Snip, snip, sniff, sniff

Well, it's official: I've got a cold. I spent most of the weekend dragging around wondering what is wrong with me, and now I've progressed to the resigned state, sitting on the sofa wrapped in a quilt demanding cups of tea. (It's hard to demand cups of tea of a dog: you don't tend to get much).

So I am cutting up bits of fusible fabric and making up pictures for machine applique. I've been sitting with a book of embroidery designs from the V & A museum (one of my favourite places!) open on my lap to help me along with some ideas.

This is a detail of the embroidery on a hanging from the second half of the 16th century. It's appliqued velvet (the black is probably velvet), and couched metallic threads onto satin, with embroidered details.

Wouldn't it be nice to applique some of these designs in a modern take on the Tudor style?



I can't get over how delicate and dramatic this embroidery is, all at the same time.

Or what about borrowing details from these beauties, and working them into a design?



There are ideas a' plenty: check back later, and we'll see what I've come up with as a start.