Why do I always think that summer is going to be a string of long sunny days with only a spot of gardening that has to be done, and oodles of time to fit in all the other things I long to do? In truth it’s a string of long rainy days, with some hot, buggy, ones in between and time flies faster than it does in winter. Last month disappeared in a flash because I was looking after two cats and six kittens for a friend who was abroad for a while. They need plenty of cuddles and playtime with humans as well as a clean environment 😉  And dancing in the litter tray is best discouraged! After they had gone, I had to catch up on things I hadn’t done while they were here, and put the furniture back into the room I had emptied to house them for a month. Somehow that led to a reorganisation of my books, so there were books all over the floor for a few days, while I did a tidy and a reshuffle. A reshuffle always leaves a few stragglers that won’t fit on the shelf, so there was a bit of squeezing going on here and there. It was worth the time and effort as now I have all my favourite books right next to my desk – my craft books, poetry, short story and writing books – and the ones I don’t use as much are on the other side of the room.  

Then there were online courses to complete, doors to rub down and bits and pieces to list on Ebay. There were windows to clean and packages to post. So, no big chunks of time for sewing. However, there was plenty of thinking going on and planing for all the things I want to try. I want to try working with water soluble stabiliser. I especially want to experiment with some Indian embroidery and quilting. And I want to create some embroidered portraits. So, as a start,  I have been making faces:

For a bit of practice I bought some inexpensive muslin and tacked it on to some lightweight Vilene interfacing. Then I drew on a variety of different faces (freehand with a water soluble pen) and embroidered them.

I didn’t find the muslin very easy to work with but I realised I was using a needle that was too big and pulling the stitches too tight.

In this black and white face, I was using variegated thread. I wanted her hair to be a intermixing of black, grey and white streaks but she ended up having a white streak on one side. It’s a bit disconcerting when the single colour sections in the variegation end up in places you don’t necessarily want a concentration of a single colour. If the variegated sections were much shorter, maybe the different colours would blend more evenly.  Or maybe it means the use of variegated thread requires more careful planning before you begin!

I would like to try embroidering on linen because I love the texture it brings to a small embroidered projects but I wonder if I will like its looser weave when I have got so used to cotton. If not, perhaps a cotton with a linen look would work.

Last year I made a series of sketches of heads wearing crazy hats and now I think I might enjoy embroidering them onto a neutral, tone on tone, cotton background. Here are some of them:

The first is my favourite. The last one is just a bit of fun.

Now that autumn is just around the corner, I would like to think my posts could be more frequent – but the Book Festival will be here soon, the shrubs need urgent attention, not to mention the weeds, and Christmas is looming.

So, until the next time….