[THIS PIECE HAS NOW SOLD].

With the hot summer we are having, I decided to make a sun artwork. I have used sun images in previous artwork, drawings and collages ...

I decided to develop the sun seen in the left hand drawing and the bottom right collage ...

First I made a hand drawn template for the sun itself. I find that hand drawing rather than using a compass or drawing around a saucer, for example, gives a child-like and lively feeling to the resulting wobbly circle! Next came the choice of fabrics for the sky and sun. I had recently purchased some of Fiona Moir's hand-dyed cotton fabrics, and one piece was the perfect shade of blue, with touches of pink and orange. I also had some hand-dyed fabric that I bought from an Ebay seller, and another, brighter piece for the centre of the sun that I had in my stash.

Using the templates, I cut the sun pieces out and gave them a turned edge, to give a smooth appearance to the outer edges of the circles and hand appliquéd them in place on the background fabric.

Next came the irregular rays encircling the sun. I tried a number of threads, yarns and ribbons from my collection before deciding to buy some hand-dyed rayon thread from Oliver Twists to give the flexibility, colour and texture that I wanted. I do not need much excuse to go shopping with this lovely company! ;o)

At this stage the top was layered with larger pieces of thin wadding and pale blue backing fabric for the hand quilting to begin.

Once the outer rays were attached, I couched a different Oliver Twists' thread in a spiral on the body of the sun, going through all three layers, then added some Czech glass beads, some sparkly sequins that I found in a charity shop, with some tiny glass beads holding them in place.

At this stage I wanted to add some borders, so trialled a number of coloured fabrics before hitting on a very thin border of orange, to pick up the orange in the sky fabric, and to continue the theme of 'warmth' and 'heat'. Now for another, wider border. It took many auditions before I came upon this vintage fabric from my childhood (I think it was a skirt) that featured pink, folksy flowers against a dark blue ground. The pink echoed the pink touches in the sky, and the orange highlights worked with the other orange elements, so it was perfect. All of the other fabrics I had tried, in shades of grey, blue, green, yellow and black had to be refolded and stored again. :o/ The flowers seemed appropriate summer flowers and added another layer of decoration.

The final outer binding was another session of trialling and rejecting fabrics, until I discovered a pair of cotton shorts that I bought a long time ago from a charity shop, purely for their beautiful colour. Although the short strips of fabric I could salvage from them meant joining five pieces, I had to use it. I had decided from the beginning to sew this piece entirely by hand (I usually attach the outer binding half by machine, and then finish it on the reverse by hand) and found that it worked perfectly, continuing the handmade look that I wanted for this piece.

More hand quilting was added to echo both sides of the orange border, with simple orange and green threads to highlight the flowers and stems in the floral border.

A tiny signature label (pigma pen on pink fabric) was sewn in the lower right hand corner of the sky, before adding a woven label on the reverse and a hanging sleeve in the same pale blue fabric as the backing. A piece of pine strip wood was sawn to size and sanded at the ends, and the piece is ready to hang!

I've made three small, hand stitched textile samples in recent weeks, looking at contrasts, in colour and texture:

• warm and cool colours in the blue and red sample;
• triadic colour contrasts and the effect of proportions of colours used in the orange, purple and green piece; and
• contrasting textures in the monochromatic white/cream sample.
  

I have no real object in mind when creating samples like this, but it can lead to ideas for colour palettes to use in future work, or juxtapositions of materials that are interesting.

If mounted nicely, they make interesting small abstract artworks in their own right, or small pieces can be sewn to a card blank to make a special greetings card.

My latest wool applique, Inflorescence, is finished!

These piece is, of course, influenced by the flowers found in gardens and hedgerows at this time of year. It started life as a sketch ...

... which became a cut paper collage ...

... and a digital artwork ...

... and finally a wool fabric applique. This is my favourite part of the process, when the fabrics and threads come off the shelves and are auditioned to see which will best suit inclusion in the piece. Two pieces of black, hand-dyed wool blanket were joined to form the backing. The flowers and abstract elements were cut from a variety of fulled wool fabrics, including blanket, upcycled clothing, auction finds, some tiny pieces of Donegal Tweed that I had snapped up at Woolfest show. I also included a couple of pieces of synthetic, shiny fabrics to add a contrast to the dull, nubby wools. The dense fabrics were used 'as is', those that were more loosely woven had a thin line of fabric glue applied around the outer edge to minimise fraying. Thin sweater fabrics were used double, to give them more body.

Some elements were cut using templates taken from my collage, other were free cut using a large pair of scissors. The individual blooms were completed and arranged on the backing before being pinned in position. I used a variety of threads, including two that I had just bought at an exhibition, hand dyed by Fiona Moir. Others were cotton embroidery threads from my stash, Aurifil wool/acrylic thread, or Perle cotton threads, which have a nice sheen contrasting well against the duller wool.

At this stage, I decided to give the piece a variegated edging that echoed the shape of the nearest flowers, with a flat top edge where the wool blanket was rolled to the reverse to create a hanging sleeve for a length of wood dowel. I used blanket stitch, French knots and a short straight stitch or whip stitch to attach the various elements, and around the outer edge.

A decision to add more of the abstract dots was taken at this stage: first some larger ones along the top edge, then a flurry of small ones dotted in any gaps that remained. The final touches: a label sewn to the reverse, and a wooden lath cut to size to hang the piece.