Tuesday 22 January 2008

Strawberries on a String

I know I've posted about strawberries before, but these are slightly different. Only slightly!

The weather's been very dark and gloomy here recently, and it's been impossible to take photos unless there was a bright day, but bright days have been few and far between. I've been running to get my camera every time a tiny bit of weak sunlight appears.
I've also been doing some tidying up in my sewing room, reorganised it a bit and now it all feels much more ordered.

I saw a garland of plain fabric strawberries pictured in a magazine ad a few weeks ago, and couldn't wait to make my own version. It was my daughter's 24th birthday this month, so I decided they would be for her.
I used velvet, felt, wool and cotton fabrics and made a dozen strawberries all different. I tried to use a wide range of pinks and reds. Some have got beads for seeds, others have stitched seeds.
The bee pincushion is one I made a few years ago, and is a Pat Sloan design from an old Quilting Ideas magazine.


I strung the strawberies together with some green beads for stems, put some silk ribbon bows at the ends, and added a couple of tiny white strawberry flowers.
I left the threads at either end so they could be tied into loops for hanging as required.


It could be hung vertically, or from both ends a s a swag, or just arranged along the front of a shelf. It's a do-what-you-like thing:)