Web stitches on silk

I love stitching on silk.... I wish all my pieces were silk.... maybe some day I will do a block or even a small cloth all in silks.

A couple small bits snipped from a pretty piece of trim sent to me ... placed on two strips of skinny trim ... stab stitched into position with stitches on the diagonal... and then... "encrusted" with web and French Knots... don'tcha love that word?  .... encrusted...   sounds like jewels on a crown...

 The clean up continues for the poor flood victims.  It is hot now and must be dreadful doing all that heavy dirty work in such heat...

Watering restrictions were lifted at midnight for the rest of us and I am busy watering plants and the lawn... 'midst trying to organize where to stitch next and making something for supper.  Oh, yeh...and doing some laundry as we have also been trying not to overdo with anything pertaining to city water until the water subsided somewhat.  The reservoir and sewage treatment plants were working overtime.

Disaster averted..

overnight.... they managed to run other tanker cars alongside the dangling cars...pump out the liquids...  sidelift either the rails or the cars..I didn't quite get that bit...and then, somehow attach them to engines at either side... pull them ..uncoupling the group in the centre and getting them off the damaged tracks... they are still moving them further away ...but, all is safe.

The bridge is 100 years old,...damaged by the flooding and now will be replaced.

Whew.

I did some bits of stitchery while watching.. ... not a lot...

We are working on a little sampler in our new class of Simply Stitch.

Some thread wrapping on those long stitches to the left... some web stitching... French knots of course, and oh, yes...the frilly picot stitch.

look what new disaster is happening today

A rail bridge collapsed about 4:00 a.m. this morning.... tracks are buckled and 5 cars are left hanging with the bridge... perilously close to the raging Bow River.  Traffic is at a standstill and people are doing incredibly stupid things like racing up slippery grassy embankments and darting into wrong way traffic.  Sometimes it's embarrassing to be part of the human race.

The bridge supposedly hasn't moved any more in the last while.... but, who knows when the whole structure along with the tanker cars could simply slide into the river.  Then what?

Apparently 4 are loaded with  petroleum based liquid...they are saying possibly a diesel type of substance....and one is supposed to be empty.   Still checking manifest lists...

They can't place any booms because of the force of the already swollen and fast moving river which is bringing huge amounts of debris with it ...but, are trying to place some along banks further downstream to help if the cars leak.... or fall in I guess.  I doubt the actual cars would make it past the other bridge immediately downstream, especially if they remain linked, but who knows... I guess they might slip under .. or... worse yet...wipe out the other bridge too...

And, now...the rain has stopped and we are having record high temperatures for the next several days....piles of garbage are beginning to stink ...we have hordes of new mosquitoes..  they are trying to limit garbage pickup to only our black bins and no recyclables right now, which is totally understandable .... the landfills are having trouble keeping up.  There are even lines of fridges waiting near the entrance to the landfill sites....to be emptied of refrigerant before they can be dumped..... there must be thousands of those....  and more on the way.....

People are removing debris and pumping sewage filled water out of homes

....with no gloves and masks if you please.  What?  How ignorant and stupid can people be?  The flood waters only killed 4 .....but, stupidity could well do in several thousand if they don't smarten up.

Stitched a bit today

Stitched a couple of bits cut from a piece of fabric onto some silk.  One is simple applique and the other is  lightly stuffed.

Simple chain stitching around each and joined with three thread wrapped stitches.

Above on the seam are some raised bullion stitches and some French knots..

I love the light in the first two... makes the silk look so rich and  golden doesn't it?  It's just barely off white really.....

The rest of the story...

 You know how sometimes you see a news story and then...nothing much afterwards?  Well, Kevin and Momo are in the news again today....

What a lovely photo of them together...

Waters are subsiding somewhat.... one community is already being allowed back to survey damage.... many more to go though, and the downtown core?...at a total standstill.  No power in most office buildings and no way to get in and out of the area... all bridges are flooded... probably about Wednesday before hundreds of thousands can get to work again...

Our city is flooded

We are in a state of emergency and total devastation in and around Calgary...

luckily we, ourselves, are in a pretty good area and at the moment... safe enough...but, many are not so lucky.

Here is a guy and his kitty that got really lucky.... just got out of that truck in the nick of time... it disappeared in seconds after this...


The highway is washed out between Alberta and British Columbia at a town just outside Calgary called Canmore ... you can check out the situation by googling Youtube and Canmore flooding...it is a disaster.... truckers are stranded ... people are stranded ... some houses are perched precariously now on the banks of what is usually a dry creek bed, and that usually is about 90 to 100 metres away from them, but, which became a raging torrent of water and huge trees and debris early in the morning yesterday... it dumped mountains of debris on the highway and totally washed out other areas.. unbelievable to see.

