Somthing old, something new .... something blue (Part 1)

We aren't blue, but we have been sewing in blue.  The twelve members of our branch's travelling book group have taken 'blue' as their theme for this article, which means lots of lovely work for you to look at.

Sue was inspired by the Austrian artist, Hundertwasser.  The background is handmade paper, with some fabric 'patches', though most are cut from the baby wipes she used to clean her Gelliplate. The top 'onion' shapes are made from a paper serviette. A recent Stitch Challenge gave her the idea to use couching to make all the stitched patterns. She said she was surprised she had found so much 'blue', as it is not her go-to colour.

Dorothy's sewing machine cover makes great use of lots of blue scraps:

and she also made this tiny blue landscape for a travelling book entry:

Jenny has done a lot of stitching with blue ....

This small bag was created at an EG workshop many years ago:

The design for this bag was taken from a project in Ineke Berlyn's book, Landscapes in Contemporary Quilts.

A sample piece, called Blue Diamonds, uses fabric strips and threads machined in straight lines onto an A3 piece of fabric. Using a ruler, squares were marked out at 45 degrees to the stitched lines, and were then cut out and repositioned on another piece of fabric to create diamonds; finally, zig-zagged in place.

This seaside piece hangs in her brother's Spanish villa belonging to her brother. Made of pieced strips of hand-dyed threads and fabrics, it has stencilled fish jumping in and out of the waves. The boat and umbrella are appliqued, and large beads between layers of fabric create pebbles on the beach, surrounded by French knots.

Jenny's final piece is this heart wall hanging. The fabric for the hearts was created at an indigo dyeing summer school with Jane Callender some fifteen years ago.  She still has lots of treasured samples from that summer school. (Jenny says she was quite a novice at embroidery then and eager to try anything and everything. She has been a member now for 21 years.) The base is calico and the frame is made from old denim jeans.

Anna's rag-rugged seat cover was made by recycling old pillowcases and other fabrics.  It now makes the garden seat much more comfortable to sit on.

Fiona has been using the recent sunshine to do some cyanotype printing (she now has some blue plants, too).

Her collage-style blue picture with a vase is scattered with beautifully proportioned flowers and leaves.

We hope you have enjoyed seeing what members have been making. Travelling Book members have been so prolific, in fact, that this is just the first instalment of the work they have been producing.  Look out for Part 2 very soon ...