a beast indeed

When I did Jude's "Patchwork Beasts" class 

(in 2010, but it's still in the "shop"  :-) ... !)

she had several different methodes 

with which she let us make a beast.

One, was a really simple pieced beast, out of a few small squares,

or rectangles,

just like I made the rabbit.

Then you could "dress" it up

with all kinds of tiny scraps on the surrounding space,

which I did on the rabbit too.

Raw edge, or needle turned appliqué,

it just doesn't matter :

no rules here !

Stitches on the upside,

      a bunny tail .....       and          a raw edge flower pice.

The "grassy" leaves are double with tiny quilt stitches

and the other leaf was sewed and then turned

to the right side and closed.

Yes, it's less than 2 cm.

(only part of it will be joined to the background)

There are only a few bits of the background left to be seen :

embroidered bits of a white linen blouse.

  

I'm not sure yet, but I don't think

this is a sweet bunny

....

it's more like a fierce rabbit !

It's not exactly the Monty Python Killer Rabbit

but

it is not a "Flappie" either

I have to explane this :

"Flappie" is a hilarious song of a great Dutch comedian,

about what happened when the pet rabbit 

ended up in the pot for the xmas dinner

..... 

(everybody in Holland knows the song)

:-)

This was made of the patched beast I made for Jude's class :
all of the background gone, the beast was only stitched on.
(it was called "Show me your teeth"
and was a present for our dentist, who retired)

fabulous felting ... and then ...

Last weekend daughter and I had a fabulous felting class with

Marjolein Dallinga

( we had looked forward to it for over 3/4 of a year ! )

And YES !

it was all we hoped for and so much more

It was three days of working very hard

on three projects

and we learned sooo much

A lot of new techniques and inspiration to start working on !

THANK YOU,  MARJOLEIN !

*

And then

...

the whole world came to a standstill :

our dearest loved-one

got caught up in a terrible hit-and-run car crash

and thank heavens came out of it with, as it seems now, only "minor" problems

when you see the wreckage of what once was a car .....

there must have been a big pair of angel wings around them !!!!  

 But after this nothing else seems important

and I think it will stay like that

at least for a while now 

a lovely weekend and ..... a giveaway !

Last weekend we had our grandchildren staying over

( and the cats )

They love all the extra attention,

and doing things together is great fun.

Man found a "Loupe" puzzle in the attic to start with

and I found an "old" package of small origami papers

and a book to work from.

( After a while I knew them by heart again ... )

On the last, very sunny day, I had some canvases,

brushes and acrylic paint.

( I wasn't in the mood to carry down two easels from the attic

so they worked on two little tables ... )

They were very proud

with the results !

*

It is hard to believe

but true :

one whole year went by since I started this blog

On the first of October 2010

( kind of nervous )

I made the "giant" step  to begin a blog

because otherwise I would terribly miss my new textile friends

from the Patchwork Beasts Class I took with Jude Hill that summer :

I never regretted it !

To celebrate this joyful event I'm stitching ...

on a small

giveaway

To join this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post

( through this weekend )

On monday October 3rd

I will draw the lucky winner

!!!

I know that there are people who read this blog

and never ever leave a comment, because they don't know how ....

I can only say : please try !

If you're not familiar with commenting :

write something,

follow the intructions and pick "anonymous" when asked for a "profile"

and add your name in the text piece

so I will know who you are.

Then I can include you in this fun game !!!

*

I'm back to stitching :

on a piece I started during the

Sun, moon, stars class from Jude in May

Not finished yet, but it's going fine.

I ripped off some bits and added instead a piece of Jude's

megamendung clouds

From the beginning there was a piece with a feather on it ...

After stitching ( and seeing ) só many beautiful feathers

for Jude's Magic Feather Project

there had to appear more on this "Star" piece

( you'll see the rest when finished )

finally !

Just one week ago that I had my first day (of two)

of Pam's workshop at Dorie's place.

Dorie doesn't live close by

so I was very pleased that I could stay for two nights 

with my long-time friend Anita, and having time to chat too.

( her house is only a five-minute-drive away from Nes a/d Amstel,

so I didn't have to get up really early! )

It was so nice, gathering up with a bunch of creative women

and a lovely teacher in a place where there was

room enough to hold a big party !

