A Spoonful Of Sugar...

hello my lovelies...

Gosh I have so missed saying hi to you all!

Time always seems to propel faster when I want it to slow down...

Lately I have tried to regularly take a few hours out when I have got some spare time to talk with Mother Nature

and fill my sketchbooks with a few doodles...

Coming from the Fens of open land and vast skies I get the urge to reconnect with Mother Earth.

A day doodling is like taking a spoon of medicine when my soul is weary.

I always use my doodles as my inspiration when designing.

I've come to the conclusion that I was definitely born in the wrong era!

I should've been an Edwardian lady who meambled down the lanes capturing Mother Nature's

gems with my camera and notebook.

But hey... I can still be that lady just wearing my jeans and T-shirts!

I daydream all the time whilst on my walks

Something I was always getting in trouble for as a child...

I would make up stories in my head whilst walking of  animals meeting flowers, visiting different scenes.

Often I would write about them and my dream of becoming a writer has never waned... who knows one day...

Every little snippet of gorgeousness seems to capture my soul.

I'm an avid reader of all kinds of books but I especially love

the old ones (of course I hear you all say!)

Lately I have been building up my collection of Flora & Fauna...

So how do I use them when designing?

Well you may well ask the question but sadly I never have the answer 

My work is very organic and just evolves by itself...a little like a sourdough bread.

it has a life of it's own...

I start designing with thread, add in a little slow stitching and gradually add layers of texture and colour over a number of days, sometimes months or even days if I re-visit a design I find stashed away in a safe place every now and then!

Here's some of my work of late...

I never thought I would ever be lucky enough to indulge in a way of life that I hold so dear in  my heart and get paid to do it...

What ever form of crafting you lovelies indulge in, allow it to immerse itself around you like a great big hug.

Crafting is the best type of therapy needed for our minds to keep us on an even keel

in our busy society.

Indulge...

Inhale...

be still...

Enjoy.

Till the next time my lovelies...

Toodle-ooh for now!

Creating an Autumnal Design - FREE TUTORIAL

Hello my lovelies...

Following on from my last blog post, as promised, here is my tutorial on how to use Mother Nature's inspiration to help you with designing a project....

The number one question I am always asked is "As a textile artist, how do you know where to start when designing?"

the answer is simple... I don't!

I'm a firm believer in letting a design evolve in an organic way and apply this philosophy

to all my designing but I know that many crafters find this concept quite hard to follow.

If you love stitching, by hand or machine, you will want to experiment with colour, texture and of course think of your own designs.

Once you have gained confidence in your actual stitching from using a pattern you will want to move on and start designing your own projects.

I've previously written a tutorial on how to gain inspiration from Mother Nature to help you get started which you can read here

Today I am showing you how to use those ideas in the next stage of your designing...

Using elements from Mother Nature...

I hope you will gain some ideas from the following tutorial....

Creating an Autumnal Design

Last week I collected these leaves on an early morning walk not knowing quite 

what I wanted to do with them.

I simply loved the colours, the smells, the shapes and the textures!

I wanted to capture their beauty for future projects.

So, how to get started transforming them into a design?

Start by photographing each leaf in turn to show more detail and finer points to include in your design.

 Take time to look carefully at the colours, the shades and how the pattern emerges together

The next step is to capture your leaves actually onto paper for future reference.

You do not need to be an artist to do this....

Using a normal HB pencil and piece of plain white paper, simply trace a fine line around each leaf in turn to help you become familiar with the shape of each leaf.

Please do not worry about being exact because you can add a little more detail once you start shading.

You may want to only use the outline of your leaf for a particular design rather than a full leaf so try experimenting with ideas.

I like to use Derwent Artist's drawing pencils but you can use any medium you prefer.

You may prefer to use felt -tips (for a firmer outline), charcoal or even watercolour pencils

that you can later add more detail to.

The process is simply to take things back to basics and look at the shape of the leaf

and how the shading alters the actual look of the leaf.

Allow yourself permission to take time and focus on the leaf itself.....

These doodles will form the foundation of your designs however you decided to use them.

You can keep them as a visual reference and if you combine them with your original photos

you will have a choice of designs.

I chose a few of my leaves to combine to compare shapes and designs....

Here are a few questions that may help you decide what to look for when doodling...

Do you want to capture the glossiness of the surface?

Have you looked carefully at the leaf veins?

How many colours will you need to use?

Don't forget you DON'T have to use the exact colouring...

It is your interpretation.

You are simply using this as part of deciding how you would use your leaves in your design.

There are no right or wrong ways!

Even if you have no idea of how your leaves will be used in a design as yet you will have your doodles in your reference library that you can use time and time again....

You may want to use them for 

- hand embroidery

- free motion embroidery

- machine embroidery

-applique

- mixed media collage

- card making

I have used my designs on a piece of calico with some free motion embroidery

which I may make into a bigger piece of textile art

You can see that I have used the actual size of the leaves but you can of course reduce or 

increase your sizes to suit your project.

I often draw with my enbroidery threads creating shading as I work but you may want to work on top of your designs if you have maybe painted them onto fabric.

Of course, you will need to make sure you use washable markers if you intend to launder your actual project.

If you would like some more inspiration for Autumnal projects you can check out my Pinterest board

here

I hope these few simple rules will help

when starting to design...

I would love to see some of your lovely projects...

Happy stitching...

Tilly

x x x