Stitching Sundays 28

 Not much progress with actual making this week, but I have been planning and looking at my materials to see what would look good together.  I realised that the stash of material which holds all my memories was just too diverse to be used together, unless used with a neutral background and made into a cushion cover, or something like that.  Having realised this, I decide to look at the other material in my stash and see if I could create some pleasing combinations.

 Here are the results of all the playing - just three combinations at the moment, but it's a start.  Above on the left is my favourite puffed sleeved dress material with some other pale blues.

The pink selection features my wedding dress bodice silk on the left, a dress material my sister used to make me a fifties inspired dress when I was about 18 or so and another pink material I bought when I made the rabbits.

The turquoises look a bit washed out, but are quite vibrant in real life.  The fabric at the bottom left is from a bridesmaid dress which belonged to my Mum and the others are ones I bought when I made my seasonal bunting.  So, having decided on these, I now need to decide what I am going to make...I am still leaning towards little patchwork hearts, or squares. I hope to have done some actual construction by next Sunday, all being well.

Projects galore!

 My blog seems to have been rather embroidery-biased over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share a few bits and pieces I made for Christmas.  Above is a collage (created courtesy of Picmonkey) showing some of the jewellery and decorations I made for various friends and colleagues.  I made some polymer clay decorations and adapted the gemstones, colours and sentiments to suit the recipient.  I think they were liked!  The macrame bracelets were for presents too, as was the memory wire one. I have now purchased lots of little gemstone chips and nuggets to make lots more memory wire bracelets.

My other main project was another rabbit, as my friend who saw my originals asked how much one would be, so I suggested making her one for Christmas.  (They take me a long time to make, with many trials, tribulations and frustrations along the way, so if I charged for them, the cost would be prohibitive).  She asked for a Spring colouring for her rabbit, so off I went.  She ended up being a bit like a daffodil and the ear material was from the puffed sleeve dress which started this whole rabbit thing.

 Before I gave her to her new owner, I did a little photo shoot with my original rabbits...they looked rather aloof and uninterested, I thought.

All three together for the last time.  The yellow rabbit's new owner seemed very pleased and had decided to call her 'Martha' which does suit her (I haven't even got round to naming mine yet - 'the pink one' and 'the blue one' is as far as I have got.)

Polymer clay with alcohol ink and stamps experiments (and news of a giveaway at millefeuilles.blogspot)

 Here are my latest designs using polymer clay, stamps and mica powder.  However, these are a little more special because...

...they have interesting things on the back!  I used alcohol inks to make the marbled backgrounds and then stamped with pigment ink once the alcohol ink had dried a little.

 I tried other base colours and textured stamps to see what the effect would be...

 ...and made the backs more interesting, using stamps and the alcohol ink.  I was really pleased with how these turned out and have ordered some more alcohol inks in blues and yellows to play with too.  I need to finish these by sanding down the rough bits and then giving them a coat of varnish (matt or gloss - haven't decided yet).  I can see I shall be doing a lot more experimenting...

On a completely unrelated subject, Stephanie, over at millefeuilles is having a very special giveaway.  She creates the most beautiful hares, rabbits and mice using vintage French fabrics and her own beautiful and delicate embroidery.  I am in awe of her workmanship.  The exciting thing is that you could win one of her beautiful creations - this meadow hare (she has given permission for her photos to be used).

Isn't she gorgeous?  If you don't win (and I think there will be many, many entrants!), you can also commission her to create a special one-off hare/rabbit/mouse for you.
Have a lovely weekend.