I've been a bit busy lately!

I was lucky enough to be offered a place to exhibit for Eastbourne Christmas Open Houses. A really nice Art Studio and Gallery in South Street. As soon as I had accepted, of course, a virus intervened and production slowed right down for a while. In the usual way of things, as soon as I recovered and started to get ready for the exhibition I got a rush order for three red santas! Wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew, I got to work:

and made these. Lots of embroidery stitches and embellishments.

 and finally, I arrived here last weekend!

What do you do.....................

if you don't like the piece you made while you were out of your comfort zone?

You try a mount over it and see if looks any better.

 and if you still don't like it? Try a few more mounts. You can always cut it up and use the best bits!

Cranberry Juice, a bit of a mess!

I'm way out of my comfort zone with this. I work in a very figurative way, so for me this is a mess. Doesn't mean that I can't enjoy playing with it though!

I've added some more stitching and done some more needle felting, this time by hand.

 

 I got the plastic hoop a while ago. I use it to stretch fabric sometimes when I paint it. The paint washes off easily rather than soaking in to a wooden one. It's also useful for doing little bits of hand needle felting on fabric because it has these little legs:

 I made felt beads too, but I don't know if I will use them on this.

I saw the cranberry fields on a trip around New England once. I couldn't believe my eyes. The cranberries grow in water so the fields are more like shallow lakes and the time I was there the berries were ripe and floating like a bright blood-red raft on top of the water. Absolutely amazing!

There's cretan, herringbone and stem stitch on here with a few french knots.