New ways with wadding...

During a recent hot spell I took quite a lot of photographs - mainly of flowers and insects. I've never given much thought to the camera's case until I had a conversation with someone last week about photography, which then led into printing of photos, buying cameras and then onto camera cases. This was inspiration enough!
I started to wonder how a case would look and perform in a padded cotton construction - and decided to find out.

I have heaps of wadding pieces left over from past quilt-makings and am now so pleased I kept these offcuts.

Despite having an abundance of cotton floral prints, I bought a piece of fabric specifically for the project. Here, wadding is cut to 3 layers for each side of the case, and then the fabric is sewn to size.

 I sewed the longer seams on the machine but hand-stitched the case into shape. I decided against a velcro fastening because it seemed quite industrial. The organza ribbon suits the prettiness of the fabric and makes the case more feminine, I think. As a prototype I'm pleased with the result - enough to think about making more cases in various fabrics .....

My heart sings....

Not a post about anything to do with sewing, but really wanted to share these photographs, all taken in my garden. I adore flowers and I love to watch the insects and listen to the birds - I feel so lucky and blessed that I can grow things and attract amazing and beautiful creatures. Over the last few years I have found horticulture to be so spiritually healing that now, well, I know that I couldn't bear to live without growing things....

Perennial poppy - the clump spreads every year and I can't yet bring myself to lessen its halt.

Shield bug laying gorgeous pink eggs on Stachys lanata, or lamb's ear.

I'm generally not a fan of any yellow flowers....but who can resist the sheen of a buttercup on a sunny day?...

Octagon quilt layout

It's a rainy morning so I've used part of it to do a job I've been avoiding - trying to complete the layout of octagons for my friend's quilt. I wanted it to contain no duplicates in a row - but whilst this worked horizontally, it didn't work vertically in all cases and became quite complicated because more than anything I was trying to avoid major clashes in colours and patterns.

So, here is what I have come up with and having walked around it and photographed it from all sides....I think it's ok. And really, if it's going to be loved and used as a cosy cover-up, does it really matter that there's a purple Oriental pattern next to a purple-wash cotton?....

The light isn't great today and the flash wasn't doing the colours justice, but hopefully sans flash this has captured the essence quite well.

The rows are now numbered and stacked in a box, and over the next few weeks I will sew together a row at a time.

 
The small interconnecting squares are being basted between other jobs.....

 .......so considering that this is to be a Christmas present, work is progressing nicely and on target - always a good feeling.

First steps in landscape architecture.

It has been such a long time since I wrote anything! Two reasons - the Giro d'Italia took over the last 3 weeks of my life, relegating creativity. Also, there's been a heatwave after 4 weeks of constant rain, so there is MUCH to do outdoors.
Energy and time permitting though, I have been working on a new project for the joint blog which I mentioned a couple of posts ago - the one where I am pressurised every month to come up with ideas for themes and then create something accordingly.
May's theme has been My Favourite Book, which was actually one of my suggestions, so I'm pleased that the other group members responded to it. I chose Wuthering Heights, a novel I studied many years ago for 'A' Level English Literature and I have loved it ever since. It is an incredibly complex, multi-layered book full of passions and high emotions. What I love most though is the importance of nature within the novel and the link it has with all the characters. Central to this of course are the moors - wild, bleak, and the root of the bond between Catherine and Heathcliff.
It was the moorland which I decided to use as a guide for my piece of work and so I created a textile landscape. I did not want a lush, green portrayal, but rather a more earthy, limited colour range to try to capture some of the bleakness of the place. I wanted the sky to be a foreboding, intense one, and quite heavy in feel.

I used felt, wool, cottons, ribbons, lace and a variety of threads to build up layers and blocks.

I deliberately left ragged edges to fabrics and I wanted the stitches to be visible and a central part of the piece.

I dare say that June's theme will be chosen within the next few days and the new adventure will begin....

Small squares update

Despite some doubts as to whether I would be able to persevere with the one-inch square project, of course I have continued to work on it and thought I would share my progress so far. I sewed together 6 of the 8 inch squares ( manageable chunks ) and am delighted with how it looks so far. The piece is very intense and so pretty. I am doubtful now as to whether it will be used as a quilt - it seems far more attractive an idea to have it as one of those ' hang on the wall ' pieces of which I am very fond. I love the colours....everything - however disparate it initially seems - just goes together.

The piece as you see it is currently 24 x 16 inches ( 60 x 40cm ).

Close-up of work. All hand-stitched and what quality thoughts I've had whilst stitching away....

I intend to continue in this vein, sewing together 8 inch pieces of work and then deciding from there what feels right with regards to a final size.

My other ( blog ) life.

A few weeks ago I was asked by a neighbour if I'd like to be part of a new collective blog she was thinking of starting up for 'creative types.'  Flattered to be even considered creative, I said yes. And then went through all the doubts of ''only being asked to make up numbers'', how I'd look like the numpty compared to everyone else etc etc. It's a small group - a photographer, a puppet-maker ( wow! ), graphic artist, artist 'proper' and myself. The instigator asked how we felt about having a monthly theme where we all suggest words/topics and we each come up with an interpretation. For me this is scary....but quite exciting as it may well push me to work in different mediums and in different sizes. April's theme was two blog member's suggestions put together -  'Moonlight and Dreamtime.' 
I was inspired by Aboriginal Dreamtime philosophy - which led beautifully into thoughts about the native artwork consisting of dots. I tried to merge this with the moonlight tag and came up with an inky blue and silver theme, with the moon reflecting its light onto mountain-tops.
An embroidered piece consisting of French knots ( or my interpretation of ) seemed ideal. So here goes....

I used a thin calico-type cotton for the base and embroidery silks in a limited palette.

Quite a few hours and some wonky lines later, the finished piece is released from its hoop shackles and pressed.

In detail

It is intended for a frame and will certainly be photographed that way for the joint blog project. Hopefully the work won't look shabby compared with how others have interpreted the theme. And now there's just May's project to decide upon and fret about......I'll post the results here.

Gus goes global.

Gus has finally got himself a Twitter account, which is more than I have. I don't know where he finds the time.....

https://twitter.com/#!/GustheGorgeous