Spring is in flower.

 With the warm weather I seem to have gone quite mad stitching in loads of flowers around the winter trees.

I have snowdrops, a primrose, forget-me-nots, bluebell and daisy that wreath around to the summer rose and daisies in the lawn. I didn't mean to put in so much detail or spend so long on it but sometimes the inspiration takes over. Outside the garden is in bloom with flowers, birds and bees making the most of the sunshine. This morning has begun misty but the plum tree is in blossom.

Spring concertina sketchbook.

 A few more blue tits for the spring concertina sketchbook.

Looking forward to seeing the spring blossom with all these dire warnings of snow and blizzards forecast for the end of the week.

spring green.

 A dreary week of greyness outside, everyone has a cold or the flu, but I finished the spring green piece I began last May. It is long and thin so not ideal for photography. Above the whole piece and below, details. I am going to call it 'when cow parsley edges the lanes' 34cmx 10cm.

Spring green.

This is the piece I was working on at the exhibition yesterday. A long way to go yet. The greens of the Cotswolds, lots of different textures in the fields, walls, hedgerows and copses.

Much busyness.

Much busyness at home preparing for the exhibition next week. Much busyness in the hay field,

 and in the green lanes. Insects at work, lush growth.

Much shock and grief at what happened in Manchester.
And a new iris, waiting for years for this to flower.

Spring swallow- work in progress- hand stitching.

At the end of Friday. This week has been unusual in that I have had more time to stitch. This concentrated time has paid off, I think the background is working. I introduced some light green for that fresh colour of Spring foliage. Still a long way to go but I can enjoy the quiet rhythm of stitching now I have worked out the problem solving. The Guild at 51 is having a mini exhibition on the theme of birds in Cheltenham  late July/September so it will be perfect for then.

Spring swallow- work in progress- free machine embroidery.

 At the end of Thursday- afternoon spent stitching. I thought it might be interesting to show some of the thought process. I have tried running stitch on the background all over but it was way too much.

 The blossom was drawn onto a handmade paper ( shop bought and containing cloth fibre) then some

 free machine embroidery over some areas to add a little texture and secure the linen.

 Trying some hand stitches to integrate with the machine embroidery. I want to suggest bluebells and flowers amongst foliage without getting too busy and detracting from the main focus of the bird, blossom and daisy- a strong triangular design structure. I used a grey linen that was a pair of my trousers so I like the idea of darning into the cloth, but it all may be too much. Just got to keep on, decisions at every turn.

Bluebells gone wild at the top of our garden. Little pools of colour.

First swallow of Spring.

 Back to stitching after the holidays. on a walk, I thought I saw my first swallow. So a bit of a change round. These pieces develop slowly as the story unfolds.

My mother-in-law, who lives 20 miles west of London, had apple blossom like confetti all over her lawn. (Her garden is always about 2 weeks ahead of ours.) Ours as you can see is still in bud. It won't be long. I started to put the petals in detached chain or lazy daisy stitch in the gap between.
P.S. If you didn't catch the BBC4 documentary Into the Wind with Tim Dee 12.4.17.  on a quest to capture the sound of the wind, I heartily recommend it. Inspirational, calming, slow t.v.

Winter into Spring- onto fabric

Working on from the previous posts- painting onto fabric so I can stitch this gradual change of colour.

Winter into Spring - concertina sketchbook.

 Continuing from yesterday- a new Spring concertina sketchbook ( 6.5cm x 60cm ) starting with the winter greys and slowly introducing Spring colours. It is wax resist and water colour paint and crayons.

Winter into Spring.

Yesterday in my sketchbook- a different approach to Spring emerging. The individual flowers felt rather rigid and staid, I want to explore the rebirth of Winter into Spring. Playing with voiding out the trees and colours appearing behind the trees.

More spring greens and a white bird.

 Although I promised myself not to start anything new I couldn't resist these mossy greens and some spring colours.

On Friday at Slimbridge WWT we saw a little egret ( heron family) fishing in the water. With the sunshine on its white feathers it was glorious.