I'm a winner!

A few weeks ago Karen Ruane had a little giveaway on her blog.....and I won!  Good thing my bloggy buddy Mary Ann was not involved...that girl is so lucky nobody else has a chance if she is entered.  I didn't tell her about this one...ahahha...oh, sorry Mary Ann.... not nice I know....but, this time.... nope.  Didn't.

This is what I won.  A piece of lacy fabric that Karen made.  You can check out her blog and her lovely photos on Flickr and see all of her work... she works mainly in whites and I always marvel at how everything is so pristine looking and so well photographed.

And, even though you absolutely get to see it all in her photos, and yes, even very close up ... somehow it is just different to be able to hold a piece in your hands.  To touch it and feel it and see the fabrics themselves.  I'm glad I managed to win this bit so I could see first hand what FME (Free Motion Embroidery) looks like with bits of lace integrated into it.

For instance, look at this portion of it...see the little flower of the bit of lace that was introduced into the piece of fabric being made?

 Here is a different area...

And, look at the base fabric... scrim I think it is ... please correct me if I'm wrong Karen... but, it is still a bit different from the sample of scrim that I have....and totally different from what us girls in Canada and the U.S have to work with when we try this technique ...which is cheesecloth... a huge difference.

I took a photo of cheesecloth versus this background fabric.  Wow...  cheesecloth on the left, of course...how does anybody manage to do some FME on that?  Must try it someday...but, not today....

Today I will do the second row of buttonhole lace stitch around my second pin pillow....woohooo... love it.!  The first row was a bit tricky, because as Karen mentioned...you can't believe how thick things are 'til you attempt to push a needle through it all.... good thing I have a few pairs of haemostats and know how to use them.  And, at one point...luckily I noticed I was bleeding before I got it on my pillow!  I really poked myself a good one.

Two posts in the same week

Things are looking up!

Whew!  Another hot one today, just like yesterday.  Forget mad dogs and Englishmen in the noonday sun...around here it is just Crazy Canuck golfers.  Yep... yesterday I golfed in +30C. Came home drenched in sweat.  Just soaked.  Oh, it was soooo  nice to have a cool bath and flop on the bed for half an hour.

Managed to do a bit of work on my pin pillow last night and today.  The guy who was supposed to come to finish off around the skylight... cancelled at the last minute this morning.  Arrgghhh!  It's always something with all of them it seems.  Nobody really wants to work anymore.  It's like pulling hen's teeth just getting them here ..then they look at things and have to go to the hardware store ...then, oh, gee, it's coffee time or lunch.  It all depends on how late they arrived.  Wow.  How did I go through life not ever finding a job like that?  I had to work and work hard at every darn thing I ever tried in my lifetime.  Silly me I guess.

Best laid plans... now he can't come 'til next week... and I have the dentist on Monday, so, it will have to be Tuesday...let's see if he shows ...

I got a bit more stitching done today ..after I worked in the garden 'til it got too stinkin' hot.

Here is the story on these hearts.  I told it on Flickr, but many of you don't go there, so... I'll tell you here as well.
I didn't notice 'til I took off the waste canvas (the grid I use to stitch the little crosses) that the top right hand side X was one space over from where it was supposed to be.  Maybe nobody would have noticed, but I knew, and wanted to change it; so how could I ever get the grid in the proper spot for only two tiny crosses?  And, I didn't want to unpick my little heart.
What did I have to lose if I tried to fix just the top two crosses without using a grid?  If I failed, I could just unpick the whole heart and do it over.   So, I unpicked only the top two X s in order to have thread long enough to knot.  And, did them again, freehand.  You can't even tell.  Happy me.

Some web stitches and some French knots here and there as well... and a little thingy I cut off a bit of trim at the top right corner... it is loose and lifts up and down... like a tiny bell.

A couple more hearts above and little lacy ruffle....

Coming along.  Might be able to get it stitched and ready for outlining with buttonhole lace stitch tomorrow ... fingers crossed....

Wow...I fell off the radar....

Summertime hey? .... everything is turned on its ear.

I heard parents humming this morning...humming that tune...."It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year".... as they put kids on buses...hahhahah.... only 180+ days left kiddies... til next summer.... huh? ..is that all?  Obviously the reason nobody learns to read and write anymore ...well, that and computers...

