Another slow stitch Sunday

I had to start with this picture of a handsome butterfly as the marjoram on the allotment was positively alive with bees and butterflies today. Masses of them happily feeding away in the sunshine. The ground is beautifully damp after recent rainfall, and I did an hour's pottering around before picking more raspberries and heading home, back aching.

Having dead headed some flowers in the front garden I got on with a slow stitch Sunday project.

I'd recently borrowed a book called 'Creative Collage' by Clare Youngs from the local library, and love the artist's bold graphic style. She shows how to make various paper & card collages, including one idea for creating gift tags. I wanted to try translating that into fabric. I chose neutral colours. White and different shades of grey, and made sure I used different textures for extra interest.

At first I thought I'd cut out label shaped pieces of white card, then glue the textile 'labels' on to them. But then I veered off in another direction. Cutting out squares of a pale grey cotton that, once ironed and trimmed to size, will be 6 inch squares. I'm appliqueing on to each as-yet-untrimmed square.

I'm not sure yet what these squares will be used for, but I may sew more of 'em and see where that takes me.

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Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

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HOW TO MAKE: these decorative birds

I suggested yesterday that I'd run through how to make a fabric bird wall or window hanging (can't think of a snappier title for it than that!) so here goes. I'll start with the first decorative hanging I made. It's something you could make in any colour combination you want, and would look good hanging at a window with translucent beads that'd catch the light I used five birds for this, but you could make it longer if you prefer. (Incidentally, if you're wondering about what's hanging off the bottom on this, it's a metal Christmas decoration, shaped like a lantern. For some reason I thought it looked appropriate to leave it there, looped over the end.) WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO GATHER TOGETHER: Assorted scraps of fabric for the front of the birds - aim for a mix of colours and textures. Silk looks good, as does anything with embroidery or intricate patterns. You might aim for a hippy-ish boho look, or maybe you're ...

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