In Miniature!

I have always been interested in the vary small. As a child my favourite dolls were the '6 inch' variety. I delighted in making outfits for them, including matching boots, which I knitted in three-ply yarn on size 12 needles. I was particularly excited when Mum found her pair of 13's, but was still aware that the fibres and stitches were out of scale, although the boots did fit the doll!

My children had a passing interest in doll's houses - the usual 1/12th scale - or at least I did on their behalf - a partially finished one is still on top of my cookery book bookcase.

I have enjoyed the Folksy forum threads on ACEOs and the miniature art thread. I have listed a couple of ACEOs, but find that the amount of detail which I would like to include, is not justified by the ceiling price of £5, so although fun to do - they are not very viable for me. With a few moments to spare yesterday evening, I set off to explore Flickr more fully. I came across 'inchies' ( also twinchies and various others which I did not investigate). Inchies are very small pieces of work - one inch square! (Twinchies - two inches square!)

Most of the stitched examples which I found were textured pieces, small applique, perhaps on layered backgrounds, with added interest from small buttons, charms, sequins etc. They are similar to small portions of crazy patchwork - very attractive, and I am looking forward to trying some.

A few months ago, I made some 'background' pieces for floral embroidery. Mainly layered sheer fabrics - plain and patterned, with some silk fibres sandwiched between the layers. Having formed a few inch x inch tiles from one of these pieces - I stitched the following. Even ordinary sewing thread seems quite chunky - I shall have to look out for some very fine threads. I stitched a composition which is famliar to me to get used to the scale. The finished piece is dwarfed by the miniature easel, which is quite appropriate for ACEOs!

My Grandmother used to say
"Little things please little minds" and it certainly wasn't meant as a compliment!