There was dye left over, so I used it on some Irish Crochet motifs I made years ago. They will work well with Crazy Quilt.
I'm taking Christen Brown's Sumptious Surfaces class at http://www.joggles.com/ ,and this is the background I'll be stitching on. It's dyed with Colorhue dyes. I had gotten them years ago at the Houston Quilt show and never used them. They are easy to use.
The ribbons seem to come out lighter. Colorhue dyes silk and rayon.
Here are the threads. I'm having so much fun that I did a group of greens yesterday but now need to do dark ones and the olives that come from mixing yellow and black. Nothing white around here is safe but it's a run to the store today to see what else white I can buy.
The challenge for http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ was Rhythm this time. I had this background that was stripped in gentle curves that said Rhythm to me. It was something that was sitting around here, because I didn't like it and didn't know what to do with it, so I broke up the black areas with the melon stitching and did the hand stitching to echo the gray. The fabrics are hand dyed.
Also around the studio was the beaded piece, so I added rows to it to make it bigger, used a wavy rotary cutter blade to cut it out, and applied it to the piece with hand stitching. I also tacked it with sewing thread, because beading is heavy and needs to be supported. To finish I quilted it. Now I like it much better.
This week's stitch for Sharonb's Take a Stitch Tuesday at http://www.pintangle.com/ is the Sword Stitch. It's an easy on and can be piled up to create texture.
I'm in a Yahoo group called Unlimited Textiles and the latest exchange was Summer's colors. This is the wonderful quiltie I received. I really can feel summer.
June also included fabrics, a tag, and a card. Thank you so much June.
I hand knit at night when my mind won't make decisions. This sweater started from a commercial pattern and was to be a vest. I didn't like how they did the armhole area, so I started directly with the body of the sweater. Then when I was working, I remembered that I had a machine knit vest that was similiar in color, so since there was plenty of yarn, I decided to add sleeves. They continued the pattern and end in ribbing. Next challenge-the neckline-it was way too big for me, so I picked up stitches and did the ribbing. I decided not to do any on the bottom, because I like the way it looks and fits without it. Short garments look better on me.
Here is the closure: an antique button with a loop. The yarn is cotton mostly. I used 5 cones of machine yarn held together for working. They all sat in a box next to me and behaved well most of the time. This is definitely the way I work-can't seem to stay with someone else's idea.
This is the result of my final lesson from Janet Clark at http://www.joggles.com/ The motifs are entirely of thread and easy to do. They even took less time than I thought. As usual I'm thinking of using them in a different way. They would make good additional to wall hangings.
It's east to do and would be easy to vary.
Here's the motif/quilt square design in stitchery. I lined things up, because the stitching seemed to need a more formal arrangement. It is stitched in Perle cotton and matte silk. I think a repeat would make a good border. This will be inset in a bigger piece.
Here is what I finally did with the Blue Flower. It's a fabric transfer of the negative of a photo I took. It looked wrong with just the green and pink strips and needed the blue. To bring that back into the center of the quilt, I machine stitched a narrow ribbon to form a frame.
This is a piece that has been around unfinished for a while. I showed it in progress and finally decided what to do with it. The Shisha are held in place with needlelace stitches. I've never used any glue to hold them-learned how to do it long before such glues were available. The edging is 2 rows of a fuzzy yarn couched in place by machine. Somehow a regular binding didn't seem right. I tried to use beads on it, but it refused them. It's called Starflight.
This week's stitch from Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ is the Ladder Stitch. The left one is done in Perle Cotton 8 and would make a good flower petal. It was easy to make the stitch go to a point. For the petal or a leaf, I would probably do a point on each end. The middle is with floss. You have to be careful not to split the strands, but using all 6 makes a nice braid. The right is with Perle 3. It can be curved and moves well.
These two are small motifs made for Janet Clark's Water Soluble Class at http://www.joggles.com/ I'm learning some new ways to use the product while having fun.
Last week 3 of us painted lace. This one is bonded to Peltex and will be used as a book cover.
Because it didn't take long, we moved on to lace yardage.
And then to trims. It is fun. It was also a challenge to bring everything home wet. I just stacked it all up and rolled it in plastic not caring if the paint moved to other places. Once home, I laid everything out to dry.
Here is this weeks stitch Buttonhole Herringbone. The last row shows the Herringbone stitch worked randomly. Sharonb at http://www.pintangle/ is the host for this challenge.
Last month three of us got together and painted crystal paper. It's watercolor paper that is misted. Paint is dropped on it. Then it is covered with saran/cling wrap until it is dry.
It's hard to wait for it to dry before checking to see how it turned out. This month we were going to sunprint, but it seems that the NW is having monsoon season! We are painting lace instead.
