January & February ATCs

 I have been really enjoying working on these little artist trading cards for the Stitchscape Swap I'm hosting. I felt a little bit like I'd lost my mojo, and perhaps Stitchscape direction, at the beginning of the year and found it really hard to keep up with posting on social media or writing blog posts etc. I've got so many Stitchscape hoops from the end of last year which I still need to write a blog post about so hopefully I can now start getting around to these because I have so enjoyed working on a different type of challenge! 

Although the hoop I'm working in for these is huge I've still been taking it on the bus with me, which probably looked quite comical, and I've had a few nice comments actually from other passengers on the bus which doesn't actually doesn't happen all that often. 

I think maybe going to the Ardingly Quilt show at the end of January also helped spark some inspiration - many of the fabrics used in the little snow cabin ATCs are from there and I was obviously already thinking of frosty, snowy scenes as the majority of fabrics I picked up were in this muted colourway. The dark browns and the brick patterned fabric were already well settled in stash friends but these new acquaintances have fitted in beautifully! 

I came up with the themes for each month based on the seasons and what could be happening in each one, trying to think of the colours you might come across so that the inspiration is all around you. Funnily enough, I don't have ideas or thoughts for each one and have no ideas on what I'm going to create for most of the themes but I'm hoping some kind of lightbulb moment will happen in time! 

These two themes are quite frosty and snowy which is something that I haven't had yet this year - it's been quite mild and, aside from the third storm in a row this week (we are currently experiencing the high winds and rain from Storm Franklin, having weathered Storm Eunice on Friday), we haven't really had that many frosts to be inspired by. 

I decided that I would make at least one or two extra cards for each swap month, just in case I needed a spare. You only actually need to make two, or one if you don't want to keep one of your own artwork, so that you can send one in to be swapped but I really like seeing lots of them all together in a hoop. You can see where I've drawn the outline of the size on the back so that I knew where my stitch lines were going to be. They aren't all absolutely identical, but use all of the same fabrics and basic pattern - the embroidery work is slightly different on each, or the height/shaping of the background fabric layers. 

So, my January swap theme, 'Snow Capped' inspired for me a little cabin covered in snow. The roof and chimney have been blanketed with a thick layer of snow, as has the ground with just some hardy reeds poking out of the icy carpet. 

With the fabrics that I've used, I've tried to almost give the appearance that it may still be snowing, with a lovely circular batik fabric at the top, a linear green foresty-looking fabric print which has some silver metallic splotches actually in the print itself, and the seed stitch in the pale batik underneath that. 

A path has been cleared through the snow from the front door, revealing a batik and satin stitch pavement and I've added several beads for a bit of sparkly glitz (which I'm really hoping will still fit in the normal postage size!)

On the back of the cards I've suggested writing the date you finished them, the theme, your name and how many you've made. My aim is to try and somehow ensure that everyone in the swap gets a good mix of other member's work so I'll need to try and keep a record of who I sent cards from in previous months so I'm not always sending the same people cards from the same few members.

The February theme, 'Winter Sun' brought to my mind a really quite pale landscape (it doesn't have to all be in a landscape format, that's just how my brain seems to work!) with a pale sun peeping behind some blue hills and a Silver Birch tree lending it's cool colours to the overall very whitewashed view. 

I really like my Birch trees actually, underneath is a batik fabric which has pale cream and beige stripes and squared horizontal shapes, which work really well for bark, and I've covered these with a rough satin stitch, then edged the fabric with blanket stitches which go into and over the satin stitches at different lengths to break up any uniformity. On the right hand side I've also whip stitched around the blanket stitch to try and add a side of slight shadow, as well as matching the colour to the rough satin stitch branches I've added through embroidery only. 

At the bottom is a beautiful bouclé yarn which has a lovely sheen to it as well as areas of gorgeous fluffiness. I've just couched this on, then added some stems which use a single strand of pale yellow and beige at the same time to try and create highlights within the stems, and some yellow beads to match the pale yellow of the sun. 

I'm hoping it's not all too pale and whimsical in these cards but we shall see. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the others have done with their cards, I've seen a few photos pop up on the Dotty Textiles Stitchscape Group on Facebook (which anyone is welcome to join if you fancy - it's a member's group for you to ask questions or share images of your own work) and it's looking to be a gorgeous swap already.