fabric collage – something from seaview

July is birthday month for the littlest grandsons in our family, so I mustn’t let the month pass without noting the handmade gifts they got this year – and what a blessing it is to have them still small enough to enjoy grandma’s “handmade”!I’d long wanted to make a fabric book so I was happy to acquire Rebecca Page’s Doll’s House Quiet Book to inspire my stitching. You can find it on Etsy. It’s a really good basic clear pattern, with lots of ideas to help you create a really imaginative toy. My quiet book follow the structure of her book. There is a front cover…I personalised it with collage (lots and lots of handstitching – my happy place), buttons (that’s a number Zero on the front door because that is Felix’s favourite number) – and fabric photos.

You can get specialised fabric paper for use with your home printer (Prym Creative Fabric Printable – available on eBay) , or some copy shops will print straight onto fabric for you (as they do t-shirts). Worth experimenting with …

The next page features the bed …I added a little bit of a child’s rhyme – but customised it for this special book …You need to reverse the writing before transferring it onto fabric. I use Photoshop for this, but I believe you can also do it in Word …The text is then inked over with a Hemline Hot Iron Transfer Pen (also bought on eBay), and ironed onto the fabric. Here is Gary Goblin transferred onto felt for stitching …Now we come to the fun part – these little characters! I asked my son, Jam, to get drawing – and these are some of the guys he came up with…I selected six (there was only room for six in this bed!) and got stitching. Gary Goblin, of course …And Little Les (they all wear their names on the back) …And just a couple more …And then we had a full compliment – here they’ve all got out of bed!They can go to the playroom next door – where there are toys tucked into the play bags. Very Hungry Caterpillars of course …On the back, I followed Rebecca Page’s suggestion and put a pond – with lots and lots of weird and wonderful animals stitched into this colourful collage. Plus some finger puppets to play with (a Zero, of course) …And here’s Birthday Boy Felix, absorbed in the finger puppets …Which gave me an idea for Roo (whose birthday was later in the month). I was all out-booked by the first book I’d made, but finger puppets are obviously a winner. So we set out to make some more finger puppets …The characters come so easily with felt, a bit of raffia, odd scraps of wool, stitching. There is so much you can do when making these little people. I just found that I had to let my mind run free and play …Little Roo has a musician dad so there has to be a guitarist …Well, perhaps a couple …And finally, Stephen ( having already loaned the shape of his hand for this project) put together a stand for these little characters …Just look at that little Birthday Boy Roo’s face!I’m sure there’ll be plenty of play value in these simple toys in coming years. And the best thing? – why you can always respond to requests and make more characters as required!

Happy Third Birthday, Felix, and Happy Fourth Birthday, Roo!

I can tell autumn is on it’s way – not from that chill morning smell in the air, nor the blowsiness of the garden … No, it’s because I am all stitched out for this summer …

Last year, a visiting American friend brought me some lovely presents – two little hand-made bags and an exquisite glass heart – all charmingly wrapped up in a little flowery handkerchief …About the same time, another dear friend (this time from Nice) sent me some of her left-over fabric scraps – knowing how much I enjoy piecing odd little stitcheries together …Well, somehow these bits and pieces came together, and before I knew what it was June – and that little handkerchief was the centrepiece of a summer doodle stitchery … I don’t know why earlier incarnations of this piece escaped the roving eye of my iPhone, but there it is, they did. I think it is because I struggled – I really struggled – to get this piece going further. Frankly, I struggled even to enjoy the stitching …

What changed for me round about June was that I eventually began to train myself to look at my stitchery differently. It continued to be a bit of a struggle for a while. But I found I could stop aiming for a finished product, and focus on the particular, the different constituent parts of this embroidery. And how very different they all are!

There are twittering birds. With embroidered French knots those little birds began to twitter more and more …The cats’ glasses became even more extravagant …Their bow-ties flashier …The Mayan figures (scraps from my daughter) got glasses too …And little Japanese doll companions …One Mayan figure sprouted cats from its head …Which grew more and more elaborate as the stitching went on …Until there was a great totem pole of be-glassed cats …In the centre of the panel the flowers grew more ornate …With little decorative centres …Embroidered dragonfly hovered about them … (Copied from another stitchery of mine) …Another fabulous fabric bundle of scraps arrived, this time from my friend Claire …Did you see the silk cloud fabric just peeking out at the top from under the cat? Well, all of a sudden there were clouds in my stitching … little ones …And big ones too …And medium sized ones as well …And some time in the stitching, it began to snow little cherry-blossom flowers …I spent many evenings cutting out these fiddly little fabric pieces …Pinning them on …Suddenly there were loads of them …I am sad to say (but not surprised to record) that the kits were no respecter of my work …Finding it a comfortable pad from which to survey their domain …And boy does Eggy love my embroidery basket!Earlier this month I realized I was approaching the time when it all needed to be drawn together – it needed a border. Perhaps blue seashell fabric? Hmmm, I think not …But I could pick out that turquoise spotty fabric? No, too swimming … Now how about some dark ikat fabric? Ah, now that’s worth trying! It’s a surprisingly light fabric so needed some gentle wadding folded into the frame …And a nice bit of stitching along the ikat border to hold it all in place …Now for some final cherry blossom snowflakes to tie it all together …The outer dark ikat border is transformative, sending the inner dark border of the original handkerchief into recess, as though a window opening onto another world. I am so very pleased! It has to be time to finish stitching …