The Allotment Garden August ATCs

How lovely are these? I say this every time a new collection is put together and photographed but they aren't going to be any less than lovely really are they? So much time and work and thought and inspiration has gone into each one and they are stunning individually as their own characters, and amazing as a collection with all of their friends. 

This part of the swap is always exciting for me. I love getting the packages in the post with 'Stitchscape Swap' written on the front, there's a little thrill and a small dance as I rip open the seal to see what loveliness lies within (depending on who I'm with there will also be an investigative show and tell), but one of the best bits is the first time I get all of the cards out together and lay them down for their big photoshoot. 

It's always fascinating to see the interpretations of the themes. I do give hints and ideas on my handouts and on my website in case anyone gets stuck for a starting point but usually everyone is pretty good at coming up with their own ideas. Sometimes people from either end of the country, who've never met or spoken to each other, can be on the exact same wavelength and create something quite similar, or have a similar motif, or they could all come from a different interpretive place entirely. 

In this collection we have several cutting flower allotments, a couple of individually plucked fruits/veggies, a scarecrow, birds-eye-view layouts of an allotment and little sheds or greenhouses. It fully covers what an allotment means. The only thing missing is the gentleman with a kerchief on his head sitting in a camping chair with a newspaper and radio 2 on in the background. 

There's also a surprising amount of purple in this collection I think. Several cards have got purplish tints in them which is really interesting. I wonder what order/quantity the colours would be in if we put the images into one of those colour detector apps. There's certainly not as much green as I was expecting. Hold on....let's have a go now....

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So the above is what a random colour generator app I found online thinks are the strongest and most dominant overall palette colours. Would you automatically associated those colours with an allotment? How interesting! I would disagree on one point as I think there is more of a dark emerald green in there but I suppose it's all relative really. 

I've just tested a different palette picker website and it has a range of different palettes that do also include green. If you're interested the pictured palette was generated through Image Color Picker, but I've also found this Coolors one which gives you options that's quite fun - could come in handy for some projects. 

I love how the rows have been created in Sophie's piece above, little stripes of tape, ribbon, lace or yarn laid down and then embroidered veggies over the top. Those carrot tops are so sweet don't you think?

Sandra's one below is very interesting. If you look at it closely, the lighter patches are printed music sheets which have been used as the base for her planting beds. I had initially thought that she'd painted or coloured in the fabric and deliberately left plain material behind but, as with all of these pieces, there are often so many layers you have to look beyond what you see at first glance and in this case she appears to have used the fabric pattern to her advantage. 

The scarecrow is very snazzy - I love his holiday shirt with the floral print, it's enough to scare the birds away on its own! I wish I had taken a more focused photograph of him so you could see his facial features but you can zoom in and have a look at other photos, or check out the individual photo of this card on the ATC website. The cabbages/lettuces are very cool with the texture that has been created by layering up lots of fabric pieces. It looks like at the centre of each is a small piece of felt and a darker patterned fabric to give it a deeper coloured centre but also hold it all together. 

Woven wheel stitches have been used really effectively here as peas!! I would never have thought of that, what a brilliant idea. So simple and effective. 

It took a while for these cards to be swapped round as the deadline was around a bank holiday and it always scuppers up the post. I'm not convinced that we actually get a delivery every day, possibly we have an alternative day route? 

When I swap them round I consult my spreadsheet of names which has a chart showing who has been given cards from whom in this year's swap so that I don't duplicate them with someone they already have had artwork from. It's a case of starting with the first person on the screen and picking up cards from the pile until I get a card from someone they haven't had, writing it into the spreadsheet and plopping the card on the envelope. Usually it works out well although I do have to do a bit of jiggery-pokery nearer to the end of the list. 

Sometimes I'll take photographs to share on the Facebook page to show the members that I am about to send them their cards back and this month it turned out that they all play a little game of 'Guess the Envelope' to see if they can guess whose card they're getting. Those that have slightly different shaped or coloured envelopes get it easy of course. I wonder if this month I'll get some slightly more varied self addressed envelopes through!