forced rest

The last half of July has been quiet,

it has been a forced rest :

hardly any work has come out of my hands.

Pain high up in my back makes it hard to do any

felting, stitching, knitting, crochet ...

even cooking ..... (but Man is a great help !!!)

I have had backache before,

but most probably it was triggered this time

by all the heavy watering cans that brought my garden relief

in the HOT  SUMMER  DAYS !

(It's really too hot and too dry over here)

So the new necklace I had started earlier

is progressing  V E R Y     s..l..o..w..l..y 

Even sitting in a straight-back chair

I have to stop after one or two stitched beads ...

But

at last

Still need to make a closure.

*

Though it was most of the time too 

HOT

to come outside,

the garden was lovely in the morning these last few days.

Counting butterflies for the "Vlinderstichting"

for ten days, so they know in the end

a bit more, which butterflies go where ...

I was lucky :

a Swallowtail (Koninginnepage)

in our garden, a rare visitor !

(and I lucky, catching it like this !)

*

Despite the heat,

daughter has been very busy at her sewing machine !

the suit for Hiccup the Dragon rider

is nearly finished !

(and a little trolley bag will be transformed

into "Toothless" )

YES, she's góód !

:-)

here again

It took some time,

but I'm here again ...

nothing much happened in between.

I think January is 

(for most people)

a month to be calm again

after all the busy things of December.

After I finished the blue zig-zag socks

I made the red ones for daughter.

(first try and change for the better pattern)

And because I loved the result of that second pair

...

I started similar ones for me again

(yes, I know, it's addictive ...)

A bit more purple and less orange / red.

*

In the first week of January arrived another

felting exchange piece

(and I thought I had them all ...)

 Thanks Geurdie !

(and there seems to come another one ...

I didn't count very well !)

*

When I saw on FB that my felting exchange friend Jolan

was participating in 1 year of stitches.

I thought to give it a go too ...

(though I really don't know IF I will keep it up)

But, it will be fun to be part of another stitching community.

Some thin dark blue noil silk

(with some thin white cotton under it)

in my big quilting hoop (40 cm)

I started with my "personal magic thread"

and will use the lovely indigo hand dyed embroidery thread

So far.

*

In the kitchen we discovered two days ago

a very strange guest

He or she probably slipped into our house

in a pot of fresh basil ...

(and now discovers that there's nothing to eat here at all !)

No spring in sight here :

just more winter !

exchange ... to and fro

February is nearly gone.

(though it's a very special February this year :

with one (leap) day extra !)

It certainly is time
to send my felted piece for this month's exchange !!!

For the exchange

I received a wonderful package two days ago.

It was wrapped up like a real gift

Something like that can only contain

a true treasure ...

... and there it was : a new jewel !

Thanks very much Jolanda : love it !

*

The piece I had to make this time

has the theme 

  nocturnal  animal  

The plan I had for this one, was on little sketches

right after I made the "Baba Yaga house" piece in January,

but then my "Challenge House" took over

And then,

when I was working on the water soluble making butterfly wings,

an new idea emerged for the nocturnal animal theme !

a  moth

(a butterfly of the night)

It took some time

but today at last, my moth was ready to fly !

Here it is slowly growing ...

and there she goes

... to the light !

(and she's in the mail)

yippee ....!

It wasn't even as much work 

as I thought it would be

.....

The walls were stitched "invisibly"

(with the wire integrated in the seam)

A safety pin to hold the sides together while stitching.

(first stitching in bright sunlight,

half an hour later all was gray with splashing rain)

When the three walls were stitched together

I could add the last separate leaves

to hide the wires.

And here it is :

the Caterpillar House

another wall

And when caterpillars eat lots and lots

(and drive so many a gardener crazy)

they become a beautiful

butterfly

I'm very happy with the result for Sara's House Challenge !

more embellisher and water soluble

Though it's a bit slow right now

the Challenge house

is coming to an end.

I made a lot more leaves :

I think I can use some more for the "roof"

(that will not be a roof at all)

I made the leaves with the embellisher

than stitched them on the sewing machine

.....

and cut little holes.

Now I'm busy stitching the sides together

with some wire in between,

a slow job.

*

Because the stitching on water soluble

("soluvlies")

is so much fun, I did more butterflies

(and one has flown away already)

A very thin one,

with lots of loose threads between the tulle and the water soluble.

The backside       ...........     and against the light

And one in another colour scheme.

water soluble

The "House Challenge" 

is coming to an end.

Last Monday Sara sent the last pdf

with instruction and suggestions.

The houses of everybody are far from finished

but that is okay,

we will have many more weeks to continue.

On the 20th of March

random couples will be picked by Sara

and we'll make some small item

for the house of the other person of the couple :

a small fun swap,

just like at the end of the other challenges !

These are the three walls of my house.

I incorporated the roof :

the green walls end in green leaf-like points.

I also found my coloured wire,

thick and thin.

The wings of the butterfly

have very thin blue wire attached to the front side

and now she has long antennae 

(with a bead at the end)

These are the walls since yesterday.

There are some more inhabitants now :

... a (sleeping) cocoon and the known "doorman"

... two new baby caterpillars ...

Making the butterfly wings with

water soluble

was sooooo much fun

that I had to do some more with that funny stuff today.

I have two varieties of the water soluble "fabric"

One is kind of plastic-like,

the other one is thicker and looks more like interfacing

only DON'T touch it with wet hands, or sneeze :

it will shrivel away !!!

First I have a piece of  water soluble

(big enough to fit in a plastic embroidery hoop

that one is thin, so it will easily go under the presser foot of the machine )

then I use some tulle or polyester sheer

with lots of threads and snippets underneath.

Then comes the "free stitching" :

you have to be sure that all the snippets are connected by stitch.

When you are satisfied with your end product

you can pin your work on a thick cellular polystyrene

and rinse out the water soluble !

(using little water leaves a lot of "glue" in your work and makes it stiff, 

using a lot (and rub some) leaves your work a lot softer !)

 A new idea taking shape

Held up against the light

you better see the waste threads I used for this one

*

Just have to show this gorgeous Amaryllis  :

two stems with four flowers each !!!

And last week we had another mandala evening

(Isis & Osiris)