Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my blog readers🎄

Thank you for following during 2015 and I hope you'll join me on my continuing making journey in 2016💖

A fox and a stag

 

I made these for a birthday present for a friend who likes foxes and stags. The brooch was made from felt.

The stag was embroidered using chain stitch onto a corner of a vintage cotton napkin. I backed it with a piece of fabric from my sample box. It can be hung up using the vintage lace that's attached to the piece with a 1930s button. 

I'm hoping to start on a series of these textile pieces in the new year. 

TTFN
Louise

Christmas decorations

I've been making a lot of Christmas decorations lately and these are just a small selection. All of these have images from vintage Christmas cards, printed on fabric and backed with matching fabric and some have been decorated with beads and sequins. 

All of these are for sale at the Seagrass Gallery in Hoylake, but there's still a few available in the Elsie May and Bertha folksy store.

TTFN
Louise

Christmas cards

I've been doing a lot of doodling this year, so I thought I'd try my hand at doodling some Christmas cards. These are the three designs I drawn so far. I was hoping to share photos of the finished cards featuring the first two designs today, but, I manage to sell those I've made up so far before I could photograph them! I'm making more today and I'll remember to take photos before they leave my desk!

The cards are £2.50 each (for an A6 size) or three for £6. If you're interested in buying any you can contact me via elsiemayandbertha@virginmedia.com for further information.

TTFN
Louise

Making, making, making.

Long time no see, but I have been busy in the past few weeks. These photos are of a just a few things I've been working on - Christmas decorations,  an embroidered stag  and vintage fashion lavender sachets. 

I have lots of photos to share with you, so it won’t be as long till I come back next time.

TTFN 
Louise 

A design sheet from the initial inspiration to the finished sheet.

This sheet started with photos that I'd taken of a repaired sandstone wall and a gilded gate at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. I chose them because of the colours and wavy lines in the sandstone and the bright, hard gold in the gate. To create the sheet I used wallpaper, doodled on paper, photos, fabric, beads and dried leaves.

I'm using the sheet to create smaller sheets just featuring a few of the elements from the sheet and using these to create surface samples, then embellishment samples, all leading to the creation of a design of a finished product. I may make the finished product or just make a sample of a section of it.

I'm hoping to create series of design sheets from this original sheet and I may also repeat the process with a new one. The idea is to create a library of information that I can go to for inspiration in the future.

Unfortunately, my time at the moment is spent on making things for Christmas, to sell, for orders and for friends and family, so the work I want to do with this design sheet will have to wait until I have more time. It's also why it's been a while since I last posted.

TTFN
Louise

The Home Sweet Home mini quilt.

This quilt is my favourite one of those I've made so far, the two embroidered patches probably have something to do with that. The theme was Home Sweet Home and I first thought I'd have appliqued houses on the quilt, but then I rediscovered an embroidery pattern featuring a house that I'd seen on Pinterest (someone else had posted their version of the embroidery on Instagram) so I decided to add the home element through embroidery panels. 

That first embroidery is the one you can see in the last photo above. The other embroidery I just designed as I went. The saying on the two patches on the top and bottom rows are written in permanent pen, so if the quilt ever needs to be washed it won't run.

The blue and red fabrics were all from my stash, as was the blue checked bias binding.

Both of the photos showing the full front and back of the quilt haven't been taken directly overhead so they're a bit wonky, apologies.

I also made this  house-shaped  lavender sachet to go with the quilt.

More next time.
TTFN
Louise