We are glued to the tv.... nothing much getting done... I went shopping for a few things and there was not one parking space at the mall and Safeway... it was worse than the worst day of Christmas shopping I've ever seen.  Plus...everybody seems crazy.  In a frenzy... the drivers are doing stupid moves...I was happy to just come back home immediately.   I will put some water in containers just in case.... the reservoir is already overflowing its banks and they are talking about opening the floodgates soon in order to prevent damage ...although, doing that is not going to be fun for those downstream and who are already in dire straits..... oh, man...it's bad...and all of a sudden it's happening right here instead of miles away .. ..

Mr. BV left for work at 5:00 a.m as usual.... and returned about 45 minutes later...after trying several different routes in to the city..only to discover they were blocked off by police and emergency workers...and ...in some areas... too much water to drive through.  Good thing he didn't get through... now they are in the process of evacuating the downtown core of the city.  There is 2 to 3 feet of water flowing through the streets...and now...they are also going to close the main road going from north to south in the city...the Deerfoot... people are stopping, like idiots...on the speediest road ... to take pictures.  There are signs all over that road... nobody stops on that road...ever. Today.. they are stopping and going in high speed traffic ...causing dangerous situations.  So.. police will close the route.

The La Farge plant is under water and there about 20 cement trucks parked on the Blackfoot just a block from here ... staying well above the mess...

The Douglasdale driving range I usually go to is well and truly under water...I can make out the tip of the roof of the ball shack and the outline of the tennis courts in the aerial shots on tv... folks on the outlying edges of that subdivision have been evacuated too...(as many as 100,000 people have already been evacuated here) I talked to two ladies just outside Safeway who were buying groceries to supply the families who took them in today.... whew.... what a situation ...
They said some Safeways are already running out of some supplies.... craziness..... and...

... the rain is still pounding down...

update::

here are more photos and videos....

Some web stitch

..... although, to me they look more like starfish....well, that's what I like to think of them as ....and with the French knots..?  tiny bubbles .....

If I had a seashell I'd be listening for the sound of the sea washing ashore.....

Here's how this particular block is shaping up.  The bit of green thread on the edge of my lovely vintage hanky is the third row on some buttonhole lace stitching...

.. and just to the left of that is a row of tiny scallops..hey...more oceanside stuff ..hahahha.... I'm on a roll here...    not...  .... they are the frilly picot stitch Karen showed us.  Love that one... you can do it in various sizes and degrees of tightness and get a whole different look to it.  Well, I guess that is possible with almost every stitch.... amazing, this embroidery.......

I really don't know how folks zip through all the edges and seams....there are soooo many areas to embellish and embroider.  I can see this project taking me many months to complete...not that it is a race..but, it is interesting that each time you do one area, you see more to do and then, when we piece the blocks...more seams of course....it's great!  Opportunities for embellishment as 'somebody' I know says.....

Today I was supposed to be golfing...but, it is windy, rainy and mosquito-y ....so...I'm staying home; playing Suzi Homemaker.  Baking bread, making soup and stitching..... how I love a day like this!

And, when we were in Portugal.....a day like this!  Beside the ocean.....ahhhhhh..... perfect......

Jumped up ...

... to the seam where the piece of fabric joins Harley's piece.... and tried a line of bullion stitches.















I looked at a lot of Karen's bullion edges... still can't quite figure out how she does something that looks sort of random and yet gets it to look great.  Maybe it is not as random as I think it is .  I unpicked quite a few bullion stitches before I hit on this configuration ...and, I like it.   Looks like regular criss cross, but that's okay.... it gives a nice look to the seam I think.

The embroidery thread is my new Coton a Broder which I finally found.  Once I got busy stitching with it I discovered it is quite creamy coloured even though it is called Blanc.... (white) .... I wasn't really checking different whites at the shop... must call the gal and see if there is a whiter white .... hahhaha....   I need stark white for some areas..

continuing on...

...with Harley......the heart.... hahahha.....

I made it my love piece.  Smoooooches..... kissies.....


Added some little "x"s, French knots, and satin stitched hearts....

 ....moving on......to the piece of fabric directly above this one.  I'm trying some bullion knots along the seam.  First bullions on my cloth at all.  Just a minute, I lied.  I did a few around one of the cut work areas...but, they were in a tidy row.  Not doing tidy seems to be the problem.  I've been having difficulty making them look good to my own eye in any arrangement I've tried that isn't more or less perfectly ordered.  This one is ending up being almost criss cross ..instead of just higgeldy piggeldy .... (is that how you spell that?...looks funny...) .... anyway.... watch this space .... more to come.  You knew that.

not really cross stitch .....

