Autumn Blaze October Stitchscape Swap

This swap is small but perfectly formed. For some reason October seems a busy month for people and we have only had eight entries into the Autumn Blaze swap. Either that or the theme wasn't inspiring to many. I love the different interpretations of pumpkins that appear here, it's fantastic to see them portrayed in such different ways, either in the field ripe for picking, close up with details or as a slightly more abstract image. 

Overall the colours in this swap really gel and speak to me of autumn. The pops of yellow, orange, red and brown are the colours you think of, but also the little flashes of blue! Not only does blue really compliment this colour palette, but we do still get a few blue skies here and there in autumn and they really bring to life the warm tones all around. I love that in Sandra's piece the wind has even been depicted, blowing the leaves off of the trees to scurry down to the ground. It's such a clever way of expressing that with just a few brush strokes. 

Beautiful stem stitches really add lovely texture to these hand panted pumpkins and below there are even some crochet leaves stitched on for added oomph. There are so many techniques put into these cards; hand embroidery, machine stitch, crochet, painting, collage, beading.... Every single swap brings up questions of how these little cards have been made, what was pulled out of a slightly forgotten stash drawer and even where it was stitched? 

Because part of the swap is to make two cards each time, one to give away and one to keep - for the receivers of the cards, they will just have a lovely card in the post but for the cards that have been made to keep, there will be memories intertwined with them with every stitch. If only we could see memories! I hope that everyone has some way of displaying their collection so that they can see the seasons and their memories reflected.

I love collecting leaves on my walks around the park with little F. I'm trying to get him as interested in nature and the seasons as I am, so the poor child ends up surrounded by leaves tucked into his pushchair, or a blanket full of conkers on his lap. Currently he isn't overly interested after the first initial examination and scrunch of a pretty leaf I hand him, and it usually ends up flung away with an impressive sideways toss for a 7 month old! 

Crackly, dried-up leaves may be of more interest but as everything goes into his mouth I'm not so keen on handing those to him for playtime, and he isn't interested if I put them in a ziplock bag so I'll just have to keep my crispy leaves for pretty photoshoots like this!

What memories or thoughts do you have when you think of Autumn? Is there anything not represented here that you could add?

As always, the full album of close-up images is on my website, along with the other themes completed this year. The themes for next year are also on the page ready to inspire you!

Starry Night Sky ATCs

I really love the simplicity of these cards. I always enjoy looking up at the night sky and I'm one of those strange people who say hello to the moon when I see it. When I was little, I used to make wishes to it when it was full and, to be honest, all of those wishes have come true so now I just say thank you instead. No starry night is complete without a big, beautiful moon so I've made it a big feature of these cards. 

The fabrics I've chosen for the back are all combinations of blue with lighter spots or textures - the fabric that is second up from the bottom is a beautiful batik print which is actually stars and moons in different stages so I could have carefully selected moons from this fabric to use but I only had a strip (the batik was from a mixed pack), and I wanted more of a glowing moon. 

The fabric I've ended up using for my lovely mooney moon is a gold crackled sparkly piece. It reminded me of when you have supermoons and they are large and yellowish looking and there is more definition to the craters and cliffs you can sort of make out on the surface. I had to stitch each moon down first because the fabric has just been cut and not backed with anything to stop fraying so I had to act quickly to make sure it stayed beautiful and circular. 

I have added some single strand back stitches along some of the gold crackles, making sure not to cover them up, just to add texture and take the stitches over the edge of the fabric in places to help with that fraying. I've then secured the edge completely with ecru bullion knots which helps to make it really pop and adds a clean edge to the fabric. 

The wispy clouds have been made with a gorgeous hand dyed cotton scrim I found in my stash. One of those untouched, still wrapped purchases from a long time ago that you come across at the right moment and justifies your purchasing it. Whenever you did purchase it!

The scrim is a deep navy with grey and light blue dotted all over, so it looks really lovely with these fabric layers. The texture of them also fits beautifully with the idea of slightly fluffy clouds, lazily passing across the moon, and I've just stab stitched this down to keep it secure so that you can hardly see the stitches. 

The blue fabric edges I had remaining, after the scrim was put on, have been secured with french knots, using different shades for each layer. The bottom layer has been edged with a metallic yarn I had in my stash which is shot through with an oily metallic strand so glitters a little when you tilt it. 

You can't have a starry night without stars and I've added these over the top and all in the same thread to bring the piece together. I've used a single strand of a pale blue metallic thread, working simple crosses over some of the dots on the bottom layer, star stitches over the more obvious star shapes in the batik layer above, and little french knots in the two layers above that. Big stars (like the ones in Peter Pan - second star to the right and straight on until morning!) have been made by making a long cross and doubling up the thread, then crossing the big cross with an angled smaller one in a single strand. Each card has three of these larger crosses. Just enough to make it magical. 

I'm really pleased with these, and it means I'm ahead for November so I can crack on with the December theme! (And maybe the January 2023 theme whilst I'm at it - don't forget to sign up if you haven't already. Details of how to do that are here on my website, and there is no obligation, just lots of fun!!)

