It's the little things......

you do together, as the Sondheim song goes.Sharon's challenge this month, to notice the little things was another springboard for a lot of thoughts.

Here are some bits of the stream of thought bit....

A small crack might be the sign of a deeper rift.

A detective looks for small clues that will help complete the picture of the crime.

An artist or photographer will focus on a small part/area and transform that in to the whole of the work

A finishing detail on a couture garment may be an indication of the quality of the whole garment.

I didn't say they were earth shattering, it is just some of the things that came to mind!

My first reaction on seeing the colours was "camouflage" and this resulted in this train of thought, camouflage, leaves on hats, ferns, bracken, the young fronds of ferns (bracken) which contain the form of the whole plant be it a small fern or a huge tree fern. I couldn't find the photograph I took of ferns so I looked in flickr and there I found this perfect picture. (which was much better than mine anyway)
I asked for permission to use it as a base and Nancy generously said yes. She has some wonderful pictures in her album it is well worth a browse.
I ran the photograph with the painted wood script in PSP9 to give it a more stitchy look and then printed it onto cotton.
Next step was it pick out some details to embroider. I used variegated threads to echo the lights and shadows of the original. The stems are couched and then split stitched. The insides of the curle are french knots, bullion stitch and detached button hole band (I didn't do TAST for nothing!!!)

At first I was going to make it into a post card but because I was stuck indoors with today's awful weather I played a bit. I dug out my encaustic waxes, at first I tried making fern patterns but it all loooked to heavy so I ironed it off onto a piece of material but then decided I like the remaing wax better so this is now the background for the piece. I found the whispy yarn and added it to give that tangly feeling you get when walking through bracken.This is the scan
and this is the photograph, neither are quite "right". Neither of them show the texture.

For me, just the word "bracken" transports me the Lakeland hills. Memories again!!

Another world contd......

I have looked forward to visiting Tyntesfield for so long that I thought I was bound to be disappointed. That happens sometimes doesn't it, the anticipation is better than the event? In this case it turned out to be everything I thought it would be and more. I think in the past I have visited and enjoyed historic houses and castles with little thought to how they are maintained. Here at Tyntesfield you can see what is involved. It is little short of miraculous.


The house was in a a state of decay, the roof still is still leaking and apparently the upper floor is strewn with buckets to catch the drips and some of out buildings are almost derelict. At present you arrive at a run down collection of stables and farm buildings which are serving as the visitors centre.

Inside a summerhouse.

Only rooms on the ground floor are open at present but they are fascinating. In each room there was a volunteer guide and they were both knowledgeable and amusing. I wish I could show you photographs of the Library where the shelves have a border of tooled leather and the oppulence of the Drawing Room which could double as a ballroom. As you pass through the rooms you come across people with light boxes. They are taking part in the massive task of preparing the inventory, each cup and saucer, walking stick and spoon is being photographed.

There was no mains water to the house and this is now being laid on and because of this we had a bonus, after we had visited the amazing chapel which is based on the Sainte Chapelle in Paris our exit was by the corridor which the family would have used to attend sevices(twice a day!) and along a corridor where we were allowed to peep into just one of the bedrooms. This room was full of furniture rails of clothes, racks of hats and piles linens, boxes of goodness knows what treasures. There are 40 bedrooms on the upper floors!!!!



The gardens have had a huge amount of time spent on them and we passed a group of young people from a local school who were off to do some more clearing in the woods and shrubberies.



Everyone we spoke to who is connected to the house appear to be in love with it. I wanted to move house so that I could go and volunteer to be part of this amazing work.

The National Trust protects and makes available all these wonderful pieces of our history,"for ever and for everyone". When so much of our land is disappearing under concrete their work becomes even more vital and the places they preserve more precious.


This is the page for my book. The background is a piece of waxed paper that I did ages ago (can't quite remember how!!!)

Crested Chain Stitch

The summer months seem to be flying by and already the days are getting noticeably shorter, yuk! I am trying to make the most of it though, the leisure centre I belong to has an outdoor pool as well as the main pool indoors. I don't swim very well and I started going to try and help my back but the last couple of weeks it has been warm enough to swim outside in the sunshine. Lovely.
I am working on what will either be a present for someone or a UFO depending on how well it turns out and that is taking up most of my sewing time but I have tried the Crested Chain Stitch. It took me a little while as all twisted stitches do but then I got the flow of it and even incorporated it into the piece I am doing. This is the sample for my TAST collection.


As it is also called Spanish coral stitch, I thought flamenco, sunshine and bright colours,(not as bright here as in reality), I also had an excuse to play with my dusters and embellisher for the background.
Sun is shining, Ken has gone to play golf so I am off for, hopefully, a messy morning!!! It's ages since I had the opporunity to paint and dye.

TAST rolls on.......

I took the opporunity to have a quick five minute on my new toy to make the background for this weeks TAST> Buttonhole wheels.

A great texture adding stitch, I love Sharon's examples especially the last one.

Still dusting.........

Those who know me will fall about laughing at the idea!!

What I mean is that I am still finding things to make and do with my packet of cheap dusters.


No not a postcard





a new needle book! I quite like the accidental background too. I had fogotten that I had put polythene on my work table when I has using my heat gun!

Nice find...

Just browsing through my favourite blogs and came across this link on ULLABENULLA. I love this blog because you never know what you are going to find on it. She finds links to some wonderfully artisitic sites. This one is on Flickr and is called Aunty Vanya's Photos and has some wonderful textural photographs. The photos of peeling paint make me want to reach for either paint or threads to start creating a wonderful background.
The photograph below is one of my own, it was taken in Rome.