Inspiration

I like to look at pictures in books. I have now borrowed all the books they have at our local library on textile art, from old embroidery to modern art.





All kinds of things inspire me - like these fruits on an old plate for example (the golden stars, the colours, the forms).

Mars

Why Mars? Well, I thought perhaps this is what it looks like up there. We'll soon find out if there is life on Mars!

Making a handybag, 3

Then I use my sewingmachine to sew it on to a matching cloth. I often use velvet - it is so handsome. I also choose a ribbon and sew it on either by machine or by hand. Often I add a button too. Sometimes other ornaments. Then ,of course, I add a golden star, my signature.

Making a handybag, 2

Then I let it dry fixed by needles on my ironingboard so it can keep its form.

Making a handybag, 1

When I have finished a pattern I first iron it with a steam iron.

Cookies on a golden plate

Well, this is the result - can I offer you a cookie? This piece of art is just a little bit crazy!

Needlework

Sometimes I want to play a little and here I start a new project - the result you can see in the next picture.

Cyber

This is my companion - my ten year old gray cat Cyber, always there in my lap when I sit stitching. She is also very interested in my yarn and likes to play with it now and then.

Jewel

This is another concept. I realised that my jeans were so tight so I couldn't have my cell phone in my jeans pocket. I made this tiny bag, just big enough for my cell phone, to button on to my jeans - works OK.

Balcony flowers

Today my flowers had frozen during the night. But I have never had flowers for so long before. Does that indicate a change of climate?

Maze

The Celts are known for their abstract but intricated patterns. I wanted to copy their style and this is the result.

Needle and pins

This little cushion I made for my needles - I like the colours and the cushion goes well with my blue room where I work.

Pocket

I made this "pocket" to a skirt I have. I also sew two red buttons on to the skirt so I easily can button this pocket on to the skirt. Handy! Of course I can also sew buttons on to other skirts or trousers too as long as they match the colours.

Wool

This is my basket where I keep all my rest yarns. I lack red, brown and blue yarn and I can't get a hold of some here either. I probably have to go to London in order to buy the yarn want. I can always try the Internet, but it is hard to really get the right colours from the computer pictures. So far I mix the yarn I have and it has turned out OK in most cases.

Flower basket

Another romantic bag with a pattern from my English tin. But what kind of flowers are they?

Facebook

Your face on a bag? Well, this face has no model - it is just fantasy.But I can make a portrait if you like!

Romance

Many years ago my family got a christmas gift from England. It was a tin full of bisquits. I still have the tin, now full of ribbons in different colours. On the outside the are different patterns and sayings like: "Be to her virtues very kind - be to her faults a little blind". I took the romantic couple to this bag from that tin.

Shield

I started with a cross in the middle and built up the pattern with squares in yellow, green and orange. The tufts make the bag look bigger. The ribbon is from a production of ribbons for hats that my father made in his factory in the 1940:ies. I still have some bundles left in green, blue and brown. They noe come very handy!

Summer

This exclusive bag is perfect for a wedding or a summer party. Blue flowers on a white background in a dance with stars and light green leaves. A white shiny ribbon makes the bag very elegant.

Inca

Black, red and ochre makes a nice combination as you can see in this piece of art. I have chosen a repetitive pattern on the sides of the bag and a black animal and the black sun can be seen very clearly with the ochre background. I'm very fond of this bag myself, it was fun stitching!

Black Indian

Here is another simple pattern. It reminds me of Indian handycraft, hence the title.

X-ray

I am fond of geometrical, repetitive and simple patterns in combination with colours. Here is the result of a play with red, blue and beige.

Fireworks

It is fun just to paint with thread on canvas. This is a picture of fireworks where the whole sky is lit up.

Green

On the other hand I have a lot of green threads in diffrerent shades, that is why I made this bag. It is rather dark but a golden ribbon makes it a bit more attractive.

Jewel

Like a jewel is this bag, strong in colours with pink and yellow cones on a blue background. I don't have access to a lot of blue threads that's why this bag is precious to me.

Red Sun

Here I have created a colourful bag with a red star or sun in the center. It is all fantasy. If you wear it on a black dress the bag will attract looks, I promise!

