A queer deer/Verfilztes Reh

And: having fun is surely the most important condition above all! Allowing yourself to be playful, curious, experimenting - without intention of achieving anything - helps a lot. I know, not every day gives birth to this kind of mood - but if you feel it coming, give it a chance to prosper.

At first, I just wanted to try punching bits of novelty yarns onto the fabric - and as I saw these awkward colours filling up the cloth, I realized it would never end up looking very natural anyway.

It looked queer, somehow - and when the rhyme struck me, it was obvious that this deer needed a pair - no, two pairs, of course - of red high-heels as well ... and some lipstick ...

I positioned the lengths of yarn and the wool with a hand felting needle, then punched it once more with the embellisher. The material for the antlers is glossy, hand-dyed thread.

(German summary: Und was am allerwichtigsten ist, ist die Freude - daß man einfach Spaß hat, an dem, was man macht! Daß man sich traut, zu spielen, herumzuexperimentieren, auszuprobieren - ohne unbedingt ein Ergebnis als Ziel vor Augen zu haben ... Hier habe ich verschiedene Effektgarne erst mit der Filznadel befestigt, dann mit dem Embellisher gepuncht.)

It's foggy, deer!/Hirsch im Nebel

Having a bit of time is another item needed for attracting the flow of creativity.

As time constantly seems to be scarce, I'm stealing it from household/garden chores in the mornings, when the kids have left for school. And sometimes a bit in the evenings too - if at least one kid happens to go to bed before I do ...

But then, again - sometimes I manage to get a glimpse of new ideas in my mind, while my hands are busy doing everyday duties ... nowadays, however, I have to get hold on a piece of paper and jot down at least a few lines, to ensure I'll remember it later on ...

This deer has a soft surface - almost like fur. It's pencil roving and carded wool which I punched onto the cloth with my embellisher.

(German summary: Ein bißchen Zeit braucht man einfach auch, für die neuen Ideen - ich stehle sie mir frühmorgens, wenn die Kinder außer Haus sind, manchmal auch abends. Und manchmal kommen die Ideen auch so, während die Hände mit irgendeiner anderen Arbeit beschäftigt sind,

Dieser Hirsch ist streichelweich, aus kardierter Wolle im Strang, trockengefilzt mit dem Embellisher direkt auf dem Stoff.)

Red deer crossing/Rotes Kreuzreh

'Not doing it properly' - but bending the rules - is another way of setting creativity free, I think.

Take cross-stitch for example. We've all been taught to sew it neatly row-wise, stitches in one direction only, same size allover. What if you don't?

If you just regard them as stitches, ment for filling a space, covering a background, producing a colour field or even just lighter and darker areas - then it doesn't really matter what size they are, in which direction they're looking, if they're overlapping or not. On the contrary: variety will add further interest.

The yarn I used for this deer is real recycling stuff: I found it when enravelling an old cord and tassel ...

(German summary: Einen Stich nicht akkurat auszuführen kann manchmal sehr belebend sein :-). Wenn man z.B. den Kreuzstich als Flächenfüller, Bodendecker, Farbenmaler sieht, ist die Stichlänge, -größe, -anordnung plötzlich sehr nebensächlich ... Die Fäden, die ich hier verwendet habe, sind übrigens hauptsächlich der spannende Inhalt einer alten Kordel ...)

It's just another cat, my deer!/Raubtierhirsch

Funny enough, it seems as if the scrappiest of scraps boost my imagination the most!

This is today's deer, where I had to assemble three outline patches (and even add a bit of additional drawing) to achieve one animal.



Here you can see the three fragments joined:



I found a piece of wildcat fabric in my stash and decided to use it for the body.



Then I took a clear plastic envelope for tracing the outlines - this way I could see where to position the eye best:



The beads on neck and back are not only embellishments, but also help holding the fabrics together.

And as I seem to be in a creative upswing right now, I made this ring for myself today as well - it's basically a piece of black rubber, some natural beads (coral and bone) and a platinum covered metal bar with a removable knob.



(German summary: Je anspruchsloser die Reste, umso mehr wird anscheinend meine Experimentierlust angestachelt! Drei Reststücke und etwas Raubtierstoff bilden heute das Gerüst meines neuen Hirsches - dann noch ein paar Perlen und Metallpailletten für's Geweih ... Ja, und der Ring kam heute auch noch zustande: Gummi, Naturperlen und ein Steg mit abschraubbaren Verschluß.)

Elk in action/Fortlaufender Elch

And I wondered what would happen if I'd use a black/white paper cord for outlining this elk (or moose) ...

I couched it down with one of my hand-dyed cotton threads -



- and then grabbed a Japanese newspaper I had at hand :-) ... and pasted it down with some napkin glue.



