Friday, January 8, 2010

Creating what I love in 2010...

I love handwork; cross stitch, embroidery, needle felting, crewel work, punch needle, you name it. If it involves using your hands to create with needle, thread, and fiber I love it. I have also been experimenting with collage, but I have was never really satisfied with my results. Then one day I decided I was going to add some cross stitch to my collage...

I was truly pleased with the way this turned out. I put it on the wall above my desk at work. (The cross stitch design is from the Feb. 2009 issue of Cross Country Stitching, no designer's name was given but it was designed for Jeremiah Junction.) I keep trying to think of things to create that will be quick and easy. But the reality is I really love doing handwork, and that just takes time. There is no "quick" way to cross stitch!

I have been embroidering on painted dryer sheets for some time. It's cheap, creative, and very versatile. I can embroider a design on a dryer sheet, (I usually fuse my painted dryer sheets to light weight interfacing, this gives them a little bit of weight) then cut that design out and incorporate it into a collage, or sew it to fabric, or frame it, there are tons of possibilities...

This is one I did with a picture of Fiona and Alexa playing dress up. I even took little scraps from the dresses they had on in the picture and added them to the collage. I then embroidered different designs that reminded me of the two of them; a tiara and a wand, a guitar (thanks to Hannah Montanna!), and of course a mirror... This too hangs on the wall above my desk at work.

There is just something about the stillness of hand stitching that eases my mind. I love nothing better than to get up in the wee hours of the morning, when all is still, and sit, with my coffee and do some hand stitching. It doesn't matter whether I'm working on cross stitch, embroidery or needle felting, it's all wonderful. Here's to a Blessed 2010...

5 comments:

softearthart said...

Hi, from New Zealand, your art is so cool, Cheers Marie

softearthart said...

Thanks a lot,for looking at my blog. cheers Marie

Heather said...

these are lovely! I love the look of cross stitch, sadly I have always lacked the patience to do it myself!~

The Other Side of Me said...

Hi Cassie,

These are fantastic. I like how you added your own love of cross stitch to this collage. It makes it uniquely yours. Keep going and experimenting. Your art is great> I look forward to your new creations.

Tammy

Suzanne said...

Hi Cassie, these are so very creative, the cross-stitched pieces add so much to the collages, love them!