More embroidery training!

Been enjoying making stuff for my Etsy shop. It's nice to make small stuff that is creative and doesn't take hours! Made some egg cosys in needle felt and hand embroidery.

I am in the process of signing up for a distance learning course in Indian Embroidery which I am quite excited about although the joining process is a little convoluted. I've picked which technique I'm going to start with (mirror work, no suprise there!) and have returned the application form, now I just need to work out how to pay and they can send me all the stuff.

The school I will be learning with is Mridula's School of Embroidery and Fashion Design, based in Tamil Nadu in India. See more about them at: www.mridulas.com/. Can't wait to get going. See a piece of my mirror work below...

Getting creative again

Got a few things done and out of the way this month, so now I can relax a little and do something creative again. Still needle felting although I broke my needle last night maing a toadstool! Luckily I had a walk down into Rochester earlier in the day and happened to stock up with another one. Also got some new fabrics for doll making (it's terrible, I have two baskets full of fabrics and I can't help buying more!) so look out for new kits on Etsy.

I have also just finished a couple of articles for Stitch magazine so look out for those also. I think the first comes out in the April/May issue and the second in the summer issue. It was good to work on a summer project in winter, very cheering!

I have also started a newsletter the first issue of which came out in December, and am working on the Jan/Feb issue at the moment. I will try to work out if I can upload it somehow so you can see it...watch this space!

A little sheep

In needle felt...

Still playing with needle felting. It is very sculptural, made this little fella in a few hours. It's also very theraputic....

A new year

Happy new year to all my readers!

Well the new year is here and it's time to get down to work again. There always seems so much to do, how are you supposed to fit it all in in one lifetime? I've made a plan, now all I have to do is stick to it!

I allowed myself some play time over the Christmas period and I've been messing around with some felt making. Below is a felted panel of roses:

The before and after effect are quite different. The colours seem to mix when the fibres are laid out then separate again once the piece has been felted. Felt is great to stitch on, there is no grain to follow for a start! You can bury the ends easily, you can gather it up by pulling the stitches tight and it looks lovely embellished with beads and sequins which are a real contrast to the soft fuzzy look of felt.

The above is a sample I made some years ago of the garden where I used to live. It is wet felted then embellished with machine embroidery, hand embroidery and shisha mirrors. I have also just discovered needle felt (I know, I'll get there in the end!) which I'm very excited about. It is much easier to control than welt felting and much more sculptural. Here are some beads I made in this technique: