Nasturtiums and a hare

Since seeing Alison Ingram's wildlife paintings I have wanted to create a painting inspired by her style and this hare is the result.

To see Alison's art click on this link.  Alison Ingram gallery

The nasturtiums have been coming along, I decided I needed some variety with the flowers so have tried embroidering the outline on one of the green hexagons.  I will add some more outline flowers as the piece progresses.  

Early morning walk

The sun was shining this morning so I took my camera on our early morning walk.  Here are the results.

A heron takes off across the misty canal.

Looking up the canal

A dandelion puff.

Frosty brambles.

Sunlight on a ploughed field.  The lorry and van in the background are on the very quiet M62.

This hare came running towards me and stopped to wash it's face when it got close to the hedge.  

Hawthorn flowers.

It's no wonder the walk took longer than usual!

Tawny Dragon

Another crochet creature has arrived. This time it's a dragon, which required a bit of fiddling about with the patterns, especially for the nose and wings. He's the sort of dragon you might find poking about in the garden, I think, mild-mannered and harmless, with a tummy of very undragonly squishiness.

Here he's sharing the rocking chair with Dog, just so he can show off his tiny wings.

I've also been working on using up scraps to make small appliques. This squirrel is hand-appliqued with several different embroidery threads, an effect I really like. I'm making up a batch of woodland motifs like this, with the idea of combining them into something bigger ... eventually.

Fabric Weaving

This week I've been experimenting with different bases for applique. There's a great series of videos about weaving with fabric on Jude Hill's blog https://spiritcloth.typepad.com/, so I've been messing about with remnants from the scrap box. 

Here I've cut the fabric into 1 inch strips and tacked them onto a backing before adding the applique. I wanted to hand sew the raw edges, but in a way that doesn't need to be too neat and would be fun to do - there's nothing worse than spending ages trying to make all the stitches identical. The solution here was to use several different colours round the edges in a simple over-sew stitch. I've used running stitch to hold down the top sides of the woven strips, although this would work better as an  quilting stitch over a thicker backing, which is what I might try next. 

Here the strips for weaving were cut roughly and are a mix of different fabrics. I also cut the shapes for the trees and the little house without too much deliberation, and have stitched them on with running stitch around the raw edges. I tried a variety of ways of securing the weaving - I think the running stitch from the last sample works the best. 

I'm going to try weaving with some bigger strips next - as usual, I've gone for the tiny and fiddly first. It certainly makes an interesting base, without the effort of creating patchwork, and with the added advantage of no bulky seams to sew over.

Meanwhile, I'm about a third of the way through quilting the orange quilt - so plenty to keep me busy!

Hares

I slipped my small camera into my pocket when I went on this morning's walk.  As it was bright and sunny I was hoping to take some photos of the hares that I see most mornings and I wasn't disappointed.  I took the photos from behind the trees on the edge of the field.  

Getting there

Quilting has begun on the orange quilt. I'm going for an all-over close pattern, so that the felt wheels will stand out. The wadding is a triple layer of old flannelette sheet, tacked firmly in place so that it can be quilted without a hoop. 

While the quilting slowly progresses, I'm taking breaks on the sewing machine with another gears idea. This has been the most indescisive project ever! It started with 4-inch quarter wheels, which I decided were too big. They were chopped into 2-inch squares, and, at the same time, swapped from hand applique to machine. Then they lanquished for a while, but the other day I got them out, decided on an arrangement, and started tacking them onto backing cloth. Got fed up of that, and got out the good old fabric glue. Now I'm over-sewing all the raw edges with machine zigzag. At the moment, I'm thinking I won't bother to be too neat with the finishing, and I may add some more cats - spot him if you can!

Looking forward to a new project. Mum mentioned Hogweed the other day, and I thought I might make him a little moonlit landscape to wander about in. Hopefully, I will use up a good portion of the small scraps that are accumulating in the scrap box. At the moment, I'm just playing with ideas. 

Nasturtiums

After a lot of ideas came and went I finally settled on my old favourite, the hexagon, for my nasturtium patchwork.  The original idea started from the fabrics I have which would make good nasturtium colours.  My design has kept the flower shape in those fabrics but uses embroidery for definition.  The picture shows the first 5 nasturtiums surrounded by green stitching which will blend into the surrounding green hexagons in the patchwork.