Unfortunately the weather was very bad on both days

but inside there was fun !

I'm new to eco-dyeing so I didn't know exactly what plants to bring

but others had enough and would give me some

so there was no problem.

It was kind of magic !!!

but I must say my results could have been better ...

although on the silk they were fine

We all worked very hard and made a lot of bundles :

... a tent full of them !

The next day we had to decide what pattern to use

and to start stitching all the bits and pieces together :

that had to be finished by lunchtime ...

( .... nobody actually was .... )

After lunch some of us started felting.

And now I must confess : I was faaaaar too hasty

and didn't do a very good job.

That's why I wasn't very pleased with the

first fiiting session with Pam ...

... but she gave me a lot of good advice and on I went !

There was a dye pot ready for a final dye of the garment ...

but no one was ready for thát

.....

so Dorie cut up some pieces of her own silk and needle felt

and made good use of it !!!

*

I must say that it took me some time after I got back home

to view the results of this workshop.

And, when I'm completely honest, I had hoped for a bit more colour

that I actually had got ...

( there wasn't very much "rainbow" there !!!) 

Btw, I got some lovely advice from Kaite, for the néxt dyeing session !

( Thanks Kaite !!! )

So after a LOT of hesitating and thinking

I finally finished the little vest today !

yeaaaaaah !

I roughed up the already half felted (!) parts with a woolcomb

( especially the edges that had to be folded over )

and put an extra layer ón or únder them

of the coloured needle felt I still had left.

... it worked quite well I'm glad to say !

Then I did some serious felting

( this time without haste ! )

and finally :

I could try it on !!!

( I don't have a tailor's dummy so I had to be the dummy myself,

wich was nót too nice because it was still quite damp

and although the sun was shining it was quite clammy and cold after a while ....

but now it's drying on the table ...! )

THANKS  PAM

for being such a wonderful teacher !

two lovely days

Pfffffffft ........

Workshops are great !

( but you can get very tired )

Tonight I came back from

a wonderful eco-dyeing and felting workshop
with a bunch of very lovely ladies.

( The weather was lousy those two days and I had

a bumpy ride home through the storm and rain :

boy, what a summer at the moment ! )

The Australian felt artist Pam de Groot

was giving this workshop at Dorie's place.

For Pam this is the last stop on her European tour :

she's flying home to her family next week

after another workshop this weekend.

It was my first true encounter with eco-dyeing but I must confess :

it takes a lot of practice to make something beautiful !!!

The fun was bundling up silk and fre-felt with all sorts of plants,

letting it simmer in a dye bath pot

and unrolling it again ....

Only :

mine weren't very spectacular at all !

.....

I definately need to do a lot of reading about

plants, mordants and other stuff

and then trying again !

( Enough for now, the results I'll show later .... )

whispering .....

In May Jude Hill started a new "Whispering"

It's a beautiful concept :

she picks a subject for possible new work and

lets you in on all her thoughts, try outs

and techniques so that you can enjoy seeing how she works

and use it in your own work

as you are trying to work along with this 

"Master in Cloth and Stitch"

that Jude is.
Whispering in May is called
Sun, Moon, Stars

As an appetizer I started in April with a star

which now looks like this.

After some serious thoughts about the sun/moon/stars subject

and the possibilities for the composition and background,

Jude showed how to discharge dark cloth, simply with bathroom cleaner,

to make moons and stars.

That was so much fun that I had to try that

and started a dark blue cloth.

Jude is known for her "What-iffing"

so I asked myself (like her)

"What if the moon was a square ?"

I had some whitish inchies nine patches that I used

some time ago to make Biscornu's,

(the funny shaped pincushions Eva makes)

But the square didn't last long : SHE must be round I think

So here is my moon : round again

---------

Just as I nearly finished this post yesterday Blogger went "dead"
nothing to post, nothing to comment at friends' blogs
ánd worst of all :
I thought I had to start aaaaaalllll over again with this one !
So I was very happy when I realized 10 minutes ago
that not all had gone lost !
pfffffft

---------
(oops ... and now I see it's already Saterday ...)