You could win this piece of Textile Art

Do you remember this piece

It was made by the group Stitched Together, an off shoot of the slow stitching group, The Stitchbook Collective.

Our intention was always that our collaborative pieces would be used to raise money for MIND, the mental health charity.

You can see the process of how it all came together in this post: Squares Together

Now there is a chance to win it.

Helen Birmingham has set up a fundraiser: 2023 Celebration Tree

We could never decide on a suitable title for the piece.

Can you think of one?

 

Happy Valentine’s to You All

I am a member of a group of slow stitchers who collaborate on textile projects.

Nanacathy is also a member.

Last year we made a card for someone we knew, who had been going through a difficult time. Each one of us made a twinchie (two inch square piece of decorated textile). Colour and design was not specified. Many of us were moved to create hearts and we packed a lot of love into that card

The piece of vintage blanket in the middle was there to give a feeling of cosiness – a virtual hug

and created pockets for messages, cards and of course chocolate.

I am sending the sentiment and the hugs to each and every one of you who read this blog – becoming companions in a wonderfully inspiring supportive community.

❤ THANK YOU ❤

and

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Scrap Happy Bookcover

Some progress has been made on the book cover started last month.

It has fabric from old clothes and curtains, some from the 1970s.

The white lacy daisy is from a dress I had when I was 17, the stars are from holey old jeans that Miss E (14) has grown out of. I love them sitting close to each other in this piece.

This project is a lot of fun.

The inspiration comes from “The Magpie’s Nest”

a course by Aimee Irel Bishop

I have started another, which I have made in a different way.

This time, instead of cutting slits in the base fabric, I have laid strips on top of a piece of fabric to act as the ‘warp’. I tacked then down along the top edge and started weaving.

There is more to do.

Joining Kate and her happy band of Scrap Happy contributors.

Mothers Day Exhibition

It is Mothers Day here in the UK.

Helen Birmingham of Untangled Threads is having an online Mothers Day exhibition.

There are some very moving pieces in the exhibition and well worth a look.

These are the two pieces of work I entered

‘Why Cross?’

I had a difficult relationship with my Mother, which improved when I had children. She was a lovely Granny (Mamgu) to them.

My second piece:

‘Secrets and Lies’

If you would like to read the story behind the pieces, please go to the online exhibition:

MOTHERING SUNDAY ONLINE EXHIBITION

 

❤ May your day be happy ❤

Mend it Monday

Mrs Snail of The Snail of Happiness runs a regular feature called ‘Mend-it-Monday’. Mrs. Snail is the queen of mending and has all sorts of tips, ideas and gadgets to help her on her mission to use and re-use things as long she can.

She is a constant inspiration to me and is even in the early stages of opening a shop to store all sorts of pre-loved items and tools for mending and re-purposing.

I saw this exhibit at Harrogate and thought it would fit right in on this Mend-it-Monday.

It was laid out on the floor, each detail fascinating.

Mending as art – love it!

Knitting and Stitching Show: Quilts

There were masses of wonderful quilts on display at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show. I only had time to do a quick whizz round the Stands in the early morning before the general public arrived. Here are a few that particualrly caught my eye.

detail

The next three are smaller quilted wall hangings

 

Skipton

When I realised that my route from Cumbria to Harrogate would go through Skipton, I just knew I had to leave enough time to stop off and visit Coopers Cafe.

This Cafe has become a bit of a Mecca for crochet addicts like me, as it is where Lucy of Attic24 used to have her studio and where she still runs crochet groups. The cafe took some finding, but luckily ‘Maps’ on my mobile phone got me there.

Skipton is much bigger than I imagined and as I was walking towards the cafe I saw lots of intriguing independent shops – just love the name of this one

Many towns in the south are looking sad and forlorn with lots of empty shops, but not Skipton, it seemed bustling and thriving.

Just before I got to the cafe, I saw the canal that often features in photos on Lucy’s blog.

And then there I was having a cup of coffee and soaking up the friendly atmosphere of the Cafe.

You know you are Up North when you see signs like this

going upstairs was a real treat

magazine cuttings were pasted all over the walls, which was very nostalgic for me. As  a teenager I covered part of a bedroom wall with magazine cuttings (my mother was furious!) when I married in 1972, we lived in a shabby farm cottage and I covered our bedroom wall with cuttings and loved the freedom of doing it in my own home.

Lucy’s studio

and there is also another room upstairs

in the loo, the collage continues

– I looked up Samantha Bryan and her delightful mixed media pieces.

