There are two reasons I have not blogged for a while. The first is that I am spending far too much time on my creative sketchbooks course and the second is that I currently have a broken ankle. Until late last week, it was impossible to do any sewing and quite easy to sit and draw for my course.
My ankle is now in an huge boot, which will keep it stable until I have surgery to re attach some ligaments. It's like an enormous cast, but it can come off.
Enough of that. Today I decided my sketchbook needed a cover so I started needlefelting a wrap around cover for it.
I warn you my pictures are awful as I am getting used to the new camera after my old one died a few blogs ago.
First, I wrapped some black felt around my book and marked the edges with chalk. The felt will shrink quite a bit and that is why I have cut it extra large.
I missed a few steps before this photo, but I laid out some white organza for my background and some rovings in browns to look like wood for my table top. In this photo, I have needlefelted the organza down. and added a few extra bits. I love the texture of needlefelted organza.
I thought the background could do with a bit more colour, so I put a few scraps of other coloured organza and chiffon down.
And felted them into the background.
Here's a closeup of the texture after needlefelting.
And here it is after I have needlefelted all the rovings in place.
I started free motion stitching at the bottom right with a gold thread, but I wasn't happy with it. It didn't show well and I felt the colour of the rovings was just too raw, so I unpicked it all.
Then I added some black bridal tulle over the top and started stitching again.
And here's where I got to with my stitching, on the bottom left.
and a close up of the stitching. I am quite happy with how it is going and will work on it again tomorrow, but I still have a ways to go before I get to the design I have in my head.
Make time for art!
