What I found in my scrap box

Number One

I realise that I never showed you this while It was a work in progress – not sure why! 

Under all those stitches are a couple of experiments. I stamped paper with masking fluid [yuck] and then painted the paper with transfer paints. When it was dry I rubbed off the masking fluid and transferred the colour to needlepoint canvas – as suggested by Jill Carter in her book ‘New Canvas Work’. It shouldn't work because the canvas is cotton – but it does, perhaps because of the dressing on the canvas.

I made a second transfer onto some mauve-with-silver-bits sizoflor. And then I forgot about it, until my last tidy-up, when I decided to sort–of-Bargello it, with the sizoflor layered on top of the canvas. I’m rather pleased with it, especially as it also used up several skeins of embroidery floss, which I rarely use. [So why have I got so much?].

And it’s purple.

Guess what? It’s going to be a book cover.

Number Two

And so is this. This was made for a challenge on a new group I joined, ‘Dye-Art-Group’. The topic was ‘New Beginnings’.

After I took the photo of the daisies I showed you a few days ago I began to think about the way they keep coming back no matter how often we mow the bit of chalk downland we call a lawn – which seemed appropriate for the challenge. The background is a piece I made years ago, experimenting with layered fabric, Xpandaprint and acrylic paint, which ended up in the scrap box because it was so bright.

I stamped it with my little flower-shaped eraser and  added some French knots, using some hand */999 –[additional input from Quality Control walking over the keyboard] as I was saying, using some hand-dyed thread that was supposed to be variegated but ended up lemon yellow with very occasional spots of orange.

It is now  waiting to have some pages added.

I feel very economical.

Today's alphabet photo is C for canvas work – and assistant typists.

Canvas work was my first love in embroidery but I rarely do it any more – somehow it feels too easy, which is a stupid way to think. Especially as I inherited the stashes of two other needle pointers and bought what looks like most of  a bolt of canvas in a charity shop for £5. Got to love charity shops.