autumn is near ... and a butterfly moon

This September month has been

very warm and dry.

I was in the garden a lot of times :

cleaning, pruning bits and pieces 

but most of all enjoying the good sunny weather

(stitching)

The end of the Polygonatum (Solomon's seal)

Sometimes all of a sudden there is a flow in the water

that sweeps away all the duckweed

Last bits of colour ...

and me ...

last Sunday afternoon !

And like the "Eye" moon saw :

progress is slowly but steady

Please welcome : Miss Butterfly moon !

And though she's looking a bit cross (I think)

she is now nearly done !

*

Tomorrow starts a new month, 

October,

that's the month for "Pink Ribbon"

and breastcancer awareness !

(it's also my 4th blogaversary)

I have a very special plan for it.

See you tomorrow !

an eye

on progress !

This is "Eye" moon.

It is one of the three moons dyed by Jude

that were in a package of goodies she once sent me.

In fact there are a LOT more blue coloured strips of fabric

(all around the piece)

that were once a double woven piece by Jude.

The three moons are looking through a hole 

she had cut in one of the strips.

(ha, I told here I was taking it apart

and using it in a different way :

she laughed and told me it was fine) 

So, this Eye moon is now keeping an eye

on the slow but steady progress

on my Sun & Moons piece.

(my thread nest, thimble and pliers right next to me)

Two corner, where I extended the pattern

of the black and blue fabric onto the blue border strip.

(almost) equinox

Is it on September 21 or 23 ?

Well does it really matter much ?

Days and nights evening out.

For us the days will get shorter from now on

and for my friends "down under"

the days are just getting longer again 

:-)

In fact it's a great time to be working on my sun and moons a bit more

These are the He and She moon, that are in the right hand top corner.

I thought of cutting "him" out or making

some needle turned appliqué

but I decided otherwise

For this one I thought stitching was better

than to cut or appliqué.

The left one of the three yellow / green moons together

just looked like an eye when I was doing some outline

so I really turned it into an eye !

(bad photo ... so that will follow some other time)

I need to do some stitching on the butterfly moon too ...

It is such a big piece :

I hop from one end to another

sun and moons (and a garden)

When I took my sun & moons piece 

with me to Yvette, it had been quite some time

since I last stitched on it.

That's what happens sometimes :

things are tucked away,

waiting till their turn comes again. 

When I opened it up

I took my little special bag with variegated threads

and in it were the new bits I bought

at HAWAR's lovely shop.

There were all kinds of red thread and lace band in it,

and the lace band triggered the next step

I could have couched it  but I sewed it on invisible

because I liked to see the change in colour.

At the same time I added my magic thread

around the sun.

(waiting for thousends of stitches more)

*

Almost forgot 

that I had a lovely belated birthday present last week :

a friend took me to a wonderful garden.

I drove up to her house,

we rode on a bike to the ferry,

crossed the river and came to the

"Mengelmoestuin"

("Hodgepodge garden")

(sorry but the site is only in Dutch)

The weather was so beatiful.

We had a stroll around the garden

and then had some tea

and also some delicious homemade jam.

It was such a wonderful afternoon !

Thanks Mir

(we will return next year for a workshop ...

making Calendula ointment perhaps)

mandala wednesday

Tonight was the first mandala group

gathering of this new season.

We talked a lot about 

"time"

our theme for this series

(there are sooooo many phrases with the word "time"in it !)

and then had a meditation.

(the meditation took us all far, far away,

in fact beyond time ... )

*

joy and sadness in one day ( 14 - 9 - 14 )

Yesterday daughter and I

went to this special market with our felt pieces,

some little art quilts, some drawings, 

and daughter's spinning wheel.

Our little marquee had been set up for us already !

;-)

This time I had some Velcro strips stitched on top

and ribbons to tie to the poles on the side

of the two fabric side walls.

(so it was a much easier job to attach than the last time !)

Then we could start unpacking right away.

