Thursday 7 September 2017

A Hint of Autumn in the Air

Living in rural north Fife, surrounded by barley, wheat and oat fields, it is impossible not to notice the transition from summer to autumn as the fields turn gold, the harvest is cut and bales start to dot the landscape.
Our roadsides and hedgerows are abundant with rosebay willow herb and every year the contrast of cerise pink against the colour of the ripened crops captures my imagination. 
This year I just had to have a go at including some hay bales in one of my needle felted pictures.


This is loosely based on a scene I see every day on my walk around our area. There is a riot of willowheb and grasses growing up around a dry stone wall with a wee cottage away in the distance. 



After needle felting the hay bales, I built up the flowers and grasses using machine stitch and embroidery.


The finished piece. 
Barley Field Cottage 22 x 22 cm in a 39 x 39 cm frame 
£155


Some autumnal colours made their way into some of my felt sheep jewellery this month as well. 


Sheep Pendants £24



Brooches £18

New to the Aileen Clarke Crafts range of gift items are these high gloss, super cute Fridge Magnets. 
They measure 5 x 5 cm and make a great little gift or treat for yourself.


I also had these Lens/Screen Cloths produced using my designs and they are just the best thing for cleaning your phone or tablet screen as well as making your glasses sparkle!



Lens / Screen Cloths £2.95


They come packaged on card in cellophane making them a perfect little present and light weight to post.



Also new this month are these fabulous bags! They measure 40 x 50 cm and fold away easily into a hand bag. They are really strong and washable. These are not in my Etsy shop yet but will be coming with me to Perth Festival of Yarn on Sunday 10th September.



It is advisable to buy tickets online for the festival as only a limited number will be available at the door and it's first come, first served. 
https://perthfestivalofyarn.uk/


I'm really looking forward to the day, not only selling my wares but meeting up with friends only and new and seeing what all the other vendors have to offer.

I have been playing around with a bit of crochet over the summer. I'm just making it up as I go along and it's just for fun, not for selling.

Not sure if this idea is really working or not. I taught myself how to make the crochet flowers and thought I'd add them as a row onto this shawl. They are only tied on at the moment but I'd like to figure out how to make them more secure and carry on crocheting, making them a part of the shawl or maybe I should leave them as a trim. Or maybe I should have made them less three dimensional. 



It's fun to experiment and learn as I go.



All contributed content © Aileen Clarke