Star

This is another bag with a pattern of a star. Here I just used two colours and played with the stitches as I went along. The glittering star in the middle is my signature. You'll find it on all my work, in front if it goes with the pattern, otherwise on the back side of the object.

Meadow

This is one of my very first handybags. I made it when I was lying in bed for almost a year. I longed to be able to get out and walk along the meadows to look at flowers and fields.

Runes

Outside Jäders Church in Sörmland there are two runestones. When I visited the church I got inspired by the runes and wanted to use them on a handybag. This is the result: "Anettes broderi" in runes. On runestones there are often worms and circles - I used them on this handybag.

Fair

Last Friday I went to Stockholm, Kista to visit the Sewing Fair. Not only was there a parking horror with not enough parking space so I had to find a place half a kilometre away with a long qeue to get a parking ticket, but also there was a very long qeue to get in. It took me one hour just to enter the fair. It was jammed with women of all ages - fun to watch mothers with babies, elderly ladies with canes and youngsters in funny clothing. Lots of stands had cloth for making quilts - it has become very popular these days. There were also a lot of yarns, sewingmachines, jewellery, embroidery kits and fabrics, but nowhere could I find what I was looking for: Canvas and wool yarn. I have to go to England I guess.

Palette

I have so many different threads in all sorts of colours in my basket. This is an attempt to make a colourful pattern. This bag looks fine on a black dress!

Blue Ray

What is "Blue Ray"? A simple pattern of blue on a handybag? Yes - different shades of blue in combination with pink and yellow and a geometrical pattern make this bag suitable for a white or blue dress or perhaps a white shirt and blue jeans.

Tanum

I spend every summer on the westcoast of Sweden where I have a summerhouse on an island in the archipelago. In this area, Tanum, there are a lot of rock carvings from the bronze age and I have been inspired by one of the carvings showing ships with people, probably a symbol of some kind. The circles in the corners are patterns on shields, also from rock carvings.

Lonely star

I have always liked stars, not just the stars in the sky but also all kinds of starlike figures. I have serveral necklaces in the form of stars and I prefer stars as decoration in my christmas tree. I really liked creating this star - just one lonely star, it lightens up my brown dress!

Quick respons (QR)

QR

My husband asked me to make a bag with the pin-code to his company Infonaut AB. If you take a picture of the pattern with your mobile phone it will connect you to Infonaut's homepage. QR is big in Japan and you can see it now and then in ads or on objects here in Sweden too. To embroider this I had to do a lot of counting so it took time! But this is the first QR-bag in the world. If you want I can make a bag for you with your specific QR, just send an e-mail to anetteheller1@hotmail.com. Next project is to see if the camera can define QRs in colours - I find black and white rather boring - check my blog later on - it will take some time.

Star

Here is another star - with a golden, glittering star in the middle. I experimented with different patterns around the star and the handybag turned out to be very decent in all its simplicity.

Blue velvet

I had some threads of blue, red and dark yellow in my basket and thought those coulours would go well together. I started in the middle of the canvas and built up the pattern successivly. It was fun to see how the pattern took form. As you can see there are different shades of blue on the bag because I didn't have enough thread of the same colour. That is so in almost all of my works as I only use left over threads from kits I have made years ago.

Dragon

Dragon - I saw this red dragon in one of my books I once bought in Brighton by Candace Bahouth: Flowers, Birds, and Unicorns: Medieval Needlepoint. Candace is a British textile designer wellknown for her tapestries and patterns. I have embroidered some of her cushions

with lovely patterns of flowers and I like her coulours and designs very much. This bag is relatively small with a laced white ribbon and two white tassels.

Anette's embroidery

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first bag. Five years ago when I was down-hill-skiing in Austria I was hit by another skier and fell and broke my pelvis. It took me two years to recover and during those two years I wanted always to have a phone or my handy close so I could communicate with my job and my friends. Many of my clothes did not have pockets and my handbags were too heavy to carry about. I got the idea to make a small, light bag for myself to carry across the shoulder and as I like embroidery a lot I started to design one of my own. I had a basket full of old yarn in all shades of colour left over from earlier works and I picked different colours that did match and made my own design. It was fun and I started to make different bags to match my clothes.

I now have a collection of bags - every one with a special design and name - take a look at my slideshow and you will see.