Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - a collage

This collage was the second of the swaps that had hungover into this year. This one was called 'for the walls', and we had to make something to hang up. My partner liked Charlie and the Chocolate so I chose this image from the film remake that had Johnny Depp in.

I printed the image (it's a poster for the film) onto fabric using my ordinary Epson printer. I then added stitch to various parts of the image. Apart from the face, which I wanted to keep really pale as that was the way it was in the film, I 'coloured in' the areas that I hadn't embroidered on with permanent ink pens to add depth to the colours.

I then attached the completed image to a sandwich of matching fabric and batting to add a little rigidity. I attached rings to the back to enable the collage to be hung up.

It wasn't my usual choice of image, but I am rather pleased with the way that it came out.

TTFN
Louise

Works in progress - pin pillows

Having third online shop (I now sell on Etsy as well as Folksy and my own website) means I need to step up production to keep them all stocked. This is easier said than done, having chronic fatigue means that the spanner can be thrown into the works at any time! 

However, as I've sold all of my pin pillows, bar one, I need to make some more. I always start with the fabric, this time I went for linen and cotton fabrics. I can never put together just one at a time as I always find more than one piece of fabric I want to use! Once the fabric is decided on, I then choose the trimmings, lace, ric rac, braid etc. I then pin and tack the pieces together ready for the stitching bit.

These pictured below are at that stage.

 The next photos show how far I've gotten with the stitching on that pillow top. I do tend to only stitch on one at a time.

The next photo is of a pin pillow that I've finished the stitching and that's been damp-stretched. The next process will be to back and stuff the pillow, though there may be more stitching or embellishing to add when it's been stuffed.

More soon.
TTFN
Louise

Embroidered artist trading cards (ATC)

I've sworn off swaps this year as they were taking up too much of my time, but I let this swap sneek through as ATCs are only small. There's a huge community of people who swap artist trading cards, but the swap I joined is for cross-stitched cards and we're a quite small group. Each month we're given a theme and we have to produce a piece of cross-stitch that fits onto a card that is 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches.

My first theme was stitcher's choice. One of the reasons I wanted to do this swap as I hadn't done any cross-stitch for while and this gave me an opportunity to do a little bit. Of course, I jumped in with both feet and decided to do mine on linen with waste canvas! I had a really hard time pulling the waste canvas threads out some of my stitching ended up a bit wonky (that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)!

Last month's theme was creepy crawlies so I did this beetle, on aida that was so much easier!

This month's theme is 'baked goods', I'll share that one when my partner has received it.

TTFN
Louise

Bird and flower felt brooches.

With the spring flowers coming out and the welcome bits of sunny weather has wanted me to make with brighter colours. The brooch above is made from felt, with the addition of some tiny tatted flowers, with beads and a vintage button.

This bird brooch has more embroidery on it than the flower one, with blankets stitch, french knots and back-stitch. There's also another tatted flower with a bead, this one in the centre of the heart. I haven't done the tatting, it's a skill I don't have, but I found the ones in both of these brooches in a charity shop. I added the beads on both brooches.

The flower brooch and the bird brooch are now available in my Etsy shop.

TTFN
Louise

Heart and flowers brooch

This little brooch is nearly all vintage as just the thread and the brooch back are new. There's a fabric heart buttonholed stitched onto  linen that has tiny running stitches all over it. The heart is decorated with little tatted flowers that I found in a charity shop and a button. The front and back sandwich is edged in blanket stitch.

This brooch is now available at the Seagrass Gallery in West Kirby. There a few of my brooches available in the Elsie May and Bertha Etsy store.

TTFN
Louise