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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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 more the minimal Scandi

Paper flowers, leaves, feathers ...

I had a few requests after posting this photo on Facebook, people asking if I could explain how I made these paper flowers. Your wish is my command, and here's the info. It's all very simple and you don't need any advanced drawing skills. So grab a stack of gell prints, a pair of scissors and off we go! The type of print that seems to work best is one where there's a fair amount of detail, rather than a block of solid plain colour. Prints where you've maybe channelled your inner Elizabeth St. Hilaire and 'layered layered layered' as she's always urging us to do. POPPIES If we start with simple poppy seed heads and stalks, they're cut freehand from paper that's mainly shades of orange and brown. I glued those on to a sheet of white copier paper, then cut them out, leaving a narrow border around each. Backing the gell print with the white paper adds that contrasting border, but also strengthens the piece, especially the thin stalks. I

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

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out. The glue's su

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