Textile art and some more experiments

I have not completed a lot of art to share with you lately. My husband and I are trying to simplify our lives a little before his retirement and it is a very complicated process. We are almost done now and I will get back to regular art breaks soon. In the meantime I have completed a textile piece for an upcoming art exhibition. It is similar to another textile I did earlier this year but it is more detailed.

There is some machine stitching and some hand embroidery. I like the way it turned out and sort of hope it doesn't sell so I can keep it.

This side view shows some of the textures better. 

Recently I joined the Workshop on the web program. It is a textile based program run by Maggie Grey in England but available on the web. You get 7 lessons in PDF format. They are very detailed and have lots of photos so it is easy to follow along.

The technique I used for this piece was one of those lessons. It is machine embroidery with a wool or silk background and should be fine fabrics for the collage. I misread the instructions so I used cotton fabrics instead. I think the color would blend together better if I had used organza as instructed. Next time I will do it the right way but I still like the finished picture anyway. I am doing all these textile experiments the same size so I can make them into a book later in the year. It will be a fabric art journal.