Each year, in January, Lucy organises a Crochet Along, when thousands of happy hookers from all over the world make the same blanket at the same time, to her design. It creates the most wonderful feeling of communitiy and crochet camaraderie.

I have joined in since 2015 when I made the Cosy Blanket; 2017 I made the Moorland Blanket, but changed the colours to Dorset Hedgerow; 2018 I made the Woodland Blanket, oh I did have fun with this one and added squirrels; in 2019 I made the Sweet Pea blanket and started the ‘Friends of Attic24:Dorset’ group, in October 2019 we were thrilled when Lucy, on a visit to her home town, could join us at Slader’s Yard, West Bay and in 2020 I made a Sunset version of Lucy’s Dahlia Blanket.

I was not at Coopers on the right day to meet Lucy, but I left her a voucher for a coffee from her Dorset fans.

For other blankets I have made in both Lucy’s designs and those of other designers got to my THROWS Page.

Onwards to Harrogate!

Green Twinchies

First an apology. Especially to those of you who were enthusiastic about the Green Twinchies and sent me your wonderfully decorated squares.

I have finished the Blue Twinchie collaborative piece and will show you that in another post.

When I turned to these Green Twinchies, they just would not come together in a design that felt right, so I set them aside waiting for inspiration to strike.

Amanda had sent one with a see through ‘window’ and that made me think about making something 3D so that light could filter through.

and because of the earthy colours, I wondered about putting them in a grid and use my bug hotel as an inspiration…… but after several attempts nothing sang to me.

Right now I am part of another collaborative project based on a woodland theme. We are working on hessian, and I am loving it. I have found some old camouflage off cuts in my stash.

Something is stirring and I think I might be going into the woods with the Green Twinchies.

So be assured they have not been forgotten.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about where this might lead, I will be delighted to hear them.

Squares Together

Back in July 2020 I made a piece of crazy patchwork

Chopped it up and sent the pieces off to 15 members of the group Stitched Together – a splinter group from The Stitchbook Collective, made up of people who would like to work collabratively on pieces of textile art.

The aim is to make some pieces in a relaxed and enjoyable way and then to exhibit them to raise money for both national and local mental health charities.

I sent a little bit of sari-waste ribbon with each piece. This did not have to be used but some did.

Magic happened!

It seems like a miracle to see how all those 2″ squares have been transformed

I have had permission from all participants to share our work on my blog.

It was so exciting to open each envelope and discover a beautiful gem inside.

The eye suggested Egypt to me and the nearest I had to a parchment background was some reused teabags that I had sewn together in layers and painted with Gesso.

I painted it a pale sandy colour and started to arrange the pieces.

Each time I thought I had arrived at an arrangement I liked, I left it overnight and then in the morning realised something needed to change. I tacked the squares down and undid and rearranged them 4 times before I was satisfied.

Here they all are now sewn into place and ready for some surface stitching to complete the piece.

If you are wondering what has happened to the Wild Green Twinches, I will be working on them when I have finished this piece.

The Stitchbook – Ta Dah!

I signed up for this project in May 2019

150 of us joined Helen Birmingham’s STITCHBOOK COLLECTIVE and the journey began.

Who knew when we got our first box of goodies in September 2019 how important this project was going to be for keeping us busy, creative and connected.

Each month for 12 months we recieved a kit through our letter box, and even though we had paid for it, many of us felt like it was a present arriving through the ether to cheer us up – happy post!

We chatted via our Facebook group, encouraging and inspiring one another

We were initially working towards exhibiting the books at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show. This was cancelled, but we kept on stitching – the cancellation gave some of us the much needed time to finish the project.

I get very excited at the beginning of a project. I loved the feeling as inspiration flooded in with each new box – but then I go off at a tangent and make a multitude of my own experiments and lose focus.

I am so good at NOT finishing things – anyone else out there like me?

I wonder if I ever would have pushed myself to complete it if it hadn’t been for Helen’s flexibility and gentle encouragement to get me over the finish line.

The covers done and the book bound together with bead spacers – it sat there – it did not feel finished – bizarrely, it did not feel mine.

It was a huge effort for me to focus on the covers, make them to Helen’s specific instructions and get the book exhibition-ready. The front cover has tabs on it so that it can be displayed for exhibition. The effort to get the covers made took away some of the joy, so it had to sit in a corner for a while.

Seeing other finished books online and a few text messages with Cathy (thank you Cathy!) gave me the kick of enthusiasm I needed – out came the beads, the stamps and the paint brush

and here it is – Exhibition-ready!

