Week 17 Sword Stitch

This week in TAST 2 over on Sharon B's Pin Tangle blog we did Sword Stitch---and to sum it up in one word--boring.
I know I don't always experiment with these stitches because I like how they look normally but in this case I didn't like how it looked in the beginning and when I tried to be creative with it well this is all I could come up with.
Like I said before--boring and to make matters worse I couldn't even get a half decent photo of what I had done.
Oh well I will just have to chalk it up to experience.



Maybe my heart just wasn't in it this week.

Some More Journal Pages.

How can one person have so much fun when and it isn't illegal.
My only complaint about this class is that it is so addictive--I can't stop making embellishments for the pages.
My stitch for this week on TAST 2 has been lost in all the old doylies and watercolour papers.
OK enough said about the fun I am having---here are a few more pages.
The first one is the front page of one of my signatures-- one of the messed up pages that I retrieved from the bin.
I didn't like the piece that I had cut out of the floral scrapbook paper but then I found a round doyley and glued it over the front and also extended a piece of it around to the back-I hope it is easier to see when you click on it.
Ah that's better.




Here is another front signature piece which has a piece of fabric that a dear friend at the Guild gave me--

A few tags already to find a home somewhere in the book---

A centre page-I need to cover the stamped area with something it looks like 2 eyes peering over the top.

The picture on the left is from a card that Maureen sent me and I have saved it for something special and I think this is the place.

Two adjoining pages------

A close up of the page on the right that has an added small page over it which has been concertina folded and the rest is behild the large page.

When you open out the small page there is an embellishment behind it.

Some of these pages need more doing to them but seeing as I am not sure yet what I want to put on them I have stopped before I ruin them altogether.

I asked Ebony what she thought of the pages and she said "they are nice but a bit messy"

when I told her that they were meant to be like that she said "oh then they are beautiful"

No now I am off to do the TAST sample.

Journal Book

I have started to embellish my journal pages for the workshop with Kiwi Carole.
The page at the top is a birthday card that I received from a friend which I wanted to include in my journal so I covered the writing up with some fabric and lace.
You can't see the front of the card but it has some leaves on it.
The smaller page at the bottom is folded in concertina form and has some old torn up doylies stitched onto it.
I did have some other pages done but I stuffed them up and now I have to go paint some more watercolour paper---damn and blast.

This is a fun workshop-and I am learning a lot.

It still isn't too late to join me--just click on the logo on the side bar.

Another Little Quilt Swap 4

This year I am taking part in Kate's 4th Another little Quilt swap and this is my entry.
My quilt is 15" x 15" and has a butterfly worked in Stained Glass applique.
The fabric is hand dyed and for the people in Australia it was done by Mary Hart Davies who used to dye fabulous variegated threads and silk ribbons.
I purchased the fabric over 10 years ago and it was very expensive at the time but I just loved it so I had to have it.
I was to afraid to cut it up for years in case I ruined it but eventually I decided it wasn't going to be any good to me when I went to the great fabric shop in the sky.
The black narrow bias binding is stitched on by machine using a twin needle.
I have embellished the wings with machine embroidery and have sewn some beads and sequins on to hilite them as well.
The background is machine quilted.
I have named the quilt "Flutterby Butterfly"





The sides of the quilt look to curve in at the centre but I can assure you that they don't-it must have something to do with how I hung it up to take a photo.

If you want to see some of the other quilts that have been finished go to the link above.

Private fabric page swap

Recently I had a private fabric page swap with Angelique from France who has since joined our Fiber Fever group.
Angelique asked me if I would like to swap with her--she would make me a page to go with my "country from where you come from" theme and I could make her a flower page.
Here is the page that she sent to me with the Palace of Versailles in the background-an avenue of trees on the right hand side with a photo of Marie Antoinette underneath.
On the left hand side you can see small gardens of flowers.
What a wonderful picture of France to add to my book.

My page is made from a recycled piece of Crazy patchwork in soft pastel colours.

Thank you Angelique for asking me to swap with you.

Journal Workshop

I have signed up to do the Journal Workshop with Carole B over on Madness and Mess and it is proving to be a lot of fun.
First we had to paint watercolour paper to use as the book pages.
I used Adirondack colourwash sprays to colour mine and the colours are soft and subtle.
The first photo is not of the ones that I have used for the book but some extra ones that I did.
I forgot to take a photo of the ones that I used before I tore them up into the sizes that I needed for the pages.






Here is a photo of some signature pages standing up.

Here are a couple of pages and these are the true colours that I painted.

I have also stamped images on some pages.

I am using a 5" x 7" photo album cover for my journal cover--I removed the plastic sleeves and am now left with a very sturdy shell.

I hope it is ok.

Now I am searching for all the stuff to embellish the pages.

Oh such joy.

It is still not too late to sign up if you are interested and Carole is a great teacher.

Fiber Fever for June

The Fiber Fever page that I received for June came from Evi who lives in Germany and her page has the German flag as the main feature.
The background has been pieced to represent the colours of the countryside where she lives.
Evi has then machine quilted the background.
I am so happy with this page--thank you Evi.

My page was for Janny and her theme is for a carnival mask.

This is my interpretation and she has received it already and is happy with it.

I have now a page from Norway one from Holland and one from Germany.

I am so glad that I chose for my theme--the country where you live--I should have some wonderful pages when this swap is finished.

TAST Weeks 15 and 16

Here are weeks 15 and 16 of the TAST 2 challenge run by Sharob B over on Pintangle.
I completely forgot last week to do the stitch which was Ladder Stitch.
The first one is my sample sampler which I had to stop doing because the stitches were getting narrower as I went down-so I started again.
I don't think the second one is much better.

This is my official sample and I was concentrating so much on getting the width even that I didn't realise that I was moving over to the left.

I didn't notice it until I was putting the photo up here.

Oh well they can't all be perfect can they :-(

Week 16 is Italian Knotted Border Stitch which is a fly stitch with a French Knot on the bottom.

My sample sampler.

Again the stitching isn't flash but----

And the official sampler.

The first five are how they are meant to look--in the next five the right hand side leg is straight down instead of being on an angle and in the last five the straight leg swap from the left to the right side on alternate stitches.

I like doing Fly stitch and I love doing French Knots but this stitch didn't really appeal to me--maybe it was the thread that I was using.

Normally I use Perle cotton on all my samples but on both the Italian Knotted Border stitch ones I used variegated floss thread and it just isn't the same somehow.

I am now going to have to find something else to do my practise samples on because the piece of fabric that I have been using with the squares on it is all full up.

Swap with Anne L

Recently I had another ATC swap with Anne from France which arrived in 2 envelopes.
Yesterday I received an envelope posted in France on the 4th June with this beautiful counted thread ATC in it.
I have many ATC's from Anne all in wonderful designs in Cross stitch but this one is amazing-such fine needlework has to be seen to be believed.

This is the one that I sent to Anne which is the last one I had left from a piece of machine embroidery that I had cut up to repurpose into cards.

Also there was another envelope from Anne which was posted on the 4th May.

These were the original ATC's that Anne had sent (0ne for me and one for Ebony).

When they hadn't arrived after 3 weeks Ann sent me another one (above) as a replacement.

Anne has ventured into paper ATC's as well and these are just as beautiful.

Now I am going to send Anne another ATC to make up for the extra one that I received.

A bit of fun

Every Monday evening I go down to my Church Op-shop to help with putting out the new stock ready for the weeks trading.
I enjoy doing this as I get to see all the great new stock that has been donated and I can pick up a bargain now and then.
Last night I noticed this ornament of two rather glamorous ladies and decided that they had to come home and live with me.
They make me smile and when you touch their skirts they wiggle.
On the base of the ornament it says Henrietta and Velma.
What a hoot.



Don't you just love them?

Tomorrow is the BIG day

Tomorrow-(Monday in Australia and New Zealand)(Sunday in the USA etc.) is the day that I begin with Carole B's journal workshop.
It sound like it will be fun-and something new to me (making the journal I mean-not having fun).
Carole is an amazing mixed media artist and I have admired her work for a while now and when she suggested that she was going to run some workshops I couldn't wait to sign up.
So if you are interested in joining me click on the button on the right in my side bar and it will take you there to sign up--come on -you can do it.

Now all I need is the time-----

Crazy Caddy Side 2

This is the other side of the Crazy patchwork chair caddy--same fabrics but in different positions.
I have used some of the TAST stitches on this side and more will be added.





And this is the pieced block before I started embellishing it.





I am enjoying working on these two blocks--I think it is the subtle colours.

Crazy Patchwork

Several months ago I pieced together some Crazy patchwork blocks to work on when our Crazy Patchwork friendship group meets every fortnight.
I don't always work on it -sometimes I am trying to get my TAST samples finished before the Tuesday when the new stitch is published.
This is going to be one of those armchair caddy things that you put your stuff in when you want to embroider while watching the TV (well that's the idea anyway) .
This is the first pocket after I had pieced it together.

And here it is with the seams done-well I should say the seams started.

I usually like to embellish the seams first and then start on the Silk Ribbon embroidery and the button clusters and all the other stuff later.

I find if I put the buttons etc. on too soon I get the embroidery threads caught up in them and then I get a bit annoyed as one does when threads get tangled up.

If you click on the bottom photo and look at the top right hand corner you will notice the mauve fabric has tiny yellow flowers on it which I have over embroidered with silk ribbon--

I will show you the other side tomorrow.

