Proverbs 3:6

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine left for Houston, America to peruse his career in engineering. And I will never forget our first meeting.

I had just finished my course and finally made it back home to relax after the stressful final year of creating and exhibiting. I'm not sure why, maybe I just had more time on my hands or maybe something was working in me and I wanted to pursue my faith again.

And so I started going to mass again and to get involved with the church more. One day after mass I decided to go to the "journey of faith" group. I prayed before hand for God to give me confidence and to let it go well.

I then got up and almost decided to leave, I looked around trying to decide whether to run or to find out where the group was held. Then a lovely man saw my confusion and helped me in a very kind manner.

It took many weeks to settle in and make friends and he made all of this possible. Without his reassurance and help I may not have bothered in the end.

But now I have been blessed with many wonderful new friends with similar faith. My spirituality is growing and my knowledge of my religion too.

Before my friend left I wanted to give him a present. And since my creativity had been lacking I wanted to use this as an opportunity to do a small but meaningful project. I looked out my bible app and found one of my favourite quotes from proverbs 3:6 "in all your ways consider him, and he himself will direct your steps" a very fitting message for someone about to embark on a journey! I used an app called "Stitch Sketch LE" and used it to plot the crosses with my handwriting. I then searched my button box and threads for a nice colour scheme suitable for a male. I chose gold and blues to highlight the religious context of the piece and also to create something quite classic and harmonious. I found the border on Pinterest and thought the inner crosses would be a nice addition to the bible theme and reminded me of the hosts we get at mass. The crucifix I collected when I was in Newcastle County a Down, N. Ireland in the summer. And the frame was from a charity shop, which I had also used in my exhibition. I was very pleased with the final product and my friend was too and couldn't believe I had made it!

Good luck Akhil! And God bless all my readers!

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Slow progress

Halo #2

Quilting

Close up.

The the second halo I used some cotton fabric that has gold foil print on it. I started to do a runing stitch starting at the centre and working spiralling out so as to be circling Mary's head, but this then created a mound. So I decided to stop and create small mounds all over to create a textured and interesting, also intricate, piece. I love how the stitching manipulates the fabric like this!

The background:

Well I have just completed the top background of my icon. I'm going so slow! And I need to post this to Lerwick on tues/wed so not sure if it will actually get done on time. Not quite sure how to continue either as I've tried to do Jesus's face and it just didn't work at all so I need to try again.

Halos and background, I have so much still to do!

There is two fabrics I have hand dyed making up the background and I've stitched them together and then tried to hide the fold with stitching...

The back looks so interesting :)

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Our Lady Of Częstochowa

Well the excitement of London and graduation is over. I have completed my four year degree which I'm thrilled with... the only thing I am a little annoyed over is my grade. I lost my motivation after third year and so my 4th year work suffered. I still passed with a BA Hons though :D
Now I'm back in Aberdeen searching for my next turn in my life's path. Textiles has taken a little bit of a back seat so far, well that is until I found out about this competition  which the Catholic church are doing. We have to design and make our own icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa.
So I am embroidering my version.

Inspiration from pinterest.

My Golden Materials.

Begining of Jesus' halo with buttons and embroidery.

Finished halo - with a section of a poem I had written "You believe in not one thing, I in [everything]".

Close up of different stitches and buttons.

Stitching, holy medals and buttons.
I am just trying to put in my personality into the icon using small buttons and trinkets as well as meaningful words, holy medals and stitching. I'm not sure if I will finish in time but I will try and work on it everyday. I am thinking of adding in some quilting and padding too so that it will be very much a hand crafted piece and have many techniques in it.
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Easter holidays

Well we're almost a week in into our holidays. Uni has been very stressful, I feel like I've not got much done! The digital prints are in so hopefully I'll get them back soon to embroider onto. Right now I'm relying on crochet and embroidery skills to make my project stand out and add more of "me" into it.

Just focusing now on that element and also collecting everything together. We still have 5 ish weeks left till hand in. But there still a lot to be done. Especially with my website and business cards! 

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Uni

Uni work is getting a little irksome, knowing I HAVE to produce a collection and that it will be viewed at at the degree show is quite stressful!
I am trying to design nice little patterns for children's wear - focussing on knit and crochet as the fabric medium, however it isn't going to plan - my designs are small and ditsy whereas the knits structure makes the design become incomprehendable.
My uni space...

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Stitched lyrics

I never really thought about it before, but someone asked me why my hobbies were and I replied with the usual, crochet, knitting, walking... And then I rememberd I like to take meaningful lyrics and stitch them freestyle/cross stitch onto Aida. I guess it's a hobby, I find it fun and do it in my spare time.

So here are a few I have done recently:

Lyrics from the dixie chicks songs "cowboy take me away" "top of the world" and "am I the only one".

Lyrics from Taylor Swift songs "fifteen" "change" and "mine".

Lyrics to "Caledonia" by Dougie McLean.

Lyrics from "Fire in the sun" by Adam Holmes.

Progress pictures:

Finished sample!

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Final semester

Well I'm back at uni for the final semester! It's getting quite scary now. My inspiration is from plates, lace and florals. With research and links with children's wear and knitwear companies - maybe companies I will want to work with? :s 

Here is my studio space, and yes those are fairy lights!!!

I have been drawing flowers with pen, painting and also cutting paper. And drawing them in repeats in a square.

And finally a few inspirational fashion images :)

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