Felt Pictures

This week has been spent making and embellishing felt pictures.

On Thursday, I had a lovely day teaching my friend, Michelle, how to make a felt picture. Hers was absolutley gorgeous - it reminded us of a water colour picture. She is embroidering onto it - I can't wait to see it finished.

Yesterday, I beaded and hand embroidered into some felt pictures I had. 

This picture I made way back at the end of last year. I had machine embroidered into it last week and just wanted to add a bit of hand embroidery and beading into it. It's now available to buy in my Etsy shop.

The poppy picture was made on Thursday with Michelle. When I came back to it, I really didn't like the sky at all so I decided to cut it off and make it to fit into a box frame. I then beaded and stitched into it. Unexpectantly, I absolutley loved this picture and it sold the same day I posted it on Facebook! 

Enjoying the sunshine!

What glorious weather we have had today! Me and Mr Bunny have made.good use of it to. We started the day in Peebles where we visited a few fabulously arty places.
First we we went to the museum where there is currently an exhibition of work by the Embroiderers Guild. It was a shame we couldn't take photographs because the work was truly amazing and totally inspired me. My favourite piece  was an enormous wall hanging in bright colours - there is a little snap of it below which I got out of the gallery guide!
Then we headed over to the Moy Mackay gallery to drool over her beautiful felt pictures (Google her to see them!)
We then enjoyed a picnic by the River Tweed with our cakes purchased from Cocoa Black before heading off to the Tibetan and Buddhist Centre at Eskdalemuir. This is a beautiful, tranquil place we first visited last year. You can stroll around the gardens, visit the temple, take a hike up Fairy Hill, shop and enjoy a drink in the tearooms.
Finally, we visited the Borders Textile Towerhouse in Hawick which is a museum all about the textile and cashmere industry.
Later on we plan to go for a little walk to visit the sheep!
Who knows what the rest of the week will bring!
Sarah x

p.s make sure to pop back on Thursday for a special birthday giveaway!

Couching



Examples of couching can be seen in the Bayeux Tapestry


In what appears to be a catch-up series of posts, I wanted to share with you all some more of my work from my textiles course, couching. 

Couching is the technique of sewing down fabrics, yarn and other fabrics to a large piece of cloth. 

It is generally thought of as an embroidery technique and examples of couching can be seen on medieval textile work including the Bayeux Tapestry!  It is still a technique that is popular today, being used to decorate Indian and Palestinian clothing, most commonly wedding dresses and formal wear.

For my sample, I found examples of couching work on the internet and Pinterest, and then found whatever I could lying around, yarn, scraps of fabric and even some plastic, and stitched it down!  You can use straight forward running stitches or more fancy embroidery stitches to sew them down and can sew the fabrics straight or in spirals, zig zags and curves. 

My couching sample

Couching is a simple but effective way to decorate a piece of work and I think it would fabulous on bags, purses and other small items. 

Embroidery and Cross Stitch

A few weeks ago (yes I am behind with my blogging updates) we learnt about embroidery, the use of coloured threads to create decorative needlework through designs and pictures onto fabric done by hand or machine.  There are many absolutley amazing examples of embroidery dating as far back as the Iron Age and the Zhou Dynasty in China! 

There are a wide range of stitches used in embroidery and I learnt only a handful of them!  I could already do running stitch, back stitch and blanket stitch (an impressive range I know?!) but by the end of the lesson I could do the gorgeous sheaf and fly stitches as well as a french knot!  Now hand embroidery is something that I haven't really attempted before. I am a fan of speed, being very impatient, and so favour sewing by machine rather than hand but there was something so relaxing and calming about sitting with my embroidery hoop, like a Tudor lady, experimenting with the various stitches.  I have to say, I quite enjoyed myself! 

My Stitches

I also learnt about cross stitch and how the same stitch has to go at the back each time.   I had a go at this as a child with very little success but am pleased to say that I cross stitched, for what seemed like an eternity, my very small  heart and ABC! 

Not to scale! (It is much smaller in real life!)

Kirstie's Handmade Britain is currently being shown on Channel 4 (If you haven't been watching it you need to get on 4OD and watch all the back episodes - I have watched each one at least twice!)  In one episode Kirstie made the most amazing applique and embroidered cushion for the Great Yorkshire Show competition which she won!  After learning embroidery and applique, I really admire Kirstie's determination and patience with her cushion.  Hand embroidery is not for the faint hearted - it takes real commitment but the end results are so worth it!

As for me?  Hand embroidery is a craft I will be using as and when I need.  I am, however, desperate to try my hand at machine embroidery.