October Toadstool Treasures ATCs

 

How gorgeous are these? I love that everyone seems to have been on the same page with the type of toadstool - especially considering how many varieties there are. I know these are possibly the most iconic but it surprises me slightly that no one in the group went down a different route. 

What is different though is the way they have been represented and there's a wonderful selection of embroidery styles and techniques; fabric collage, petite point/red work (not sure there), realistic, cartoon-esque, stylised.... They stand out in every card beautifully and work together amazingly well as a collection. 

The piece above I'm not sure if it's red work or petite point, or neither - either way it's very tiny, intricate stitching with wonderful use of creating pattern to provide shading a focus to areas. Very clever! If you have a better idea please do let me know.

I love these little felted caps with their french knot spots. They really stand out, almost glowing from underneath the dark green trees. I guess they do almost glow in real life actually - especially as they can sometimes have dew drops or condensation on them that gives a slightly more glossy appearance that would catch the light and be quite luminescent. 

This card is wonderful in its simplicity. Two fabrics for the toadstools with just some matching red thread to keep the red caps down, detail in simple straight stitches to create the gills and some black and white stitches down the stalk for texture. It's bold and stands out really nicely from the background. 

This one has a similar feel, although there is more embroidery creating the image with close stitches for the stems, blanket stitches around the two red caps and linking stitches on the brown cap. I can't decide whether these have been done as rows of blanket stitch or wide chain stitches? What do you think?

The fabrics at the bottom of this card are really lovely. Very busy with lots of autumnal patterns that remind me of all of the fallen leaves littering the ground at this time of year. It is busy on the woodland floor, lots of colours from different types of leaf or the odd late flower, some creating little pools where the curled leaf shape catches rainwater or dew - hinted at here with the use of beads that catch the light. 

Choosing the right fabrics can also really make a beautiful image. I love the crinkled fabric for the grasses and the little mottled red/white knitted fabric for the mushroom cards. It's a really sweet depiction and makes me think of Fairy rings the way the perspective curls the toadstools around the tree trunk. 

I don't recall watching a lot of Noddy as a kid. Enough to know about Big Ears and PC Plod, and Noddy's car, but not really what they got up to. I love that the theme for this month has brought up potential memories for this person, I wonder whether it was them who watched it or their children/grandchildren?

Thank you to everyone who participated in this month's swap!