Anyway..onward with other things.  I've been golfing, and waiting on trades and others to finish up the renovations...that were supposed to be completed by last October....sigh... oh, and dental visits... for complicated things with my mouth that are too technical and involve older implants etc... to bother explaining to most folks.  Easy enough for me to understand after being in dentistry for 20 years.... the hard part is sitting in the chair again.. after not having to do that for years.... I didn't think I'd ever have to go through this again.  But, every body reacts differently to things and mine failed me with a front tooth implant.. and, so ..lots of other work taking place to try to save and fix and replace things.

Recently I also made a master sheet of fabric as Karen calls it.  At least I think I remember her calling it that.  From my second class with her... although, we did take to calling it the class that was not a class as it was supposed to be more a gathering of cloth and embroiderers..but, you know how it goes.  Folks want to know how to do 'stuff'...and she has to show and tell.  The second class was called Simply Stitch and now she has another on the go... Simply Stitch 2 .. head over to her blog to check out her work.

Anyway, when I made my first pin pillow, I just put together tiny bits of fabric and made only one.  This time I'm trying for several at one go.  Not that it is any quicker.  For me, it is actually more confusing it seems.  Trying to get things measured etc..   I don't seem able to piece things and just get on with it. Square off things and use the pieces I squared off.  Nope.  Not me.

Karen also did say she is happy to be of help with any part of what we are doing and if we find our own way of doing ... that means she has succeeded.  Well, Karen, I have this little trick I'm using to help me envision it in the finished stage, because I just can't look at the large piece and see my little pillow area done.

I made up a beautiful piece... FME'd (Free Motion Embroidered) on it... then, cut out some squares from a piece of heavy paper and can move it around to look at which area I want to use for my pillows.  Stick in a few pins to mark the edges, turn it over and then place the cutout on the pinned spots to draw on my squared off lines.  Then, work away on the front with some embroidery, some placement of laces and other bits of trim.  At the end of the embellishment and stitching, I will cut the pieces off the bigger piece of fabric, stitch the front to a silk backing and more embroidery around the edges and voilà... hopefully another pin cushion as beautiful as my first one.

Sometimes, as we know,  the first is the best.  But, I did learn my lesson with bear and doll making... don't sell or give away the first one til you see how they turn out after that.  You may regret giving away the absolute best one you ever make.  Been there; done that.

And, speaking of Free Motion Embroidery...helpppp!!  I don't know if it is something 'bout my machine or if it is just me or what.... but, when I begin, I want to bring up the bobbin thread so I can hold onto to both threads at the start of machining...however, .....I can't get the lower thread to come up through the fabric...even in test fabric which is much thinner than my doubled up stuff.... what gives?
I am wasting yards of thread just trying to pull the top one and hold the top one etc...to try to coax up a single stitch from below....acckkkkk!  That was the reeeeellly hard part of all of this!  Plus my foot thingy must have something wrong with it as well... can't keep the speed continuous at all right now... it wasn't doing that before....must take it in to have things looked at I guess.....I even took the bobbin holder out from underneath (that was a wrestling match to get back into place!) and cleaned with my tiny brush, etc....no luck so far...

See?...You can get the idea ...sort of from noting where the basting lines are around the outside of the size you decided upon.... but.....

...with my cutout, I can play with trim and see the actual look of a completed cushion.  So much easier ....for me ....

Last night I did some web stitches (I love that stitch; my fav I think) some French Knots, and today, hopefully, a few cross stitched hearts will make an appearance.  But, I do have the door and window place on call....and I must drive over to pay up my dues for the Leisure Centre (you can't do it over the phone) ....or they may not let me golf tomorrow...oh, and waiting on the dental office to move my appointments around to accommodate their holidays ....sigh...... how does a person ever just plop down and enjoy some "ME" time?

Probably when the snow flies....nobody will want to do anything then, I'm sure.

Pin pillow

.... or pin cushion if you like....  WARNING:::: photo heavy ..... hahhahahhahahah....

I love it!!

Began it over a week ago as a break from the blocks of my wrapping cloth.  Well, and also, because all the others in the Simply Stitch group were making some... one girl made 6 already...whew...she must be 'da bomb' seamstress!  Me?  Well, I'm Slowpoke Rodrigues myself.... but, that's okay....

And, for me it began with a cutout window of cardboard.... I wanted to try to get an idea of how things might look when completed.  My window is 3" X 4".

