Let's Get Back To Business!

Hello my dears!  Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time.

2013 into the beginning of 2014 was a super busy time for me with my work which put a bit of a dampener on my crafting time.  I had some great experiences but some great challenges as well.....

.... As you might notice above the blog has had a name change.... I can no longer call myself a crafter at sea because I am no longer at sea!  That's right, my land legs have called me home and I am now a land-locked sailor.  I am currently looking to get into the theatre scene here in England.  It's all a bit scary but what I needed to do in life.  It has given me time to craft and catch up the blog though!

I have a few projects on the go right now and I have a few things to catch you guys up on that I worked on but didn't get chance to blog about.  Keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for posts on the following projects:

I finished adding the second layer to my beer cap belt.

My friend had a baby and I made her an embroidered gift.

My friends got married and I made them an embroidered wedding album.

I played around with eco-dying some fabric from natural elements I found on a walk.

I made a necklace organiser for my travels.  It is now going to be very useful at home as well!

I have an embroidery based on a song by The Band Perry... this is still a work in progress....

And finally, I worked on Legally Blonde: The Musical.  It was a very interesting challenge but I made it work!

I am also working on some online courses which I would love to share with you so there is a lot to come!!

It's Not The End Of The World - Phat Quarter Swap

Continuing with the hearts theme this post, here is my latest swap piece for the Phat Quarter.

December had a fifth friday so that means a swap over at the Phat Quarter Flickr group. This time the theme was It's Not The End Of The World.... and my mind went to musical theatre! The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Tell Me On A Sunday has a song in it called exactly that. Apparently I'm a little bit obsessed with hearts at the moment so this image came to mind.

I wanted to experiment with using my own hand writing in a piece and to use a different stitch than usual. I went with a long and short stitch for the heart mixing metallic thread with regular thread to give it an interesting texture.

I quite like the way the writing came out. At first I thought it was too messy, but after I slept on it I think it puts across the emotion of this piece quite well.

In case you were wondering the background of this piece is rust dyed - it is one of my favourite techniques of late and meant that I finally got to use one of my pre-dyed backgrounds in a piece.

I like the simplicity of this piece but the weight of emotion that it brings. I think I need to investigate this interest in the heart shape as well and see where it takes me..... keep an eye on the blog to see!

Valentines....

There seems to be a lot of talk about Valentine's Day around me at the moment and it made me realise something.... some of my prints would make great Valentine's cards or anti-Valentine's day cards!

Check out my print account here to see these embroideries as greetings cards - go on, you know you want to!!