Absence again.....

A long silence deserves an explanation!  In part this is due to another bout of anxiety attacks which seem to drain me of any creativity or desire to "make" anything. I hate it, loath the absence of ME and resent how pathetic it makes me feel. Over it now, but do wonder whether my railing against it is helpful, it's been suggested to me that I have to accept that my mind needs the breather and just acquiesce to the rhythm of it.

In part the absence has been dues to a fabulous trip up the coast of Norway from Bergen to Kirkenes and back. The scenery was stunning, weather was on our side, and I have come back with some ideas for some work for our exhibition in April.

I did use some time in September on a hand stitch project which was kickstarted by seeing a photo of a garment from an art school graduate show.

I bought an unpromising brown tweed jacket in a sale and set about adding my own take on jazzing it up.

I started by applying s distressed piece of dyed scrim to the cuff of one sleeve, using fine thread and herringbone stitch to secure it to the jacket. Then started off with cotton Perle threads and simple embroidery stitches adding linea elements.

I also applied more yellow scrim and some turquoise scrim to one shoulder and made chunky stitch lines out across the back of the jacket.

It was quite addictive and I had to be careful not to get too carried away!

The lapels got the treatment too, no scrim but stitch and beads.

Pocket flaps were treated like the lapels and bound pockets were given the French knot treatment.

Running stitch was taken from the head of the sleeve in to the arm and from the cuff up.

The yellows, corals and turquoise threads brighter it up and tone with my clothes. Eventually, I had to stop adding more and more.

The finished result pleases me and makes the jacket far more wearable than it would have been left as I bought it. I'm delighted I had the idea and plan to look for a linen jacket in the spring that I could treat in a similar way for the summer.