Some decisions, ....     placing and piecing of fabrics ...  including a piece of Dupioni silk, some FME (Free Motion Embroidery) to hold all in position.  Then,  cross stitched some tiny hearts onto the silk ...they remind me of strawberries .. ..., some edging of the very plain flat lace on the right side with frilly picot stitches to make it more interesting, buttonhole edging of the top corner piece, placement of a cut off tab from a large stiff pretty collar piece from Maggi's cousin and lots of French knots here and there .....et voilà... my pin pillow begins to take shape.

After decorating it with more knots and stitching it went to the machine.  Which is where I usually stall out totally.... have to check to see I have it threaded right... put some matching thread on a bobbin... but, check page 13 of the manual to see if I have the thread in the proper place to do that... then, actually practice a bit on a scrap to see if I can more or less make a straight line..which by the way, is more harrowing than just haphazardly doing some FME... stitched 3 sides on the machine...turned it ..and oh, ... was I happy with the look!   Sometimes I do take a long time to make decisions it seems ...but, in the end ... am usually very happy with all of it... so, no time wasted really.

Stuffed and finished.

Dupioni silk for the backing.

Frilly picot stitch along the plain lace trim.

Little cross stitched hearts that look like strawberries to me.

Edged in buttonhole lace stitch.  Finishes it off perfectly.  And, there you have it....my first pin cushion.  Yay me!

Cabbage butterflies...

... they are pretty little things... they like to visit my colourful flowers in the pots.

                                                                         




Wow!!  the middle of August already!  Where has the summer gone?  We had a pretty wet one and now?...really hot.  Yesterday we golfed in +29C .... and today it is supposed to be the same.... not golfing today that's for sure.  Not that I usually golf two days in a row anyway...how do the old farts do it?  Oh, yeh...I am an old fart, I should should know this one.... but, I don't.  Some of them must have a lot more oomph than I have, that's all I can say.

Still doing a bit of stitching here and there .... but, not regularly, and have taken a bit of a break from the wrapping cloth pieces.  I have decided to try my hand at making a little pin cushion...not showing til it is finished though....

However, here is a bit of the stitching I was doing on the wrapping cloth piece.... utility stitches...patching .. and just making things pretty ... we were making little squares but, this time folding the edges over on the working side..  I stitched one onto the hanky corner... added some knots and then thought about tucking one just under the corner ...

Then, I got to thinking it might look cute added on to the first little square on top of the hanky corner instead of underneath it... still deciding....

The lacy edged hanky is one my Mom gave me many years ago... it has been hiding in a drawer ...  as so many beautiful pieces usually do.  Karen's suggestion is...why not use it in our project.  Give it new life and enjoy it .... even if we have to cut it to incorporate it into our creation.  I'm betting my Mom would love the way it fits in with all the other pretty pieces I have gathered and used in my little project.  She was always our biggest cheerleader and supporter no matter what we attempted in our lives....I'm sure she would be thrilled to know I kept my hanky (well, not just this one either, ... ...but, all of them that she gave me over the years) and am now getting to use them like this.  She wouldn't be totally surprised at my keeping them in pristine condition ...that was always my way..... I had dolls and things I never played with...just kept and looked at and enjoyed in their new condition... I was a strange kid....

After I added French knots and a few other stitches to the square ...I turned it over and thought.... gee if I am going to leave it loose... you will see the messy under side... maybe I'll just cover the stitching with a piece of silk to make it look nicely finished ...

and.....so I did.  There now.... nice and tidy underneath as well.  Love and devotion, as Karen would say..... care and attention to detail.... always me anyway....... and, just like Karen, I'm kind of proud of that in me.  Sure, some folks find it strange... but, there you have it.  It's good to like your own quirks and foibles don'tcha think?

Check out Mary Ann's give away...

Blog buddy Mary Ann is giving away a cross stitch book...  you know you want one if you stitch at all... so go over and get in on the fun...

She has been pretty lucky herself with winning things in give aways ever since I have been a follower of her blog... and I always give her a bad time.... hhaha... poor Mary Ann... she's got me for a blog buddy!

http://maryanntate.blogspot.ca/

No stitching today.... helping build a platform for the drill press.... it had one on the workbench once... can't remember why we took it apart...but, now...we need to use the drill press and it needs to be somewhere stable and at the right height...etc...so ..we found some lumber in our stash in the shed...and plans are being drawn up as I type.  Oh, oh... caught.... need to go lift the heavy bugger...... no more fooling around on here..... later.......

Hiya

Just wanted to show you a nice photo of some scenery along the Trans Canada highway.  Taken a few years ago actually.... click to bigify..you'll enjoy it more.... it's pretty out there ....



