thing-a-day

I have just completed Thing-a-day, it's an online creative community that comes together for a month. In the 'not-much-going-on' month of February it stretches the creative muscle ready for the year ahead. On the final day one of the contributors, Hungry Panda, posted this Book Bag. I think it's an amusing idea, Annie has put a full and comprehensive tutorial on her website Hungry Panda,a great make for a bookish friend.

These flowers are so simple to make and look as fresh as spring!

Basic Flower 

I knitted a length of i-cord 25cm (10") long, you could make it from French knitting. From this I formed a five looped petal flower then attached a button for the centre, piece of cake!

Flower Hair Band

My theme this week has been flowers made from fabric, I think I'm looking forward to spring, wishing away these cold winter days.

These flowers are so easy to make but I think look spectacular. I bought organza made from polyester, silk organza won't work, from the local market, only £2 a metre. I chose a few plain colours but also found a couple that were multi coloured, these are particularly good for depth and colour variation when constructing a flower.

For the pattern I cut out three concentric circles, I just drew round drinking glasses and a lid.

I bought a selection of long colourful zips, with metal teeth, from a variety of charity shops. I've seen jewellery made from zips and wanted to have a play! I'm pleased with how the flowers turned out, I think they make interesting blooms!

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

First make a pattern, to do this measure the height and around your book plus an amount for inside flaps. Add a seam allowance of 1cm (3/8th") all round plus an extra 0.5cm (3/16th") to the top and bottom of your pattern.

Cut out two pieces from the pattern.

Place the 2 pieces right sides together, and pin them.

Using a straight stitch, sew them together along the edges (seam allowance of 1cm (3/8th"). Leave a 5cm (2") gap, along one of the short edges, and use it to turn the cover right side out.

Last year I took part in Thing-a-day, a yearly creative sprint where participants commit to creating one new thing a day, during February, and post it on a collective blog. 2010 is Thing-a-day's fourth edition and the first to run on Posterous. If you would like to join this creative journey you can register and find out more here I really enjoyed the event last year, It was a very positive experience with participants encouraging each other in their creative endeavours.