a lot of stitches

Today the third workshop

of the STITCH CLUB was launched

by Susie Vickery

("today" is now tomorrow)

She is an embroiderer

and makes amazing portraits in stitch

For this workshop however

the uses strips of plastic bag as embroidery thread ...

I'm not sure about that.

I may and I may nót try that !

But that is a choice for later :

I'm still working on workshop number 2 !!!

by Merill Comeau

Merill presented us with a "floral collage"

We had to find a plant (flower)

that has a meaning for us or for the current time.
There was also talk of symbolic meaning of plants.

Working on a background of "net"(tulle)

was new to me

(making textile collages, not)

This is my piece so far.

Merill's plan was +/-  20 x 20 cm

but I wanted to make it a bit bigger :

30 x 60 cm !

Before I started I took some pictures nearby

I chose a nettle, ox-eye daisies and a poppy

It all started with ironing my stack of scraps

and making the background

(and of course glue-stitching it all !)

Then came the plants / flowers

Ahhhhhh those zillion pins !

I rolled up the bottom part and started stitching the nettle.

left pins, right the first stitches done

Doing the French knots for the nettle flowers,

and blending the different coloured scraps with stitch.


More to follow
.....

new start

After I finished the big bag for daughter

there were days of

TOTALLY  NOTHING

because of the extreme

HEAT

 that we had here :

40 degrees Celsius

is quite unusual for our little country .....

Climate Change is presenting itself !

Staying inside (and reading) was the only wise thing to do.

Luckily the weekend brought

some rain (that the garden needed badly) and cooler weather.

Time to start something new.

Building it up with snippets in blues and greens,

a small piece : 15 x 15 cm  

(5.9 x 5.9") 

(on the right is what lóóks like Megamendung,

but it's made by Kaffe Fasset ...)

All of the snippets are "glue-stitched" down :
you see it on the back, NOT up front !

(eternal thanks, Jude ,
for ever in your debt   ;-)  !)

nearly midsummer

Sometimes time rushes by

and I don't really notice

what date it is

(being retired does that to you)

But now I have started a small piece (15cm x 15cm)

for Summer  Solstice.

The weather is very warm right now

so why not take colours that match that !

Of course I started with

"glue-stitching" it all together,

so no nasty pins that catch your thread

when you start stitching !

In my stash was something a St'nB-friend gave me

It's the finest batiste

and believe it or not :

this is definitely hand stitched !!!

It's so hot right now

that the garden isn't the right place to do the stitching.

The sunshade down, the garden door closed,

to keep the heat from getting inside,

hmmmmmm ... that's better !

*

Here's the "Sweet Sunrise" piece of some days ago,

finished but not yet mounted on a canvas.

(I think the crochet is a bit from my Australian friend Jacky)

Love how the thick bundles of stitches work ...

A few weeks ago it was

"fish" time

See for yourself !

But not only for me,

also for Man who started drawing himself !

Around the drawings of his favorite colouring book

(always thought he couldn't ...)

Isn't that FUN !

March marched by

Last day of March ...

sometimes I wonder where did the days go

I've been busy stitching again

You know I work in waves :

knitting wave

painting wave

drawing wave

felting wave

stitching wave

garden wave

...

(Yes, that last one was necessary

since spring has begun

and there was lots of stuff that

had to go in the "green" bin,

not finished there yet)

So :

stitching !

(lots of snippets that have a meaning to me

or come from far away, like the black-and-red shibori silk)

I always love the back

with the "glue-stitches" in place)

But I work at two at a time :

a nine-patch cat

Mister "Starry Eyes"

(he's almost finished but I didn't take a picture tonight)

I love it when I can use small bits in the pattern :

like the nose and the eye.

*

In the garden colours have changed from white and yellow

to blue and a bit of purple

*

(and tomorrow another "Alpaca" knitting day ...

back to the socks then)

new stitching start

I did as I said yesterday :

begin a new little cloth to stitch

I like to work small

when I have no special idea what to do

20 x 20 cm 

(almost 8 x 8 ")

(then I can mount it on a small size canvas when finished)

Scraps on a piece of mull

dark like the winter time

(though the temperature is rather high here,

no real winter yet)

Of course basted down with invisible stitches

(glued)

like we all learned from Jude !

The starry bit on the left

with half a circle cut out destined it to become

the edge of the midwinter sun :

so a solstice piece it will be