Featured on Cuteables

I just wanted so say thank you to Lynsey at Cuteable.com for featuring my embroidery 'Old flames are dead matches' on her Friday Flickr pics.

My fist blog mention

I was very happy to find out one of my emphera collages had been featured on a blog called Pattern Pulp. I was quite excited as this because it just proves the power of the internet, that people all round the world can see your work. This was a little paper collage experiment which just developed and almost told me what to do as I worked on it. I’ve been meaning to try a few more of these as my collection of interesting paper had grown and needs to be explored. This might be the encouragement I need.

Grandma's Tablecloth

Here are a couple of close up pictures of the table cloth I used on Mothers day. It has been beautiful embroidered with a weaving floral patter all around the edge. The flowers have been stitched in a rainbow effect floss. I love the design, it's not too busy or dated.
I did have a slight accident on mothers day when some tea got spilt onto the table cloth. I was quite nervous about washing it as I wasn't sure how the floss would react. I put it into the washing machine on a cool hand wash cycle but that didn't get the stain out. I then tried a 40 degree was with some stain remover and luckily that worked. I don't know exactly how old the table cloth is but as it is a newly acquired family heirloom I didn't want to ruin it.
It's hard to know whether to store away all these precious embroidered pieces or take a risk and use them. Personally I think it's ashamed to hide away all that hard work. Every thing that has been handmade has been made to use or be displayed so I'm willing to take a risk. Even if accidents do happen.

Grandma's Kitchen

This embroidery has been hanging in my grandmothers kitchen for as long as I can remember. My grandparents on my mum's side used to live in Heartfordshire before moving nearer to my family in Cheltenham. My family and I would spend a lot of out school holidays staying with them in a little village called Letty Green.

My grandparents had a lovely old country house with a huge garden. I remember spending hours in the kitchen helping my gran bake all sorts of goodies. This embroidery used to hang just to the side of the Aga cooker. The smell of toast drifting up the stairs in the morning will say with me forever.

These holidays are where my obsession with carfting began. I had a very short attention span as a child and my gran would set us activities which often envoloved making something or baking to keep us entertained. I would say my gran has been my main inspiration for everthing I do now. She was a very talented lady who made toys, clothes, embroidered and won many a competition with her work. 

My gran recently passed away in January and we are currently sorting out her house. Unfortunately my younger sister now owns this sampler but I have aquired some fantastic table cloths and white work which I will hopefull take photos of and blog soon. I will really miss her as she had lived a fascinating life and always had funny interesting stories to tell.

Happy Mothers Day

Well as you know today was mothers day and my siblings and I celebrated by inviting my mother around my house for a cream tea. My family love cream teas, if you are a  non British readers a cream tea involved scones, cream (clotted cream if you can get it) jam and the essential cup of tea. This is a very summery British tradition, very unhealthy but very yummy. My younger sister and I spent saturday afternoon making plain scones and chocolate chip muffins that accidently went a shade of blue! Nothing to panic about, i didn't have enough chocolate chips so I added some M&M's I had. The blue colouring changed the colour of the cake mixture. But they still tasted delicious.  I also made some butterfly cakes, just in case I didn't already have enough goodies for everyone.
The weather has been stunning the last couple of days so I thought we could sit outside. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use a recently inherited table cloth that had been hand embroidered my someone in my family. It really is stunning these pictures do not do it any justice. 

Your a star

This is the mothers day card i've made in preparation for Sunday. It's quite a simple design but I felt like dong a tiny bit of embroidery.  My siblings and I (there are four of us in total) have decided to have a very british cream tea at my house to celebrate Mothers day. So I will be baking scones and cakes on saturday in preparation and if the weather is nice we might be able to take our high tea in the garden.

I was very excited when I got home from work today because my new magazine subscription to Making Jewellery had dropped through the door. This is a new British jewellery making magazine and it's much better then I thought it was going to be. I was a little worried it was going to be a little chintzy and basic but I'm amazed at the range of projects and abilities it's aimed at. The magazine came with a supplement full of projects which I'm going to try as soon as I get the chance as well as helpful silversmithing hints and tips with interviews and fashion advice. I worthwhile investment which I'm sure I'm going to really enjoy throughout the whole year.

Banksy t-shirt

Banksy t-shirt
Originally uploaded by DuckDownDesigns

This is a project I did a while ago. This is a Banksy graffiti designs of a girl reaching out for a heart shaped balloon embroidered onto a t-shirt. It took me forever. My boyfriend had made a stencil of the design to put on a canvas for a friend. However I borrowed it to get the outline onto the t-shirt. I used regular spray paint to mark it out with (I need to invest in some fabric paint). I then embroidered into the sprayed design using satin stitch and embroidery thread. I do love this t-shirt but it did take me a while due to all the detail. But I got a mention on someone’s blog who liked what I had done, so thanks Blog-standard.