ABScraft

Realised last night that my sofa was an excellent pin cushion when burning the candle at both ends to complete this throw. Had two pin cushions sitting next to me on the carpet but this was a perfect and speedy solution for my needles and pins ! 🪡

My lovely garden offered me lots of inspiration for this throw. I love the shape of this Trifolium – a form of shamrock ☘️. This one has large leaves and looks amazing with water drops on the surface. Used in two previous projects, the design is now included again in Floribunda @hand.grown and made to complement The Floribunda Throne upholstered by Karen of Rejiggery. The design was used in Karen’s appliqué back – this time in a lighter weight of fabric and a smaller repeat.

The backing linen fabric and orange fabric were each salvaged. The half circle of radiant sun in two of the edges echoes the design created by Karen on the chair back and back of back is made from a blind sample. The gold thread was also from stash of salvaged bits and bobs and the embroidery thread, used in the detailing of many of the blue parts of the design was rescued recently and may ultimately have been donated as part of outreach for Charles Metcalf’s award winning exhibition reminiscing about Lees Tapestries. Look them up if you are not from Birkenhead, they made amazing fabrics for Cunard and another of the great SMEs from the area ( Star Yachts and Della Robbia being the other two).

My fabric design was printed with @wovenmonkey and is available through my shop – just search Woven Monkey and Abscraft but play around with the repeat and the scale. This a heavy weight cotton drill. Although not a native to North West, it is part of the clover family which I have represented previously in my project with Wirral Environmental Network from 2022, the sketches relating to the selection of my subject matter for the giant flowers, are framed in the exhibition.

I may even manage to make a cushion before next Saturday but my fingers are currently raw from pinning and sewing

PS I hand dyed the donated sofa and love this washed denim look. Thanks @emmadromgoole for my sofa/pin cushion to @sanna_king for the linen (and think you salvaged this from somewhere else too) also to Karen for making the chair using as much recycled materials as possible.

Love this ♻️