Doodling.

I have been whiling away the hours as I rest a very uncomfortable leg, just playing around with some of my sari strips and various threads and embellishments.   I had no planned design and simply bonded random strips from the bundle below onto a bit of old sheeting before starting to stitch.   Nothing was measured - it's all done by eye so everything is a bit casual.

I punched out the fleur de lis shapes from fabric paper left over from another project to fill the spaces above and below the scrap of lace.   The little circular metal object came from a craft shop and sits on a brassy gold strip cut from a tomato paste tube decorated with a built in stitch on my sewing machine, but with no thread in the needle and this in turn sits on a strip of fabric paper.   I might add some machine stitching to hold those frayed edges in place but use it in a very free way.

The little squares are again cut from fabric paper and stitched down with their angles filled with two fly stitches and a chain stitch.   I couched a metallic ribbon down either side of the lace and added simple running stitches.

More running stitches and fly and chain in this section.

It's still very much a work in progress as is the second piece.

Here I worked with the green bundle, again bonding the strips onto sheeting.

I added two strips of gold ribbon and fastened them down with an automatic 'ladder' stitch which is great for working raised chain band onto by hand.    Paper punched leaves are stitched on top and there is much more to come.  I quite like the texture provided by these 'threadbare' sections.

Both will eventually become book covers and I am having a lovely time just adding bits here and there until I think I've done enough.   I'm quite sure that this is not an approved way to work but it's very therapeutic and as neither piece will ever be exhibited, there is no stress attached.

N.B.  Another post in under a week!!