New Design Release - Pink Mulla Mulla

So very pleased to release a new design today - the Pink Mulla Mulla.  It is found widespread across Australia in arid and semi-arid areas in a range of habitats requiring good soil drainage in sunny and open positions and grows to a height of 1.5 metres.

I remember the first time I set eyes on this pretty little plant.  My family had taken a trip to the Brisbane Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens to the Australian Natives area for a picnic morning tea.  Amongst the varieties of banksias, grevilleas and bottlebrushes, etc. were these Pink Mulla Mullas and I simply fell in love with them.  They look as though their flowerheads would be spiky and sharp but on the contrary they are so soft and fluffy and sway ever so gently in the breeze.   Imagine my sheer unadulterated excitement ... (ahem - my 'delight' - I don't want to come across as a total flower nerd) ... when I found a couple of these plants at my favourite plant nursery soon after.  Of course like a shoeaholic - if that's a word - I just had to buy a couple and plant them in my native garden.  Yes they flowered for a length of time enough for me to admire and enjoy, but then died so were sadly dug out. 

My research showed Greek and Latin origins for the botanical name of Ptilotus nobilis - Mulla Mulla.  Ptilon (Greek) meaning down or feathers - reference to the appearance of the flowers and nobilis (Latin) meaning notable or famous which refers to the flowering habit of the plant.

I spent quite a bit of time perfecting the Pink Mulla Mulla cross stitch design.   It was vital to achieve it's unique shape and colouring and the all important spiked effect.  The design is 58 x 109mm (2.3 x 4.3in) or 32 x 60 stitches in dimension and contains 9 colours.  

 
Think it might be time for another picnic morning tea visit to the Gardens again!!

Ros

Hoop Hoopla

My latest foray into creating new and exciting items for my Etsy shop is hoopart.  Based on trends in my Instagram feed by other extremely creative embroidery artists and stitchers, it appears to be quite a popular, modern and artistic form of home decor.  So with that in mind I thought it was worth using my own cross stitch designs in wooden hoops on a range of different coloured evenweave fabrics to gauge the effect.  And...I am not disappointed.

I have chronicled the process -

A beautiful grey-swirl evenweave fabric from Sew-it-All was chosen to complement the vivid red colours of the striking Sturt Desert Pea.  The fabric was first machine-edged to prevent fraying whilst stitching and then placed firmly in the hoop before tightening to keep tautly in place.  The relaxing job of stitching the design then began. 

  
Once finished, I used the 'measure twice/three times - cut once' rule (and a good dose of dutch courage!) to cut a 2cm edge around the outside hoop edge which was enough for folding over into the back of the inside of the hoop with a little extra allowed for tucking under.  As I wanted the wrong side of my work to be covered, I devised a method where a piece of wadding was cut to the size of the inside of the hoop as well as a plain black cotton fabric - with an extra 1-1/2cm added all round the circumference.  A tacking stitch was then used around the edge of the black cotton and slightly pulled in to evenly encase the wadding.

It was then just a case of folding the evenweave fabric over the back of the hoop and placing the black encased wadding into the open space, pinning the two fabrics together at close intervals to keep in place (I could've used half a dozen hands here) and then neatly slip-stitching together.  

This is now a stable piece of work and with the addition of complementary narrow black ribbon attached to the screw top, ready for hanging on a wall in an area of the home that needs a little bit of brightening and cheering up.

This is the first hoop in a series yet to be stitched in preparation for the next Hustlin' Womens Markets on April 8 where I will be having another stall.  

Ros 

'Home is the nicest word there is'.  -  Laura Ingalls Wilder