I'm in a mood to tidy things up. It's not often that mood strikes me, so I better make the most of it. But more of that in a moment. I'll start off with these embroidered birds. I'd already made the blue tit, and followed that with a robin. Now, there's a second robin. I reckon the first was a more pleasing shape than the second robin. Plumper and with more character. But either way I'm fairly happy with how these turned out. I'm thinking of the robins in terms of Christmas tree decorations, but are they Christmassy enough, do you think? Sorry to drop the 'C' word in there, by the way. It seems absurd to think about the festive season when we're not even into summer, but sometimes ideas pop into your head and you just have to go with them. The other absurdly-timed idea involved a post on Ann Wood's website. She wrote a blog post about making fabric triangles she called tetra charms. The link's here if you want to take a p
I'm finally getting around to blogging part two of the Leeds Tapestry. (See previous post if you're not sure what I'm blathering on about.) First of all, here's the 'Leeds in Bloom' panel, which features stunning embroidery of flowers and leaves. It seems that when ideas were sought about what themes individual panels ought to cover, the natural world was a popular choice. The Yorkshire branch of the Embroiderers' Guild were eager to get involved, but progress was slow as funding needed to be raised and sponsors weren't quick to put their hands in their pockets. Below is the best shot I could get of the full panel. The Queen's Hotel is at the centre of it, and could you imagine embroidering all of those windows? It would've sent me round the bend! My dodgy photography doesn't capture the way the panel's designed - you have Kirkstall Abbey at the base, shown in springtime. Queen's Hotel in summer, the Tropical House & Ros