Rhonda Bracey: At Random

So, the abstract inchies were my first experiment in this short Christmas/New Year break.

My next experiment was a small landscape. We actually have hills here (99% of Western Australia is flat!), and they are the most amazing shades of green from about April until October. I had some green fabric… so I created a hilly scene on about a two inch wide piece of interfacing.

The green hills of home

Close-up of The Green Hills of Home

From the hills to the beach… The next fabrics that grabbed my attention in the scrap pile were some gorgeous aqua blues. So two beach scenes later and I was on a roll! Both beach scenes are about 4 inch wide (that’s 10 cm for the metric minded). I wanted to capture the clear blue sky of summer, the shades of blue/green of the water near Busselton, the white foam of the low waves, and the sand. I added some seagulls and some seagull (or human?) footprints. And a sun to one and a bright beach umbrella to the other.

Busselton beach

Busselton beach in summer

Next, was an attempt to use a plastic template I’d drawn in the shape of a slender gum leaf. I had some grey/green batik that was perfect for the leaves, and I backed them with a deep bottle green. I only had a short width and length of interfacing so this became a bookmark. I discovered the joy of working with shiny rayon thread too — metallic thread just has too many issues, so I’m now using it sparingly. But this Madera rayon thread is pretty darned good. It has a shine and it works really well in a satin stitched border.

Gum leaf bookmark

I’d also drawn a large leaf template, so a set of four 4-inch square leaf coasters were next… Each has the same fabric on the back as I used for that coaster’s leaf. And each leaf’s highlight thread (veins, edge) is the same as the thread used in the satin stitched edging. I stuck with various beige, tan, and mushroom thread colours to match the contrast with the leaf.

Leaf coasters

Finally (for now at least), I made a couple of Christmas inchies, which could be used as tree ornaments. The red one is not quite an ‘inchie’ — it’s about 2.5 inches square, and the green one is about 1.5 inchies square. I added some leaf embroidery to both too.

Christmas inchies

And in amongst all this, I thought I might set up an Etsy store to sell these little works of ‘art’. Your thoughts? (NOTE: I’m well aware that there’s very little money in handcrafts — you can never be adequately paid for your time, but covering the costs of materials is a good start!)

See also: I’ve been busy: 3