Hand work

Around noon today I had my first Skype interview for a potential job done from home that i could do from home. I was so on anxious this morning (my age showing) that I couldn't settle in at my sewing machine, so I made a 12 grain bread and then spinach, lentil soup for supper.

I wasn't sure how it would turn out after I discovered that I only had a dribble of regular yeast and had to substitute pizza dough yeast. It worked out fine though. It looks good and tastes delicious! Of course I had to sample the heel with some molasses.
After lunch, I finished up the little bit of machine quilting on the allium piece and then I sat down to do some hand stitching.

I think I've added enough but to be sure I'll let it rest on my design wall for a while.
In the mean time I've also decided to re-work some past pieces inspired by my recent purchase of the book Free Form Embroidery by Judith Baker Montano.
I've actually snipped out some of what I had done, and I'm still planning to take out the embroidery you see around the shells so I can build more layers there. It really doesn't bother me to take it out because I'm so inspired about the potential for more texture and depth.

I've started adding more fibres on the bottom left. There is painted cheesecloth and painted gathered lace.
I had a little session with my lace scraps and paint the other day. I also took some discharge paste to a piece of velvet. You can see an underwater plant life that I made on the bottom right in the next photo.

I will still add some pearlescent paint and beads to it and then start building the sea weeds behind and around it. I'm kind of excited about this!