Wild Nature

I don't know about you but I feel like hibernating at the moment. We had a lovely sunny day at the weekend but from then on it's been rain, rain and more rain. 🌂⛈ There has even been flooding in some parts of the UK already and the winter weather has only just begun. I send my best wishes to all the people affected. 💖 

It's not that I don't like the autumn or winter, far from it, I love wrapping up to go out in the cold then warming up when I get home. I love the colours of the leaves and seeing them carpet the garden and pavements. (You'll see my love of all this in the future when I complete other pieces of work I have in mind.) It's just that sometimes, when you get several gloomy days in a row, it can get you down a bit. 

So, to try to brighten things up a bit and bring back memories of spring and summer with their warm days and bright flowers budding and blooming, here's my finished piece, 'Wild Nature'. 

I began with strips of fabric in two shades of green, representing the order and neatness some people like to impose on their gardens and nature. (I don't really like to. I try to keep mine tidy but weeds are very welcome. They are only flowers and are good for wildlife. 💮😀 )
   

Then I sewed over these strips with decorative machine embroidery. 

 

On top of that, I layered a piece of organza which I printed with leaves all over. This kind of represents the more wild and unruly side of nature. Nature goes and grows wherever she wants to and doesn't seem to like being controlled. 

 

I then applied some hand stitching over this using organic swirls, again representing the, well, 'naturalness' of nature. 😀 Nature doesn't go in straight lines, but prefers circles, spirals and branching patterns. 

 

I also added some daisies, dandelions and forget me nots. As I said earlier, daisies and dandelions are just flowers, not weeds to me and brighten up everything. 

 

I sewed some leaves onto plain green chiffon with machine stitching....

 

...then cut them out.

 

I sewed them around the edge of the wall hanging to break up the lines that the sides create and to represent nature breaking out of boundaries that humans place on it.

So, that's my Spring/Summer 'Wild Nature'. I'm working on Autumn and Winter will be here soon (quite literally! 😀)

Remembrance

I just wanted to give a small tribute to all the people who sacrificed their lives in wars to fight for our freedom.

When people talk about "heroes" now they mean film stars or pop stars or sport stars, but they are just doing their jobs. The real heroes in life are the people who try to win peace in this world, who try to help others live in safer times and places.

So, to all those men and women who have fought for that, been injured or killed, thank you for what you have done so we may be free.