Renewed determination

Hi!!! I'm back, it's been a long time. I am reluctant to wish you all the usual 'happy new year' stuff. I'm not being mean it's just that wishing it today implies I don't care the rest of the time and anything I wish you today is wished 365 days a year, so as far as I am concerned it's thursday and I hope this thursday is as good as the rest of the days that lie ahead! You will probably know that I have been on holiday since before christmas. Well I had plans, boy did I have plans, unfortunately my plans weren't on the same astral plane as flu. I was laid up for a little while and didn't achieve all my aims. It's not all bad though. We had a lovely christmas, special recipe avoid the sneeze turkey and so many gifts, wow, am I one spoilt lady. You know how when you have children they always have the biggest pile of presents......not in this house... it was me. I may take some time to share my gifts with you sometime but until then I must send special thanks to blogworld, namely Ulla and Kaija, such loveliness in a packet!!

I have been doing a lot of thinking this past couple of weeks, (more angst, sorry!!) It revolves around ambition, work, creativity, you know the theme. Now don't get me wrong, in terms of work, proper tax paying kind of work, my job is pretty good. If you have to go out to work it's probably one of the best places to do it. However, I had a dream. I still have a dream, a dream that I can make a living from my embroidery. The fact that I now have to go out to work instills in me a sense of failure, I can't make a living from my enbroidery. I had this conversation with a very good friend of mine and she said, ' you haven't failed, your time will definitely come'. So I have shaken myself down, kicked myself up the backside and ralised that only I can make this happen. Use my new found wealth (after the taxman has taken his cut) for the purpose I originally intended, promotion. So I have plans which will become clearer over the coming weeks. I am going to do this, it will work, I will be able to stay home and create again, stay tuned!

Now back to embroidery. Remember this? Well the lining is now damp stretched and construction of the final piece is about to begin! I have plans again, this weekend fingers crossed.

Then there was this, I really enjoyed the process of heavy hand embroidery as opposed to minimal stitch and then manipulation of the fabric. I also liked the combination of contemporary linen alongside traditional process, the appliqued petals in more modern cloth alongside traditional embroidery which led to this new piece. This is now damp stretched awaiting an edge, a back and a twist.

In this image you can see the linen peeping out from the cutwork hole. I love here how you can see the freshly sprayed water on the pins. The continuous line of stitch that are visible are tacking stitches, they are removed now, I put them there to hold the pleats while I damp stretched.

This piece is only half made. I intended to use it as an edge for the new swaddling band. When I tested that option last night though I'm not sure anymore. It doesn't have that 'thing' I'm looking for. I do like it on it's own though, I have basically heavily machine stitched a piece of silk muslin. It has a really good surface texture, ideal for stitch and I think I may use it in other work so it's not a total waste. The last image shows the back of this piece where the machine stitch is more obvious.

Finally!!!!! haven't I gone on and on today??? I managed to find the time to play on flickr!! Do you like my mosaic? I love it and I have a feeling there may be many more of these in the future.

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