Tuesday 31 October 2017

Every Inchie Monday - Spider and Squirrel

What a couple of weeks!  Grandchildren to stay as it was half term and so many things going on in the house anyway I finally managed to get my squirrel inchie finished on Sunday when everyone had gone and did my spider today.  I had to cop out a bit with the spider as I am so short of time and it is the only one I haven't drawn out before I've stitched it!  I found two beads which I thought placed on an inchie with black legs embroidered underneath would work and I tried to do a web with silver thread.  It only took me half an hour to do as opposed to the two hours for the squirrel!!  But I think they both work.  Anyway I am up to date and sorry I missed posting last week.  Can't believe we are already up to number 44!!  Christmas is looming!  Anyway hold that thought we still need to get through Halloween tonight so great choice for the inchie to be spider.  As it so happens my smallest granddaughter of 3 is dressing up in a spider dress tonight to go trick or treating in.  She loves spiders and is always doing "Incy wincy spider ..!"  When she sees my inchie I think she will want to take it home with her!!

 and here is my squirrel from last week's challenge:
Happy Halloween and thanks for dropping by.  Make sure you check out the other wonderful inchie spiders by clicking here.

Monday 16 October 2017

Eery Inchie Monday - Bear and Deer

I tried to get my deer on last Monday and we couldn't link!! - then I was away without any internet!!!  So by the time I got home I thought I might as well wait till today to link it with my bear.  So today's challenge for EIM is Bear.  When I was a child my mother and I used to go everywhere by walking to the train station and then getting on a train.  Whilst waiting for the train we always used to play I Spy with my Little Eye something beginning with ... and whilst playing this game we would suck Foxes Glacier mints.  Mother always used to have a packet in her handbag and so this week's challenge is a tribute to her.  In case you've never seen the logo for Foxes Glacier mints I will include a picture and then my version as an inchie!!  I'm afraid his nose almost got cut off as it protruded over the edge of the inchie base which is why he looks a bit funny in the face!!

 
It is so easy to see the discrepancies when enlarged in a photo, but when you are working with fabric that is not a very fine weave it becomes quite difficult to cut small details without it fraying!!
 
And so we come to last week's inchie challenge which was Deer and so I thought I'd do a little Bambi lying in the grass!



We have very high winds at the moment from Hurricane Ophelia and I am worried the power will go off before I complete this so I am madly trying to get this online before that happens.  Hope none of you are suffering from the power of this wind.  I have already got quite a selection of starting wood that has been brought down across our drive!!  At least we will be warm but then it is 18 degrees outside - in October - what is the world coming to - and this morning was very strange, dark at 10:30 and the street lights had come on in the town - I had a message from my daughter and a picture of the sky - very dark and brooding and someone said the sun was red this morning too - good thing it's not Halloween yet!! I  have battened down the hatches and made sure all windows are closed so fingers crossed there will be no damage - Please don't forget to visit the other inchie makers fabulous work by clicking the link here.  Thanks for dropping by and any comments you leave.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Chameleon Inchie

I cannot believe how quickly this year is going - already it is October!  And another Monday challenge comes around for Every Inchie Monday the subject being chameleon.  I know very little about these little creatures but I do know there is a tiny weeny one that only just sits on your thumb coming in at 3 cms long and is thought to be the smallest reptile on earth found on an islet just off Madagasca which is where at least half of the 200 plus species hail from, and of course their most known feature is their ability to change colour and camouflage themselves to whatever their background. However I have since found out that this is not the case and that they only change colour to facilitate warmth from the sun or mood changes as in fear or aggression. (Thanks Di for that).  Not an easy creature to embroider to say the least, but I had an idea to use a thicker skein of embroidery thread and whilst doing the tail reduce the thickness as I went by taking a thread from the skein and couching the main run with it in effect taking it to the back of the work until I was down to 2 or 3 threads.  In theory this was sound but in practice ...hmm ..... especially since I chose a heavy count thread in shiny rayon - slippery little customer it was too!!  However when I twisted it, it became thinner so I managed to couch it whilst twisting until I was able to take it to the back of the work at the coil of the tail.  Couching the rest of the body took some doing especially trying to get the flow correct so it would show the legs but on smaller than an inch???  I also managed to try and embroider the eye radiating out with a French knot for the pupil which sits proud but I thought my pupil was black thread - it turned out to be navy!!!  Oh well.  Anyway I did actually enjoy the challenge of this one and I did the background in promarkers again as I was worried the green embroidery wouldn't show up on green fabric, I know it camouflages itself but what was the point of all that embroidery if you can't see it!!!  But the muted tones of promarkers suited it better and sets it off so you can at least see the little critter!

I had a couple of birthday cards to do so once again I used my fresh flowers between organza and a background painted dried out wet wipe!!  I then cut it into inch sizes and sewed a very pretty cord around the edges of four and mounted them on a card.  There was a piece left over and rather than waste it I decided to use it on a very simple card I made for a friend, it was one of those that sort of made itself in half an hour with what I had to hand!!!  But I was quite pleased with the result and the flower is lilac organza melted with a heat gun!

I do feel much more myself this week apart from feeling tired - I think it's the bear in me wanting to hibernate as it gets colder!  Anyway hope you all have a good week and thanks so much for dropping by and any comments you may leave, it's always nice to hear from you.  Take care and don't forget to click the link and visit all the other inch creations.