Saturday, August 13, 2022

A LITTLE INSPIRATION 


I found a lovely flower in my garden and endeavoured to paint it in watercolour before printing the image onto a piece of fabric.


I added a little stitching and made a dense centre (on water soluble) with lots of holes into which I added a variety of beads. This was my starting point for the cushion design.



It has been a while since my last post and I am surprised to see it has been just over a month; note to self to do better in the future!

So, four hot weeks later, a piece of black background cloth, two fabrics from my dyed selection, some matching threads and a thimbleful of beads later I have a pair of decorated cushion covers. It was a surprisingly lengthy process. The free machine stitching of the arranged flowers was relatively quick compared to the time consuming process of preparation; drawing around the templates onto Bondaweb, ironing the pieces onto the fabric, the accurate cutting out of the many pieces and finally bonding them to the background fabric. 

Everyone seeks perfection in their work (especially the stitching) and I am no exception but over the years I have come to the conclusion that it’s the little imperfections which add uniqueness to a piece of work.  I have learned to look the other way at the ‘odd’ stitch and celebrate the diversity of life in my workroom and all its imperfections. Having said all of that I do like my beads to sit to attention and face the same way!

I am frequently asked about my continued fascination for stitching ‘all things floral’ and if I am totally honest it probably is a little bit of an obsession. My garden is my passion and I grow from seed a huge variety of plants to fuel my imagination and to use for inspiration. Sadly this year with the continued lack of rain everything is looking very sorry for its self indeed but I will endeavour to find some little treasures to photograph.