I’m not really sure where my fascination with toadstools began, but they have enchanted me for a long time.
I love spotting them on our bush walks, drawing them, embroidering them, photographing them, appliquéing them and looking at their amazing designs.
I guess some of the captivation began with the delightful ‘fairy-rings’ I learned about in my childhood. We didn’t have actual rings of fungi in our lawn, but I was allowed to pick certain flowers out of our garden and make my own ring for the fairies, complete with a little throne for the Fairy Queen! That’s one of the fondest memories of my happy and innocent childhood.
And I am still playing with toadstools! I showed you my Enchanting Forest Cushion when it was first published in Homespun Magazine, but I have now put the pattern in my Craftsy Store. You can find it here.
As you know, I LOVE playing with felt, and then to combine it with some lovely textured stitches, is the ultimate joy for me. Palestrina Knot stitch features heavily; it is so easy to do, lots of fun and gives quite a unique finish to any edge.
We had a lovely holiday recently, filled with things we love. We flew to Broome, an amazing place that had been on our bucket list for a long time, to attend a Bird Congress. We spent two days listening to amazing presentations, then two days of field trips viewing thousands upon thousands of migratory shorebirds. Next on the list of things we love was spending time with our grandson, his wife and our great-granddaughter in Darwin.
We were only home for a week or so, and our son and daughter-in-law flew from Melbourne to spend some time with us. To add to the delight, our other son and his family visited, then we caught up with another grand-daughter and her husband over dinner last night. When you add in Skype calls from our two daughters, you can see we have had a month of pure bliss!
Needless to say, not much has been happening on the sewing front, but I did manage to crochet around the edge of a couple of pincushions I had embroidered.
...and yet another toadstool!
Happy stitching!
Val
6 comments:
So much pretty here! I am happy you guys had such a good month. sounds great. I am teaching myself to crochet (youtube) because I want to put crochet trims on things like you did the pin cushion. Beautiful!!
Val, I love the toadstools. How lovely for you both to have had a month with family members and to have crossed something off your bucket list. I have never made one :-)
These are beautiful, Val! Your work is so gorgeous. Are all of these hand-appliqued and hand-embroidered?? And felt? Maybe, except for Pixe Garden? That is especially beautiful! I've never worked with felt, and don't do a lot of hand stitching, but I think that may be in my future!! Thanks so much for sharing these. I am going to have to pick up your new pattern and look up that knot stitch you mentioned!
Well, that comment went off too fast! These are all lovely. I saw the last two on IG, but every single one of them is great, and I like the beading arches on the green background, too. It sounds like a lovely time of bird-watching, not to mention family visits.
This is a coincidence, I just returned from walking the dogs with my camera and took photos of all the different toadstools/mushrooms that have cropped up recently. I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking them interesting. In stitcheries like yours, also lovely!
Mushrooms fascinate me, as well, since high school days. Yours are lovely. I think shorebird migration is the most fascinating phenomenon!
Post a Comment