Weaving at Higham hall

Just over a month ago I spent four days at Higham Hall weaving with Louise Martin. The first two days were spent weaving sumac. Before I went on this course I thought sumac was one stitch! It is lots of  variations of one stitch producing an array of surface effects. See below

I then designed my own piece and you can see I need to practise joining colours when the edge is straight. The flower design was based on a decoration on the window surround.

The second two days were spent weaving patterns on either one or two warp threads.

Over the four days I learnt an awful lot but still plenty more to learn!

Summer Knitted and Crocheted Jumper

I found a pattern for a pretty knitted summer jumper  with crochet flowers around the neck. My elder sister said she would do the knitting and then I would crochet the flowers.

My sister sent the finished basic jumper to me and as you can see it is very neatly knitted with an even tension. She is a very good and fast knitter. I then set about crocheting the flowers. There were 4 types and I needed to crochet 3 of each making 12 in total.

The flowers were then finished off and pressed carefully so as not to flatten them.
They were then attached around the neck.

I am very pleased with the outcome and being neutral it will go with anything. All I need now is some good weather to wear it! 
But we may need to take it in turns to wear the jumper!!!!!

Dragonfly in Amber

I have always been interested in fossils and I thought I would attempt to embroider a dragonfly trapped in amber.
Amber is a very beautiful colour and can vary from a butterscotch to a dark brown. It is the fossilised resin of ancient trees and very rarely an ancient insect was trapped at the point of fossilisation.

The dragonfly was worked on disolvable in shades of brown and bronze.

When finished the disovable was washed away leaving the dragonfly.
This was then stitched to a piece of amber silk covering angelina. Sides were attached and a base to make a 3D piece of amber.
The sides were then embroidered with french knots and small pieces of amber to look as if the outside had not been polished.

I then mounted it on a painted and printed artist's canvas.

I often use fossils for inspiration and here are a couple more pieces I have worked in the past.

April Showers

Spring has definitely arrived since we had the warmer weather and April showers this week. The cherries are particularly pretty. I took my camera out into the garden and then had a walk down the lane.

Down the lane the hedges are beginning to come back to life and filling out the winter lines. 

Some of the trees are nearly in full leaf while others are a little slower to get going but I love their shapes against the sky.

 Nesting has begun in ernest and the sounds vary from melodic singing to the quarrelsome noises of the crows building their nests a pecking beak apart!

It was lovely to hear the unmistakable sound of the curlew but I have never found where they nest as they are so well camouflaged.
Back to my garden and I have bought my new tubs that will go in two groups of three at the front of the house. The annuals are already growing in my greenhouse waiting for the chance of frost to pass before they can be planted out.

Cumbrian Waterfall

A few months ago I started a competition piece for the North West Region Embroiderers' Guild Regional day on Saturday 21st April. The title to work to was "The Beautiful North West". I decided I would embroider one of the north west waterfalls cascading over the rocks with a little artistic licence!
I started by collecting fibres, fabrics, silk throwsters waste and silk rods. Some of these I dyed to the colours I wanted. I then placed all the pieces between 2 pieces of dissolvable plastic and stitched to hold in place.

 The piece was then embroidered on the machine to add texture colour and hold the pieces together

The plastic was then washed out in the bath and the piece dried on towels. When dry the piece was hand embroidered to add even more texture.

Ferns were added to the piece by weaving picots and then joining them together along the edges of the water.

The waterfall was woven on a loom with long fringes to look like cascading water. It was then stuffed and sewn into position.

Strings of beads were then added to look as if the water was pouring over the edge.

The piece is now finished and I need to make a bag to carry it to Leyland for the day!

The peacock was hanging in the entrance when I arrived at regional

day and members seemed to like it.

I was pleased to win second prize with my Cumbrian waterfall.