embroidery

Last week, in a charity shop, I noticed some vintage linens, tray clothes, napkins, table clothes. All were pre printed in blue, with floral designs ready to embroider. The colour of the blue used for the printing reminded me of the blue dye used to print the fabric Toile de Jouy*. Holding this thought I decided to embroider on a piece of Toile de Jouy, just enhancing part of the print by picking out flowers, hats etc with beads and embroidery.

I made my two pieces of Redwork embroidery into a removable book cover. I realise a white cover isn't the most practical colour, but it is washable, and a few coffee stains might compliment the design!

Today I did a sketch of my kettle, turned it into a line drawing then embroidered it. Redwork is addictive, no household object is safe from the Redwork treatment, the more mundane the better! Find out more about Redwork, history and method here

Yesterday I drew an espresso coffeepot, today I have turned it into an embroidery. I wanted to try Redwork. You can find out more about Redwork, the history and method here I traced my line drawing, of the coffeepot, onto white cotton fabric, I don't have a light box so used my window to do this. I traced the image using a red propelling pencil, this gave ma a fine line, the same colour as my thread. The stitch I used was backstitch, couldn't be easier.

I decided to do a sketch today, for my Thing-a-day. I haven't sketched for years, at home I am surrounded by more accomplished artists (husband, son and daughter) this is a bit of an inhibiter. But today I want to draw something that is personal to me. I collect espresso coffeepots so that's my first sketch. I then turned my sketch into a line drawing, the next stage will be to translate it into Redwork embroidery. You can find out more about Redwork here

I think this faux wrought iron headboard designed by Lidia Lee is charming. The instructions to make it are on Design* Sponge

I enjoyed the Knitting and Stitching show for lots of reasons, and seeing textile artists work is one of them. There was an area at the exhibition showcasing the best creative talent from this year's textile and applied arts degree courses. All the work was interesting but the artist that stood out for me was Claire Moynihan. She studied at the University of Hertfordshire, a local connection. Claire said , " I am primarily a three dimensional felt designer, working with locally sourced, un-dyed Alpaca wool.