Wednesday 30 August 2017

Every Inchie Monday - Gull and Jellfish

Well what a time we have had - I am afraid last week was spent travelling to a big funeral in Eastbourne, staying the night and then coming back and then off to Hove a few days later with so many things to do in between times I never got a chance to visit or post my blog.  So I missed last week's challenge which was Gull (which I will post beneath this weeks).  The challenge for this Monday was Jellyfish.  I racked my brains on how I was going to portray something see through in embroidery and whilst visiting my sister-in-law in Littlehampton last week she suggested a bubble from bubble wrap and so that is what I went with.  I embroidered the little round flower bit inside (which I don't think you can make out now!) and then did loads of tentacles sewing a bubble over the top of the head - it looks to me more like an octopus in shape and I realise that's because I didn't get it flat at the bottom - I tried to use a bigger bubble but it was too big - anyway I'd gone so far down the line this will have to be it!!



For Gull I had wanted to do Jonathan Livingstone Seagull because I just loved that book,  but the image was too big to put on an inch as it was one with wings spread.  So I managed to do a standing gull on a rock trying to get the flow of the feathers with the lines of stitching.

 I was sad to miss posting it as I couldn't do it via my phone - I usually do it on the main computer but I really don't know how to upload to my blog from the phone - One day I will learn!! 
I did make time on Sunday to make 2 cards, one for my daughter's Wedding Anniversary, I fancied doing a sewn one, and one for a very good friend who has a chicken farm! I thought you might like to see my efforts!


Anyway hope you are all having lovely holidays or at least relaxing.  Thank you so much for visiting and any comments you leave and make sure you visit the other inchie makers wonderful creations by clicking here.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Every Inchie Monday - Frog

So this Monday's challenge word at EIM is Frog.  I could have gone with the old common frog which we have loads of in our garden.  In fact every year around the 6th Feb (almost to the date give or take 2 -3 days) I can hear them all "singing" as they congregate in our pond to mate and they are there for a week and then disappear to wherever they came from!  However I am rather fascinated with the blue poisonous dart frog or it's native name, Okopipi - (isn't that a fabulous word?). It is found in the forests of northern Brazil and it is the poisonous skin toxins that were used on the darts of natives for hunting.  The bright blue warns predators of its poisonous nature which causes paralysis or death.  The black spots are different on each frog making each unique and identifiable.  I'm afraid my frog is not quite azure blue (I didn't have the right colour thread!) and the black spots were difficult to define in thread - French knots were too bold and anything smaller too little!!  So I have large and small black dots but then my frog is unique!!


You may have noticed it's Tuesday not Monday!!!  So the reason I am posting this late is that it was my daughter's birthday yesterday and so her birthday card and cake took precedence!!  I was rather chuffed with both so I just had to show you:

Her cake is a favourite - Chocolate Peach Gateaux except I didn't have time to make it as the gateau so I cheated and made it as a roulade - that way it was just one rather large thin cake with the filling and rolled up with the second filling on top.  This is what it should have looked like:
But I have to say it was delicious and just the same taste as the main cake it just took me half the time to make!!!

So on to the last reason why I was late - I wanted to make an engagement card for her and since their favourite colours are purple and orange I decided to do a series of 9 inchies in those colours and put them on a card.  I toyed with the idea of actually making them into a mini quilt with little dangly bits of wool and beads but time was not on my side so I opted to put them on a card and then later I can always do the mini hanging.  However I really enjoyed myself - I have no idea how other people do this but I used a sheet of fabric colour catcher paper, painted it with brushos. 

Then I laid a sheet of bondaweb over it, overlaid that with thread, material and lace, then another piece of bondaweb and laid a piece of organza on top - then over freezer paper ironed the sandwich together.  This is what I got:
 And after cutting the inch pieces I decorated them with threads and embellishments, here are some finished - I still had three to go.

And now here is the finished card - again photography cannot capture the richness of colour and texture but this is the best I can do:
So it's been quite a creative weekend and after all the gardening and clearing out I think I deserved a play!!  Have got lots of travelling to do again this week and next week so just as well I've got all that out of the way!  Hope your days are bright and fulfilling and thanks for dropping by and any comments you leave, I always enjoy reading them.  Until next time and don't forget to click the link and view the other inchie makers creative work.

Monday 7 August 2017

EIM - Aligator

Well it's Monday again and I hope every one is happy!?  I took a respite from the house at the weekend and have had a lovely lazy relaxing weekend but I wasn't able to finish my alligator until this morning as the light wasn't right and I just couldn't' see properly - however I don't think it would have made any difference!!  I still struggled with it this morning!  I drew the image onto a piece of my waxing material and then coloured it with promarkers and then began to sew - I had intended to cover the promarker colouring with matching thread but somehow it didn't look right - having sewn all the dark areas and little pointy bumps, when I filled in between with lighter thread it looked awful so I unpicked it (probably should have put more promarker colour onto it as it does tend to fade) - then I tried doing the foliage and even that didn't look right and in an attempt to make the muddy water look like water I used my coloured kreiner thread but the red seems to be more predominant than the blue and yellow but I still think the silver would have been too bright!  Somehow the eyes and nose needed more definition so I added black but when I tried putting more on it ruined it so I ended up doing more unpicking so I have decided to leave it as is - enough is enough - I even noticed a bit of green missing by his nose but I need to got to the attic to find the promarker I used so I'm being lazy and haven't bothered so sorry!!  Anyway here he is although I must say he looks lighter in the photograph than in reality!:


So onwards and upwards with the day, still got things to clear and get rid of so had better get on with it, the day is sunny too so gardening might be on the agenda this afternoon - happy days and thanks for visiting.  Please visit other inchie makers by clicking the link here and thanks so much for any comments you leave.