Lockdown creativity

So this week I've only been at work one day and as it's the Easter holiday I've been spending some time being creative and making things and getting some fresh air on my daily exercise - luckily for my the view above is just a 5-minute walk from home. I've had a few things that just needed finishing off sewing wise.

I messed up a welt pocket and ended up having to re-cut pieces but the second attempt was much better. I had a lot of buttons and buttonholes that needed doing. I make buttonholes on my Janome, so I packed the Bernina away (put it on the floor for a bit) and set up the Janome for the one-step buttonhole function and got to work doing all the garments I needed to finish off. I only bodged one buttonhole, but it was on wool fabric and really did take some unpicking. Garments now need a final press and photographing - so expect to see them in the next few weeks up on the blog.

It was my daughter's 17th birthday and I channelled my inner Mary Berry and made her a gingerbread house "cake". I don't think I've ever made anything quite as well when it comes to decorating cakes.

I decided that I'd like to make some portraits and stretched some paper ready to get started. I sat outside in the sun, but it was a bit too bright to see my source images so I decamped inside. I used a very basic grid to get the scale right. I don't always do this, but it can be helpful to work out proportion.

I'm planning on doing a coloured pencil piece and a graphite pencil study. so fay I've sketched the structure in for both and blocked in the tone for the graphite study. Hopefully, I'll start to refine this piece this week.

I've also been helping my hubby with creating the online content for our Church Easter services - mostly keeping quiet, but also doing some reading and setting up some visuals. you can see our Good Friday Tenebrae reflection here.

I started an upcycling project. Our old coffee table had a really damaged top and needed an update. I've been planning to mosaic the top for a while and this week I finally got it gridded and started to stick down the tiles. Unfortunately, I ran out of tile adhesive and need to find some before I can complete this.

My other creative pursuits bring together my love of art and stitch and I've been tackling some hand-stitched art as part of Textile Artist's Community Stitch Challenge.
The first challenge was set by artist Sue Stone and began with experimenting with just one basic stitch.

The second was set by Cas Holmes and involved using applique and hand stitch to create a small piece. Follow on Instagram.

And this week I've been working on an eye study set by Emily Tull. Its an exercise in observation and Emily teaches how to create curved stitches and had us making a drawing using stitch. I used a yellow background for this one and started with the recommended black, white and grey machine thread (never used this for hand embroidery before), but then sent myself down a rabbit hole and started with colour!!!! You can follow Emily on Instagram.

This task struck a chord with me as I've set my students an eye-drawing task for after the holidays. I even attempted a video - Too much noise in my house meant that I used written instructions and music background.

I can't wait to see what next week's challenge is and I'll try to get the mosaic finished. My daughter also wants to do an art day, so it might be time to get out the mono-printing stuff this week too. What have you been doing to keep sane during these mad times?