25 - 1 - 25 , pomegranates and doves

January is nearing the end
but I've been busy stitching on a new Stitch Club piece,
a workshop by Dijanne Cevaal
For many years now I've seen her work,
but never was able to do a workshop with her
(until now !)

The lino printing was fun !
I had all the materials at hand so that was no problem, just finding a design
A book I was reading solved that.

Finished, but not yet mounted on a canvas (30 x 30 cm)

I did a try out of my first prints on tea bags
and that gave me the fun opportunity to flip them over
because the print was on both sides nearly as good.
The piece of fabric I choose was too white so I painted it
with the textile paint I bought last year in Rijswijk.

Hmmmm a bit simple those four separate prints

Then  solution was cutting more prints to make a kind of border,
some of the lino and some of the thicker soft blocks.
The good part of using the blocks is that you can cut out
the shape on the outside as well !
That's handy if you have to make a weak print twice :
because you can place it at exact the same spot.

There was only one rather big problem :
I did the stitching with perlé thread (8) as Dijanne had suggested,
but my hands didn't like the difficult process of pulling
the needle through the fabric . . .

That's why I changed to the thinner perlé 12,
less impact of colour but much easier to work with !

Well, I still had my doubts about the polka dots fabric
until some sweet Stitch Club member told that they reminded her
just of pomegranate seeds !!!!!
Ohhhh . . . YES, why hadn't I thought of that myself !
And the pink colour ? Also pomegranates !

a bird and planets

It took quite some time,
but finally my bird is finished.

a kingfisher :
once seen as a blue blur sweeping over the nearby water
but now in all is beauty on the wall.
(20 x 20 cm)

What a lovely STITCH  CLUB workshop it was by
Yvette Phillips.

Not only a great textile artist but also a good teacher !

 For the first time I followed her lead
and put the fabric on stretcher bars in stead of in a hoop, before stitching.
At first I wanted to work on plain coloured linen
but in the end I found a suitable fabric in my stash
(though I used the backside !)

step by step
with my loyal phone always near !

(this photo came from the "Forth Rivers Trust" in Scotland)

Sad to say that this Alcedo atthis is, like so many other creatures
on the RED list !

*

Today, or rather tonight,
there was a special occasion in the night sky !

In the east, a beautiful bright full MOON
"at seven a clock" a bit down was MARS

between "one and two" much further away was JUPITER

and then in the south west was the lovely evening star VENUS
with, just to the left of it SATURN !

(haha, I tried to take some pictures
but judging by the lack of them here, you know I failed)

a start

Ohhh yes, a LATE start, but a start it is !

Is it still okay ?
(hmmm . . . but I do it anyway)

I wish all of my friends out there
A  JOYFUL,  HEALTHY  AND  CREATIVE
2025

We had a wonderful end of December :
a lovely dinner party
(with me wearing my necklace and earrings)
lots of presents, some homemade
(and I forgot to make photos before wrapping and now they're gone)
some stitching started
for Yvette Phillips' wonderful Stitch Club workshop.

The not so fun part of that stitching is,
that my arthritic hands aren't getting any better,
so it takes quite a long time before I'm finished
though now I'm nearly there !

(but now have to wait for some new floss first)

Today was another stitching day
but : in the waiting room of the hospital
(Man had to have another small surgery in Rotterdam,
and yes, all is well)

A few stitches on my Kingfisher
(till thread ran out)
But I had also two more birds to sew together
out of white cotton (old bed sheet !)
They are finished now, but my hands protested in the end.

Tomorrow I will be filling them and then I'll paint them
just like the little Xmas presents !
(will take photo's this time !)

The idea for this came from
Judy Coates Perez
and I'm deeply grateful for that !