Whilst in Bangkok last December I saw some beautiful info tote bags for sale – quite expensive, so thought I would make my own. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out, using fabrics I bought in Japan and an Indian fabric as the lining. I zigzag stitched the outer fabrics onto a piece of heavy calico to give extra strength and used pieces of denim fabric for the top and bottom and handle pieces.
5th Scroll Book
More umbellifers
Umbellifers continue to intrigue me and I wanted to attempt something a little different. My inspiration was some pastel sketches I did of hogweed against the fields and sky. I glued down scraps of fabric with bondaweb and then stitched one layer of seed heads. I then added some pieces of transparent silk fabric to give some depth and stitched again. I added colour to the stems with Intense crayons.
A fourth scroll
I went to visit my son in Hove a couple of weeks ago and wanted to take some stitching with me so a scroll book seemed the perfect choice. I cut out the pieces before leaving, attaching them with a narrow length of bondaweb along the edges. I got quite a lot done there and finished it on returning home, adding beads and mother of pearl buttons, more hand stitching and some machine stitching. The buckle is also mother of pearl. I wish I could always take one of these to stitch while travelling, but it’s not possible to take needles when you only have hand luggage on a flight.
Continuing the theme of unbelief’s
I had some pieces of umbellifer printed Evelon remaining from the textile book based on these flowers, as well as sun printed fabric, so decided to make a quilt. The central background area is sun printed, the top and bottom are procaine dyed. I painted the binding with the same red paint I had used in the sun printing. I used free machine embroidery, some hand stitching and french knots on the appliquéd Evelon pieces before quilting the whole piece.