Holidays over, back to work

This is where we were for a few days. It was an inspiring place  - for light, colour and texture. Work, as in making a living work, is demanding at the moment, but tomorrow I intend to DO MY OWN TEN MINUTES (see previous posts) and will post the results. It's a promise.

PS One picture tonight - a postcard, made and sent to Emma at A Little Bit of Everything for her 50th birthday. I was playing with techniques of fusing fabric with a soldering iron.

I've never done any swaps like this before, and she had sent me a lovely postcard in her own distinctive style - one of approx fifty she has made and sent out to blog friends all over the world - which must have been quite a challenge.

She is now receiving daily a whole host of gems of work in return. What a good idea to mark a special birthday. She is posting photos on her blog if you want to have a look.

Sorry Emma, I haven't photographed the postcard you sent me yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

PPS Here is Emma's postcard to me. A collage of paper, fabric and stitching with stamped details. Very reminiscent of sea and shore, I think, and apt because she lives on the beautiful Isle of Skye.

Just Marking Time

Progress this week has been slow - well non existent, due to the pressures of the business. It always follows the same pattern. The first few months of the year are quite calm and quiet, and then we hit May and it's as if the old machinery is whirring into life again. Our shop orders start to pile up and our own shop starts to get busy and on top of all that we are preparing for our summer and autumn of craft shows.
But I'm trying very hard to keep the thought in my head that ten minutes a day to do my own personal work is achievable.
Granted the past week or two has been unusual. We are going to have a small holiday, starting tomorrow, but that has meant working doubly hard to make sure every order currently on the books is made and shipped out before we go. It just means that I can go away with a clear head.
All jobs are now done and we're up to date.
I'm going off up north for a few days of walking and fresh air, and hopefully I'll come back with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Considering the next step

Today I've been thinking about how to incorporate this little bit of stitching into something bigger.
This book - Indian Textiles - has been inspiring me of late, especially the idea of strong colour on a dark background.
So I went back to it to see what I could  do to link small areas of intense colour and large areas of solid dark.
I'm still not sure about the eventual shape of the stitched area, but I quickly put together a border of squares in related colours which I think I might apply alongside in some way.
Hopefully this will lead on to another area of plain interspersed with some repeated motifs from the embroidery.
I should have planned all this from the start, but I'm still finding my feet again.

And A Little Bit More

I managed a few more stitches today and tried a photo but still wasn't happy with the colour repro. So this is another scan.
Tempting though it is just to keep on stitching, I need to do a bit of drawing to plan the next stage.
I have a feeling that this wants to be just a part of a larger piece.

It's Growing

A few more stitches tonight.
I think I'll need to take some photos in daylight tomorrow. This is a scanned image and the colour isn't true - it's even brighter in real life.

Circles continued

Working from the circles sketch again. I had an hour or two free yesterday to make a few stitches and chose a piece of wool flannel cut from a pair of charity shop trousers to work on. It is a very dark charcoal grey, almost black, and I was simply drawing designs with stranded cotton and felt scraps.
I think this one will progress a bit further.

Ten Minutes

It was actually nearer twenty minutes today ( see previous post for explanation).

After the Holiday

Things have been different over the past couple of weeks. Normal routine was suspended while we were away at the Aviemore Trade Show for four days. And then we had a family weekend over the bank holiday to welcome home our daughter and son in law who had been travelling round the world for the past ten months.
So, no new developments as far as embroidery is concerned.
But I was reading a interview with Julia Caprara ( made a few years ago before her death) where she said that with her busy and full professional life she usually only had time to stitch for ten minutes a day. However if she made time for those precious ten minutes every day, she was surprised just how much she could achieve.
I think I could manage at least ten minutes every day. No excuse.
My goal is to have  a start made by the end of this week. Basing some ideas on Indian textiles as a starting point.
Ten minutes a day, starting tomorrow.