I have had a very creative week  so I thought I would share these projects with you. As I mentioned in my last post we were doing transfer printing on Monday in my Creative Textiles class. I want to do my City and Guilds Diploma in Embroidery sometime but I need to get better at the design process and build up a scrapbook of ideas and this is exactly what I have started to do with this course.

I took a lot of flower pics over the summer with a view to using them as inspiration so my homework last Sunday was to create a picture to use as inspiration for the transfer printing. Firstly I sketched this clematis from one of my pics and coloured it using pastels.

Next I tried to create a clematis using tissue that I could then recreate in the transfer inks.

I then ironed these onto my fabric – transfer inks work best with synthetic fabric so this is some shiny satin from my textile mountain stock!

You can print from the originals several times until they fade out as you can see they have done here. The colours when printed onto fabric are much brighter than the originals on paper. I am very pleased with these.

My next step is to cut out the petals in the purple and the pink colours, applique them onto matt satin backing fabric, applique organza over this and do some embellishment with machine embroidery and beading. As I have never done machine embroidery before my homework for this week will be to create a test piece that I can experiment on before I tackle the real thing. All very exciting stuff!

I have also been getting on very well with the scarf that I started at Knit and Natter last week. I went again this week and caught up with two friends who I hadn’t seen for a while which was very nice. I have changed the pattern for the scarf and am now doing this simple garter stitch one with a slit in it.

My scarf is a little wider than in the pattern so the scarf should bunch through the slit attractively I hope – will get Jake to model it when I am finished. The pattern comes from the book below – Funky Chunky Knitted Accessories by Jan Eaton.

This is a great book for an inexperienced knitter like me as it has lots of pics, clear instructions and lots of very simple patterns that have embellishments like pom poms and beads to make your very easy creations look fab.

I do like knitting over Autumn and Winter. The weather has been pretty nice here the last few days – quite sunny – but there is definitely a chill in the air and the leaves are starting to drop. I do like Autumn as a season – working in teaching it always means the start of things to me rather than the end – a new term, new students and lots of new projects. And I rather like snuggling with my candles and some mulled wine and my latest project of an evening.

I have also been doing some stitching but can’t post any pics of that as it is for my Autumn Exchange on the All Seasons Ornament Exchange blog. I have completed the stitching on the piece now just need to get some materials for the finish. I’m doing a finish that I have not tried before so that should be interesting. Then I can post it off to the USA!  Am also signing up for the Xmas ornie exchange – can’t miss stitching my fave stuff ever!

Am planning a whole weekend of creativity as I have lots of Xmas gifts to make so will be stitching and quilting solidly. Really looking forward to a quiet weekend at home – the first in a while!