Autumn Blaze ATCs

These cards have been finished for a little while but, because I make two different batches (two themes) at a time in a large hoop, I have to have them all finished before I can cut them out. It would be nice to be a little bit more prepared like I was at the beginning of the year but it's had to take a bit of a back burner, for obvious reasons to long time readers (new baby, for others), and I am on the line with finishing these! 

They are quite out there in terms of colour and texture. It's a bit of a riot and there isn't a lot of breathing space for your eyes in the composition. The background fabrics are mostly patterned with print or ink stains, there are two rows of the fuzzy eyelash yarn waving at you like fluffy grasses and the scale-like leaves burst from the felted tree trunks. 

The colours are all very similar as well and, in my mind's eye, I can see the autumn woodland scene I wanted to portray. I think I've managed to capture it - imagine yourself immersed in woodland. Yellowy leaves cover the usual woodland path, turning brown and sludgy as they start to decay and return to the soil. Lifting your eyes from the floor, crispy ochre leaves wave and flutter at you as they cling to the branches waiting for a strong gust to come through and give them a ride to join the others down below. They rise higher and higher, the colours of gold, bronze and russet a kaleidoscope of constant movement as the breeze gently toys with them like fingers running through strands of hair. Patches of dappled sunlight filter through the canopy, lighting up the occasional branch so that it gleams and glows brighter than the rest; one final moment of glory before it will all be gone in a few days' time. 

That's all a bit poetic but I think these cards would fit that bill and I hope you would agree? I'm still slightly concerned that the regular circles of paper are a little fish-scale like but, overall, I'm really happy with the texture they've created and the way they do move and rustle when you touch them. I've used a couple of colours of sugar paper, one translucent thin paper and a handmade, more rustic paper to give different effects. 

There isn't really a lot of stitching in this one (by my usual standards that is). There is no stitching on the top yellow layer at all and the reddish leaf print layer beneath has just been edged with a flat fancy yarn. The leopard print layer under that has been edged with bullion knots and some rows of running stitch added to the top and bottom to help hold the fabric down, with blanket stitch edging the yellow leaf print layer below. 

The bottom layer has been trimmed with the fancy eyelash yarn at the top and bottom, which has then been randomly snipped so that it doesn't have a flat top to it and looks more grass like with different heights and directions. Now that was a messy job with little fibres floating all over the place!

I stitched the leaf litter to the bottom of the card, over the top of the eyelash yarn and added french knots to it to help it look more grounded. On three of the cards I added smaller, two twist dark brown knots among the mustard colour ones but, right on the last card, decided that actually I preferred the look of the skinny straight stitches! It was too late to go back through and snip out all of the knots as I'd stitched two of the backs on by that point, but I don't think they look bad - I just prefer the last one once I'd thought of it. What do you think? Spots or lines?

The trees are just felt which have been back stitched all of the way around and infilled with straight stitches to add texture. The leaves were stitched from the tips of the branches in toward the centre and it's just one little over stitch on each leaf (using one strand of thread). 

I've seen some of the other cards that are coming in for this swap and there are lots of pumpkins among them. Amazing really because pumpkins didn't really cross my mind when thinking about this theme, I was totally fixated on the vision of autumn woodland-ness. I can't wait for them all to come in so that I can show you!

Victoria Pavilion Arts Christmas Hoop Workshop

This week I was back running workshops - albeit a little baby hour and a half workshop! We did end up overrunning as we were having such fun chattering and stitching (even me as it was a little class so I could sit and sew too) and could probably have gone on way longer if they hadn't been running late for the hot lunch provided. 

Victoria Pavilion Arts is a project run by the Sussex Support Service CIC in Uckfield. Their website introduces them as passionately believing that art has the ability to make people feel good, build confidence and connect with others. They essentially link those who are often excluded, with artists and crafters through activities, workshops and participatory experiences, which also helps to promote and provide opportunities for people like me. Proceeds go back into the project so that they can continue to provide for the community so it's a lovely thing to be involved in. 

It was a nice session for me to ease back in to running workshops and I was able to put together little packs where the backing fabric was already in the hoops ready to go, and there were four different festive fabrics in each pack that you could choose to keep or you could swap out for another one. Putting fabrics into a ready pack often helps to kick start inspiration as, most of the time in regular, day long, workshops is taken up by people trying to glean inspiration from thin air - which isn't always easy!! If the fabrics are already there, you can instinctively say whether or not you like them and either go with them or swap one or two around. It's a much quicker process. 

The Christmas hoops use my Stitchscape techniques but don't create a picture postcard scene that my bigger pieces do. They are designed to just be pretty and to sparkle and look nice so they are fun to make too. In each pack there are also print outs to take home so that you can finish your hoop ready in time for Christmas!

The below photos (and the one above) were taken by Helen of Victoria Pavilion Arts so I've 'borrowed' them from their Facebook page. The one above really sums up how nice and cheerful the workshop was - we discussed all sorts of topics; from the loftiness of some Fine Art institutions, to experiences of driving around local roads, and the near-biblical wet weather we've been having, a truly British topic of conversation. There were lots of laughs and it was just so relaxing. 

I didn't get a chance to whiz round at the end and grab photos of everyone's work, but I am back there on the 16th November for another session, which can either be a continuation of this one if we get some repeat customers, or a starter session for newbies, and I will do my best to photograph what's created next time. Better still, why don't you sign up to come along?