I wonder if you've been around long enough to remember when I started trying out a new recipe each Tuesday and posting it here, because I'd got in a rut with my daily cooking? Anyway, it didn't last long - first I kept trying out recipes that didn't seem worth sharing, unspectacular as they were, and then I gave up trying-out and slunk back off into my cookery rut...
Anyway, I have a different sort of try-out to share today.
I signed up for a swap (something I've never done before) with Very Berry Handmade. It's a textile, artist trading card swap - I thought it would be fun to try 'something new', which incidentally is also the theme for the cards.
So I have been trying-out.
I hadn't realised how small ATCs usually are - I was thinking postcard size, but then read the instructions and found out I should be making something 2.5" by 3.5", roughly playing card size.
But as I like small, this suited me fine.
First I seized some tiny Liberty scraps. I have a sugar bowl full of teeny-tiny bits right next to my sewing machine - can't bear to chuck 'em! Ali, who is organising the swap has a Folksy shop full of small pieces of Liberty Tana lawn, so it seemed appropriate to start with these.
Eloise for the sky
Claire-Aude for the garden
Betsy for the windows
Wiltshire for the door
One whose name I've forgotten for the roof!
A piece of French vintage mattress cover for the house itself
Machine- and hand-stitching were added, plus a tiny shell button for part of the flowerhead.
Hmmmm...Not sure.
Let's try something else...
This time I printed a little saying about new things onto a scrap of linen, then hand-stitched it on to a bigger piece of old linen, before embellishing with some rainbow embroidery. I think the amazing double rainbow I had seen a few days before had seeped into my brain...
Hmmmm again. Began to wonder if I should have joined in with this! Decided to have a look at the Flickr group to see if I was vaguely on the right lines. Worried some more...
Had one more go - a celebration of fabric selvedges!
Still at the Hmmmm stage...
I have got to be ready to get one in the post by next Monday, so would be trying-out for the rest of the week, except that I am going away for a few days on Thursday. So I have this evening and little bits of tomorrow to have a dazzling, light-bulb moment and come up with an amazing idea. Why does inspiration disappear when you most need it?
