Read about me on Brook's blog!

I was very flattered when Brook contacted me via Craftster and asked if she could interview me for her blog. Naturally I jumped at the chance to be featured on one of my favourite blogs (and also felt totally stressed that I would give uber-dull answers). Well, Brook sent me a great list of questions and answering then was fun (and not at all stressful) you can read the interview here
Oh and while you are there be sure to check out Brooks other blog entries, she's got a great sense of humour and has also posted some seriously awesome work. Brook really knows her way around a pin-up girl (I'm referring to embroidery here!)
Big thankyou to Brook for asking me to do the interview- I promise to return the favour some day

Cupcake flash embroidery

This is for SewSew-a-gogo on the tea towel tour. The embroidery is actually on an apron which is for her daughter. Sewsew gave the group a list of her daughters likes and among them were rub-on tattoos and baking. So I customised some old school flash of a heart with a dagger through it and a snake and came up with this. It was mega fun to do, I went loco for the effects floss and used metallic, rayon and glow in the dark on this piece. And for anyone debating trying the glow in the dark floss I say go for it, it's really not too bad to work with and it really glows bright- I was most impressed!

Assisi work

I recently recieved UrsulaDiamonds towel in the TeaTowel Tour. It is the rebel towel on this tour as instead of following an embroidery theme it is evolving into a sampler of different types of needlework. When I received it it had been stitched on by IamSusie with a cross stitch design and by Timpani-Jax with a blackwork design. I was totally confused, what should I add? So I looked through some embroidery magazines for inspiration and finally a light bulb moment; cross stitch + blackwork = Assisi! Basically Assis work is a type of cross stitch where the main motifs are voided and outlined with either holbein or backstitch (I used both) I used patterns from http://www.dunmanidesigns.co.uk/

It took forever to do and to be honest I'm not sure about the out come but that's possibly as I've been staring at it for so long whilst stitching it! Also because of the symmetrical design I rotated the piece whilst working on it and this led me to make a few mistakes, the crosses don't all sit the same way. I just hope Ursula likes it. I used waste canvas which I tacked onto the towel. It was my first time using waste canvas and the result wasn't as regular as using aida but I think it would probably work better with a less 'filled in' design (or one with fewer straight lines!). It's been fun trying something new but I'm looking forward to getting back on more familiar ground with my next project, I'm sure I'll try Assisi again in the future but with a more modern twist (maybe pixel art, pacman, skulls or logos?)