AND £3,344.00 has been raised by Helen and the purchasers of her kits for the mental health charity, MIND. 

Feel good project all round.

You can see other posts about this book by typing Stitchbook into the SEARCH box and here is a video of the finished book.

A HUGE thank you to Helen Birmingham for this project and to the other members of THE STITCHBOOK COLLECTIVE community.

Textile Tuesday: Wild Twinchies

I just love seeing those little envelopes pop through my letterbox. If you want to know more about this project see this post.

These are just arranged randomly at the moment.

Aren’t they yummy! An Autumnal theme is developing methinks.

Only two more to come and then I can start playing around with how to bring them all together.

Thank you so much to all who have joined in

Life is a bit hectic here right now – all good but it is keeping me away from blogging – I am looking forward to it all calming down soon.

Textiles: Collage Squares

Yet another Scrap Happy post!

Making fabric collage squares for the Twinchie projects was such a fun way to upcycle some of my fabric scraps, I carried on making them

The first ones were 10″ squares, but I realised that 12 ” squares are much more versatile

You can divide them into 2″, 3″, 4″ or 6″ squares.

The squares actually measure 13″ to allow for the squares to be cut just slightly over the these measurements to allow for a little bit of trimming if necessary.

They can also be divided into different sized rectangles or strips

I love making these, even though they take longer than you’d think to get the placement satisfactory. When I have a pile of about 50 I might put some in my Etsy shop just to see if anyone would want to buy them as starting points for their own projects.

If you fancy one – just send me a message via the Contact Me page.

Once all of the Twinchies are back and I have completed a piece of textile art with them, the plan is for these squares to be used in more collaborative textile art projects. Watch this space!

PS. For WordPress users – is the new format driving you crazy? Arrgghhhh!

Textile Tuesday: September

Good Morning! A brand new month and moving into Autumn. I am looking forward to more stitching time, but for now the garden still occupies much of my creative time.

However, the Wild Twinchies are returning home! Which is very exciting.

These are the two little gems arrived from Dawn, so beautifully wrapped in a tiny box, it felt like opening a lovely present

and when I put them with the others ideas started to form about how I might work with them

Thank you so much Dawn,  Cathy, Amanda and Rainbow J for your beautiful pieces of textile art – all gorgeous, all fabulous little gifts arriving in the post.

Just over half are here, I’m excited to see what comes next.

~

There was a piece on Woman’s Hour last week about a collaborative Quilt project organised by Sue Brown and Louise Asher called Same Sea, Different Boat.

It seems that many of us had a similar idea at the same time  – Hundredth Monkey Effect and/or Zeitgeist!

There is also the Quarantine Quilt on Instagram

~

If you have any textile news or views to share – pop a link in the Comments.

 

❤  Happy Stitching!  ❤

Textile Tuesday: 1500

Progress on the #brownpaperbagchallenge

(this is how they looked last week)

And another one in progress

I just noticed that I have 1500 followers! How exciting, what a milestone.

Thank you to each and every one of you for being here!

Someone once wrote in the comments that Wild Daffodil is like a Crafts Magazine, and I loved that. One of the greatest joys of blogging is to share inspiration and ideas and give and receive support for all forms of creativity.

But the greatest joy is undoubtedly the sense of community that builds and the meeting of like minds – I really do thank you for every single visit to the blog, every like and especially every second spent taking the time to comment.

I really do value the wonderful friendships made along the way, that enrich my life and my creativity.

Huge hugs are beaming their way across the miles to you.

~

To mark this milestone, I would be interested to know

1. What you enjoy most about Wild Daffodil?

2.  What you would like to hear more about?

As a little Give Away, I will send one of the above pieces of textile art, when finished, to one of you picked at random.

Thank you for being here!

❤

 

Textile Tuesday: A Challenge

The Brown Paper Bag Challenge.

Thanks to Tracey of Yarn and Pencil, I have joined in the #brownpaperbagchallenge that is running on Instagram at the moment and in the Facebook Group ‘Stitch Meditations’.  It is the fabulous idea of Anne Marie Desaulniers.

Tracey alerted me to this by tagging me on IG, and I am very glad she did.

Another form of Scrap Happiness, another form of fabric collage

The idea is to put fabric scraps into a brown paper bag, without thinking about it  – just any old bit of fabric lying around small enough to fit in the bag. There is a video on Vimeo by Liz Kettle demonstrating the approach.

Then just pick out pieces without looking and make a small collage

Then stitch.

