Books

Quite a while ago I decided to do felt books to have on hand for gifts. I love working with the fibers, so it's a good excuse to use all the things I've collected--and continue to collect in spite of trying to use things up!

 

To a base of craft felt, I used the embellisher to felt down a thick and thin yarn-love the way it creates random rows. Then I used metallic and machine quilted it. I always steam the felt several times along the way to block it. The ribbon was given to me by a friend. The button is from my stash.

It's lined with a hand painted cotton. It has 3 signatures that are covered with heavier hand painted papers. This one was painted, then plastic wrap was laid on the wet paint to create the crystal pattern. I always use another button on the inside when sewing one on the outside, so use doesn't rip the cover.

Quilt

I'm back to the motif I like to use for a patchwork square. The fabrics are hand dyed and batiks. The quilting is done by couching a metallic cord in a square spiral. I kept trying to design it to follow the patchwork pattern but it wouldn't work. Then I realized I could just overlay a large design that had the feel of the patchwork.

Here's a detail.

My Garden

This is the embroidered piece I showed ages ago and finally made into a small wall hanging.

The center is a monoprint that I put painted cheesecloth over. Next came a layer of machine stitching using a programmed pattern of leaves. Then I hand stitched Feather stitch. The flowers are various circular pattern, some are needle woven. The stems were done last which seems weird but worked. Some of them I whipped to change the color a bit. The threads were Perle cotton, embroidery floss, and matte silk. Some were hand dyed by me.

Here's a detail. I do love to hand stitch.

I had planned to carry the design out into the border, but it just didn't work. I also had sewn a dark border on the outside which really overpowered the center and was removed. Pieces just want certain things and won't settle for others!

Bead Journal Project

Here's the latest cuff. Browns and pinks are not my thing, but they seemed right for November when the leaves have fallen and the days are gray.

Fleece is needlefelted to a base. Then I stitched on the odd shaped pearls using seed beads to be sure they stayed put. Ther is only one hole through them even when they are lone. The redish pearls seemed to want to go down the center but needed seed beads to echo them. The edge is beaded picot.

Class

These are 3 of my samples from a Sheer Magic class at www.joggles.com with Janet Clark.

It was fun to do and used some of my sheer stash!

I don't know why I can get on today, but I decided to schedule this extra blog. If I haven't comment on your blog, it's because the thing won't let me unless there is a feature that I can do it with just my name. Maybe it's telling me that 5 years is enough of blogging, but I enjoy having the need to come up with items to show.

Blogger

I'm still having a lot of trouble with blogger, so if I disappear, that is why. I don't know why it let me on today, but it hasn't for weeks. Luckily, I had scheduled things in advance.

The new puppy needs lots of time, so that is one thing I have to do right now. He's a handful, but so was Jake to start, and he turned into the best dog. Mike is enrolled in puppy school now and starts next month.

Jewelry

I seem to be in bracelet mode. This one is on a grosgrain ribbon and makes use of the rings I seem to like to buy. It became very formal, so I edged it with the picot stitch.