The last brick piece is on hold. I sort of know what I want to do with it but the details of how are still a bit sketchy. Instead, I’ve started attaching some of the completed pieces to the accordion book and am awaiting inspiration…
So back to small projects. I found some printed motifs obviously cut from a larger piece of fabric the other day, but as usual I have no idea where they came from. They are the perfect size for cards though and as I have a Cancerian friend and one of the prints was a crab, I decided to embellish it with stitch and make it into a card for her birthday.
I used some wadding behind to give a bit of three-dimensionality to the body sections when I outlined them in back stitch. I used split stitch down the middle of each leg and claw section, french knot eyes and Pekinese stitch and an eyelet across the back of the shell.
Then I moved on to a kantha sample for a workshop that was postponed from March but which I’m still hoping to teach at some point. It’s made up from calico, a batik cotton print and twinkly organza layered together and stitched with a variegated stranded cotton.
I like to put an applique shape in the middle and work the kantha stitching around it and this time it was a leaping fish. The batik was spotty so I followed the lines of spots with my stitching which gave it a watery effect that I was hoping for.
The last little project was inspired by a fantastic tutorial for stitched ori-nui shibori on the V&A Museum’s Instagram account. I didn’t have any indigo but I did have a small amount of avocado, which was very disappointing on this scrap of calico:
And some very out of date saffron which worked much better. I love this and wish I’d used it on the first piece instead of the avocado.
And it even sort of overdyed some pale indigo dyed sheeting I had, if you look very hard.
One out of three ain’t bad, I suppose.
Under A Topaz Sky 
These are incredibly adorable and I love the sealife theme! Where did you get that fantastic cardstock? I love doing smalls for things like greetings cards but I’ve had a bit of trouble finding somewhere the sells embroidery-friendly cardstock in nice enough quality.
It was part of a job lot of loose blank cards which I got from a local charity shop, so unfortunately I can’t tell you, which is a pain because it’s really good quality and I wish I had some more! ;o)
Awesome find in the shop but the hunt will continue! I’ll let you know if I find anywhere good (Paperchase has good quality blank cards but they don’t sell the ‘three page’ ones that I like best for embroidery)
The saffron has worked very well, especially considering how little you get in a packet. I noted the turmeric dyeing instructions a while back, but I’m waiting until I can get to the international supermarket for enough turmeric that the specified 6 tablespoons doesn’t wipe out the cupboard!
The pieces of fabric are very small – the indigo dyed one is about A5 in size. So I was pretty confident that even the tiny pinch of out of date saffron would be enough!!
Loved looking at this.
I quite like the subtle ones. Sometimes it’s just what you’re looking for.
I especially like the fish kantha. I found that you don’t actually need a lot of turmeric to get a good colour.