The fab thing about embroidery is the way you can contrast colours against a background and it has to be one of the most soothing crafts I’ve ever done.

Here are a couple of things I’ve made recently using embroidery. Both of them ended up being gifts.

Apologies for the quality of the photos, my camera seems to be in a bad mood all the time lately.

A birdie purse (front & back)…

and an owl bag made from a funky quilt cover…

I’m not going to waffle on for ages because I already did that over at Green Girls Global in my ‘Hand-made, eco wedding’ post but this is just a quickie to show some of the hand-made things we had.

Cotton bunting
Of course there was the cotton bunting, miles and miles and miles of it! I love it so much though that I had to have a little bit hanging up in the house. In fact its still there! I’ve already talked about that though in ‘I heart bunting‘.

Table places and favours
Some things seem like a really good idea until you actually have to do them and the favours were a bit like that. My bright idea was to make origami boxes and then put in each of them a spring bulb. Although the boxes are very easy to make, they took ages (about 55 of them) – here’s the box making tutorial. Then, to cut a long story short, when I went to put the bulbs in them I found that despite keeping them cold, dark and dry all winter they had gone soft and spongy and apparently you just can’t buy spring flowering bulbs in the spring. Anyway, dad came to the rescue with some bulbs from his own garden (even better) but then I had to re-make the little labels that went with the boxes because they originally said to plant them in the autumn! It all worked out well in the end though.

The lollipop name places were something I’d been wanting to do for a long time. I’m very lucky to have some extremely talented and creative friends and my friend Lydia (a graphic designer) designed a motif for me which I could use on the invitations, table places, menus & thank you cards.

The motif was a maypole, because the reception venue was on Maypole Green, and things that remind you of springtime. So I took elements from the motif to make little labels for each name place and printed out all of the cards and menus at home.

Cakes and flowers
Jez’s mum, another creative lady, made our wedding cake and chocolate cupcakes and she and I spent a weekend cutting out all of the little sugar flowers, hearts and butterflies for them.

On the same weekend we painted and decorated plantpots with more butterflies, hearts and flowers. The plantpots were filled with Impatiens or Busy Lizzies and I had quite surreal afternoon two days before the wedding sat in my kitchen surrounded by white flowers with the imminence of the wedding sinking in.

The outfit
Now, I know that Claire is too modest to say anything about this but it is so beautiful I have to show you. Originally with my dress I was going to wear a bolero but when I put it on it just didn’t look right. So, I decided to have a shawl instead. Having everything in white (well ivory) felt a bit strange so I wanted to add a bit of colour and I thought that embroidered spring flowers on the edges of the shawl would look really pretty. The only embroidery I’ve done before is a picture of Garfield when I was about 10 years old so I wasn’t sure how far this past experience take me in making something for my wedding 20-odd years on.

To my great relief Claire offered to do this for me and I had no doubt at all that she would do a fantastic job. There is so much detail in the leaves and flowers and the tiny beads add lovely highlights. Everyone commented on the day at how gorgeous the shawl looked and how talented Claire is and I definitely agree with them!

Claire also surprised me a few days before with a garter that she’d made all in our wedding colours. Is there no end to this lady’s skill?! Thank you Claire, I love them both x

Well, I said I wouldn’t waffle on and then I did but it was fun to look back on all the preparation and creativeness that went into our wedding.

Looking forward to yours next Claire!

As my better half took off on his motorcycle on Friday heading for the first day gathering of the Round Britain Rally, I had the chance to play with some cotton sheeting that I had dyed a few weeks ago. With the help of a few skeleton leaves, fabric crayons and metallic fabric paint, I completed this small art quilt . Machine stitched.

Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger.

The inspiration for this was a photo of a butterfly taken last year, more details here if you are interested.

This is a quiltie, 5 inch square made for the Unlimited Textiles internet swap group and finished on Tuesday, again we have a concept or word to work with, this months word being Egypt. As you can see it is a winged scarab, embroidered , painted and quilted.

Eh? Another free embroidery pattern for you to enjoy. I love budgies – almost as much as I love embroidery, so here’s a double whammy. I wanted to do this cheeky little chap in greens with some pink flowers in the background. Bought myself a new pen for transferring designs, with mixed results, so whilst the jury is out on that one I won’t either reccommend or criticise it. Have a lovely weekend guys x

Anyway, enough of that. Here are some pictures of the pieces I have been stitching at our recent meetings

ATC ( Artist Trading Card) 3.5 x 2.5 inch, mixed fibres bonded to felt and handstitched. This card has been sent to Emmy in Holland who writes Cramzy blog.

Fabric Postcard 6 x 4 inch, Felted merino and silk fibres, machine and hand stitched, beaded. Stitched for Cyber Fyber Exhibition in Columbia

These small pieces of work are perfect to stitch whilst chatting and exchanging ideas, also easy to carry to work.

By the way, I was in Arnold on Saturday and the Hospice shop there appears to have closed along with the one in Netherfield so no crafty finds for me recently.

This is the blog part of the Nottingham craft group ‘Stitched Up’ website.

Here we’ll post about our projects and the things we’ve been making at our craft group. We’ll also keep you up to date with any news or changes to our meeting time or place – so watch this space!

Stitched Up meets every Wednesday and you can find out more about where and when on our ‘About’ page.

If you’d like to join us then do come along. We’re a friendly bunch and really want to welcome new members to the group. It doesn’t matter how much craft experience you have or what your favourite type of craft is.

Get in touch with us if you’d like to know more.

We’ll look forward to hearing from you!