 .... because.....    all I have to show other than that ...is .... embroidery!!!!!!!!!!  hahahha...yeh....I know ... sorry, it is all I am doing lately other than playing golf...and I say 'playing' because that is all I am really doing....not golfing...just playing at it.  I'm a lousy golfer... but, I love going out there ...

anyway....today I am working on some thread wrapping and some French knots along one of the seams of my cloth...

There ya have it.... that's all for today.... not much I know....

Too cute to pass up

Just for a change of pace .... and besides, I have nothing stitched to show you ... it's only a lousy 10C this morning....but, I have a tee time at 10:15....   and...I'll be there.

Last week it was +25C and we were sweating big time.  That's right.  Sweating.  It's not just glowing, believe me, when you are stomping over hill and dale whacking balls and dragging clubs.  I was so hot and tired by the end of it I came home, had a cool bath and a nap.  How do the old farts do it?  Well, old-er farts.... cuz a lot of them are older than I am.  Some of them are out there several times a week.  Man, they are tougher than old nuts.

Today I will be glad I'm walking not riding in a cart...it would be darn cold racing into a wind.... brrrr...  I'll walk it.  I prefer to walk anyway.  It's not the same riding around in a cart;  can't keep my train of thought or my focus when I cart it.  So, I don't.  But, today, I don't know how long we'll be out there either.... as there are ugly black clouds all around...and the weatherman says to expect showers by noon..... sheeeesh..... oh, well, .... we'll see.

If it rains or is too blustery...I'll come home and help the cat bake.

Finally....a proper appliqué

Look!  You can see some puffiness ...  or at least some slack in the fabric.  But, with no stuffing under it.

It is not taut against the underlying fabric, which was my problem with the first two I attempted.   I had to lightly stuff them to make myself happy with how they looked...or...I could have taken them off... but, I stuffed instead and of course, they became 'bumpy bits'... but, that wasn't the challenge this time around.  We did bumpy bits many weeks ago.  This time, it was to make nice appliquéd pieces ....  so, I had to persevere til I finally got one.

I had a thought.  Oooooh, clever me (finally!)... and, ...    I wondered if perhaps a thicker piece of paper might make a difference.  That is, some card stock as Karen mentioned, or in my case a piece of an advertising postcard ..   would give more slack once stitched down to the fabric.  It did!   (NOTE to self: Next time don't use shiny paper as it slides all over the place making it more than a bit*^ to tack down!)















First you tack or baste the chosen fabric to the piece of paper or card stock.  Then, carefully stitch the whole thing onto the fabric trying not to pierce the paper too often.  Once stitched into position, cut the back open..through all layers of fabric and take out the paper..oh, yes, and do remember to remove the tacking thread first...I always forget and complain about how hard it is to dig out the paper... but, when the tacking is out ..it just pops out like a tiddly wink.

I added chain stitch around the outside edge and then also some bullion stitch around the lower left corner to finish it off.

And, lo and behold....an appliqué that looks lovely and soft, instead of tight and like not much at all really.... woohooooo !  I've been patting myself on the back.  My arm is sore...

It is damp stretching... and, it may not be finished yet....

Soon I must give some thought to how I will piece together my blocks I have been working on.....



Today it has finally cooled off and is cloudy with a lovely cool breeze.... you know what that means..... baking!!  Yes!  Breads and muffins today.... no time to stitch I guess....but, we'll see.... maybe later if I get as much done as I want to....

You couldn't buy this...

That's right.  And, I've coined the term "Karen-ism".    Because, Karen always says it.  Indicating that we made something ourselves and therefore it just could not be bought in any shop, anywhere in the world.

I made this little square.  Not the fabric itself, mind you....because my buddy Maggi actually bought it for me in the U.S. ...
(and, thanks for that Maggi, I love it ! ) but, the actual square.

Not that it is totally square either, but as Karen also says ..that's the beauty of it.  It is a bit different and we shouldn't worry if the square police show up... they can't do a thing about it.  And if you notice...the little hem is turned up over onto the correct side of fabric...not turned under as we would normally expect.  But, see....that's the beauty and originality of it all. 

It's a cute little patch ... referencing utility in the world of hand stitching  ... and also it is pretty ..referencing the other thing we need in our lives... some 'pretty'.. which is what this 'class that isn't a class' is all about.  

See this area on my wrapping cloth?  Doesn't it just cry out for something?  A bit more titivating?  A bit more care and attention?  A bit more of me and my personal additions to this cloth?  Of course it does.  As a matter of fact, it looks practically naked to me....now that I am getting used to adding more and 

more of my new found knowledge of fun stuff.

