Gift, Stitchery

My friend Marjorie http://www.thedragonflystudio.com/ really liked the red Crazy Quilt purse, so she dyed these fabrics for me in exchange for it. I think it's so much fun to exchange art and am always open to swaps.

In March at the Columbia Fiberarts Guild 4 members will be doing demonstrations for the program. Here's a sample of what I'm doing.

Quilt, Postcard

Look what came in the mail yesterday. My friend, Judy, knows how much I love dogs. Isn't it great?

People asked which version of the Wonky I became a quilt top. This was the last one I showed-some order(necessary for me) and some variety.

Postcard, Lace

Here's the second postcard I made with the painted batting for the Technique of the Month at http://www.threecreativestudios.com/  The foil is a peel and stick and is silver holigraphic. It does strange things when it is scanned.  I'll be doing one of the demos at our Guild meeting in March and am practicing my Shisha embroidery-my specialty.

In a box of samples I found this needlelace piece that I had done years ago. I've decided to do a wall hanging to feature it. There is no point in not using it-not sure what I was saving it for. It's a fun technique if somewhat labor intensive. You draw a design on brown paper then baste heavy thread to the main lines of the design. The needlelace is done next, finishing with buttonhole stitch over the heavy thread to cover all the starts and stops and create a nice edge. The piece is 4 by 5 inches.

Challenge

I've been doing the challenges at http://www.threecreativestudios.com/  For the Cue this week, the work was track, so I thought railroad, as DH has an HO model train layout that he's building. For the technique of the month, I made a postcard. It is painted batting with sticky backed foil, shisha, and beads.  It's a lot of fun to try these things. I know I've gotten into probably too many, but I'm making up for losing so much time last year.

Knitting

This was a fun scarf to knit and is fun to wear. It twists around itself and is done using short rows on one half, knitting across, and doing short rows on the other side.The pattern is from The Three Fold Journal 1 and is from Catherine Nicholls. The Three Fold Journal is a magazine/CD producted by the Kemshalls in England.  http://www.thr3foldjournal.com/  It's a fun concept with what amounts to a paperback 52 page book with a CD you use on the computer to access additional information. Videos are embedded in the CD for some of the articles too. Patterns are included for some things. They cover color and design as well as projects such as this scarf. I've enjoyed the magazine. It's sold each issue separately.

Quilts

Here are two more class samples that I've rearranged and made into hanging. The turquoise was two pieces one of which I divided off center and put on the ends.This one had borders put on it. I like the strange red stripe, but when the whole piece was on the cutting table, it was hard to look at!

Challenge

Look who came to visit yesterday. They never seem to be afraid of us and come quite close to the house. They also know just where the dog can get and are outside the fence.I'm a member of http://fiberactions.blogspot.com/ and today is the day we reveal our quilts. They are to be 16" by 20" portrait orientation, and the first word challenge was Initiative. Here is a detail of my piece. It is done on dark blue wool with the rattail couched with a decorative thread. Then that thread was couched on each side to echo the cord. Finally, I put many, many beads around it to form an I. You can see the entire piece on the blog.

Quilt

I've been playing with Electric Quilt again and designing blocks. I like the 4 patch of this one but didn't want to have to match up all those seams. So how about this arrangement.OR this one is another possibility.Another way but still not quite right.I think this one, but I'll make 4 more blocks. The design seems to want to be symetrical. Opinions?

Challenge

Every Sunday a Cue word is posted on http://www.threecreativestudios.com/  I've joined the challenge and thought that I would just do a design in my sketch book. The first one was East which I pictured as an embellished word. Then suddenly I found I was thinking Orient and the fabrics my DIL sent for Christmas. I used two of them and some black cotton to make the wall hanging. It needed the black piping to divide the center from the very busy, wonky check. Both fabrics are heavier than the usual silk which is why I used cotton with them. I know some people were waiting to see what I would do with the fabrics, so here is the first piece.

This week's word is Heel. It ended up as the drawing. It's fun to play with letters to see what kind of a design results. With all the straight lines in this one, it seemed natural to join them.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the Bead Journal Project. It's been a good group for me. This is the third year and third different type of thing that I am exploring.

Bead Journal Project

I've joined the Bead Journal Project again and am on the 3rd blog http://evenmorebjp3.blogspot.com/  There are so many members that we need 3 blogs! The website is http://www.beadjournalproject.com/  It has all the information on the project and galleries for the first two years.

This piece is about 6 inches square. I've decided that this year the backgrounds would be felted wool with rovings embellished into them. Then I used metallic thread to quilt it and beads to embellish. Each will have a focal object-one of those things that I just had to have but haven't used. This one is Mother of Pearl that just happened to have the hole in it.

Quilts

I've been going through WIP's/UFO's and taking old samples to see if they can be turned into something. The first one is quite small but I liked it, so I put on the two borders.

The green I'm not so sure about but decided to try it anyway. The top border might follow the angle and the piece turned upside down.

It's fun to go back and revisit some of the classes I've taken. At least I seem to be in work mode. Winter is a time when I don't want to go anywhere, just want to create.

Quilt

I'm a member of http://fiberactions.blogspot.com/ and have been blogging there about the designs I've dicarded in the first challenge.The word we are trying to represent is Initiative. Here is the one I liked best made up into blocks with two of the arrangements I didn't like. This one is OK but not the best.This one is too disorganized for my taste.Here is the finished top. Not much of a change from the first one, but I like the blocks alternated in each row-more interesting.

Thanks to all who commented last Friday. My DIL and her mother are very good at finding great treasures.

Gifts

See what my Daughter-in-law sent me for Christmas-beautiful Japaneses fabrics. She is so good at finding unusual things and knows me well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. It's going to be a creative one.