Well... Finally  some photos uploaded. It took awhile..

Well anyways, now  it will not upload the last one, so I am giving up... We have kind of a very rubbishy Internet connection here.  Very occasionally it actually works.

As you can see, I have finished the entirely stitched piece, which was originally intended to be just a little stitching on to a painted background... It kind of took over, so now you can't see the painted background. It took a few weeks to finish that one... And then another week to get the picture to upload.

Now I have discovered sewing onto handmade paper which is covered with muslin. It makes a nice surface which is  textured, a little like  canvas, and can be painted onto and also stitched. This was my final upload which didn't work, so I will try to upload this one another time, should the Internet decide that it feels like working correctly, which doesn't happen too often these days. I have also discovered the joys of Dragon Dictate, which is managing to hear most of what I say correctly. However, I can't use this with the rest of the family in the  room. This is a rare occasion, when there is nobody  else in here. So I'm being incredibly lazy and not typing ( probably less spelling mistakes than usual).

I also managed to upload a photo of one of the bags which myself and  Louise had been making, and a cloth bag which I have been making...  I guess it was pretty good, that I managed to upload the three pictures. I'm going to have one more go at my final upload, if it works there will be a picture here...

.... You probably noticed,  that there is no picture here, maybe next time, or the time after... Or any time that I can get it on here.

Anyway, I am off now... It is time to seek diversion in the  form of curry....

Bags.... this is more weaving than sticthes... but oh well....

It's early morning.... I always wake up really early on Fridays... It's because I know I need lots of sleep because I have to work all night Fridays :(  (naturally I wake up at 5am....).

Yesterday we discovered bags (again).... we... is myself and my 7 yr old, who is surprisingly good at this...
Today is a continuation of these bags (because Lulu insists..)  but I see her point.  They are really colourful and fun and easy, and all different.... Oh .. and most importantly... cost nothing to make.

I'm thinking of going into business with these bags....

This maybe, about to become somewhat muddled.... but muddled is good right?? .... so much better than condescending ..... I find... Anyways, back to being muddled....

I figure that I'm going to upload lots of, the totally different, things which I have been working on.  I work that way too you see,  lots of different projects all happening at once, now and again one becomes more favoured, and gets all of my attention until it is finished.

At the moment I'm doing painted backgrounds with stitching over the painted fabric.... this one, however kind of took over..... and stitch is going to completely cover this one as you can see...

Others went more to my original plans.

Fabric here was  painted on with a sponge.  The sun is a paper dot which was removed when paint was dry.  Masking tape was also used as a resist to form the water line.  machine stitching for the water is with shiny variegated thread.

The flower stems are hand stitched and french knots are used in green and red to represent buds.

In the finished picture, I used paper covered wire, Covered again with green embroidery thread to make more flowers with fabric circles to give a 3d effect.

More painted background... this one with just machine stitching (oh and french knots... of course...)

The above was painted in fabric paints, then machine stitched  with straight stitch in different shades of green, also brown and yellow for stems....  The flower heads are fabric circles in shades of blue and violet, sewn amongst french knots in similarly shaded threads.  This is the header on my page so you can see the detail more clearly there.

Inspiration for these is thanks to Gilda Baron.  She's on youtube at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg7O0nq-43M

stitches and stuff

I've been reading this blog .... http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.co.uk/  and its convinced me that I should start my 3rd(???) blog just about stitching.

It is the most amazing discovery of my more recent years.  Thats not to say that I never sewed before, in my dim and distant past stitches abounded,  but that was mainly clothes.... dues entirely to my mother who was a Taylor (Tayloress... she always insists upon calling it, although spellcheck assures me there is no such word), and her insistence that I learn to use a sewing machine at the tender age of 6. (possibly 5, by 6 I was sewing a blue skirt and waistcoat, fashionable then, I'm assured.)  However this was all many ages ago..  we progressed (obviously slightly more advanced than age 6) to selling wedding and bridesmaids dresses,  which my mother sometimes asked people to pay for, and sometimes "didn't like too..."
Then I moved far away from London.... to the wilds of where I live now....
and discovered more stitchery, which could be done on the shores of the harbour, in the sand dunes or when forced to watch the tv....

Oh yeah.... I also had children, who naturally became models for my clothing .... :)

Apparently,  I have to get up now...   We have hordes of people descending upon us.... due entirely (once again) to my mother,  who has taken it upon herself to host a garden party (our garden naturally), in honour of her birthday.  We like to to come in at the bottom of the sociability scale,  However people appear to like descending upon us....
 Sooooo More cooking it is.... and I will finish this later... cos it's meant to be about stitches...