Scrappy Cloth Moth Book........

.......Goodness, try saying that too fast! Anyway, I've been having fun again, making another scrappy cloth book. I can get quite inspired by moths, or rather, their wing patterns and colours can really inspire my imagination! The first photo shows the front cover. I made another card collagraph plate, loosely based on the Privet Hawk Moth, and printed it a number of times on a combination of either cloth or paper.

I've built up the backgrounds with odd bits and scraps of cloth, mostly from my own hand dyed or printed cloth. The remnants of colour/print on these scraps also informs the way I decorate them with either free machine stitch, or machine embroidery.

I find that as I'm machining, a little story starts to build up in my head.

For example, the scraps and colours on the page above, and where they were placed made me think about toadstools and snowflakes! These thoughts helped me to decide where to stitch, and what to hint at.

Some of the moth prints have been left without too much detail, like the one above, whereas the one below has far more detail, added with crayon as well as stitch.

These little books are all about experimentation, and will hopefully lead to me making some finished art pieces for the wall.

Above the back of the book, and below, the card printing plate for the moth, and  for the Christmas cards I've also been making which you can see below that.

The cards don't seem to have photographed very well, the backgrounds look a bit dirty, and the trees a bit dull. They are much brighter, but maybe it's the glitter glue that hasn't come out too well. Such wonderful stuff though, and quite addictive!

Christmas is coming folks, if it's something you celebrate too, I hope your preparations are well under way! See you next time.