*** to be continued ***

By the way, go see these inspirational YouTube videos about Léa Stansal and her overwhelming fabric work: here is the first one, here the other one! - And for those who don't speak French: it's well worth just looking at the pictures ...

(German summary: Diesmal hat es einen Elch getroffen - ich habe die Konturen mit einer schwarzweißen Papierschnur 'nachgezogen', und diese mit einem selbstgefärbten Baumwollfaden festgestickt. Ich habe auch kleine Stücke Zeitungspapier mit dem Serviettenkleber an den Stoff geklebt ...

Außerdem noch zwei Links zu YouTube und der fantastischen Textilkünstlerin Léa Stansal!)

Oh deer! Fabric Wildlife/Rotwild im Musterwald

A friend sent me some scraps of a cotton fabric, which had the outlines of different deers printed on it.

And like in a drawing book, these outlines just asked to be filled in with colour ...

I chose strands of cotton threads and some light weight fabrics from my stash palette - the pictures show work in progress, of course.





Furthermore, these gorgeous linen-blended wool strands are hand-dyed by Dornröschen and now waiting for me in a basket beneath my spinning wheel ...



And - I've bought myself a new pair of shoes ... running gear, almost like walking barefoot!



(German summary: Die Konturen dieses Stoffes haben richtiggehend nach Farbe und Inhalt gerufen - ich verwende Moulinégarn und dünne Stoffreste dazu. - Spinnfutter von Dornröschen - diesmal eine neue Mischung, mit Leinen! Und dann habe ich mir noch ein paar neue Schuhe gekauft ... fast wie barfuß laufen!)

Stitching flowers/Blumenstickerei

I've done a bit of stitching again lately - actually it's a combination of different techniques:

first, I used my embellisher to needle-felt some scraps of different novelty yarns to the pre-felted green background, then I did some embroidery on it, partly with woolen threads, partly with hand-dyed cotton ones - then I used my embellisher on it again - and finally I added a couple of fabric mini yo-yos, which I made out of fabric scraps and then sew on to the center on some of the flowers.

I'm not yet quite sure how to proceed with this - maybe I'll use it for a book cover.

(German summary: Ein kleines Werkstück mit einer Kombination verschiedener Techniken - Trockenfilzen mit dem Embellisher, Handstickerei und ein paar Mini-Rosetten, die ich mit dem Yo-yo-maker gemacht habe - der Hintergrund ist ein Stück grüner Vorfilz.)

Pin cushion ring/Fingernadelkissen

I made a great invention today ... a pin cushion ring! (Yes, I know, there might be others - but this is mine! :-)

The idea struck me when I was about making a pin cushion on a jam jar - as a matter of fact, I am one of the few persons out there who has hardly got any decent pin cushions, although I sew regularly, both by hand and on the machine.

And when I'm sitting outside in my garden, sewing or embroidering, I never know where to put those cut-offs - don't want to throw them on the ground, neither put them in my coffee cup ... Therefore I need the jar: first to hold thread and scissors, then to collect the cut-off threads and fabric snippets.

Both pin cushions were glued on with a hot glue gun - one to the jar lid, the other one to a simple copper ring I had laying around.



And while working, I thought I could as well make a third one - it's a personal version of the flower pin cushion, I just added an extra cushion on the top, in order to separate the sewing needles from the normal pins.

(German summary: Und ich dachte, ich hätte eine neue Erfindung gemacht, mit dem Fingernadelkissen ... :-)! Auf jeden Fall habe ich jetzt sogar drei verschiedene Nadelkissen parat - jedes erfüllt seinen besonderen Zweck auf unterschiedlicher Weise.)

A Japanese Knot Bag/Eine japanische Knotentasche

I found a nice vintage fabric in my stash recently, and decided to sew one of those Japanese knot bags out of it.



For the lining, I used a scrap piece of striped cotton fabric, which had been in my stash for ages at well.

I'm quite pleased with how it looks, but as the vintage fabric I used is rather heavy, I think I'm going to make the long strap a bit more narrow so that it will be laying smoother on my shoulder.



I would also like to make another one, lengthening the strap to reach diagonally over the chest and using a medium weight cotton fabric instead.

If you would like to sew a knot bag yourself, the pattern I found when googling about it is here - the explications are in German, but with clear pictures and a scale pattern. You'll find a smaller 'handbag' version with instructions in English here.

(German summary: So, jetzt habe ich mir auch eine japanische Knotentasche genäht - ein genial einfacher Schnitt, geringer Stoffverbrauch - man könnte auch Reste zusammennähen - und sehr praktisch!)