balls

Early May we had the Stitch Club workshop by (the Dutch)
Mirjam Gielen
making a six-segment object.

I chose some purples from my stash
and special fabric I bought last year on a textile fair.

Then came the fun part to decorate them.
On the turquoise one I started with woven picots
(always so much fun to make)
and then I added seed beads in the colours of the hexagons.

For number two I decided on stacked running stitch.

Of course a running stitch is easy BUT
if you want them really close together a lot more is asked.
And you can only do a few rounds with one length of thread . . .
so filling this ball took "ages" !!!
The different reds go nicely with the purple.

More than halfway down I changed the pattern
into small dots.

After this workshop we had some "quiet time"
and, to be honest I liked that very much.
As a Stitch Club member from the very start
I'm amazed in how many workshop I participated !
(and to be even more honest : not everything is finished,

there are still quite a few WIPs to be considered   :-/  )

This last week we had something new and fun though :
zoom sessions with a lot of SC members from all over the world

and it was so much FUN to see each other and stitch a bit together !
Those were wonderful events
a fantastic STITCH COMMUNITY !

little Venus

For the Stitch Club workshop by
Christi Johnson
(making a soft sculpture talisman)
I re-made the Venus of Willendorf.

The little statuette of this a woman was excavated in Austria in 1908.
Between 25.000 and 30.00 years old, with her lovely hairdo, big boobs and belly

we can only guess and speculate what purpose she had,
but many think she might have been a symbol of fertility.

With her size of a good 11 cm,
my Venus is almost the same size as the original one.
That one was made of oolitic limestone,
a kind of rock that was traced back to northern Italy.
In the rock are many tiny particles even of shells,
so I thought my little seed stitches were perfect for that !
Similar looking figurines are mostly made of ivory (mammoth tusk)

Making the first stitches

After making the front and back I could sew them together
leaving a small opening for stuffing.

The original Venus was coloured with the sacred red ochre
but mine is much more colourful
just like the "look-a-like" Nana's
Niki de Saint Phalle made so many years ago !