June Waterlily Pond ATC Swap

 

I've been looking forward to this theme coming in and it hasn't disappointed! As always there are cards that are quite similar in their interpretation - several bridges with willow trees in this swap - but also the ones that leap out at you for being slightly different. The work here is so varied and this has also been a great opportunity for the right fabrics to shine. A couple of them have been specifically chosen for their watery appearance and it's interesting to see that the overall colour theme that I notice here is a blend of blue, pink and green. Lots of pink waterlilies, with a couple of white and yellow ones thrown in for good measure. 

The mix of styles here is lovely, some are realistic representations, almost drawings of a landscape scene, others more abstract and expressionist, some quite minimalist and the fab little frog almost cartoon-like. It's wonderful to see the difference. 

This one (above) is the one that's most expressionist for me, there's a lot of movement and texture, the colours slightly dark and moody with just a hint of that pink for the flowers. There is sparkle in the background which catches the light beautifully. According to the back of the card it has been made with ink and watercolours on the fabric, and mono printed leaves. 

And I love the simple style of this card - it could almost be made into a fabric print with those bold colours. Couldn't you just see these motifs repeated and put into a summery dress?

These stitches were so small!! I wasn't sure at first if it had even been stitched the thread hugs the fabric so closely. But it's been stitched with petit point which is almost like cross stitch except, as I understand it, it's stitched with a half stitch so rather than make a cross it is done completely with just one diagonal direction. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Usually it's also done on higher count fabrics so the holes are closer together and the motifs will usually be much smaller than a cross stitch version. This is just so prettily done, it's absolutely lovely! (And sometimes I get accused of making small stitches!)

This piece has got wonderful texture in it too. There's a sparkly thread stitched through the fabric backing, felt lily pads with a fine blanket stitch for the veins, and I believe the lilies themselves are a flat woven wheel stitch? Or some kind of variation of. I like how the willow branches are quite similar to the ones that I made. Great minds!

I think my favourite part about this card are the Bullrushes (tall long stems with the brown heads on). They look fantastic along the bank edge and just the number of green threads used is really evocative of the plant-life you get along the edge of water sources. It's a really beautifully composed card. 

This ATC really stands out on it's own I think. I love how the watery depths have been created by layering up the dark green material for underwater pads, then a sheer fabric and then another disc of green lily pad on the top. It is a great trick to use to make it look like there is something floating under the surface of the water, or even shadows on the surface. The lily petals themselves are amazingly 3D and create their own shadows, and then those bright yellow knots in the centre - it's so lifelike!

Batik or painted fabrics have been used to great effect in these two cards. I know that the one above is a batik that was specifically chosen for it's watery appearance but the bottom one looks like it might have been painted onto a silk fabric? The colours are so much fun - as is Mr Frog.

 

Backgrounds have been really gorgeous in many of these cards - water can often be tricky to represent but everyone has done an amazing job, and also done it in their own style! Whether it was an experiment or a technique they'd used before, it's wonderful to see the variety here. 

I have been looking at the themes for 2024 and I really hope that some of these ladies will continue on the Stitchscape ATC journey, taking inspiration from the new theme ideas (more on that later), and also from each other in the cards that they receive. Each card is thought provoking and inspirational in it's own way. Like the card below with its textured paper lily flower and little painted dragonfly - similar to others but utterly unique. 

As always, the photos of each card are on the dedicated ATC page on my website - the albums are filling up now!! 

Sheffield Park Waterlily Festival

We visited Sheffield Park at the weekend with my family. It's our nearest National Trust property and, as we are all members, we visit here lots during the year, watching it all change with the seasons. The property is just a big garden (the house is there but now privately owned and split up into majorly expensive flats I think) with a series of large ponds which culminate into a lake and lots of lovely plants and trees. 

At the moment they are celebrating the beautiful waterlilies on the ponds with their annual waterlily festival. They add decorative waterlily sculptures and trails around the garden, and also install a floating jetty on one of the ponds so that you can get up close and personal with them. Of course the ducks and geese will join you pretty much wherever you go. They are fairly tame here and you can buy duck food for them at the shop - we always take our own proper duck food as the babies absolutely love it! And to be honest, I do too. They will eat out of your hand and climb all over your feet so it can get a bit muddy and messy but it's good fun. If you've got your toes out they are often partial to a toe nibble or two and we ended up putting safety crocs on Baby F so he didn't lose any digits. 

It's such a beautiful place to go and walk round. We like visiting when it's fairly quiet and, as there was lots of rain and a thunderstorm forecast, there weren't many people going round on this particular day. We managed to get most of our picnic in before the rain started, and then kind of hid under the trees for a while to finish it off. Even though it was raining it wasn't cold so we mostly weren't bothered and carried on with our walk for a little while longer - eventually ending up in the main café which is outside of the entrance and back through the carpark but serves the most excellent rhubarb flapjack!!!

