'Maps Series 1' Embroidery No.8

This next embroidery speaks of my huge love of books and the power and magic contained between their covers. Books have always been a part of my life and so I couldn't really map my life without featuring them, although the inspiration for this piece came out of my subconscious rather than starting off from a fixed idea.

I am constantly collecting images and snippets of text and my own thoughts that I keep in journals. One such image was of a toy rabbit that had been used in a fashion shoot... he caught my eye, so I cut him out, stuck him in my journal, and wrote next to him "could he be the Velveteen Rabbit?".

For anyone who doesn't know, 'The Velveteen Rabbit' is a classic children's picture book by Margery Williams.

So he then found his way into my embroidery. I am stitching him into a book, a book much larger than the figure stood to the side, because books are immense and contain all of life; and the rabbit, for me, symbolises dreams. In the story a little boy believed enough in his rabbit and loved him enough that he became real - and so if I believe in my dreams as much as that boy did, will they become real?

'Could This Be The Velveteen Rabbit?' Work in progress

As you can see the embroidery is well under way here so I should be posting an image of the finished piece very soon.

Sweet dreams
Amanda xxx

Tiny Urban Garden Update

All of a sudden we find ourselves slap bang in the middle of Summer with soaring temperatures and a glorious clear blue sky. It felt so luxurious this morning to be able to eat a leisurely breakfast outside with the sound of buzzing bees and birdsong ...pure bliss.

Mother Nature has once again performed her magic and my garden has been transformed from this:-

to this:-

I did a little tidying up earlier in the week and even though my garden is very small I still managed to fill four bags of rubbish. I am planning to plant trees along my back fence before the end of the year as, sadly, it's looking like there may be building taking place in the field behind me so trees will provide screening. I'd also like to make a trip to the garden centre this week for some nice colourful plants to go in pots.

In other news I have been working on a new art project which has taken me away from my embroidery but is still very connected thematically...more about that in future posts; and I am planning to post later on this week about the next piece in my 'Maps' series.

But I'm now going to enjoy some of this sunny weather. Just look at that sky!

Amanda xxx