Tangled tape or Bundles of Bunting?

 I've been doing a lot of non-quilting sewing recently, it seems.

This array of green fabrics is a tangle of mini bunting.

This string was based on a 6" x 4" rectangle cut to an  isosceles triangle shape.

 This is the same string once it had all been folded together.  Much neater!

Then there were another two strings of bunting based on a 9" x 6" rectangle.  Still smaller than my usual size, which is typically based on a sheet of A4, so roughly 12" x 8".

This is destined to be used at a charity stall.  If you are in the Kingston upon Thames area why not go along to their carnival, this Saturday, 1st September?  It sounds like fun!

Look for the Dose of Nature  stall and you might even spot some of this bunting!

Something a little different 2.

 Making puddles with cut outs here - as well as a stitched rain drop higher up the page.

Mix of running stitch, straight stitch, chain stitch and button hole stitch.

 Hopping here, with each punched circle raised from the page with a bead, as well as having a bead on top.  I love the dimension that this style gives.

More card embellishments with cross stitches both for embellishment and for holding the shapes to the page.

 A sideways shot so that you can see the bead - card - bead layering.

 A simple page this one.  A string of beads showing the rain trickling, a raindrop shape (same shape and place as the previous two pages) and a little stitching highlight for the worm tunnel.

Finally (for the moment!  The rest are still only ideas in my head!) a page that uses the cut outs from earlier pages in the book.

I'm not sure that I'm happy with this page, and I have a feeling that it may need something extra to lift it.  I just need to let it drift around my head until I have a lightbulb moment!

I still have several video lessons from my Karen Ruane course to watch so perhaps the right answer or an idea that will help me will be found in them!

Hope that you are enjoying some stitching time too!

Something a little different 1.

 Over the last couple of weeks when we've been enjoying our holidays I've been trying something a little different - hand stitching into a paper story book.

I've been following an 8 week online course with Karen Ruane called 'Stitching Stories', and whilst my work is very different, as you'd expect, it's been seeded and drawn along by her suggestions and what she has been doing in two books.

This first page shows two cut outs with blanket stitch and running stitch around them, and three stitch emellished additions.

 The second page has another cut out, this time filled with my take on 'wispy mist', the ladder (from the motion drawing of the propeller) and five shiny beads for the water drops - the text and illustration clearly informing my choices.

If I had my time (and a pristine book!) again I'd put the stitch orientation of those holding the beads vertical instead of horizontal.

 Here is a button stitch emellished 'heavy' drop, with the remains of it (blue and pink mirror card circles) tumbling down.

A few more embellished shapes on the left.  One of the best things that I learned was to think about how to attach items to the page so they were neat and relevent from the front, but workman like without being messy from the back.

 This was a fun page to work on, as it had 'hide' in the text, so I created some hidding spots.

Punched holes in the covering, with button hole stitch around them again, and beads over one of the background holes.

You have to gently move them forward to reveal the text, which is just glimpsed though one of the holes when the screening pieces are in repose.

It isn't fast work - much slower than stitching through fabric - but it's a really enjoyable thing to do as a change.

More pages to be shown next week, I hope!