Stitching again...

This little pincushion has been sitting around (everywhere in the house really) for months to over a year ...well, it must be over a year now...

Totally lost any creative mojo during the main basement area reno.. then we had water damage go from upstairs into the basement and ruin all the renovations we had just completed... then, got that repaired and refurbished and then...the stupid stove went on the fritz causing yet another renovation.  WE discovered that "no built in ovens are to be placed within 12 inches of the cooktop or damage can occur to wiring inside the built in oven"..  ...   so had to opt for a complete range, as we call them in this country ...  which meant we then had to have the granite counter top re-cut to accept a total stove instead of just a cooktop...

The granite cutting was a disaster, and the opening is not the size we need, it is slightly larger and still not square, but you can't make a hole smaller once it is cut.  The guy who installed the range finally managed to make it sit as squarely in the opening as he could and it looks okay.  Not perfect, as it could have been if the granite guys had known their stuff ...but, okay.  Oh, and, the first range had Convection fans that were not working, so we had to order a second stove... which has now been installed and is working great.

This is the type of thing that goes on all the time around here.... or so it would seem.  Thirty plus years of renovations have taken their toll methinks.... if I never have to lift a finger to do or even to oversee anybody else "doing" things round here.... it won't be too soon for me.  I'm so done with renovating.

So, there you have it... and, now ...

Got the last embroidery stitches done on it finally ..or thought I had.. stitched it up around almost the whole thing leaving a small opening to turn it through..I am used to small turning openings from doing the little bears...and, got it turned with no difficulty.  However, I don't like how that corner doily bit opens up so deep under it after all...so now I need to do some little stitches to hold it down at almost halfway into it.  That will be a bit tricky as I need to begin and end and, also stitch, on the inside and outside the already turned pillow.  Darn it.  Oh, well, it must be done.

Here it is so far...  this is the part of the little corner of doily that I don't want to lift quite so deep into it if you know what I mean.  Part way will be enough for me.

Here it is next to a completed one from ages ago when I took Karen's class.

Little book

More like a booklet really ...it is just several pages.  With samples of my work to remind me of how I did certain things or things I want to try at some future point.


Anyway... here are a few of my pages.

Variegated embroidery thread.

I moved the white on white embroidery to a page with a bit of colour.   I wrote myself notes as you can see...for down the road when I'm sure to forget what things were.
Some day I want to do a pincushion with yellows and ruffles .. I still have some of the fragile silk hanky..just waiting to be used.......

The pale pink flower pounded fabric below is pretty but it never did become quite what I envisioned when I tried to piece it together so cut it into smaller pieces and have used it in my book.

I did a pincushion in taupes with a bit of another piece of flower pounded fabric and love it... I wish this one had worked out as well....but, it didn't and now...I'm just happy it's still good for something.

Wanted to show you my other flower pounding piece if you haven't see it before.  I posted it a while back. Lovely Olde Worlde tatting cut off a beautiful vintage hanky that I bought at a doll and bear show...for only pennies...I almost felt guilty.  I managed to buy 4 lovely hankies that day.  Thanks to that wonderful lady whoever she was.

Egg-stra stitching..

.... oh, brother....I suppose I could go on forever with the eggy titles...but, I should quit...hahhaha.... but, why? .... it's kinda fun and ...funny to me..... good enough.

Doing some extra stitching on the scalloped edge of the lace on the top of this one.... Karen's little frilly dilly stitch...she calls it Frilly Picot.  I never know if I've got it quite right...but, it looks right to me and with the number 12 Perle cotton and if I pull each stitch pretty tight...I can get it tiny.  Click on the photo to "biggify" and you can see it so much better.  I love it.  And, I think it really enhances the flat lace.  Gives it more body or something... and makes it more interesting to look at.


See the four little tiny scalloped bits on the lace edge? ....  just above the umbrella looking machine stitched flower on the cotton fabric I used for the base fabric?  Those are my little frilly dilly thingies ..... with some French Knots above holding the lace in position.. until the whole egg gets a backing of white silk.




I'm debating what to use for trim on this other guy...and ... more or less leaning towards a bit of this lace on the top end of the egg......

Not much time to stitch today ....but, must do a few each day at the very least.........every little helps, as my Mum was fond of saying.... then she would add...... "said the little old lady who peed in the sea"....... must be an old English saying ..or ... maybe she just made it up .......

Hatching some eggs

I made up a second sheet of fabric in bright whites.  The piece with the flowers embroidered on it was sent to me in a fabric swap organized by the first group I took a class with.

If Lexxie visits my site... which I don't think she does ...she may remember this piece... look Lexxie!  I'm using it.  It is shiny and she loves shiny ... well, actually ...who doesn't? ..hahhaha... I think Magpie is the middle name of most women.

I did the same thing I did when I was making the pin cushions.  Seeing as I just can't visualize things finished without a frame to view it in....I viewed it with my newly made egg template.  Perfect.  Now, I can work away on it ...inside stitched lines...but, always with my viewer nearby.  Grab. Place. View.

Love it....

I decided to make several ...    in the same style as my cushions.

 Here is the first one so far.

What the?..

How did I forget to show you my second completed pin pillow?

You know me...all up in your face when I have little successes.... I can't believe I didn't blow my own horn the second I finished it.  Hmmm... must be getting old or forgetful or... something...

I know I showed portions of it...but, here it is now...all finished.

I gave it to my sister when I went to see her last week.  Her reaction was similar to mine when I held Karen's pin pillow in my own hand.    She said ... "I can't believe how tiny all the work and stitches are!" "It looks so much larger in photos" which is exactly what I said.  Even when we say the size..it just makes no impact 'til you see it up close and personal.  This little guy is 3 x 4...

Here are a few more views... this tiny edge on the lower corner (which I think may be tatting) is a tiny piece of a special hanky my Mom gave me when I was a kid...

As Karen says, for all of the projects we are making... why leave our treasures hidden in drawers where nobody sees them ... ever.  Even though we are cutting them ..  we are recycling and repurposing some lovely things...and lots of folks will now be recipients of the new items and be able to perhaps display them or use them.  It's a way to give new life to what was hidden treasure.

I'm thinking Mom would have loved to see these little creations and wouldn't mind at all that I've used my hanky to make them look beautiful.

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.

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.

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......