hanging doll

Meet :

FLORA

The hanging doll that I've been working on
for the last two weeks is finished.

It wasn't an easy one,

a lot of choices had to be made,
things tried out and then left behind again.
But now I'm happy with how she looks.

I had some trouble with the wool I was using
because the best wool for needle felting
is NOT the fine Merino tops I have
(and normally use for my wet-felting projects)
I don't had many colours left
of the much more useful Bergschaf wool !!!
So it took a lot more effort to get the Merino ready
to use under my machine.

The extra fun part was making all the flowers.
I made the crochet flowers that I 
often use in the "Pinktober Jewels"
but I also found a new way I found on the net
using two long needles.
And last but not least, the wire-and-nailpolish flowers.

(a good look at the nailpolish flowers)

FLORA in her own domain !

doll

Many years ago I made a hanging doll
in an online course with Sara Lechner . . .
I always wanted to follow up on that idea
but never did
(until now)

I started with an 8cm wide strip of cotton
and drew some faces
(just like I did for Jude's course years ago)

Some very fine cotton (like organdie) on top of the drawing
(easy to see through !)

I can't stop at just one of course
(ideas, ideas)

My wonderful embellisher
(a kind of sewing machine without thread but with felting needles)

was happy to see the daylight again !!!

So far . . .

And just for fun of it : painting some silk and scrim
to use for this and future projects.

The first is some printed greenish silk,
the second one margilan to sweep up the leftover paint on the glass

 

Tabula rasa

In fact :
NO
my "Tabula rasa" isn't  empty anymore.

I started with this "clean sheet" in January
and made a vow to keep stitching on it till the end of the year.
Because I started with white snippets
on the strip of (old) white sheet
the name was still appropriate.
Since then
COLOURS
have joined in.

The last two weeks I've been catching up
because I had neglected this work a bit.
(too busy with other things)

This dark red and pink is for this month.
In August the colour will change again a bit into red
(and to end another white strip for the background !)

summer solstice

 Happy Summer Solstice !

Not yet finished.
For that will surely take a lot more time
and a better copy of the Stonehenge ground plan,
one with the fallen stones and the lintels on it.

What a lovely combination with the sunflowers !!!
(that I received yesterday)

One of our house guests for a few days was interested.

Normally they love to sit in my work-chair 

just an idea . . .

An idea popped into my head
when I was thinking about the inside of my sun piece.
I tried threads, a strip of old lace
but I wasn't sure about any of it.
And then I thought : why not
STONEHENGE

After some searching
I found the plan of the stones
that form the imposing monument of Stonehenge
Nothing better to fill in the heart of my solstice piece !

Sadly our (rather new grrrr) printer is not behaving well,
so only the big standing stones
(that were coloured black) were on my copy.
These are the ones I stitched so far
. . . . .
I will have to find a way to transfer
all the fallen stones (gray) on my cloth as well !

(it is really summer here : a heatwave and also
a major thunderstorm yesterday !!!)

wordless Wednesday

 

such sweet memories !!!

Today we had a lovely
"long-time-no-see" friend with her daughter
visiting us !

Sixty eight years ago I first met Karin.
We were both having our summer-camping-holiday in Austria :
we were from The Netherlands (Rotterdam)
and they came from Germany (Nürnberg)
We were both single girls away with our parents
(my much older brother never went with us)
Not speaking the language
is no big problem for children :
we played, we talked with our hands
or asked the grown ups to translate for us.
We had a click were very happy together.

On our way back home we stopped by their place
and that was the start of a loooong friendship
and many many letters
after I started German in the second year
in secondary school.

In August 2020 the Stitch Club workshop by Anne Kelly
was about making a leporello booklet
and I decided to make one about my long friendship with Karin.
I unearthed ephemera that I didn't know I still had
and had such great fun making the booklet !!!

My dearest Karin and daughter Jana
(who, with her brother, made this trip possible)

THANK  YOU  SO  MUCH

for this lovely visit !!!

I hope we can still repeat it in the future !