Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration embroidery for Feeling Stitchy Rainbow Competition

Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration

Hiya!
Well now, I'm a bit of a stranger to this blog, aren't I? My excuse is that I've been busy with one thing or another... the one thing was another project for Making Gifts magazine, which I can't reveal for another month when it's published (sorry!), and the other thing is this embroidery!

This is my entry for the Feeling Stitchy blog Rainbow Competition. If you like embroidery or sewing, and haven't seen Feeling Stitchy before, then why?? It's brill!  Go visit now! :-)

The rules of the competion were to simply embroider a design using only one colour of the rainbow (although black and white were also included).  I chose to design an embroidery in shades of orange, not only because orange is my favourite colour, but also because it would give me the opportunity to put Little Tiger into it! I based the Little Tiger you see here on a brooch that I made some time ago now. Which in turn is based on our own Little Tiger...

I also wanted to put in a representation of one of my favourite flowers, the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). I love this flower for it's simple cupped shape, it's satiny petals and its beautiful bright golden orange colour which seems to glow in the sun. I think of them as "cups of sunshine"!

California poppy, not in California but Sheffield.

After I had sketched my design, I had to think about what fabric I'd use to embroider on. I decided that a plain background was a bit boring, so I hand tie-dyed a piece of calico to use, using Dylon "sunflower yellow" - hence the off-white circles of the background. The circles were created by gathering a bunch of fabric and tying a piece of string around it, so the dye doesn't reach the fabric under the string, and repeating this all over the fabric so make a pattern. I like this effect because for me, it makes me think of sun-drenched, relaxed summer festivals.

Preparing the tie-dyed calico for embroidering

I chose to include lots of different types of stitches - and I used eight - because for me, that's what embroidery is all about! Showing the amazing variety of textures and shapes which can be created with just a needle, a bit of thread and some fabric. I love trying out new stitches, so I dived in (after a bit of practise first) and used long and short stitch (for the poppy petals) and ribbed spider's web (for the flower-like shapes in the "grass"). I also used straight stitch in a pattern I've never used before, shown to me by my good friend Claire (thanks Claire! bet you didn't expect that, did you! hahaha!) I also used stem stitch (the sun's rays), french knots (the sun and Little Tiger's eye "twinkles"), satin stitch (his eyes and nose), chain stitch worked in close rows as a filling stitch (Little Tiger's fur) and back stitch (the poppies' stems).

The poppies being embroidered in long and short stitch...

The finished poppies!

Apart from enjoying this challenge just for the embroidery, it taught me a few things. The main lesson was probably that I always underestimate how long a piece of work is going to take! I spent at least 50 hours on the embroidery part of this piece (excluding the time I spent in sketching the original design). I also learnt that you can do a lot with a very limited colour palette, and something that I am going to explore further.

The stripes going on, dark brown first...

Stitching the orange on, around the dark brown stripes...

The finished Little Tiger!

Well, I enjoyed making this piece, but I hope you enjoy looking at it almost as much!

Best wishes
Joey x

I Vote Green!

And it's not even my favourite colour (which is orange)... Personally I don't go in for personalities (ie politicians) and tactical voting. I vote for the Green Party because I believe that their policies are the ones which will help us all, even those people at the very bottom of society. Read more about the UK Green Party here: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

Here's an Etsy treasury I've just made, which you will like if green is your favourite colour (but there's some rainbows in there too, for hope)... (click on the image below to see the items in more detail)

Whatever your political persuasion, don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Mottieve in a Treasury!

Hi! It's a bit un-springlike here today, a bit nippy and cloudy... but here's some colour, courtest of Roxy Creations who put together this cute list... featuring my brooch, Mottieve the Owl! Thank you, Roxy Creations!

Best wishes

Joey x

Making Gifts Magazine - Issue 4 out soon!

Hi! I hope you're enjoying the spring weather, whether its sunny or rainy (like it is right now... and gone pretty cold too!)

I have another project in the next issue of Making Gifts Magazine, which will be published on 07 May 2010 (a week tomorrow)!  This time, I show you how to make a set of no less than TEN felt finger puppets on a farm animals theme: there is a sheep, goat, sheepdog, pig, horse, hen, goose, cow, rabbit and cat.  You can see them on the front cover below, in the left-hand corner.

