WIP - bones

This is what is in my hoop at the moment- a infant skeleton with a disarticulated skull. I know some people might find this image macabre or maybe even violent but it's just an anatomical diagram that shows how all the bits fit together and I think that makes it really fascinating and beautiful. The finsihed piece will be this image in a mirror image with one side filled in baby pink and the other baby blue so yes, I am playing on how we react to images like this, especially those of babies but if it works out the way I envisage it I think the end result will be very striking.
I would love to know what people think of this as it's not like my usual embroideries but I feel quite excited about it, so please your feed back-I won't be offended if you hate it!

bee hummingbird embroidery

Bee hummingbirds are the worlds smallest bird- 5-6cm from the tip of their beak to the end of their tail. I made this for jessicakelly for a Phat Quarter swap on the theme of 'tiny'. He may only be small but I packed in loads of different stitches and detail by using only 1 strand of floss.
Playing with scale enabled me to really play around with different stitches. I often try and make my birds as lifelike as possible so it was good fun to get creative with some pattern and I like the effect. I'm not sure how this would work on a bigger scale but it would be interesting to try- the textures would look nice in crewel wool in linen I think.

another beetle cushion

This cushion was made as a Christmas gift for my brother. I have made something very similar before but this time I stitched different insects and made them quite big. I didn't get very good photos as I just quickly snapped some photos before wrapping it!

2013 : resolutions and a look back

Happy New Year

Here's to a crafty new year. This year I will make friends with my sewing machine. I want to try making a quilt and also make some embroidered wall hangings  I'm also going to try and blog more often and add tutorials and free patterns to my blog. 

I have also started a new embroidery piece that I am really excited about, it's quite different from my recent embroideries - will post some in progress shots when I'm a bit further along. doing something different has got the ideas flowing and I have a couple more projects planned out. Looking back over the past year I have done so much embroidery and improved my technique no end. Here are my personal faves from the last year:

I got to be an &stitches cover star (well my koi embroidery did) plus was lucky enough to have my stumpwork sparrow and boxing hare featured on the blog, and was featured on mrxstitch and on the urban threads blog. I even had my stumpwork sparrow included in the featured projects on Craftster. I've made new online crafty contacts who are inspiring and supportive in equal measures and I get to chat with them thanks to twitter. Phew, it's been a busy year. I wonder what 2013 will bring ...