Monthly Archives: June 2012

June 29, 2012 · 5:47 pm

Harris Tweed Owls.

I met a lovely lady from Harris recently, who very kindly gave me a big bag of gorgeous Harris Tweed scraps and samples. What a treasure! I`m so grateful to her.

There are lovely deep textures and colours and also some interesting stitching linking some of the samples together. Most of the samples are little bits which are perfect for brooches or covered buttons, but some pieces are large enough for a cushion or a bag.

I`m sure I`ll get lots of pleasure using the tweed in many projects to come. To start with I made some more little owl brooches. The texture of the Harris tweed really suits them. The little purple one is my favourite!

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June 29, 2012 · 4:54 pm

Oriental Poppies.

This is the time of year when oriental poppies open and provide bright splashes of colour in the garden. Unfortunately it also seems to be the time of year, recently, that we get lots of heavy rain and strong winds that batter the poor poppies to bits. This year, I`ve decided to photograph my poppies as they open to record their brief lives.

They are so beautiful, with their fragile, tissue paper petals and sooty black centres. I love the dashing scarlet ones, but also the paler ones too. I planted a pale pink poppy last year which is really lovely. I hope to do some drawings, embroideries and make corsages based on my poppies, meanwhile here are some photographs…

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June 17, 2012 · 8:03 pm

Daisies.

I always think that daisies must be the most cheerful and friendly of flowers. I love seeing a sweep of grass studded with little white daisies. The last time I cut the grass I couldn`t bear to cut the daisies so I left a little island of long grasses to enjoy them for a bit longer.

My favourites are wild Ox-eye Daisies. I would love to grow them in the garden, but in the meantime I have Marguerittes, Swan River Daisies, Bellis Daisies and Osteo Spermum.

There is a patch of Ox-eye Daisies growing on a nearby roadside and earlier in the week I brought a few home to draw.

Inspired by my drawings, I made these little brooches.

I`m really pleased with them. They are appliqued and machine stitched onto recycled linen furnishing fabric. They have some hand embroidery and a few seed beads in the centre for extra texture. I really enjoyed making them and I like their `hand drawn` look.

I`m looking forward to making more of these over the next couple of days, I want to send a wee supply to all my stockists (I think they are the perfect brooches for summer!). Then I`d like to try some larger daisy-inspired embroideries.

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June 8, 2012 · 5:38 pm

Rosebud Corsages.

I`ve just spent all afternoon making the leaves for these rosebud corsages. Not the most exciting job, but very satisfying to get them all finished.

The rosebuds are made from strips of cotton in toning colours and patterns, each one carefully folded and stitched to look as life-like as possible. Each corsage has three rosebuds and three quilted leaves.

I use mostly vintage cottons, recycling old sheeting, blouses, etc, in fact anything in the right shades. I collect cottons specially for my rosebuds and have bags of reds, pinks, yellows and blues, plus greens for the leaves.

I have a wonderful piece of vintage Laura Ashley cotton in leaf green printed with tiny white flowers which is sadly running out, but I found some lovely block-printed Indian cotton in K1 Yarns in Victoria Street, Edinburgh, which is the perfect leaf shade and a good substitute. I`ve also recycled some khaki trousers to make some solid coloured leaves.

I like mixing florals with polka dots and ginghams in my rosebuds. I`ll sometimes mix in some linens in the right shades for a different texture (like my old, much loved and missed, red linen trousers!). I found a red blouse with tiny white polka dots in a charity shop which is perfect for rosebuds, but that`s nearly running out too. I`ll just have to keep an eye out for more fabric, a good excuse for lots more charity shop rummaging!

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June 4, 2012 · 9:03 pm

Catching up…

Whoops! No blog for a couple of weeks…

I must admit I`ve been taking advantage of the sunny days to catch up with friends, get some gardening done and go for some lovely woodland walks.

I`ve been busy sewing too, making stitched heart and daisy brooches for Boho in Aberdour, top ups for my other stockists and lots more fascinators for Katie Cupcake (she`d sold out again!).

I made a fresh batch of decoupage brooches last week, I really like these pinky-toned ones.

I`ve still got lots of other brooches to catch up with to make sure my stockists have plenty for the summer. In the next few days I`ll be sewing rosebud corsages, rosette corsages, tweed hearts, embroidered brooches and lots more little stitched hearts.

I`m so glad that my new little hearts are selling well, they are definately my favourite at the moment and I`ve been wearing one every day. They are really light and dainty, perfect for wearing on a T-shirt or Summer dress.

I hope we have a few more sunny days next week so I can sew in the garden. There`s nothing nicer than sitting on a rug under the apple tree with a cup of tea, getting on with some sewing while listening to a play on the radio. My cat, Matilda, loves the sun and usually keeps me company, sprawled on the rug beside me.

 

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Filed under Decoupage brooches, embroidered brooches, fascinators, hand embroidery, little heart brooch, my garden, rosette corsages, vintage fabric

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