Apart from lovely people with other stands 

there was catering with lots of homemade goodies

and some musicians too.
There was some wonderful energy moving around !

Though we had quite a lot of wind at the beginning

really soon the sun came out

and the visitors started to come. 

*

Sadly enough

I had to leave this joyful place halfway through the day.

Man and I went to Zwolle

to say our final goodbyes to a very dear old friend.

It was so good to see both daughters

painting this wonderful and joyful picture

of the strong, kind and loving man their father had been.

(he was a gym teacher and sportsman and

we met more than forty years ago on a skiing holiday)

They had been asked to do so four years ago

and they then had hoped he would grow 

at least 91 before they had to do this;

but it was decided otherwise, 

at just 76 ...

There were lots of bouquets of orange flowers

around the coffin during the ceremony :

he loved orange flowers

I made a bright orange felted flower

that I gave to his wife afterwards.

Dear Bob, we're all gonna miss you

preparations

Being creative is like breathing for me 

(though I also like to read a book

or work in the garden)

 On my visit to Yvette, I took some stitch piece

that I've been working on for a looooong time,

because I know it's fun to see / feel things in real life

(much better than seeing it on a photo)

It is nowhere near finished and I should get on with it !

But right now I still have some felting preparations

for the little market daughter and I will attend this Saturday.

First thing I finished was the scarf, with some nuno

(which wasn't flawless, because the fabric wasn't silk,

but in the end it was okay !)

Now I'm happy with it

Another scarf is in the making, and the rest is mostly small things.

Two necklaces, though you could use the blue one as a belt too

some bookmarks and a key ring 

(that daughter is showing as a ring, ha, ha)

Oh yes ! and yesterday 

I had the most wonderful assistant !

(and a lazy supervisor, who was rather annoyed 

that I had no time to stroke ... though daughter had  ;-)  )

*

When you have time and are near on Saturday :

this is where we are ...

finally ...

Today 

I was  fi nal ly  visiting my dear blogging friend 

Yvette 

We made arrangements for a visit quite a few times before

but "life" always played some tricks

so we had to wait for another opportunity

but today it all worked out all right

And YES,

it was everything we thought it would be :

a long day talking as dear old friends

(what we are in some way) 

Of course we talked about felting

stitching and dyeing

in natural or more bright colours

She had a wonderful gift for me 

a lovely magic stitched pouch

and a huge piece of eco-dyed silk

The féél of that pouch ... and the stitches on it

:-)

(little highlighted marks on the back)

Mmmmmmm so happy with it, Yvette !!!

Now I can finally show what I made for Yvette :

for her I made the-very-first-ever "Rainbow pot", a blue one,

with some green sparkles inside 

(a tiny "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow ?)

(mmmmm, Yvette can use that when the pain hurts her badly)

Here it is with some of  its friend that followed

(because I got a bit carried away with that first little pot)

But because Yvette and I "met"at Jude's Spirit cloth place

(and Jude = stitch for me)

there had to be a lot of stitches on the pot

Thén the first choice of beads had to come off

but finally :

all finished.

(I don't think it was a coincidence that blue is Yvette's favourite colour ...) 

Yvette,

THANK YOU

for a lovely day

X

exchange to and fro

In our felting exchange

we had the two "holiday months" July and August

together for one exchange.

You should think that was plenty of time

to accomplish that "big task"

.....

Well, it really was on my to-do-list

(but probably too far at the end)

So then came my wake-up call

a wonderful  red  feather from Karin

presentable on both sides !

THANK YOU, Karin  !

So I went to work at once !!!

to make a "woman"

(Karin's theme)

In fact, I decidede to make only "half a woman"

After the felting, there was some stitching

Here's the little woman, ready to go in the mail ...

... swimming all the way to Nijmegen

to join the other "women" that are already there   

;-) 

Then I took some more wool 

(a lot in fact) 

to start a scarrf

And while the scarf was a LOT of gentle rolling,

I started some small things too !