Felted Needlecase and Scissors Holder

Recently I showed you some felted pieces that I had done and here is one of the items that I have made with them.
I wanted to keep the organic edges on the fabric so I decided to make a bigger that usual needlecase and also have a place to keep the scissors.
The piece of lace was something I had dyed recently and seemed to fit in well with the colours in the felt.

Here is a view of the front and back---

And this is the inside---

I made a twisted cord on the sewing machine using the bobbin winder method.

I stitched a cord on the left hand side so I could hold the scissors in place and also added a small pocked to prevent them from swinging about.

I am going to make about 6 of these altogether to sell at the exhibition in September.

TAST 2 Buttonhole Herringbone Stitch

I can't believe it--for the first time ever I have posted 3 stories on one day.
Week 14 of the TAST 2 challenge over on Sharon B's blog saw us doing Buttonholed Herringbone stitch.
The stitch is made up from 2 stitches.
Firstly you lay a foundation of Herringbone stitch and then you work Buttonhole stitch along the legs of the Herringbone stitch.
The first photo is my official sample.
Instead of working the Herringbone stitch using equal distanced stitches I varied the width and height of each stitch.
This meant that I was able to work the uneven pattern that you can see here.

On my sample sampler I have worked equally spaced stitches for the base row giving me a much neater sample.

Now I am off to work a row of this stitch on my Crazy Patchwork block---I'm on a roll.

Crazy Girls Day

Today it was my turn to host our Crazy Patchwork Friendship group and eight ladies turned up.
As you can see there is a lot of stitching goes on and cups of tea and coffee and biscuits.
We also have a show and tell and we share treasures with each other.
At our last meeting Annette shared her fibers and today I shared my tub of spare fabrics.




As you can see by the next two photos they were like bees round a honey pot.
They were gently fossicking in the tub looking for bits of fabric and but then I decided to empty the lot onto the floor and the rest is history.

They all took a plastic bag full home with them but I couldn't notice much of a difference to the amount when I put it back in my room after they had all left.

I must have had it pushed in there very tight.

I wonder what we will share next time?

May Fibre Fever Page Received

Today I received my May Fibre Fever page from Marja Visser and she has included a lot of things relating to Holland in it.
My theme this year is "Your Country -where you live".
I chose this as my theme because of the many different countries where the people in this group live.
Marja lives in Holland and her page has in the centre a paper pieced block depicting a windmill and the red white and blue are the national colours of her country.
On the bottom corners of the centre piece are two metal cow charms and along the top of it are pieces of wool fleece that represent clouds because Marja said that she always grumbles about the weather.
The floral fabric that is surrounding the windmill is a piece of old Dutch fabric.
This is a wonderful page Marja thank you very much.




If you missed the page that I did for May you can go here to see it.

When one door shuts---

-----another one opens---(enough with the cliches Doreen)
I decided that I wouldn't give up so easily in regards to the "Erosion Bundle Project" and after some suggestions from like minded people I have decided to create my own special piece of art.
Kris who is the creator of this project said to me that I should send her a photo of the table where the now defunct bag of treasures disappeared from.
Me being who I am thought "you can do better than a photo of a table can't you?"
So I decide to arrange some of my buttons on said table in an X shape to to say that this is the spot where the bag was.
Yep this looked ok - and then I thought that maybe I could use the photo edit program that I have on my computer and have a bit of a play around.






Does this look like someone running around like a headless chook?

Well I thought that wasn't what I wanted so I decided to frame the picture---looking better.

Then there was the embossed one--I like this one very much.

But here is my entry to the Erosion Bundle Project challenge--

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you ---

X Marks the Spot

I am impressed even if I do say so myself.

There's Bad News and there's-----

Bad news. :-(
Today I decided to make a start on my Erosion Bundle project.
But when I went to the back room which is our sunroom the bundles were nowhere in sight.
I had left them in an open plastic bag ready to start on them this week--they were there on Saturday -but today gone.
That's G-O-N-E --- dissappeared never to be seen again.
You see our garbage is emptied early on Wednesday mornings and somehow the said plastic bag happened to find its way into the garbage bin.
Now there are only two people who live in this house and I know that I wasn't the person who put the plastic bag in question into the bin---I wonder who the culprit was?
In his defense I did tell him that I had put some stuff on the table out there that had to go in the bin --maybe I should have given clearer instructions.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I must apologise to everyone who was waiting to see what I had made from my bundles--all I can say is --we will never know now will we.

Birthday club ATC's

This month there are three people having birthdays so I had to make three ATC's.
They are in the mail now so if any of the recipients see this post they will know what they look like but they won't know which one they are getting.
These were all made from scrap bits from my embellisher samples.




I have been trying to stock up on my supply of ATC's so that if I happen to get busy I will have extras made.
Well that's the idea anyway but the best laid plans----you know the rest.