All hooped up now!

I'm all finished with the 'Hoop-up! Stitch and Send Swap' on Flickr.
Well, I have finished my embroideries anyway. And this one here was a bit of a departure for me.

Dolores's theme was Modern Classic Furniture, and her mosaic was full of minimalist sofas and chairs. Well I think you've all seen enough of my work by now to know that minimalist really isn't my thing - I am very much a 'more is more' sort of person!
So I wasn't really feeling very inspired, but I looked at the recommended furniture websites anyway, and I found a sofa I quite liked, and I had an idea for a cushion, and then a lampshade, and, well, in the end it all turned out rather fabby!

And now I totally love it! I even stuffed the little pillow for added realism!

Oh Lola - you are always getting in the way!!
I needle-turn appliqued the sofa and the lamp first then outlined and filled in all the sofa details with perle cotton 8's.

Then I added the little pillow with my take on an Orla Kiely type pattern (I just had to add some pattern!!). I really hope this is what you had in mind Dee (she hasn't seem it yet!)?

Now this is more my kind of thing. Leila asked for houses and I straight away new what I wanted to do. Nearly 20 years ago my husband, Jonathan, painted a serious of 'dream houses' (right out of his imagination, which totally amazes me still!). I dug them out and emailed them to Leila and she liked this one the best.

I would love to show you the original painting but Jonathan is paranoid about being copied, so you will have to take my word that this is a very faithful reproduction (except with threads!).

This was lovely to work on, I really like adding lots of detail and texture to embroideries, I also like working with a very small canvas. I used variegated threads and chain stitch to do the 'lawn'. I wanted to add in a different stitch as I felt I was getting too dependant on back stitch and running stitch (too much hand quilting!).

I have already received the most adorable and amazing 'woodland with cute yet slightly sinister animal' themed embroidery from Dolores, but I will wait till Leila's gets here before I share my booty with you.