Handmade

 Handmade - I love that word so much, and I love making things by hand and always have...the tactile feel of fabrics and threads, the pleasure of combining textures and colours, the sewing of stitches and beads and buttons, smoothing down and stitching  ribbons in place...something that has always given me such enjoyment and made me forever grateful that I chose to go to art college and become a designer and maker all those years ago...I would have made things anyhow but I know I'm extremely lucky to be able to call it work too..

 Whilst looking for something in my studio the other day I found these applique projects that I made quite a while ago. I'm about to work on some applique pictures for a commission so it was useful to have these to hand again rather then nestling at the bottom of a big basket with lots of other projects....

 I love the immediacy of hand embroidery, how everyone does it slightly differently, and the special individual pieces are often quirky...hand stitched pieces by children are very sweet and it's a good way for them to begin sewing....I always use fusible web to iron on my shapes and then stitch round them with different coloured embroidery threads, sometimes in blanket stitch, sometimes running stitch....

 If I make a little picture I back it with wadding and cotton fabric and bind it with colourful binding, then add a few quilt stitches or French knots here and there....it's such a free and easy way to work...

 I also found this little unfinished embroidery which I'd forgotten about, probably abandoned when more pressing projects took over, and this week I'm hoping to find time to finish it off and make it into something..

 The red plastic embroidery hoop came free with a magazine ....I don't always use them and never do for cross stitch, but sometimes embroidery is easier with the fabric stretched tight...

Flowers in pots are on my mind at the moment, nurturing the ones in my garden each day...we haven't had nearly as much rain here as everyone else in the country seems to have had...though we did get caught in a huge downpour visiting a garden on Saturday...such heavy rain everything was soaked in a moment. Thank you for popping in here to see me, I love your visits and your sweet comments. Have a happy sunny week and enjoy your handmade moments. Back soon. xxxxx