If you get a chance to visit this place it is absolutely worth it! Walk down from the entrance to the main pond and go around it towards the left and you'll come across a little shed called The Shant which does excellent hot chocolate and snacks for you to carry around with you or sit and drink in little covered seating huts, then wander around the big lake at the bottom, up the hill to the cricket pitch and over the little bridge...there are so many hidden alleys and walks. If you want to get away from it completely there is a woodland walk away from the main track (somewhere Reece and I went on one of our first dates and spent a long time sitting on logs chatting about anything and everything). Lots of good memories for us here.

Birds Eye View Bonus ATC

This ATC is a one-off, started as an example for the Brighton Embroidery Group ATC workshop a few weeks ago. Amazing how time flies as it only seems like the weekend that I was there. 

The workshop was focusing on the July Patchwork Fields/A Birds Eye View theme from the Stitchscape Swap and really the whole point of the workshop was to encourage some of the ladies to join in with the swap so we will have to see if anyone will. It all came about when I emailed all of the embroidery and stitching groups I had spoken to or did a workshop with last year to see if they wanted to share the information of the swap around to their members. The Brighton group decided that they'd like to learn more about them first so invited me back for another workshop which was really lovely of them. I've already shared their work made during the session in a previous post. 

But this little piece was just a demo and I've finished it much quicker than my usual demos because I had so much fun with the set I made for the swap. It's actually slightly addictive I think and a real challenge to look at something from a different view. Whereas usually I'm among the woodland close up with the trees, or looking at the rise of the hills and landscape with my feet on the floor, here I'm flying up high and looking down so you have to think slightly differently. 

The cross stitch fabric is a Makower cross stitch print so each of those crosses was already printed on the fabric and I've worked actual cross stitch across them, using two strands for the different coloured colours and just a single strand for the main colour - just to try and make it a bit different really, give some height or weight to certain areas. I honestly don't know how people do lots of big cross stitch kits one after the other. Just doing crosses is so boring! Perhaps the challenge is in counting the crosses and revealing the pattern? It's not for me, a little segment this size was plenty enough, and even then I played around with weight of line to make it more interesting, and added single strand, one twist french knot cornflowers, and two strand fly stitch birds over the top!

I've used the fabric patterns more in this piece rather than make them into a texture like the other cards. So for the green flower print I've worked back stitch along the stems, straight stitches and french knots in two colours to match the colour of the print underneath. For the yellow piece I've used a single strand and worked back stitch around the shape of the print, then added french knots to edge that one side and also to add some texture around the fabric (perhaps hay bales piled up on the side of the field?), with the little cornflowers scattered through as well. 

The plain green layer has got seed stitch for texture and has been edged in several strands of a deconstructed jute tape which I've pulled them out of and twisted as I couched. Not all of the strands have been couched at once so the stitching has sort of been lost under the twisting lengths. I've then used stripped down acrylic yarn to make my taller french knot trees, scattering these further around the card (also to cover up some frayed and pulled edges where I'd made the edging, then done the internal layer stitching which had moved the fabric - which is why I prefer to fill my fabrics with stitches first and then edge afterward!). My french knot sheep are also back because they are too sweet not to be included.

The 'ploughed' field has been made with rows of back stitch, and the final green batik layer has been satin stitched over big white patches within the green so that it all blends in together. 

Slightly different colours used but I think it looks right at home with the Patchwork Fields set!

The final stitch round up for this card is; back stitch, straight stitch, french knots, bullion knots, satin stitch, cross stitch, fly stitch and couching. 

So much fun to make!!

Brighton Embroidery Group ATC Workshop

I had a wonderful time a couple of Saturday's ago with the Brighton Embroidery Group. They'd asked me back to run a workshop specifically on Artist Trading Cards and we were focusing on the July Patchwork Fields/A Bird's Eye View theme in case anyone wanted to join in with the Stitchscape Swap afterwards.

When I visited them previously for a seaside themed Stitchscape workshop I'd made little packs they could purchase for the day with all of the fabrics that they needed in them and I was asked to do this again for the ATC workshop. I spent a happy couple of hours choosing all of the fabrics I could find that would hint at water, green fields, ploughed fields, wheat fields....mixing up the patterns with stripes, spots, batiks, plains, sheep! We were only going to be making one ATC during the workshop but I wanted the ladies to have lots of options so they each got seven fabrics in their packs and two backing cards as well as the backing fabric. Interestingly, there were a couple of comments about how tough the backing fabric was which I haven't had before. It's the same calico and the same weight that I always use for kits, workshops and personal use and I've never had any issue with it before. Is there any other feedback from kits or workshops about this calico? Do you find it too tough? It is literally called 'good quality calico'!

Then again, that slight stiffness sometimes helps with the stitching and perhaps the problem was slightly saggy hoops (argh), or well used and slightly less sharp needles? Who knows!

I was pleased with my little display. It was a three part-er with example and display pieces on one end, plus all of the folders of ATCs I've received or made over the years, kits for sale and sketchbooks in the middle and workshop fabrics, threads and bits 'n bobs on the other end. 