I cut up part of an old sheet into 4 inch squares and the first thing that happened was that I got caught up in the collaging, so instead of just doing one, I went on to do 4 before I felt like stitching.

And now I just pick up any one of the 4 and do a bit of stitching at odd times in the day. It is really very relaxing. I often do it while the kettle boils. The artist Fran White has done a whole series of sketches and paintings based on that very premise. I met Fran at the Seawhite Studio last year. I have been fascinated by the development of her journey with her #whilethekettleboils series.

This square is turning into a mixed media piece

with a piece of ‘colour catcher’ paper in the middle and I am thinking of adding some of the orange plastic mesh onion bag. I might also add some beads and/or buttons, we’ll see – the piece will tell me as I go along.

~

Have you seen any interesting textiles, are you on a fabric fun adventure or will you have a go at the Brown Paper Bag Challenge? – put a link in the comments if you would like to share any textiles this Tuesday – links to archive posts welcome.

Textile Tuesday: Wild Twinches

Yes, I’m going with that name for this project as a working title.

I have made a start on my square. I might add some beads and French Knots, and maybe blanket-stitch the edge, not sure yet. I might take out some or all of the machine stitching.

(The camera never seems to capture blues correctly, the embroidery threads are darker in the middle, getting lighter towards the outside.)

So far there are 6 people interested in joining in with this project, 3 blog followers: Cathy, Margaret , Amanda and Tracey.

And two Instagram followers: Lindy and Sue

❤  Thank you everyone!  ❤

That makes 7 altogether including me. If we had one more person we could do two squares each – anyone?

If not, the 7 of us will do one, two or 3 squares each

You do not have to be a blogger, you do not have to mention this on your blog, if you blog about something completely different you are still welcome to join in. I will post to anywhere in the world.

If you are one of the 6 Wild Twinchers, please go to the Contact Me page and send me an email with your postal address and I will send you the randomly selected square(s).

Please let me know if you would like to make one, two or three squares.

You will have up to 3 months to complete it/them and send back to me.

After that, I will create a piece of textile art bringing them all together.

You do not have to stick to the colours of the fabrics and you can take the square anywhere your imagination leads you, using any technique you like – it will be fun seeing what comes back to me and an exciting challenge to see what I can do with them.

Of course, I will post progress and when the project is complete I hope it will be clear what to do with the piece. If there is a local exhibition it could go in, I might exhibit it.  Or maybe we keep it amongst ourselves and see if any of the Wild Daffodil followers would like to buy the finished piece,  with proceeds going to a Mental Health charity. I am open to suggestions.

Eeek! I am more than a little bit excited to see what happens!

Textile Tuesday Twinchies

Now I am back in the swing of blogging, I thought I would try and make most Tuesdays all about textiles. If you would like to share any of your posts about textiles, past or present, put a link in the Comments, I’d love to see them.

On Friday, I shared a project that I am making with a private group called, Stitched Together, which is a splinter group of the Stitchbook Collective.

A few of you expressed an interest in joining in with a twinchie project. This makes me very happy! I am really interested in working in a collaborative way and seeing what unfolds. So I have created another set of Twinchies for us to do together. Exclusive to Wild Daffodil followers (on WordPress and Instagram).

This time, I tried to make my squares slightly more uniform, by measuring and marking up the squares on the back

I think it worked – well – good enough for me anyway.

In Stitched Together we are working towards an exhibition to raise money for Mental Health charities. Our collaboratively created work will be exhibited and pieces will be sold to raise funds.

So what will we do with this piece made by Wild Daffodil followers?

I could put the finished article up for sale with the proceeds going to Mind, a UK Mental Health charity (the chosen charity of Untangled Threads) but I am happy to hear your suggestions.

How will it work?: Any number up to 15 (+me) can join in. I will post you one or more squares, depending on how many join. If you only want to make one, that’s fine.

We all work on our squares with stitching and embellishments in any form we like.

When done, post them back to me, within 3 months of the initial posting date.  I will put them all together to create a piece of textile art.

I am happy to post to anywhere in the world.

~

I picked one square to make a start

and will share progress as I go.

This is by no means an example of how yours ‘should’ be done –  just one way to do it in case anyone is completely at a loss. I am hoping for 16 completely differently decorated squares – let your imagination run free.

~

I am tempted to call us the Wild Twinches, but do you have a better name for the group or the project?

Edit: It is absolutely fine to join in and not mention the project on your blog. So if you blog about something entirely different, but would still like to join in, you are very welcome.

