One of my latest ebay spends is the delightful book Embroidery techniques from East & West by Munni Srivastava. Embroidery is combined with quilting, and heavily flavoured by Indian influences. The colours are bold and the embroidery is rich in texture. This is certainly a great book to look through and feel inspired! From this book I decided to have a try at Shisha embroidery (mirror work). Not having tiny mirrors to hand did not deter me, I made some shiny circles from a drinks can (If you are trying this at home, mind your fingers!!!!!). I filled the background with some stitches commonly used in Indian work. 
I must be having an Indian themed week, as yesterday my order arrived from fibrecrafts. One of the many things I ordered (they have an amazing selection) was a hank of recycled sari yarn. I am not quite sure what I am going to do with it, but at the moment I am happy admiring its beauty!
Hello all! Just in case there are any other OCA textiles students out there wanting to share their progress...
As well as the forum on the OCA site, there is also a facebook group and a flickr group.
This week under all the junk in the spare room I found my sewing machine - hurrah! This prompted me to experiment with some Maderia Avalon Ultra water soluble film that I brought a while ago from Rainbow Silks. This sample is inspired by a bonfire, and is just under A4 size. Firstly I created a grid using black thread in straight stitch. On to the grid I added red and orange zigzag stitches and white, black & grey straight stitches. Once I had finished stitching, I held the piece under running water and the film disappeared. The film is quite thick, so you do not need an embroidery hoop; it does have a slightly odd smell however - or maybe that's just me! The sample is surprisingly sturdy, and I like the small holes where there are no stitches. 
I have also been finishing off these cute booties for a friends baby girl. I used a pattern from Saartje Knits with Debbie Bliss cashmerino. They were quick and easy to make, and I added the cute buttons from my stash. I am so tempted to make some my size!
I have just got back from a wonderful trip to Shetland. The scenery was absolutely stunning, the weather gorgeous & it was full of inspiration for future work. There was lots going on in Lerwick with Johnsmas Foy, flavour of Shetland and the Bergen to Shetland boat race. 
Shetland is rich in arts & crafts, I treated myself to a beautiful Fair Isle bag from Shana handbags and brought some lovely gifts from Oily Muggie and some pure Shetland wool from Jamieson's. Saw some great textile prints from PhatSheep Textiles and some intricate felt work from Spindrift Crafts. I also managed to bring home some fishing net debris collected from the beach, which might just come in handy one day!
We managed to do a couple of things in Aberdeen before getting the overnight ferry, including having lunch in MUSA. In MUSA there was an exhibition of art touched by silk, which included some amazing mixed media work by Kirsty Aitken. We also popped along to Peacock Visual Arts where there was a collection of playful spring lamb screenprints by David Blyth. 
Am now back home in Glasgow, with a little dose of Shetlag!
