HELLEBORES

Hellebores are one of the delights of late winter and early spring and over the last few years I have amassed quite a few in my garden. When I lift the nodding heads to closer inspect the beautiful flowers I can’t help but smile: so many colour combinations and markings to admire.

The arrangement of stigmas, stamens and anthers add a sense of drama to each flower and when viewed through the camera lens are quite simply stunning. This led me to thinking about different ways to interpret the intricate flower centres in stitch. I have collected together some samples of work to date but really think it is time to look for new methods to explore.

 Happy Sunday Stitching

It has been an exceptionally busy few weeks; long family weekends, lunches with friends and a short stay in my favourite city of Norwich. I confess that I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see the inside of my work room again but this weekend was all mine and it was blissful.

So, my little family of interlocking tubes are finally finished although I think I prefer them free standing rather than linked. If I called my last entry Tall Clematis then this little collection should be Short Clematis as the largest is only 20 cm tall and the smallest is 10 cm.  Complete extremes really as these ones are stitched onto a much finer fabric with far fewer layers. I enjoyed working on a smaller scale but when it came to the free machine stitching I realised that the small pieces would be difficult for my fingers to keep taut whilst under the sewing machine. I persevered and somehow managed but moving forwards I need to think about it. I don’t often use an embroidery hoop for free machine work; perhaps it is something I should be considering. 

The background was made by printing some of my clematis photo images directly onto fabric in black and white. It might be interesting to print the photos in colour and reverse the process with colour as the background and monochromatic flowers to contrast.