Watercolours

Although I haven't done much sewing in the last couple of weeks, I have still been making things.  I decided to try a bit of watercolour painting and, as I have a thing about houses, this is the subject I have concentrated on.

Here are my first few attempts.

Mixed Media Experiment

I've had a really busy few weeks at the day job so I have not had much time for sewing.  I have managed to do a bit more of my Moot Hall picture.  Here is a sneak peek at the progress.

I have done some of the background but it is only part finished so you will have to wait to see it.

A House in the Country

This week I have been putting together my first framed piece which will be a picture in its own right.  I was a bit nervous to make something that had no other function than to be decorative.  Everything else has been decoration on an item that already had a purpose - purses, cushions, phone cases etc.  I have done some embroidery hoop framed pictures, but they have been a collection of small images rather than a scene.  Hence my worry that a picture would have to stand up in its own right with sufficient detail and interest.

Enough delay, here is my effort........

I am quite pleased with the way it turned out and may still add more detail in the next few days.  I have had a suggestion that sheep on the hill would be a nice touch.  I also think the green in the foreground could do with some more detail.

Then again, it may be too busy if I add too much, wouldn't want to detract from those fabulously artistic chickens!

The details were particularly enjoyable to do, although the dry stone walls seemed to take forever to do.

I haven't worked out how I have managed to love sewing for over 30 years and have only just discovered  free motion embroidery or as Kirsty Allsopp calls it 'the crack cocaine of craft'!!!  It is so lovely to not have to be exact and to be able to just 'paint' on the fabric.  Kirsty is right, it is completely addictive.

Moot Hall

I really like to draw buildings to decided to try and incorporate one of my favourite buildings in my next piece.  This is Moot Hall in Keswick and after sketching an outline, I used a little bit of artistic licence to add the surrounding street details before starting to embroider.  Overall, I liked the result but will need to practice more before these types of picture are up to a sellable standard.

Pride and Prejudice

This weekend I decided to try a piece based on a quote.  The obvious choice was Jane Austen so I thought I'd try to reproduce an outfit from the period as the illustration.  Instead of completing the embroidery in black as usual, I used a toning blue shade which gave the piece a much softer edge.  This is something that I will try with future pieces.

Fashion

Inspired by how well the Angel pic went, I thought I'd have a go at something in red, my favourite colour (represented by the Ruby in Ruby Patch!).  Again, the design was influenced by my eldest daughter's interest in all things fashion.
  

I am quite pleased with the result but may have to put more emphasis on the lettering as it doesn't stand out as much as I would like.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyPatch

Angel of the North

This project has been my first attempt at landscape art with the sewing machine.  I have mentioned before that the idea of a collection of items featuring North East images is something that I am interested in putting together.  This view of the Angel of the North has quite a lot  of 'art' to it rather than just applique pieces.



At first the Angel was going to be central to the picture but I was at a loss as to what else to add to the scene.  I decided a more pleasing composition was to move it to the top of the frame and add  the path, fence and grass in the foreground.

This still looked a little plain, so the tree appeared on the right  and the title on the left to finish things off.

Paris

Today's first project was a request from my eldest daughter for something for her room.  I decided to try a free motion embroidery picture which will be framed in a hoop.

Paris and fashion are her favourite things so I thought a combination of the two would be good.

The wording was stencilled and finished off with a heart.  All in all, the project was really pleasureable to do and the design too much longer than the actual sewing.