Lots of Stuff–Post Christmas

This is a real catch up post!  It is lovely to be spending some time just relaxing at home over the Christmas New Year break.  The best part is catching up on some stitching and watching a few movies while doing it
Christmas Day Snaps.

Rebecca (Lilian’s mummy)  ( L ) & Bonnie                  Santa’s gorgeous helper – Bonnie

All the girls on Christmas Day ( L – R) Rebecca, Gabrielle, my sister, Lyndelle, Bonnie, Angela and Moi.

Lyndelle in her sexy apron and with son, Nicholas.
It was a lovely day with heaps of scrumptious food.
My dear friend Shirley gave me this embroidery book – I am so lucky!  It has a lot of unusual stitches in it which I am keen to try.  Thank you, my friend.
                 
Marleen had gifted me and Joan one of these very cute aprons each.  Thank you Marleen – it was very handy indeed.
            
Cute!

I made Marleen and Joan one of these pencil rolls each.  The pattern was from ‘You Go Girl’ – HERE- and was very easy to put together with easy to understand instructions. 

And I made them each a little owl too such as I had received earlier from Vicki at the retreat.
Finally, I have done some more TAST stitching.
This one is Week 21 – Butterfly Chain.  I have called this little one ‘Butterfly Love’ and designed it when we were out in the outback in August.  This stitch was very interesting and I like it done in the chain like I have used around the hearts.  I have worked it on duponi silk.

Yesterday I watched movies and stitched Week 22 – Knotted Cretan Stitch.  This one is called ‘Fish Skeleton’ and evolved from just ‘freestyling’  with the stitch.  On the border I have done it in a very controlled manner in a knotted open cretan and I love the texture this stitch creates.

The background is hand painted (by me) in acrylic paint mixed with textile medium and then rubbed with a copper coloured shiva stik over a textured surface. 
All the TAST stitches for 2012 may be viewed HERE and in the comments sections of each stitch you can view what other people have done over the year.  There are some very creative ideas for using all the various stitches.
Thank you to Sharon Boggon from “Pintangle” for organizing the TAST challenge. 
Now to get on with the next 24 stitches  I AM HALFWAY THERE!!!!!

Is it a Flame Tree & Finally some TAST

 

We think we have a flame tree in our back garden.  The reason we are unsure is that this particular tree hasn’t flowered to our knowledge.  The colour is brilliant and I see other flame trees around town in full flower whereas this one is only just starting. Also, our Jacaranda trees aren’t flowering yet!!  We must be doing ‘slow gardening’.

This is the tree just starting to bloom                            Beautiful orange/red blossoms

The buds (aren’t they beautiful?)

This is the bouganvillea growing along side of it. 

Shirley and I have motivated each other and worked on our TAST pieces.

This is the stitch for Week 43,  Buttonhole cups. (Don’t ask about all the missing weeks of TAST stitches!!)

It was quite enjoyable to do and is a lovely textural stitch. My version is a new flower on the scene called bluecups.  VBG .  I am looking out of the window at a field of them.

The background is coloured with watercolour pencils and textile medium.

You can see more about the TAST challenge and view comments at Pintangle – here – and see what other people have done with this stitch on Stitchin’ Fingers – here.

There was smoke all around the city last week as bush and grass fires continued to burn in our region.  It made a trip down town feel really spooky.  Fortunately, due to the diligence of our fire crews, houses and lives have been saved from these ravaging fires.

In the pipeline I am working on a new blog – same stuff different format.

 

Oyster Stitch

This week the stitch for TAST was oyster stitch.  It is such a versatile and textural stitch, and I loved it.  It is like the stitch Robyn Ginn showed me which she calls row of roses. 
Here is where I used her row of roses some years ago on my still unfinished crazy patch.

I have used it on the heart in the middle of the block, and also as buds on the flowering peach tree.  The way she showed me was slightly different to the instructions on the Pintangle site.  I can’t for the life of me remember her way of doing it now.
This is what I did this time for TAST:

It is mostly done in various thicknesses of DMC stranded thread and the border is a No 8 perle cotton.  I painted the background which was just a white cotton fabric originally.  To put it into perspective, each strawberry is just 5mm or less long.
You can see some beautiful examples of oyster stitch over here on Pintangle.
This past Friday was a very special birthday for my dear quilting friend, Marleen.
My friend Joan and I put together an album for her using some textile pages made by her quilting friends and some photos of happy times we have spent in Marleen’s company.

Happy Birthday Marleen and you don’t look your age!!! 
You are the bestest friend ever.

Ethnic or Olympic?

I did this piece for the basque stitch (TAST) last week and as I look at it today, (after watching the Olympic Games Opening ceremony)  I can see I have used most of the Olympic ring colours.  Purely coincidental.  I have called it ‘Ethnic Blouse’.  Basque stitch was fun to do and is now a favourite. 
You can see more inspiration on basque stitch over on Pintangle .


I just wanted to do something a little bit different this time and not use the usual inspiration – nature.
Now for a Nana story – My grand daughter and her mummy were playing games before bedtime and  were both giggling, when GD, Lilian, ( 3 1/2 years)  stopped and looked at her mummy and said
“Mummy, you are the right Mummy for me”.  Isn’t that just the cutest??

