Quirky Villages

A new range from late 2023 when I was trying out different fabrics to stitch on, rather than tapestry canvas. A gallery of all my quirky villages is at the end of this page – scroll down to see them all. You can read about Quirky villages supporting Women’s Refuge in my recent post.

Black and Red Villages
I’m very pleased with the large “Black and Red Village” (feature image), and have made several smaller, similar works, including “Little Red House”, “Little Black and Red Village”, and “Red and Black Village with gardens” (sold).

I’ve found furnishing fabric is best for this freehand stitching, as it doesn’t wrinkle or stretch the way Aida cloth does. However, a couple of villages are on tapestry canvas – see next paragraph.

Other sorts of villages
I’m also rather pleased with my quirky “Steampunk Village” using cogs and sprockets from my jewellery-making; it’s not for sale. “Terracotta and Blue Village” is a more traditional stitched tapestry, and I’ve finally finished and framed “Abstract City” which is stitched on tapestry fabric but with the canvas showing through. It features apartment buildings rather than village-style houses. Most of my stitched villages are tidy and symmetrical; I thought it would be fun to stitch a crooked village for a change, hence “Black and Purple Crooked Village”.

Triptych
Below is my latest November 2024 “Black and Red Village Triptych”. The middle one was worked with thicker black cotton and stands out a bit; one of these days I might replace it with another fine-threaded one.

A busy street and an uphill climb
These were to be part of another triptych, but I ended up separating and framing them separately; the third’s a work-in-progress.