Slow Sunday Stitching!!

Another miserable rainy day!  But today was the last race in this years Grand Prix, so would have been a stay at home day anyway!   I settled down to watch Louis Hamilton win the race and the World Championship - YAY!  And while I watched I put the finishing touches to this little picture, adding some buttons and a hanging sleeve ready to go up in December.  I'm linking up to Kathys blog so you can see what other people have been sewing today!

Hexies galore!

My goodness where does the week go?  It been a whole week since my last post, but I have been busy making hexies!  Today I thought I would lay them all out and see how many more green ones I need to make?  Answer.....A LOT!

And this is only a small portion of them!  I have 41 centres completed with the aqua surround (and a few more to add aqua too).  But during the week I was concentrating on doing the green leaves of the garden.  I'm not sure the green creates enough contrast so the ones I make from now on will have to be a stronger green.  I have no idea how to finish the edge off either.  Do I add a whole hexie at the edge and then cut it down to form a straight line? I'm sure I will work it out!  This has been a project on the go for some years but I think now I need to think about finishing it!

Yesterday Doughty's were doing one of there mobile fabric sales.  Now I do have lots of fabric and I'm very caught up in hand sewing at the moment but I can't resist adding to my stash (can anyone?) and because I don't have a project on the go I just bought a few that caught my eye.  Very random but oh so lovely!

Today we have our son coming to visit for the day - he's got a new car and wants to take it for a long spin I suspect.  So while we are chatting I should get a chance to do some more hexies.  Take a look at Kathy's blog to see what others are sewing today!

Slow Sunday Stitching!

There is something really nice about being cosy, doing some sewing while it is pouring with rain outside!  Kathy mentions in her post today that it is good to clear your mind and do something for yourself, with no interruptions (ie from the phone, ipad, TV or thoughts of cooking dinner!)  Well I've had a lovely afternoon working on my red work embroidery (almost there), listening to the radio and I've not looked at my ipad once, but I have thought about dinner and sent DH into the kitchen to start cooking!!!  Ah bliss!  Jump over to Kathy's blog to see what other people have been sewing today.

Art Journal

We are spending the next three Textile classes on an art journal.  My chosen subject is the Sunflower (I have lots of photos of sunflowers - I just love them). We are using our tea bag dyed fabric from last month as the basis for each page

Our first task was to try to match the colours from our photos (some people had the real thing - dried roses, poppies and all manner of flowers) using crayons and pencils and then match as best we could threads in the proportion of colour we could see.  I have also looked at the underside of the sunflower and the leaf colours (and yes there is some blue, purple and a tiny spot of pink/red).  I now have my sunflower colour pallet.  This was a really good exercise and one I will use again I think?

I toned down the tea bag dyed fabric with some green and then did a line drawing of a sunflower head and leaf in my sketch book.  I knew I would never be able to reproduce it onto the calico so traced my drawing onto painted white tissue paper and then bondawebbed it to the page!

Our homework is to break down the drawing and pick out bits to draw and sew.  This is going to be difficult.  When I looked closely at the photo's I realised how complex a sunflower is.  So not sure where I'm going to go with this yet, but I have until the beginning of December to decide!!

Red work embroidery and Tea bag dying

Can you believe the amazing warm weather we have had this week?  Yesterday (Halloween) was 24 degrees - that is bonkers! We went for a fabulous walk along the beach and did lots of gardening and had lunch in the garden!

I have also been working on my red work embroidery.  I linked up with Kathy's blog last week for slow Sunday stitching and Karen left a comment about a red work quilt top that was bordered by patchwork stars.  Now that got me thinking, I could do something around this?  Although it might be too small for stars I could try some pin wheels?  Anyway watch this space!

Oh yes and pop over the Kathy's blog tomorrow to see some beautiful hand work that others are doing.

I also did some tea bag dying for my next textile class on Monday.  I wasn't able to go to Octobers class so to catch up I quickly brewed some tea and popped my calico in!  They are all now nicely pressed and layered in shade (I know a bit OCD but so nice) ready to be turned into an art book over the next couple of months.  Hopefully I will have something to show on Monday!

P.S. Excuse DHs trousers hanging in the background.....just be thankful it's not his boxers!