Wood Anemones

Every year we have more and more wood anemones spreading across the garden - there's thousands now and they look wonderful.

Living on (in!) the edge of a wood, we really appreciate all the spring wild flowers as very little will bloom once the tree canopy closes.

In the mood for a bit of stitchy play, I happened to see a menu, offering something "three ways"... hmm. How about anemones three ways?
 

Machine embroidery using Flower Stitcher attachment 

 

Free machine embroidery on soluble fabric with scraps of thread and fabric

Crochet flowers on embellisher-ed felt/scrim background

I like the dissolvable machine embroidery best - no surprise there, then. But it does me good to try something different now and then... doesn't it?!

Sample Project 2013–April

So here are we are, a third of the year gone – or 17 weekly samples. I’m still hanging on in there…
I’m quite pleased with how little these textile bits resemble the photos in my John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary!

 Week 14: Cross bedding
(Photo of Millstone Grit outcrop in Derbys.)
I used a typical cross bedding pattern as found in Millstone Grit, from a geology text book.
Free machined on Aquasol, in moorland colours over a white supporting grid (which wasn’t supposed to show up against a white background!). Tedious. 




Week 15: Adder markings
(Photo of adders)
Knitted (!) in tapestry wool then embellished onto black felt.
Makes a change but I think I’ll stick to embroidery.


Week 16: Dandelion
(Photo of dandelion seed head)
Decided to do an Angie Lewin style dandelion. I see a lot of AL rip-offs, not always credited, but I think I can be excused for a fun sample.
Bondawebbed applique and free machining on cotton. Fun! Maybe I should try using actual permanent fabric more often.


Week 17: Heron feathers
(Photo of heron)
Based on the rather straggly looking feathers on a heron’s wing.
Long straight stitches in a subtly shaded Stef Francis mercerised cotton thread, on a double layer of hand dyed cotton fabric.

UK Handmade magazine

The summer issue of this lovely, FREE online magazine is out today – and one of my stitched bowls is featured! No, I didn’t pay them, aren’t they kind?

Lots of other handmade goodies too – take a look here: