paint and stitch

Maybe its the gloom of winter affecting my state of mind, but I headed out to the garden to take photos of snowdrops, spring bulbs etc and was drawn to the withered foliage of last summers plants. Needless to say they have all been left by the lazy gardener (me) who never got round to tidying them away.
Some Shasta daisy heads, Japanese anemones, lavender and some unknown perennial. I thought they looked quite beautiful.

 

Feeling a little artistic, I tried to catch the last of the daylight to do a quick watercolour of the Japanese anemone.

 

 

...hardly a masterpiece but so much fun nevertheless.

 

 

I haven't done much free machining recently so thought this piece of Basil would lend itself nicely to some stitching.

 

 

Firstly, I drew a sketch outline with a water erasable marker on heavy weight

bonded curtain lining which is firm enough to avoid using a hoop. I then stitched with brown and then black thread. The background colour was added after sewing with a very wet brush and some colour from the Koh-I-Noor palatte. The watery paint also removed the original guide marks. 



 

Bye for now, Ali.