Having used hydrangeas so much this year I thought it appropriate to use the last fading blooms from the garden in my Christmas wreath. A gentle, restrained, no-ribbons, no-bling, no-glitter wreath this year, just the foliage from the garden with the addition of some artificial pink berries which I originally bought for an arrangement last … More Hydrangea Christmas Wreath
Recently I received a packet of Uni Posca pens as a gift, a set of pastel colours, with a medium nib. To these I added a black, white, silver and gold pen so that I could add some definition and highlights. On the packet it states that the pens can be used on ‘wood, textile, … More Posca Pens – Flowers As A Theme
Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to find some John Lewis curtains in a charity shop in St Austell – lovely bright cacti design, good quality cotton and great price for such a large quantity of fabric (£7). I thought that I would be able to use the material in some way, maybe … More Cacti For Christmas
This is the scene I had in mind when I did a workshop yesterday when the teacher Caroline Hyde-Brown said we would focus on scots pines. Although we looked at pictures of the trees in the Breckland area of Norfolk I had these magnificent specimens in mind from October of this year when we walked … More Scots Pines
I have already made all my Christmas cards – a candle design cut from the large pieces of the paper strip backgrounds that I posted about in August. I made up some more in reds and greens, using some Japanese papers that I collected on holiday. The design was very simple and it was quick … More Ivy Christmas Cards
Last week at Creative Stitch one of our members, a talented beader, guided us in a shibori leaf project. When planning we prepared a length of silk to use on one half of the leaf design – a thin strip, wrapped around a bottle and tied tightly with crochet cotton. I’m sure that this is … More Beaded Oak Leaf
This week I have visited Sutton Hoo to see the new exhibition centre and while there we walked the trails around the estate. I was taken with the ferns and how they displayed so many colours, despite the damp, murky conditions. In these photos the brown fronds almost look purple. We strolled around the River … More Sutton Hoo
I have collected lots of paper scraps and ephemera from a recent trip to Japan, all with a particular project in mind. I want to make a folder to keep all my postcards and leaflets in from something called ‘fabric paper’. This is a technique from a super book I have, quite old now, called … More Japanese Folder
Creative Stitch welcomed Caroline Hyde-Brown recently for her Forage and Felt workshop – a lovely relaxed day, where we used real flowers with subtle shades of felt to make delicate pictures.