I tried a bit of cross stitching on my new waste canvas that I got when Maggi and went shopping... Oh, but first, let me tell you.... at the same little shop I finally found some Coton a Broder, which 'til now I have been unable to find in Canada.  Woohooo ..   I was so excited, and wouldn't you know, I've lost Karen's list of colours and numbers and such...so bought a few of each.

Couldn't wait to give it a try.  It is totally different from the Perle cotton which I have been using ...or the DMC regular embroidery threads...which are 6 to a strand and a bit trickier to work with ...

But..... then, almost immediately, this happened@!!  Accckkk!

What a nightmare!  It took about an hour to unravel and fiddle and finally get it sorted.  I finally cut it in several spots of course...but, that's okay I wound it onto little plastic cards.












By that time I was ready for one of these...  and convinced myself that I could be careful.... and not have another disaster .... probably pushing my luck a bit ....but, it held.   Ahhh.... a lovely Blueberry Tea... of the cocktail variety.    Good thing Karen was away on holiday...

Back to my story about x-stitching.  I should have watched Karen's video again... but, didn't.  My mistake.  I did watch it initially, but it was weeks ago now, and ...I forget a lot more than I learn.  So, didn't really know what I was doing, but found a few heart shaped cross stitching photos on the 'net and decided to make a heart of my own.  However, I seemed unsure of where to put my needle and was it same hole as the bottom of the x on the top line or one more hole down below it or what?...

Needless to say ..it didn't quite turn out like it was supposed to  ... and then I saw some (online again) where people had put some stitches around the edge to sort of gather up their stitching and make it into more of a heart shape... which I did too.

In the end it looked kinda cute...or so I think.

I folded and ironed the little test piece of fabric I was stitching on... attached it with tiny stab stitching to a piece of fabric on the block I was working on....   then did some of Karen's frilly picot stitching around the edge, and all of a sudden it looked like a tiny framed picture.  I like it.

I'm slow with this...

and, I have excuses....which I'm sure nobody wants to hear ...

But... Friday was a busy, fun day... mostly out of town, but when I did get home, I had fun mail to open.

Dolores (a quilter in eastern Canada) sent me a big parcel of whites and off whites... thanks so much Dolores.... they are already being tested and tried in various areas of my wrapping cloth.  Wheeee, what fun.... I'm like a kid in a candy store with things like this!  some folks probably think I'm nuts...but, little things do make me happiest. As a matter of fact, my life is really just made up of little things...

I wish there could be a worldwide swap meet to trade our good stuff..... (besides that it would be fun to finally meet our blog and crafting buddies, wouldn't it?)   The perfect way to re-purpose our stash of stuff we no longer need and get the colours and other bits and pieces that we need now... this week..or for our latest adventures and endeavours....   you bloggers and crafters know what I'm talking about...I know you do!

My other fun piece of mail was this from Twiglet.  An ATC to mark the 4th anniversary of WOYWW...  What?  You don't know what it means?  What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday that's what!  For 4 years now the girls have been snooping into each other's lives and working spaces (not always a hobby room either).... at the urging of Julia Dunnit of Stamping Ground...  hahha...and, if you think yours is a disaster zone...you should see some of these fun places!  Check up on them sometime to see what others are creating.....maybe add your 'stuff'..... the group is growing every day.

 Gwendolyn said she wanted to help display my ATC.  As usual, don't be fooled by that face...she really does love it...honest Jo ...... (I myself have to laugh...or at the very least, grin, when I look at her.... that look...hahahhah.. oh, boy, I need to make another just like her for sure... )

See how gently she's holding it? ..... the model of perfection she is...   (She thinks she's still pretty hot, so I have to praise her all the time.)

  Twiglet works with tiny bits and pieces of lovely scraps just like I'm trying to do.  Look, embroidery too ...... she makes beautiful things.

And....I'm still stitching away on my own lovely bits and pieces given me by friends and acquaintances from around the world...thanks everybody again... I hope every so often when I show something you recognize a fragment here or there that you sent me.  This is going to be a special cloth.  Totally made from fabric given me to start a stash of whites and off whites so I can make several of these...and, hopefully one day as well...some dainty, tiny pin pillows as Karen calls them. Pin cushions to the rest of us....

And, one more little thing.... my flowers are blooming, the landscapers have gone away...the grass was ready for its first cutting and wow... a lot of little things really came together this past week.....yaaaayyyyyyyy.  Luckily most of the plants are perennials... it's been so wet I've only been able to get out twice to weed and tidy.  The landscapers sprinkled bark mulch on some growing things and I still have to dig them out from under...but, ..for now...it looks good in pictures... and the new bark smells great.  You can see the garden has been dug out a bit.... less grass and now, there is still more space to plant things...... ooooh....goody..... more little things... some plants and flowers next.