If you don't like flowers, don't look!

I grew these little zinnias from seed and they have flowered for weeks on end. The plants had begun to look really scruffy and have now been pulled up, but I just had to save these last few flowers and enjoy them a little longer. I love their bright yet soft colours and have taken off one or two dried heads to save the seed for next year. I hope I get the same colours again.

Don't faint with shock - I have been drawing!! I was looking at Frances Pickering's book - she creates the most delightful little fabric and paper books and is a very talented artist. I was thinking as I admired her work what an advantage she had in being able to draw so well and then I thought 'It's no use sitting there wishing you could draw, just have a go'. So I did and above is the first thing I tried. I copied it from a Gardener's World magazine and think is is a cone flower - echinacea - but mine isn't 'coney' enough. I drew directly onto a piece of the coloured paper left from the transfer dyed papers I did a little while back. I have heard that colouring pages before drawing takes away the terror of a blank white page and wonder if this is what helped. I then coloured my drawing with water soluble pencils and crayons before bonding the paper onto thin fabric. I used the fabric from my less desirable leaf prints so nothing has been wasted. Then after being so thrifty, I stitched simple running stitches to accentuate the petals using Stef Francis silk threads. I have a small box of silk threads which I look at from time to time and then decide not to use them in case I waste them on something that doesn't turn out well. This time I went for it and used them - because I'm worth it!!

I copied this little daisy design from our Portmerion dessert bowls. It looks rather flat as it is waiting to have stitching added to it, and there are more designs in the pipeline.

I think these little pieces are a breakthough and hopefully will see the end of my artist's block, which is a great relief as it has lasted nearly two years. During that time I have dabbled at various things but they have all been projects set out by someone else and not original ideas thought up by me. I am hoping to make enough of these 'pages' to become a fabric book. The title will be 'Earth laughs in flowers' and I have plans to use the flower stitcher foot to decorate the cover.

My tutor's computer is back in working order again so I have just posted another batch of work on my other blog 'Inspiripedia'. Poor Viv - it must have taken her days to reload everything and get set up once more.