IACW - Going with the Flow

Here's my post from It's A Creative World this week:

Recently I've found myself being drawn to some of the fantastic textile work on show on the internet particularly the work of Stef Francis which I find inspirational.

All of my previous embroidery ( saying that, I haven't done any for 10 years) has always been fairly "regimented" up until now - cross stitch was always counted, needlepoint was always preprinted or counted from a chart. I decided that I wanted to try some more textile/needlework but without a chart in site.

I started by buying a few "inspiration packs" of threads and fabrics and then sat down with them and a "book of stitches" to see what I could do.

My first item was just a test using a very fine fabric and various threads to get back "into the swing" of having a needle in my hand again!

At the moment this is only about a 3 inch square section of the fabric but my aim is to fill the entire piece (about 12 inches square) with different stitches over the coming months but keeping them in the same colour scheme to make a "sampler".

Using just one skein of a variegated perle cotton I've been working on this piece of evenweave. I started off with the centre "Byzantine stitch" and then added stitches around it. My plan for this piece is to complete a 2 inch square piece and then incorporate it into a fabric ATC.

My final piece I've worked on is this felt ATC:

I cut a piece of felt to ATC size (2.5" x 3.5") and then used gold thread in my sewing machine to attach fused Angelina fibres to the felt base. I then used random hand stitching around the edges and then attached beads and sequins by hand.

Expect to see more needlework from me in the future as I'm really enjoying myself just "going with the flow".

If you have any textile work to show or a blog/site to share be it yours or someone elses' please leave a link either here or on my own blog. I love to see the huge variety of work out there!