Twinchies

 

I have long wanted to make a collaborative piece of textile art and there are a few members of the Stitchbook Collective who are also keen to join in.

Between us we have lots of ideas, so it is going to be a fun challenge to decide where we go with it. Early days.

Somebody mentioned Inchies and I went to Pinterest to see what they were talking about. Cute! But I thought a one inch square is too tiny – hence Twinchies– also to be found on Pinterest.

To get us going I have been doing some experiments

A 10 inch square of calico, allows for 16 twinchies. I am making them appproximately 2.5 inches square to allow for creative eventualities.

I laid some scraps of fabric on the calico, pinned them and ran some machine stitching through, with the stitches at the longest setting

Then measuring about 2.5 inches, I cut them into strips

and then squares

As you can see – not accurately measured or cut! I know that will drive some people mad, but I like the randomness of it. Others might like to trim them to an exact square.

They will all get jumbled up in any final arrangement

The idea is to send these little fabric collages out to a few people for them to decorate as they wish. When done they will all be reunited and mounted as a piece of textile art.

I don’t know if anyone else will want to join in with this particular method, I am interested to see how my fellow stitchers react to my rather drunken twinchies.

A little bit of recycled sari ribbon will be sent with each one, to be used or not.

What do you think? Could you cope with randomly sized ‘squares’ to work on?

Have you ever made an Inchie or a Twinchie?

EDIT: This project is just for our Stitchbook Collective splinter group which is called Stitched Together (a closed group). I’m excited about Crafty Creek’s comment below, so if there are more of my blog followers out there who would like to join in with another wonky twinchie project let me know in the comments and we can see where we go with it.

In a Vase on Monday

Nigella seed heads sit in a beautiful Green Spode jug, given to me many years ago by my mother-in-law.

It sits on the turquoise crocheted mandala which I have just finished, at last! It has been sitting in the WiPs pile for far too long. I will write another post soon about the edging I made.

I am joining in with In a Vase on Monday, Cathy’s weekly meme, where gardeners from all over the world pop things in a vase for us all to enjoy.

Gardeners are a generous lot and sharing seeds and plants is one of the great joys of gardening.

Cathy, very kindly, sent me some pink dandelions seeds last year. I sowed some in the garden but none came up. This year I sowed them in a Veg Trug, and the first one came into bloom at the weekend

So pretty.

Another gardening triumph this year are these

my friend Anne’s Angels Fishing Rods, grown from seed harvested from her garden at least 6 years ago – this is the first year they have flowered. I am so proud that I have managed to keep them going for 6 years not knowing if they would ever flower or not – it is a minor miracle. They are tall and beautiful, but hard to photograph to show their full splendour, dancing in the breeze.

Friend Andy is represented in my garden in Loganberry form 🙂

I gave him a plant from my garden in about 2004, I moved a couple of times and then, when I moved to this house, he gave me a plant from his.

Then there is the gorgeous Hot Princess! My Flower of the Day, given to me by Nanacathy for my birthday.

She is such a gorgeous rose, all pink perfection with a beautiful delicate scent. She seems very happy here and has given me the confidence to try a few more roses in the border for next year.

I am also joining in with my daughter @newgatenarcissi for her  #gardencollagemonthly

She is just getting into gardening and was so thrilled that a few of you joined in last month. Thank you ❤

I chose all the pinks for my July collage.

It is a great way to feel good about the garden and ignore all the work still to be done.

Happy Gardening!

Textile Tuesday: Kunin Felt

The Stitchbook Collective, organised by Helen Birmingham of Untangled Threads couldn’t have happened at a better time. Each month a box of delights pops through my letterbox and new little textile project is born, full of learning, peaceful stitching and an opportuity to share it with the others in the Collective.

If you are looking for a small slow stitching project, I can highly recommend Helen’s kits, which come with full tutorials and all the materials needed to produce a piece of textile art.

May’s box of goodies was all about Kunin Felt and playing around with candles and heating the felt to form flowers or other shapes that took your fancy.

I was a bit stumped to start with and could not work out a design I wanted to create, so I turned to Pinterest and found this post which inspired my design.

I laid out some pieces of shiny cord included in the kit an added my own Sari waste cord which I got from YarnYarn, and couched them onto the black backing felt.

and gradually built up the design.

A fun month with bright colours and playing with fire, fabulous!

Have you been playing with textiles this month, or maybe you have some archive posts about textiles you would like to share. Just pop a link in the comments, I would love to see them.

Textile Tuesday happens on the first Tuesday of each month.