Recent textile pieces.

 I started with some cotton wadding, scraps of mainly printed sheers, voiles and silk and meshed them into the wadding with my embellishing machine. I tried to stick to blues and greens, not sure why, but that was my mood. I felt very positive about what I was doing and why! Having covered the whole piece, I free machined with different coloured threads in a very crude, darning style around each scrap to meld them into a sort of 'whole'. My feelings at this stage became less clear, and my direction somewhat 'lost'. I just had to leave it for a day or two, pondering what I was trying to achieve.
Do you ever get to this stage and then find that inspiration leaves you hanging in space? Different ideas popped into my head, but then popped out just as speedily, and somewhere at the back of my mind was an idea that I needed to use black in some way. I started to read about couching threads and cords on another site, and this gave me the idea for using the black knitting wool to outline certain areas, creating this simple design.

I have been enjoying a more relaxed approach recently with the addition of some simple hand stitching, and decided that this was what this piece needed. I think the fashionable term for more hand stitching is called 'slow cloth'. I must admit it really is quite meditative, and just a simple running stitch, flowing in whatever direction one chooses to take can give some lovely results. Hopefully this close up of an area will give you an idea of the handwork. I'm still not completely happy with the way this piece has turned out, but hopefully this will change when I've had the chance to put it away for a bit, and then look at it with fresh eyes.

October Journal Quilt.  

This month I decided to use the paper lamination technique. Just some simple spirals, and once backed onto a plain light cream background, I free machine quilted yet more spirals!