Birthdays and inspiration...

The big project I've been working on recently has been a fibre art piece for my sister's birthday, which was on Saturday.  

My sister chose the general colour scheme - a mixture of blue-grays and greeny-turquoises with a hint of pink - inspired by some beautiful silk laps we picked up from the Oliver Twists stall at the Festival of Quilts.

So, first of all, using a natural linen background, I felted the silk laps along with cotton scrim, silk/metal organza, silk throwsters waste, abaca tissue, silk fabric, silk cocoon fibre, wool nepps, silk carrier rod fibre and silk threads.

 I left some silk threads loose so that I could stitch them afterwards:

Then I added my current favourites - tiny 2mm sequins...

...and very many glass and metal beads:

 ...and finished off with lots of hand embroidery - running and detached chain stitches:

 bullion and colonial knot stitches:

 detached fly stitch:

 seed stitch:

...to make the finished piece:

Apart from working on this project I have been busy being inspired on a short trip to Skye - breathtaking!