Several of the ladies had actually made ATCs previously but we spent a long time discussing how the composition of something so tiny was a lot harder than working larger. Trying to fit in all of the elements that they wanted caused some issues in some cases but a couple of the ladies were also very prepared and had cut out cardboard view finders which was a genius idea that I might borrow for future ATC workshops. My current technique, as you'll know, is to draw around the card back on the reverse of the hoop and then just hold the hoop up to the light to position it but actually, with the view finder, you can lay your fabrics out on the hoop exactly where you want them and stitch the border within the finder without having to turn the hoop over. Great idea!

Some beautiful pieces were started, look at the use of the fluffy fabric selvedge edge above as rows of grasses! I didn't manage to catch all of them so I'm keeping an eye on their website and newsletters in case any completed ones pop up - there are some unfinished ones shown in the July Newsletter. One lady did actually finish hers (scroll down a bit more) and it's beautiful! Lovely turned fabric edges and little fussy cut shapes for flowers, trees and a bird. 

I hope that this may have inspired a couple of them to join in with the swap - we will have to see what arrives through the letterbox nearer the end of July!!

All packed up and ready to go, I was being collected but due to Baby F sleeping longer than expected I had a twenty minute wait or so outside the venue, in the sunshine, working on stitching my example piece started (and stitched) during the workshop. A rather lovely end to a lovely day with the stitching carrying on well into the evening on the balcony at home (see below)! Thank you for having me again ladies. 

Patchwork Fields ATCs

I could have carried on stitching these little ATCs forever! There are so many little details that could have been added, the options were fairly endless. I could have attempted walkers in the field, rows of electricity pylons, lily pads or reeds in the water, clouds in the sky, a tractor!! I did try a boat in the water on one of them but I couldn't get the shape right so I pulled it out again. 

These are just so joyful and I love that each one is different. The shapes were all randomly cut out and placed on each card then tacked down but the cards are the same in that they include those same fabrics, albeit in different quantities and compositions, and each fabric has been treated the same way. 

The water has been edged, at least on one side per card, in baby ric-rac which I've stitched over rather than through. It's perhaps the most startling choice out of everything on the card but I was using it to try and make a sort of shingle bank or beach and have stitched it down with a pale beige so that the lighter cream is broken up a bit. The water itself has been stitched with rows of single strand running stitch and a glittery whip stitch added in a super skinny metallic thread that I found in The Mother's stash and borrowed for the occasion. The benefit of this broken whip stitch is that it creates movement and direction so hopefully the water looks more like it is moving, as well as slightly shiny. 

Jetties have been added with just a few close straight stitches (not really neat enough for a true satin stitch) which I think really makes it look more watery for some reason. 

The green layers have been embellished with seed stitch for the plain green, single strand back stitch in two colours following the lines of the striped fabric, back stitch again in two strands following the darker green batik fabric lines, and satin stitch over the spots in the spotted batik fabric. I've used a piece of green felt in each to add a little bit of height and to intimate at a hill with trees over the top in mixed colour acrylic yarn french knots. These are much bigger than other french knot tree lines I've made so hopefully they look like big mature oaks or something. I've also added a sprinkle in the centre of fields as well to help blend layers together. 

My two yellow layers have had french knots following the pattern underneath for the linear spotted one, and single strand whipped back stitch on the stripy fabric. Single strand, one twist french knots have been added over the top of that in red to represent poppies in the wheat field. 

For edgings I've got two different colours of string in a sandy gold and brighter green which have been couched down, then I've got one proper edging in french knots and two others in bullion knots for different textured hedge lines and field boundaries. 

Finally, to finish, I've added sheep in one of the fields on each with two strand, two twist white french knot bodies and one strand, two twist black french knot heads. I think these are so cute!!!

Around the water areas I've also added little fly stitch birds in a dark blue/grey. I was worried these would be a bit lost or look strange because the angle of them is the same as if I were making a landscape piece where you look at it from the perspective of the ground but I think they still work and look like they're flying. 

These cards are just so photograph-able! Every time you pick one up you can see new angles and pick up on little details, and they're also great fun to try and put together like a strange jigsaw. You can see in the bottom photo of this blog post how I've tried to put them together to make the water flow through all four cards as if they were segments of the same image. They're like those toys which you can twist and turn to make different pictures by moving one thing at a time, or a kaleidoscope maybe?

It took much longer than I thought to stitch these though - I naively thought that because all of the bits were so little it would be done in no time but actually that wasn't the case and I had to stop in the end because I needed the Waterlily cards in the same hoop to swap around. One day I really will have to count how long it takes me to make a Stitchscape themed thing. 

So the stitch run down for these cards is; seed stitch, french knots, back stitch, whipped back stitch, whipped running stitch, satin stitch, fly stitch and couching. Not a huge number of stitches but in this case there's lots of emphasis on size and weight of line to try and bring things higher or lower than each other and create some depth in the landscape. It's a different challenge from my usual Stitchscape angle and I'd love to try a proper hoop piece like this as well (once I've finished all of my other projects and priorities!!).