I would love to know if you buy the magazine and have a go at making the finger puppets!  Please leave a comment below.

Best wishes

Joey x

My Green Party Brooch

Good morning! It's sunny here today (yippee!) but still a bit "fresh"!

As promised, here's a picture of my finished Green Party brooch which I showed you in progress in this post.

I made this brooch by hand to show my support for the Green Party during the run-up to the UK general election 2010 and the local council election. Election Day is on 6th May, so I've plenty of days to show it off!


I copied the Green Party logo as closely as I could, using felt applique and different embroidery stitches; the petals around the world are glued on, then embroidered with a white straight stitch and french knots in green to add a bit of interest and texture.  The world map was completed entired in lots of french knots in white.  The brooch has a thin layer of cotton padding inside, and also a piece of flexible plastic, cut from a washed plastic milk bottle to make sure the brooch doesn't go all floppy!  This is something I use quite a lot, and has the added benefit of recycling and not having to buy more plastic! I did toy with the idea of finishing the brooch's edge with blanket stitch in a contrasting colour, or working seed beads into it, but decided that I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, to go along with the simple colour scheme.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!
Joey xx

Treasury Time!

Hi! I hope you're having a good weekend!  Apparently it's been the hottest day in the UK this year so far, and although the sun's been out I think it's been pretty nippy!  I must be getting old. Well, I am 36 after all...

Etsy's even better now they've introduced a new treasury in beta: Treasury East! If you haven't seen it yet, please take a look at some fantastic treasuries and have a go at making one yourself.  Now there's no hours and hours waiting for that special moment to come around when you get to very quickly type in the title before the box disappears and suddenly there's 800+ treasuries from nowhere (can you tell that I've been stung by the Etsy treasury a few times?) or get to your computer and find that you've miscalculated the time that the treasury would be available again??  Annoying, wasn't it?

Here's the first one I've made this afternoon. I was feeling tired after a swim (just over half a mile, not much) and thought I deserved a treat! Click the picture to go to the "real" treasury.

And here's the first one in which something of mine has been featured!  This gorgeously bright and summery treasury was made by Black Cat Crafts and is called "Pretty in Pink and Orange".  It features Clement, the Mewberry Cutes brooch from my shop. :-)  Thank you, Black Cat Crafts!

Now go and make your own featuring the most beautiful handmade things you can find on Etsy!!

Have a lovely evening everyone!
Joey xx

Earth Day in the Back Garden

Hi! I hope you've had a good day! Did you know that it was Earth Day yesterday? Well, quite by coincidence but quite fittingly, I happened to be making a brooch to show my support for The Green Party during the run-up to the general election. This is my way of being political; I cannot argue over policies and political philosophies with . Why the Green Party? Well, I've supported them (and been a member, though not at the moment) for a few years now because they have intelligent and fair policies which aim to raise the standard of living for the least well-off in society. They believe that a multicultural society is a good thing, to be welcomed. I want to live in a country in which everyone will feel valued, no matter what their background.

Anyway, because it was such a beautiful sunny day, I sat outside to embroider several hundred french knots (that's an exaggeration but it's what it felt like!) which make up the Earth motif.

I was joined by a robin (or was it two?) who was collecting bits of dried grass and stuff, and kept flying back to the dark conifer in next-door's garden.  Can only be doing one thing...  Robins are brilliant, they come so close and I think they're so cute with their perky little beaks and big eyes!  They're really acrobatic too, turning mid-air and almost hovering to change direction.

Then later on, a ladybird came to have a nosey at what I was doing. He obligingly posed for some photos for five minutes and then flew away again!

the planes are back...

I have finished the brooch this evening and I'll post a picture of the completed brooch at the weekend. It's already pinned to my coat so I can show everyone tomorrow! Wish me luck that I don't get caught up in an argument about party politics! Well, I'll only have myself to blame, won't I? ;-)

the text transferred, ready for embroidering... which I've completed now!

Here's a song by Heavens to Betsy, a band that I happened to share a bedroom with one night, many years ago. I really love the melody and the words just make my heart melt, I think it's beautiful but very sad...



Have a great Friday!
Joey xx