It's the penultimate collection for 2024!! How this has whizzed by this year. This theme is incredible and the cards so beautiful. I don't know about you but I have too many favourites to choose just one (not that I would anyway, they're like children - they're all my favourite).
As always, the quality of these designs, the execution of the stitches and composition is just wonderful. They have had so much thought put into them and I really hope everyone is still enjoying their card making process. I love the landscapes and the close up details, the layers, the colours - shades of red and green are working beautifully together here - the iconic historical representations and the emotions that they bring with them. Poppy Fields as a theme was always going to be more than just a pretty image, especially as a November theme where memories and feelings and personal histories are brought to the surface for many people.
It's lovely to have so many different textures brought into play - the cards use ribbons, stitched crepe paper, layers of sheer organza, embroidery threads galore, painted fabrics, crochet, beadwork, felts, fine cords, machine stitching and hand stitching. There are thoughtful layers and colours and different ways to represent parts of the scene. For example, Jacquie's card below has a beautiful layered sky with what looks like soft fabric papers torn at the edge and then feather-stitched to look like those wispy herringbone cloud formations you get when it's windy. That's before you get to the lovely green field below, possibly with hand painted or dyed colours of yellow on and little french knots stitched over. Some kind of woven tape or heavy cloth has been cut to form a wall or fence, layered with snips of red organza and more french knots over the top of that. It says a sunny and windy day to me, and I can imagine the poppy heads bopping to the tune of the whistling wind.
Sharon's gorgeous sunset poppy design is very striking with that wonderful warm pink batik fabric sky, the bold golden sun and then the stitched detail of the poppies themselves. She's stitched petals with ribbons which have a beautiful sheen to them, contrasting with the matte and textured crepe paper that's been cut, crumpled and stitched into flower heads at the back. The sheen on the ribbon is almost exactly what poppy petals look like if you look really closely. I love photographing them when they appear in my parents garden and they are silky soft and slightly shiny like a satin ribbon. I love the ears of wheat she's stitched in as well.
Michelle has gone for bold! Her beautiful crochet poppy is very reminiscent of those worn as brooches in November time. The use of the black and grey fabric behind is very striking too, really making that red stand out along with the border of felt circles around.
These two cards are also scenes that you may be likely to see in documentaries, the war graves and marble memorials that just speak volumes. We can all see in our minds eye the fields and fields of graves and have probably all visited at least one memorial site with those thousands of names carved into stone or wood. There is a beautiful and quiet simplicity to these cards which is just lovely.
I can't remember whether the slubbed material Jackie used for her close up poppy piece was actually slightly different coloured reds or if it's the way the light is reflecting off the fabrics as you can see in the photo that the fabric grain is going in different directions. It's a lovely lustrous material and contrasts beautifully with the silky stitches at the centre. So effective.
These sequins are fab aren't they? I haven't seen any this shape before, they work really well - and similarly to the ones I put on mine, have been attached with a french knot through the centre rather than stitched over the sequin. It's a very neat way of stitching on the sequins, although with this shape it would be fun to experiment with stitching between the petals - perhaps even bending up the petals so that it's no longer flat! This is quite similar to Michelle's crochet poppy in terms of composition, with the lovely stitched poppy in the centre of the card and mini versions all of the way around.
This card from Sam also matches the one made by Jacquie - I find it really interesting when cards are very similar but made in a totally different way. Sam has used knitting yarn for her fabric borders which gives great depth and perspective, then a layer of scrim at the front with the edges of that allowed to be wavy and wild, adding to her stems and leaves from her poppies. The scale of the french knots has worked well too, with small knots at the back (further up) and bigger ones at the front, ending up with felt circles with extra detailing.
This one from Abi is amazing! It's like tulip fields from Holland but with poppies! All of those woven wheel stitches and french knots! I love the variety of colour too, the warm tones work really nicely together, finished off with those little fluffy clouds. This was a great one to run my fingers over and feel the bobble, like a carpet of french knot flowers.
What a great swap!
Do you wanna build a snowman?
