I had extra pleasure in turning the Calendar over to November this year! For a whole month my project is on view in the beautiful Homespun 2015 Calendar.
I am very fond of the Herb Garden design for a number of reasons. I like to use herbs in my cooking and so have a few lovely pots in my garden – thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil and mint, and it gave me great pleasure to design four little herb stitcheries to display on this wall hanging.
I also love that the pattern showcases a beautiful range of fabric. This project was really a turning point in my designing. It was just so easy to use the great variety of fabrics, because they were planned to complement each other, they all belonged in the one range, and so they worked perfectly together.
It eliminated all the struggle of finding just the right combinations of shade, tone, texture and scale – taking fabric to the window for better light to see whether it matched, only to find there was a harsh clash – searching through drawers of fabric to find that elusive piece and then being disappointed that it didn’t really work after all.
That’s when I became hooked on buying whole ranges. I find them so versatile and economical. I like to buy a 10 inch layer cake which usually provides about 40 different fabrics. They are a good size for cutting appliqués plus some squares or half square triangles. With 40 pieces, that’s plenty of fabric to make a wall quilt. Then I usually purchase some yardage of tone-on-tone fabrics that can be used for borders or binding. You can read more about my buying rationale in this "Adventures with pre-cuts" post.
Before we could turn the calendar over to November, we spent a whole week in wonderful celebrations for my husband’s big “0” birthday with lots of family and friends joining us for the festivities. We had a few surprises for him and it was such a joy to see his happiness in what we had organised.
Needless to say, with party preparations, baking, organising, shopping, and family with us, there hasn’t been any stitching happening but I did manage to upload one of my recent designs to my Craftsy Store. The Fan Dance pattern is now available here.
Another of my silk-ribbon embroidery projects has appeared in Embroidery & Cross Stitch magazine (Vol 23 No 4) – Fuchsia Frolics:
When we lived in a cooler climate, I used to grow the most beautiful Fuchsias. Now I work them in ribbons instead!
I'm just back from the Creative Craft Retreat at which I taught some lovely ladies bag-making. It is always a wonderful time of fun, friendship and food - always tastes great when I don't have to cook it!
Happy stitching,
Val
8 comments:
Congratulations on your Beautiful Herb Garden feature for November. You stitchery projects are always such a joy. I like your idea of buying fabric layer cakes...I have yet to treat myself. Lovely Fuschias and Fans you have created with ribbon and fabric and threads. Creative Bliss...
P.S. Happy Birthday to your Mr.
Good morning Val, I just love 'Herb Garden' so dainty and delicate and yes, the colours are right in tune. Thank you for sharing your work once again.
Bom dia minha amiga querida!
Sinto estar um tanto ausente, me desculpe. Estamos as voltas com o término do inventário de meus pais e vamos voltar para nossos filhos em Vila Velha no Estado do Espírito Santo. Já estou bordando o 5º bloco das chaves do contentamento. Vai meio de vagar, mas chegarei lá no final, tenho certeza. Amei sua idéia para o calendário e o modo de usar os tecidos. Parabéns! Jesus continue te abençoando!
Beijos
You are so organized and focused! When I grow up, I want to be just like you! XO
That certainly is a beautiful wall hanging and I agree about using fabric ranges as the mixing and matching has already been done which means more time stitching and less time trying to audition fabrics. Your Fan Dance pillow is beautiful, reminiscent of your" Dream" wall hanging.
I love your fabrics. Your pillows are beautifully made. Wonderful as always!
What a lovely post, Val - cheerful news and lovely photos :-) Congratulations to your dear hubby on his milestone birthday. They get more important each time, don't they? I remember when I was a child, the older my parents got, the less they wanted to celebrate their birthdays, but nowadays we seem to rejoice that we've made it through another year!
It is a good point that you raised about buying collections of matching fabrics. I have a huge stash of fabrics that have been given to me over the years, some by people who have inherited a deceased estate and knew I did patchwork. So I am reluctant to buy more fabrics, although I do occasionally for specific projects, but I prefer to try and use what I have. So I have a big box of solid colours to match up with the motley collection of multi coloureds in my stash :-)
I love that herb calendar piece. Those are the kinds of things I have on my back deck every summer, too. How lovely it looks stitched. I also love the fan, especially in blue. It is so delicate and pretty.
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