inspirations from nature - part 7

Thinking about my Exhibition (what else!) I looked through my box of treasures collected from the beach...


The smooth dark grey stones are lovely...



And I'll definately collect more coloured glass.

Exhibition 2008 - Green Fields (6)

Some oranges and yellows..


some flower stitches sketches

Exhibition 2008 - Green Fields (5)

I stitched some more paper flowers...


I need to get some yellow in there...

Exhibition 2008 - Green Fields (4)

So... I took it apart...

and came up with these. Please excuse the makeshift frame.


This one is so bright, I love it! The yellow flowers are detached chain, one inside another. The blue is felted silk fibres (very holey and tactile).

The top one is finished, but for the second one I'm going to stitch a line following the line of the hills. This one is also slightly padded so there will be a 'quilted' effect.

I'm very pleased with both of these although I reserve the right to rip them up and start again!

I think I'll experiment with framing too. Perhaps use a wider mount...

Exhibition 2008 - Green Fields (3)

This is a long one...

so after giving up on the green field, I started to stitch the wheat field using my paper mock up to work out size and placement of the wheat ears.

But yet again any stitching I did was quickly unpicked. I'm glad felt is so forgiving. I'm keeping the straight stitches but have given up on the wheat ears. They looked too cumbersome in the scale I wanted.


So, I moved on to the 'pools' field, using blanket stitch to attach the blue silk felt, I then stitched around the shapes using running stitches. I liked the ruching effect.


I also joined the two pieces together using blanket stitch and weaving some wool. The idea was to create a fence/hedgerow effect and I planned to add some poppy and other flower heads on top.

But then it all looked a bit too busy, and I wasn't happy with the haphazard running stitch, I should have put more thought into the contours the land would take. So I unpicked the fencing, and the running stitches...

I decided to go back to my source material (part of my City & Guilds course) and look at my thoughts on boundaries (how to join the fields) and how to stitch the fields.

And i came up with this...


I decided to concentrate on the flowers and fields rather than the structures that bind and separate the fields.

I also ran out of dark yellow stranded cotton, so I haven't finished the straight stitch wheat field. I added some white daisies which I hoped to 'drift' across the 'pools' field but the white was far to loud, so I changed it to purple (its definitely purple and not the blue shade in the photo)...

Of course the whole piece looks top heavy now with all the poppies! I will work around it, as I am NOT unpicking french knots! The poppies are a mixture of handmade paper and red felt (from Toddler Girl's out grown coat)

I also tried something out on the green field which I think looks promising.

Its purple handmade paper, stitched down with back stitch.

So... bit of a saga really. But I'm enjoying the process. I may still spilt the piece again (it was originally suppose to be 3, 6"x4" pieces) and I love the colours. Very vibrant and hopefully not too challenging.

Toddler Girl's out grown coat also has a gorgeous lining, which I think I may use to back this piece.

But that may be a waste!