.

That's where I decided to put my cute little square ... seam now held in place with stab stitching and running stitch... 

Then, because I could ...I even added a few French knots, some raised bullions and a couple of web stitches...it is not done yet....nope....more will be added ... but, not too much more..just a few more knots and webs...

I love my little square patch .... 

                                                             

What's that noise?

Funny little rattlings and scratching noises.  I had to walk around the kitchen to try to find the cause.... looked up when I got to the new skylight...and saw this guy.  What the heck?

A starling.  He had a shiny new screw.

He kept dropping it onto the glass and then scuttling around and picking it up and dropping it again.   Seemed to like the sound or something.  Every time it rolled off the rounded surface, he brought it back again.  He was there long enough for me to get my camera and get about 6 shots.... then, finally ....flew off.....

We were laughing our heads off.

It's probably one of those things where you actually had to be here to get the full effect...but, at least it will bring a smile.... for a Friday....

Poof, it's an appliqué...

I need one of those little accent thingies...to apply to my "e' in the word applique ... I wonder if there is a way to do it? ..or are they only on keyboards purchased in French speaking areas?. ... For now, I'll just use the apostrophe...to let folks know that I actually do know it needs something, but, I don't actually have that little 'something'....  either that or they'll just think I'm silly.... in which case... who cares.... maybe there is a way to move it backward so it's above the "e"? ...if you know, please let me know too okay?

Heyyy!!!  never mind, I figured it out.  Well, not me actually...but, I went to Wiki to find out if there is a way to make an acute accent...and...there is.  So, I just held down the option key + e and then pressed the e...and voila...it appeared where it is supposed to be!  Slick.  Yay me...

Now, where was I?  ..oh, yes... remember the little bit of material with the filled in cross stitched hearts?  The one I cut out almost too small to make it useful for anything?

 Turns out it was a perfect size for an appliqué... barely... hahah...there it is again...love it.  Now I know how to do it...oh, off topic again... smug with my new found trick for the accent.  Sorry.

Here it is ... surrounded by French knots ... beside another bumpy bit I put on way back when..

It is still not just appliqué either.  I didn't like the look of it totally flat..so added a teensy amount of some stuffing ...just to plump it a tiny bit.. make it stand out better.  Maybe I'll leave some just flat somewhere else on the cloth.  But so far .. no, don't really like the look of them.

Here you can see the original bumpy one and some prairie points and some other stitches.  French knots, buttonhole lace stitch, some chain stitch and oh, some thread wrapping on the strings holding the "balloon.  That's what they remind me of... balloons floating away over the mountains...

Cross stitching

Have been doing some, with waste canvas, as it is called.  Who knew? .. not me, that's for sure.

Karen showed us a little heart design... and I gave it a go, but obviously didn't get it quite right... well, like she says, there is not a right or a wrong really... as there are many different ways to make hearts of course.  But, I was trying for some cute little guys like hers... which appear to be chubbier than my first... which is at the bottom ... with the grid already removed.

Too skinny.. so I tried again... too big ... hmmm... this became almost like a Goldilocks senario.... too skinny, too BIG, too .. whatever.... til I finally got one I liked.  The top guy.
                                                           














Anyway, then I tried some on a piece of vintage linen napkin in one of the blocks I am working on ...
that's them in yellow on the left...

Then, on another section I tried some white ones...but, got confused yet again ...and got the second up from the bottom a different shape than the lower one...so instead of picking out my stitches...I decided to alternate my new found shape with the practise one... for a total of five ....

Several people in our group were asking about the row of roses in between...no I didn't do those.... it is a strip of pretty trim I stitched onto the fabric.  It is actually a bit iffy and almost falling apart in some spots... so took a very long time to stitch into position in order to make sure it doesn't unravel.

Then I tried some of the filled in hearts...so cute... but, I did them on practice cotton and cut it out too small ...silly me ...I will still try to use it in some way..just not the way in which I first thought I would.... think twice (or maybe even 4 times before you cut!)

Yeh, I knew that.

My Hoya bloomed a second time in the year!  Can't believe it.  So pretty and velvety...I tried to get it close enough that if you click and bigify it you should be able to tell.  So soft ... and the centres almost look like plastic.  Little birdie is very curious....

It has the most amazing scent for hours in the evening...and sometimes in the morning for a while too...