Rhissanna makes lovely dolls.

socr8v - Michelle is an multi talented artist and quilter  

TAST 11 and Tiger Cushion

The stitch this week for Take a Stitch Tuesday is 'whipped wheel' which I know as 'spider's web' but it is also known as 'ribbed wheel' and there are other names too. I could barely fit two names on the label.

 [click on images to enlarge]

I have used scraps, leftovers from a previous work which are two small appliques of vintage fabrics with machine and hand embroidery. I've stitched them onto the velvet [upcycled curtains] background with running stitch and further embellished with beads. I have stitched the wheels in various sizes and it appears I worked them a little differently too. My version mainly has eight spikes, some worked as one cross stitch over another and some like the beaded one below which has eight individual spikes. For that one I threaded the beads onto each spoke, not the same number on each spike though which made the web quite difficult to stitch and looks untidy after the whipping had been done. [the beads did look more orangey in the bottle, they look quite pinky on the fabric]

For the beaded wheel below I stitched the centre bead before I started whipping, but stitched on the rest after the whipping.

Another knitted motif from my old stash. This one was going to be a jumper but it never got finished. Rather than include it in one of the blankets I decided to make a cushion with it. The back of the cushion is the same fabric I used on the TAST challenge above [upcycled curtain]. Some of the blankets can be seen in past posts here or on flickr here

Animal and Bird Collages

Collages - these include found images of animals and either watercolour background or brush pen backgrounds.

Rainbow Collages

The challenge this week at Take a Word is green so I thought I would show my green collage. 

I have done a series of collages using the colours of the rainbow- blue, green, red, orange, yellow, violet, indigo plus an extra pink one.

These are small collages, just 4"x4" and are made from art work, painted papers, found papers, printed art work etc

Blue

Red

Yellow

Violet

Orange

Indigo

 Pink

Ski Knitted Blanket

I will call this blanket the 'ski blanket'.

Knitted on a Passap machine many years ago - I used to design knitting motifs and patterns. I used the samples to make into blankets, this one I made up last year and some are still being made up although I have not done any for a while. It is quite a challenge as the swatches are all different shapes and sizes.

Yield [IF], Polar Birds and Tap Collages

Illustration Friday challenge this week is 'yield'.

Yield – to give up, as to superior power or authority - The pig has given up his sty to the giant frog

Below - Polar Birds - Collage/altered photographs, watercolour and white pen background, found images of polar bears and birds, white pen decoration on birds heads

Collage of found images/altered photographs