This piece, which I made in response to a workshop with Shelley Rhodes is perhaps the one I love the most of all my projects.
Different pieces of fabric were sewn into one long strip that I painted with acrylic paint. I added pencil and stitching, and sewed pebbles and sea glass, gathered on a walk, to it.
The piece depicts a beach walk that means a lot to me and I think the combination of colours and materials turned out great.
I find myself collecting small crocheted and knitted Christmas ornaments, some of them gifts from friends. I decided to make them into a garland, lightweight and easy to transport to wherever I will be celebrating Christmas over the years, taking these friends with me! I hope I will be able to make the garland longer and longer and longer!
I used the best part of a skein of soft and fluffy organic yarn (Pure,100 % wool, Creative Collection by Veritas - 50g/100m) to make this pompom snowman. I gave him a sweet colourful nightcap and his nose is made from a tiny scrap of fabric. Who doesn't love a cute snowman?
This collage piece is a stitched story about the kitchen in my childhood home. It took rather longer to plan than usual, because I first made a mind map to set free my thoughts and associations.
The technique of mind mapping is something I learned from Ali Ferguson. I found it to be very useful and insightful.
Starting from this mind map, I selected meaningful materials, words and motifs.
For the materials, I chose a piece of an actual cushion cover from that time, some jeans fabric (we wore jeans all the time back then), fabric scraps from a pair of slippers I had, some pieces of kitchen textiles and random fabrics that remind me of the atmosphere of this eighties kitchen.
As the motif I picked a whisk, which my mum often used, among many other things for making mayonnaise. This was a job that required a lot of attention and we often chatted as I watched her.
By stitching together the words and this image I’ve tried to capture a cherished memory of peaceful, secure and happy times.
I loved last week’s workshop so much that I went on stitching on all kinds of different things, like paper and orange peel and I also made some collages.
Here I used a chestnut leaf, after I made a print of the leaf on a piece of cloth. I sewed the leaf to the cloth and added some more stitching :
I did a workshop with Hillary Waters Fayle and learned the technique of stitching on leaves. It is such a fun and out of the box kind of thing to do. I really went for it and spent hours trying different things, I even did some visible mending 😊!
I had so much fun with this project! I decorated this cardboard cactus I once bought in a craftshop with decoupage paper. For the pot and the soil I used coloured pencils. And then the real fun begins : glueing pieces of green sea glass to the cactus! I used sea glass that is not top quality, with sharp edges etc. (kind of fitting). They are all the result of a seaglass hunt in Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England. Collecting it is such a fun, relaxing thing to do, but be careful, it is also addictive!
Like many other people, we used the lockdown period to clean out our attic. I came across this doll that a dear, old relative gave to me as a present in the seventies. I was a little girl back than and not very fond of the doll, but I’ve held on to it because of the person who gave it to me. I still think it is rather ugly and even a bit scary... But I’m also still not able to get rid of her, so I decided to give her a make-over, using fabric scraps from old clothes and a beaded necklace. Now she looks nice and happy and keeps me company in my workspace.
Projects like this I find the nicest and most rewarding. You get to be creative, look for creative solutions, use your stash to make something you are attached to beautiful again.
(And I hate throwing stuff in the bin 😊)
