Stitching Lovebirds And Flowers

 

Dear readers,

Whilst sending e-mails back and forth to my online Fairy Godmother this week, she and I both expressed a heartfelt gratitude for the precious friendships blogging has generated for us.  I am sure this sentiment is shared by many of you.  Shortly after my cautious foray into the world of blogging two summers ago, I came across the artist Celia's Purple Podded Peas which rapidly became one of my favourite visiting places.  I found she struck the perfect balance between chatting informatively about her garden (and beloved hens) and sharing beautfully written posts about exhibitions she had visited which would include intriguing snippets of cultural history.  And her artwork?  Well, as many of you will know, it's quite simply stunning.  It didn't take me long to purchase her famous linocut print The Birds' Wedding Day for my son Tristan's Valentine's Day birthday.  He loves it almost as much as I do!



Late this summer I received an e-mail from Celia explaining how, after years of dreaming of adapting her block print designs for a repeat pattern for fabric, she had launched her first fabric collection.  She went on to ask whether I would be interested in receiving some samples of these natural fibre materials and turning them into something special. Needless to say, I jumped at this golden opportunity.  This collection, which is based on The Birds" Wedding Day, comes in three colourways; Ruby, Sea, and Stone.  I eagerly awaited my parcel, wrapped in white tissue paper, which bore the tantalising label SEW ME. Those fabrics provoked many a daydream - what would I make with them? - and a little frustration too! I knew that I would have to wait a while before I could start snipping and sewing them as I had a fair amount of hare and mice orders to attend to first.  My frustration grew as I saw the beautiful work performed by three ladies: Gina, Tracy, and Sue with their special material bundles over the course of October.

And then my wonderful husband took our three children away to his parents' home in Brittany for the weekend and I put my hares and mice aside and got busy!  The best thing about this project was slipping out of my aesthetics and trying to slip into Celia's.  I wanted to respect her colour schemes and themes: hearts, lovebirds, flowers, and butterflies.

I started with a simple needle case, stitched from Celia's sea small sprigs in Retired Kona Cotton, which I padded with natural cotton batting and trimmed with 6mm glass beads gifted to me by the French author and artist, Facile Cécile.  I added a sprinkling of 1930s lace flowers.  I can see myself making dozens of these and adding embroidered embellishments, trimmings and beads: they are delightfully addictive.



And then I moved onto making a fabric basket - perfect for holding one of my many knitting or embroidery projects -  using, this time, Sea Hearts in linen/cotton canvas.  Celia's beautiful heart motifs beg, I believe, a squarish construction to show them off.  This could not have been more simple to create with cotton batting to keep the sides sturdy.  The satin ribbon ties provided a touch of red.  I wanted to add a finishing touch to honour Celia's style.  I chose to cross stitch one of the panels with a red heart, flower and bird pattern from the Italian designer Renato Parolin. (His work is exquisite and I have a particular fondness for his large scale monochrome intricate tree designs.)

If you would like to take a peek at Celia's fabrics (I think the Ruby collection is simply perfect for Christmas gifts; it's so festive) you can find the entire range in her Spoonflower shop.  Her artwork may be found here.

 

Thank you Celia for giving me this golden opportunity to have so much fun!

 

A bientôt,

 

Stéphanie

 

 

ps I have been thinking long and hard about this blog of mine.  My créations are keeping me very busy at the moment but I feel the need to make a few changes here, for the best I hope!  Suffice to say I have a lot of dreams and creative ideas in the pipeline.

pps I wish I could have taken these pictures in natural daylight but the weather has been very dismal and soggy these past few days.