Tuesday 7 September 2010

Miscellaneous.

Congratulations Tom! I made this card, in great haste, this morning to congratulate one of our grandsons who took part in and completed the Bristol Half Marathon at the weekend. He ran for the charity Help for Heroes, hence the motif on the card. I hope he raises lots of money for them. I'm sure someone will notice that I have placed the colours in the wrong sequence, having promoted the army and demoted the navy - sorry chaps.

I then went on to fasten my latest batch of machine embroidered trees to my Quarry piece. Do you think I've done enough? I've looked at it so much I can't see it any more but I think it is finished.

Then I allowed myself to play with the first page of my next project - the Sacred Herbs book. This first herb is mugwort. I don't think I had even heard of it until I started looking into the nine sacred herbs. It's astounding that between them these nine simple plants had the power to treat just about every illness known to man. Note that I said 'treat' and not 'cure', however, they must have done some good or they'd never have been so revered. I had already written the description of each herb and collected a few bits and pieces for decorating the pages. The colour here looks dismal but in fact is a light, warm beige with hints of soft green and dusty peach. I may add a small medallion at each corner if I can come up with something suitable. I have used my favourite automatic stitch with raised chain band worked over it as the edging, and will do the same for each page. The medieval text is a torn strip from a colour photocopy and the woodcut illustration is a black and white photocopy which I have aged with a Distress Ink pad whose colour is named Old Paper. I am not worried about copyright as I am making it for myself and it will never be sold. I think the next herb on the list is plantain - those lovely 'quilted' leaves.

10 comments:

Totalfeckineejit said...

The herb book is going to be magical and how did you make those materials look so like a quarry!? Fab work all round Heather!

Gina said...

My eldest son did the Bristol half marathon too! Your quarrry piece looks fabulous.

Heather said...

Thankyou TFE and Gina for your kind and encouraging comments. On more than one occasion I have wondered whether it was worth continuing with the quarry piece but something made me keep going! Congrats to your son too Gina - it's no mean feat to run a half marathon.

Robin Mac said...

Heather, I am so glad you continued with your quarry piece, it is fabulous. Congrats to your grandson also, that is a a huge effort. Your next book is going to be fascinating too. When you first listed the herbs I had to google them to find out what you were talking about! cheers, Robin

Maureen said...

You've been busy Heather, all look good but I do like the look of the sacred herbs book especially.

Maggi said...

I just love the herb book. I am so glad that you are going to keep it for yourself - it is too beautiful to even think about giving away.

Jackie said...

I love your quarry piece, fantastic.

Linda Vincent said...

Your herb pages look wonderful Heather....thats going to be a fascinating book.
Linda x
PS You would love Hardwick Hall - it has an amazing herb garden with many old varieties.

Jackie said...

Me again..I did almost offer the sewing machine man B&B but he was very reluctant.

Carol Q said...

suddenly realised I had forgotten to comment on this post Heather(!) I thought that the number of trees looked fine and balanced. I know exactly what you mean about having looked at it so much you can no longer be ojective. Your sacred herbs project looks wonderful. I particularly like the automatic stitch you have used round the edge of the page. don't think my machine does that one - or if it does, I haven't discovered it yet LOL