Felt Donuts–TAST revisited

It is cold around here of late, and all our minds are thinking about is food.  CARBOHYDRATE type food!!  This is even reflected in my stitching – LOL
I have done my small sample for TAST Week 28, Up and Down Buttonhole stitch.  There is a great yawning gap between the last TAST sample and this one – like- uhhhm – 7 weeks!  You might say I am a little bit behind.
Even though I took my stitching with me on our last trip, it is difficult to stitch when travelling to the far away (filthy dirty) places we travel too.  One never feels clean enough to handle the stitching.  Camping in sand and red dust is just not conducive to it.

(Felt Donuts)
The circle theme on Sketchbook Challenge was my inspiration for this piece.  That border of very close U & D b/hole stitch nearly drove me mad,  and I was wondering why I do it to myself???? 
I am really keen on having a go at the next stitch, basque stitch, if I get some time – it looks very interesting.

Bullion Garden

Week 20 of TAST – bullion stitch.
I love doing bullions but all I could come up with was flowers.
This is it – A Bullion Garden

Thank you to Shirley who reminded me about twisted silk ribbon and who told me about the border stitch, detached bullion.  I started off a bit wobbly with it but got better as I got around the border.  I love this stitch and will definitely use it again some time. 
Au revoir for now, there may be a short break in transmission as Hubby and I head off on an adventure into the bush.
Internet connection may be non – existent where we are going but if by any chance I get some more TAST stitching done and I have connection I will post it up.
Pop over to Sharon b’s site www.pintangle.com and see all the other amazing bullion pieces.

Strata

Week 18’s stitch has been done.  The blogging is a little behind as life steps in the way and steers me on other courses.
Week 18’s stitch was Crossed Buttonhole Stitch.  At the beginning I thought it was quite a yukky stitch and by the end of the sample I still thought it was pretty yukky.  It would be much prettier embellished to the eyeballs, but of course I am trying to do all my samples with just using the TAST stitch for that particular week.  I am having to use the grey matter a little bit more and come up with interesting ways to display said stitch.

This is the end result, “Strata”.  It is made with 1 1/4 inch strips of fabric folded twice and couched down with the Crossed Buttonhole Stitch.  Thanks to Shirley for the little round beads which just fitted in nicely with the colours I had chosen.(We are also trying to decrease Shirley’s bead stash – but a losing battle methinks.  She has enough beads to take us into the next century!!!!)
When I see what everybody else did with the Crossed Buttonhole Stitch I had a little bit of embroidery envy.  Hop over to Pintangle here and see the many variations others have come up with.  Soooooo creative.  Also, lately on Stitchin Fingers there has been some beautiful embroidery, quilting etc. shown.  Do have a look sometime for some real eye candy.

Wheatear

What an interesting stitch we were given last week on TAST.  All I could think of initially was sheafs of wheat and grass.  In the end, grass won and “Grasses at the Gate’ was produced.  Not terribly original but I was quite chuffed with the idea of doing barbed wire with this stitch.  All in all I was happy with the end result.

Now that I have had plenty of practice with this stitch I will used it more often and embellish it heaps with other stitches, beads etc.
It is getting more and more difficult not to use other stitches in conjunction with the given stitch.
Pop onto www.pintangle.com to see more amazing and interesting ways people have used this stitch.

Learning from Friends

It has been a week of learning and doing.  Finally a little craft time.
Firstly there was my TAST project to do.  After a couple of days pondering and tweaking the design I have come up with ‘The Look’ (named by Shirley because she thought it looked a bit like an eye)

I was having a devil of a time trying to keep those french knots in a straight line and under my control.  So, I turned to the ‘master of french knots’, aka Shirley, and she put me on the straight (sorry about the pun) and narrow.  Then, most of them went straight and I learned the correct way.  It made me really confident about the stitch and I ended up quite enjoying them.  Also enjoyed doing the beading and learnt a few tricks of the trade from a video I recently purchased called “Bead it like you mean it” by Lyric Kinard
Here is the journal entry for french knots where you will see I had other ideas too.

Teresa over on All things Vintage was very supportive when I couldn’t quite ‘get’ a pattern I was trying to make.
It was Isabella’s journal from Faeries in my Garden and for the life of me I could not understand what to do.  I knew Teresa had made this one so I contacted her being too embarrassed to contact the people from Faeries and looking like  too much of a dumb cluck.  In the end, it was all too much and like the song goes, I did it my way.  It is okay and I know the birthday girl recipient is going to love it anyway, cause I made it for her.

Anneliese from Stitching Lady has inspired me to try my hand at stamping and colouring my backgrounds.  I have done a little bit of this but may now start doing a few of my TAST samples on my ‘new fabric’.  The kitchen table was turned into an art space yesterday and I painted some backgrounds.  Now to embellish, stamp etc.

Kitchen table after lunch.

Some pretty washing.

