A garden for 'Blue Lace Cottage'

My little 'Blue Lace cottage' has been away for a week on exhibit with all the other little houses made by the ladies of Fife branch of the Embroiders Guild.
before it went I completed the base

I had no real idea of how I wanted the finished piece to look so I just had fun,

  cut out fabric added and stitched some by hand
some machined as I went along.

Then I got out the fabric paints and just explored

old lace, new life....

little garden.

 the other 'houses' made by the member of Fife branch, I have kept this image large so you can click and zoom in for a closer look.

ATC's for EG Swap

I'm taking part in the ATC swap at EG Scottish Regional Day 

This year it will be held in Dundee Caird Hall on 27th April.

The theme is 'Diamonds'

Participants should make two or four ATC stitched / textile cards

I lost my email with all the info on this and kept reminding myself I had to find it to print off the entry form.

I only found it this yesterday morning and realised that I had to make my two cards and have them posted off to reach Glasgow by 1st April!

I am going to regional day and had it in my head that we could just register to participate and just bring them along on the day...not so.....what I had read was that you could collect your swap on regional day and would not need to send off an extra envelope for them to be sent to you. 

I knew there was a reason I needed to find it!

So here are my little offerings for the swap

#1 ' Night Sparkle'

This was my first attempt, a bleached black fabric background overlaid with organza ribbon then fabric edged with lace and embellished with sequins, bugle beads and crystals.

 It didn't really turn out as I imagined, but its quite shimmery & sparkly.

I was more pleased with how number 2 turned out,

#2 'Sparkle & Lace'

I prefer #2 I really enjoyed working on it, I cut out the diamond shape from fusible buckram and sprinkled it with iridescent glitter and ironed between baking parchment. I ironed this onto the lace and fabric background then stitched over it. I used one of my lovely Caron wildflower threads called 'Williamsburg'

with such a patriotic colour theme it could easily have been called 'Blighty' 

I couched some sparkly stretchy trim up the side and added a little line of bullion knots and a sprinkle of french knots over the lace pattern.

After adding the backings I secured the edges in blanket stitch with DMC Ecru, 6 strands for a nice finish.

Hope they please their recipients.
These will be posted off today so they should make the deadline.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing all the entries on the day!

It's all red

At the monthly Embroiders Guild meeting in Dunfermline there is a colour raffle, everyone brings something in the theme colour, fabric buttons thread beads etc. and raffle tickets are sold to raise funds for the group.

If you win the raffle you get the colour bundle, the catch is you have to make something from the colour bundle for the next months meeting.

 November's colour was 'Red

My sister Theresa and I both bought tickets and agreed to half the bundle should either of us win.

Theresa won and was delighted as she was making items for a Christmas craft fair.

However we both agreed to make something for the December meet.

I had lots of fun with the selection of fabrics, ribbons, thread and other bits and bobs in my half of the bundle.

HEART

Red is not a colour I usually choose to work in 

INCHIES

 it turned out to be an inspiring, productive and fun process.

STARS
these aren't finished yet I will probably stitch them onto some cord to hang together, or perhaps a wreath, not sure, any ideas? 

I could have gone on with the red things....and will probably make more.

It also reminded me of a little story about when I was at high school, and studying for my Higher art. I had been drawing, sketching and painting peppers (capsicums) in shades of green for a few weeks in preparation for the big exam. On the day of the exam I left a little early to drop off at the fruit and veg shop to buy a green pepper for my exam. I would cut it fresh that day for the exam, ready to explore the greens with my watercolours and pens.

 It so happens that they didn't have any green ones, only red, I had no time to shop elsewhere, so I bought a red one. It was the best thing that could have happened, the  fresh new colour & fragrance were so inspiring and took my experimental mojo to new heights :) and thoroughly enjoyed the day !

My teacher was so impressed with my work he requested special permission for me to take 10 mins from the exam room to show it to my other art teacher who was less confident of my abilities to do well in the exam. He too was impressed and had to eat humble pie and apologise to me personally for marking me as a probable fail. (they had obviously disagreed on this) I was not immediately aware of the consequence of this pre-marking system, it meant that no matter how good my submission was on the day of the exam,I could not attain a grade A, hence the apology.  

I learned a lot that day but what I chose to take with me was positive.  

Try a different colour now and again it opens up new dimensions and offers a fresh approach, 

Not everyone will 'get it' but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth it for me :)

Art is a way of life, a therapeutic journey.