There 'tis

Before I began to pack up from Serenity, I was the fortunate recipient some some lovely gifts from Suztats.  One of these was a lovely tatted motif in the most gorgeous colours.  I think amongst the turmoil I did not even blog about receiving them.......sorry Sue

Well like I always do, being soooo (dis) organised, I put this lovely piece of tatting "in a safe place".   Then one day I remembered it and could not for the life of me find it.  I even unpacked boxes, and went through cupboards.  I was too afraid to say anything to anyone because I felt so bad.

Then you would not believe it, last week when Dianne finally got the time to have a proper "stitching day" I was showing her some  embroideries including the Carnivale which  I had done last year, so she could see a couple of ideas for stitches.

You would not believe it....wallah....there was my gorgeous tatted motif pinned to my Carnivale embroidery.. When  I looked had looked at it while searching for the tatted motif, I did not focus enough to see it there.  So here it is sitting on Carnivale waiting to be  added to my embroidery.

Aren't the colours of the motif on the top right of the picture just perfect to go with my embroidery colours.

Thank you once again Sue for this lovely tatted motif which will take pride of place on my embroidery.

Also thought it was time for a bit of a revamp of my blog.  The header picture is one I did in Gimp using a photo of the Carnivale embroidery.

Meadow embroideries

I went to a workshop with Debbie Mercer when she was in Gympie, and learned to do these meadow embroideries. They are embroidered on pure silk. First we painted in the sky, and while doing that painted some smaller pieces with various colours, to be used later for leaves and flowers. these pieces were stiffened with white glue and the fabric then became like paper.
The background is long and short stitch with a single thread of silk thread, before proceeding to work the trees and other flowers. the grass in the front is turkey stitch. The leaves and flowers were then cut out and stitched on. This was another of Debbie's wonderful workshops.

After I finished the first one, I went on to complete another of my own design, which is here. Sorry about the photography, it has been hard to get photos through the glass that was used.

Reverse sewing on butterfly

Decided to spend the day on the butterfly, but had a late start due to the reverse sewing. Decided to give up on the circle trail and concentrate on the other wings. Well success! Have finished the outer areas on the other two wings so today will attempt the design on the inside of the wings. Finished the body, but now think I should have used the dark turquoise....will have to live with that. However there are a couple of small areas that are blank, so just might try a bit of turquoise in those to help break down the brown.

Will talk a photo when I have done the wings. Also think I have worked out the way to do the circle trail....time will tell.

Used a variegated green again, but this time with a touch of aqua in the lime greens which will allow me to bring in a bit more of the aqua/turqoise tones....well I hope it will.

West Australian Wattle

This is a picture I worked in wool threads. It is from a photo of a West Australian wattle tree. At one stage I tried to count the knots of the flowers and gave up at 2,000. There are knots with knots on top in a different tone, to try to get the effect of light and shade. The picture has won 1st prize in a show as well. Enjoy.

Here are a couple of closeups of the grasses and flowers on the tree.

Wild Abstract

Originally the flower in the centre of this was supposed to depict a seed head and was worked on some lined, using appliqued fabrics and some pretty wild stitches. After a while I decided I did not lke it in that form, so when I came across the piece of olive green taffeta my mind just went crazy and this is what resulted.
The large leaves are cut out from trying to fuse threads between some organdie and base fabric, which had been sitting in a box for ages.

My only problem is that I keep forgetting to photograph things before they are framed and under glass.

Creative stitches

I like to look a various stitches and then see what they look like in different threads, and the different effects that can be achieved. At the time I did this I belonged to a small group of ladies who liked to embroider. We got together every Tuesday, and this is what I came up with by looking at different stitches and executing them with various types of threads.