The formy thingy I bought at a craft show and have just remembered after reading Anneliese’s blog.
You heat this up, not too hot, press it onto something textured and then stamp with it.  When you done with that stamping, you reheat it back to plain ready to do a different one.  Brilliant.  Can’t wait to try it out.
Thank you Anneliese for your inspirational work, and thank you to my friends for helping me out.
Drop into Pintangle and see what others did for the french knot (Week 16 of TAST).

Getting Funky and Feeling Funked

 Time is tight around here lately.  There is housework, bookwork, family commitments, quilt club ‘stuff’, garden (very low on list at present), shopping, computer (too much of), husband who wants to go away all the time,   etc. etc. etc.  Wait……I haven’t added any time in there for creating.  Got the idea?  I have just read Lesley Riley’s post about making time for creating.  You can read it HERE.
  We have 72 x 20 minute opportunities in a day to create.  Right, I am going to ‘take’ 20 minutes out of my time each day specifically for this.  Admittedly I do sew in front of the tele at night but a lot of what we want to do can’t be done in the lounge chair in the evening. 
Now that I have vented this stuff here is my creation for stem stitch.

Entitled “Funky Fungi”. 
Stem stitch is a bit of a boring ol’ stitch and one I have been doing for as long as I’ve been holding a needle.  Sooooooo, I thought I would jazz it up a bit with a bit of bold colour.   The edging is two rows of stem stitch and the whole picture is created in stem stitch. The dots in the the background are just representations of those cute mushrooms you see with the red dots.  You could also work the stem stitch like this for some simple roses too. 
TAST is really good for exploring, and coming up with new ideas.  To see more stem stitch creations  visit the Pin Tangle site HERE.  Well, just visit Pin Tangle for inspiration!!!
Finally, a photo of me with my madcap sisters in law on a weekend away together.

L – R Mary, Me, Carmel, Annette, Catherine.  (I cheekily call them the ‘Nuns’)  Mary Therese, Carmel Patricia, Annette Cecilia, Catherine Majella.  Absent was our sister in law, Karen who was sick.

Big Leaf–little berries

Satin stitch is fast becoming a favourite as I worked it this week.
Admittedly it can become a bit tiresome and monotonous, but the end results are worth it (mostly).  Of course, as I went on with my piece I learned things.  Firstly, I wish I had done the berries in a straight colour and not variegated.  The variegation has to be very subtle and this one turned out not to be.  I should have quit after berry No. 1, but no.  In the end, there was no way I was going to pull them out and start again as I was very happy with the working of them.  Also, a hoop is essential.  Shirley’s  nagging    message on the hoop has finally got through,
Importantly, satin stitch is a stitch that cannot be rushed.  Each stitch demands patience and time..  Thus it has taken me almost the whole week staying up late each night.
The thread I used in the leaf is a hand dyed cotton from Stef Francis.  I loved the way it sat, and it has a lovely sheen to it too.  The border is some of Shirley’s No 5 perle – 3 strands couched down with three satin stitches every half inch or so.  I am helping Shirley reduce her thread stash 
            
On the left is the inspiration for my piece.  It comes from a book Shirley picked up at the local Lifeline shop, simply called “Embroidery” – over forty embroidery projects for you and your home – Introduction by Una Stubbs.  It is from the 1980’s.
Sharon B has some wonderful highlights of satin stitch on her ‘browse’ post HERE and also there are many more examples on her TAST week 14 page HERE (go to the comments section and follow people’s links – some amazing eye candy)
I have a second piece of satin stitch I have started so will continue that in the background in the coming weeks.
I have also been busy in the sewing room over Easter, but much of what I have done is secret quilting business, so can’t share right now.
Off to the coast tomorrow for about 5 days, so no internet

A catch up week–12 Stitches in a Pot

Over on TAST last week Sharon announced a catch up week for people to get a chance to finish off some of their samples from the past 12 weeks.  She put out a mini challenge for those people who still wanted to stitch something. 
I read it wrong and thought we had to come up with something for the whole 12 stitches, but you could use just 3 – 6 of the stitches in your piece.  Oh well, it was extra challenging!  The process of designing something took about 5 days which left me just 2 to stitch   There was, of course, much deliberation and changing of mind before I got to the point of producing my “12 Stitches in a Pot”


Actually, for one of the few times, it turned out almost exactly as I drew up in my sketch book.

Also during this catch up week I managed to finish a UFO.  About 18 months ago I decided I had to do something with all the I Spy fabrics I had sitting in the cupboard and decided on these hand pieced hexagons.  ???/#@#%^ 
I got quite fed up with it in the end and decided to put all the hexagons together and see if I had enough for a small child’s quilt  Yep – I did – so then I was ready for a quick painless finish.
Hopped onto my new princess Pfaff and did a fancy herringbone type stitch to join them all up.  It was a breeze.

Front and back – Sorry about the bad photo but geesh it is bright.  Kids like bright right?
It will go into the cupboard in the expectation that some day another grand child will come along.  Lilian already has her own I Spy quilt which she loves.
Like on the radio, I am now going to send a cheerio call.

Hello to ‘Aunty Nellie’ who I believe pops in and reads my little blog now and again.  Nellie is married to my dear friend Yvonne’s uncle and I met her at quilt retreat.  Hope you are well and still producing your wonderful embroidery etc.Nellie.  Hugs.