Friday, February 28, 2014

Baby, it's cold outside.......


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Finally... proof of why..

... why it is still cold and snowing ...


I'm with the guy who wrote this sign near a church in our area...    ......... stoppit!!
















Friday, February 21, 2014

Laugh a little....

Here's a good one that goes along with yesterday's post and several other blog posts I've done in the past...

Perfect!



"The secret of success is to go from mistake to mistake without losing your enthusiasm".

Anonymous.





Enthusiasm and perseverance ..   I've got those......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday I was playing with  my gauzy square and trying to get a pretty piece of FME (free motion embroidery) out of it.
It's much easier to stitch on than my cheesecloth for sure ... and look how it gathers it up between the stitching... tiny puckers and lovely areas ... I added some bits of tulle type lace and some edges of trim here and there to see what each looked like..... just a fun time of playing....









Wednesday, February 19, 2014

A page..

I cut up my fabric that I've been playing with ....and decided to make an opening on my page to display a portion of it.  It will serve to remind me of what I did with this particular piece... how I stitched it ... how I manipulated the bits of lace and silk... the actual stitches I used...




















In this particular case..it will also serve as a reminder never to stitch a piece directly onto my page!!  Wow!  What a tricky thing to try.  Why didn't I just use double sided tape like everybody else?  Oh, no..not moi.... I figured it might be just as easy to stitch it onto the paper.  Wrong!   the down stitches were just fine, but the ones coming back up again?  from beneath paper and several layers of fabric? ... arrrgghhh!  I couldn't see the holes even when I held the page up to a bright light... and ended up having to poke a needle through each hole from the topside... guide my sewing needle to the exact spot and withdraw the top needle and carefully poke up with the stitching needle.  As you can guess ... the air was particularly blue at several points during my ordeal.  And, yes, it was a bit of an ordeal.  Next time...play with paper stitching and just enjoy it ... .. tack on fabric later...

















Oh, and... I also did the unthinkable.  Stabbed my finger a good one and bled on the paper before I even realized it.  Luckily, I also licked the bloody area immediately...  and then had to lick again because it just smeared... ... and then, luckily ... I was able to blot it off easily with paper towel.  Whew.
Saved the page after I had worked so diligently with my stitching...

I was having some fun with FME also... onto a gauzy square with a few little embroidered flowers on it.  I'm not sure what it is ...perhaps a table protector of some sort... too big for a hanky ...  not really a doily... too small for a scarf...... Maggi found it for me...

I love how the FME looks on it...I'll try a bit more and try for better photos of it...  I cut a bit of it and added it to this smaller piece of the fabric...


Thursday, February 13, 2014

some embellishment...

...and some stitching too.  And, I even managed to adjust a few things on my editing program... to make my photo appear nicer.  More lightness to it than the original for sure ..and more definition... thanks Karen.

I found a use for a beautiful small piece of very fine silk sent to me by one of the girls in my first stitching class all those months ago.... I ruched it a bit as I was stitching it into position and added some French knots and bullion knots here and there.....








































Playing with placement of a piece of a bit of FME fabric that I made a while ago.... haven't decided where I'm going to put it yet.....

Buttonhole lace edging around the edges to tame some wild straggly bits.  I'm going to double wrap the three cross threads.... the threads I wrapped were only a few threads on cheesecloth... pretty delicate and fragile.... it maybe needs bulking up a bit ....


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

a page..

I've begun a ledger in which I am documenting stitches and information ..  all the girls in the classes seem to be doing it ...and ...Karen has some doozy pages in her ledgers... just check out her blog sometime ... and, well, I didn't want to be left out I guess.

Haven't a clue what it's all about really...but, I'll be having some fun doing it.  From what I've seen, just trying to put a cohesive and beautiful page together is a feat in itself.  Mostly I'm sure mine will be sort of fly-by the-seat-of-my-pants .... or, as my younger sister always used to say ... "fake it 'til you can make it"......and she had some dandy jobs back in the day even though she had never attempted anything remotely resembling the positions prior to applying.

I think I'll even make an attempt at making some small journals.  I found some tutorials online.  Meantime... in my big spiral bound art book.... this is my page for this week... because heart day is approaching ....

French Knots on paper....



























































There is more to do yet... more French Knots; some paper pricking ... and some more embroidery ...




Tuesday, February 11, 2014

less utility, more fun...

This piece of fabric strips is my latest little project... well, not a project really...just some fun. There are still a few utility stitches used to hold the strips in position... but, then... some machine free motion work will come into play and also some hand embroidery and some embellishment.
















The dark strips are from a piece of what I think is metallic and silk..it is actually open weave and see through, but, it is a bit darker than I'd like... however, it does go nicely with some of my off whites.  Some day I'll organize a swap or something and get me some of the real thing... in a lovely nude colour or perhaps some silvery... we'll see.
















Who knows what will become of this piece of fabric...   some of it could even end up as a pin cushion I guess ..... we'll see as it progresses.


I have to say, the bears and other assorted animals that live at my house are not always totally helpful... take the other night for example... I was going to sit under some bright lights in the office so that I could see well enough to do some tiny stitching... because my hobby room is still in disarray and I have no clue where my Ott light is... but, I wasn't quite sure how to take this.....maybe I should just be thrilled that they think my bum is only that big.....
















If you didn't know better, you might think kids live here......


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Utility stitches .....

...taking some photos of my tiny stitches on my blocks.... talking out loud of course, to anybody who would listen.... mentioning about utility stitches and how the women of old used them so neatly to piece things together and make them look pretty, and how they were the basis, really, of our stitching classes with Karen... etc.....

Here I've done tiny stab stitches
















Here, a tiny running stitch along some silk edges..
















They may, or may not, be finished with just the little utility stitching...but, I'll wait til I get all the blocks pieced to make more decisions on that.


All of a sudden.... Mr. BV was beside me .... holding something.... and saying he had "something that I could practice my utility stitching on" ....

I looked up from the fun stuff and discovered this ....
















.....a button had totally broken in the centre and come off his slacks...... sigh....yep...that'd be utility all right.... right back to basics.


One of the few things that I could do for years.... stitch on buttons and hem slacks and dresses by hand...seeing as I didn't have a machine and...didn't know how to use one anyway.....  some days I got lazy and took them to the cleaners and had them stitch hems...but, they got to be over $12 each pair and I got penurious.... especially when we were saving for this house.