Time flies...

Time flies...

I made this picture last night. I had wanted to make it all week but work needed to take precedence.

The idea came from this picture I took earlier in the year.

To make the picture I chose a piece of handmade felt in  a blue green colour way.   I placed the piece of stockinette tube to be the stem for my dandelion clock. Next I used  the plaited cotton thread to represent the grass. I wanted to give the illusion that the back of the picture was in focus but the foreground is out of focus. I carded three shades of green merino tops to blend the colours then laid them at the base of the picture. I secured the wool by needle felting along the bottom and sides. I created the dark centre to the dandelion clock by needle felting a ball of brown merino tops. I hand stitched the clock with a single strand of white embroidery floss. I had originally planned to stitch the entire clock but decided to make it look as if some of the seed had flown.  I then embroidered the individual seeds in the corner, as you can see in the detail below.

Next I stitched the white and pearl seed beads to represent a cow parsley type of flower. I joined these using a tiny chain stitch.

                                                                                 
Finally I decided to add a snail to the foreground. I used a pretty green and white glass bead and added the snail's 'body' using three strands of pale grey embroidery floss.

                                                                               
Had I  taken longer with this piece, I feel that my execution would have been better. However, I am pleased that I was able to realise the idea in textiles and I have definitely honed my skills through making it.

Our green and pleasant land.

The beauty of the English countryside has never been more apparent to me. All around me the cow parsley lace edges trim the velvet green of the fields. The shorn sheep seems to glisten purest white as the scudding clouds allow the sun momentary access to the fields. Spring Wood plays hide and seek behind curtains of rain. When the weather really closes in I cannot see much beyond the garden fence, it is as if we live on the edge of the world. The field beside the house rolls like the sea, as the crop moves like waves before a storm.
Yesterday, the little birds fluttered around the seed, today they are nestled in the grass gleaning the fallen morsels. The hedgerow is adorned with rich pink hawthorn blossom and the fragrant platters of elderflower.

Gooseberries and elderflower are a happy union of flavour and scent. Dunk the flowers in the still warm stewed gooseberries, the flavour improves and the delectable juice is decorated by the tiniest and prettiest flowers.
Even as the wind roars around the house, sneaks down the chimney, whistles at keyholes,
the ancient fields and hedges hunker down, for all the world declaiming, we've been here too long to be bothered by you.