a finished project

The autumn colours in the garden

are fading away all to quickly.

But even on the ground the display is still beautiful

almost magical ...

magical ???

The one Dahlia I had this year, I planted in a pot,

to prevent an early death by slugs and snails.

But probably the spot wasn't sunny enough,

ánd ...

I pinched out the top to make it grow a bit broader.

Thát it didn't like :

it didn't want to grow at all

in the beginning.

But now, finally :

one gorgeous flower

worthwhile waiting for !

( a promess for next year : and no pinching thén ! )

( in fact she's even darker than here on the photo )

*

Last year on the Handwerkbeurs ( crafts fair )

daughter saw someone in one of the yarn stalls wearing a lovely vest

She complimented the lady and had a good look at it ... 

and started after she found the right sort of yarn.

Well, sometimes things take a bit longer

than you think they will

especially when there's no pattern at all, just that memory

of something beautiful .....

There was a lot of discussion, and making those horrible

( but necessary ) gauge samples,

a lot of doing and on-doing

( like cutting a part of the bottom of the too long sleeves )

.....

But finally today

the whole project was finished  !

Crochet and knitting, and crochet again ...

the front

and the back

( the true colours lie somewhere in between because of the flash light )

A very proud and happy daughter !

the circle of water

Sometimes it's not easy

to start with what you want to do :

yesterday evening I wanted to go on with "Water"

but our house guests for the weekend

were desperate in need of some T L C !

( that's what they wanted to show me I think ... )

Well, after a while I was able to do some stitching.

Today I put the backing on,

and because the actual quilting was already done,

I did so with the tiniest stitches up front, small ones on the back

and the rest went in between the layers

( like Jude taught us )

And now "The Circle of Water" is finished !

( a bit skew, but I think that's more the photo ... )

Some of the details

You might notice I didn't forget my magic thread around the sun part

and the magnificent "megamendung" cloud I got from Jude.

I like how this un-planned piece evolved

into what it is now.

*

Yesterday I also sent my feathers in the mail to Jude

for her Magic Feather Project.
It's worth while to go over there and find out all about it !!!

( others and daughters feather may follow )

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 !

square moon

Here she finally is :

my

Square Moon

on the border is written 

"what if    ...    the moon    ...    was a sqaure ?"

The idea came up during Jude's

Whispering Sun, moon, stars  series

She had asked herself some time before : what-if the sun was a sqaure ?

so I asked myself what if the moon was square ...

(because I had some lovely off-white nine patches with which

I made some "biscornu's")

(the inchies came from the chequer board plan that didn't work out as such, 

the biscornu was one that was blue on both sides)

This is what the nine patch moon looks like now :

the square moon

*

(on to the next wip)



it runs in the family

It's always fun to see

when people have the same enthusiasm for certain things

as you have :

when you see

"that it runs in the family"

Daughter and I are true textile lovers :

we look at fabric and fibers with our hands !

But look at the grandchildren :

after the careful start with knitting,

now there is stitching !

A tiny jacket ... and the very first colourblanket : green like the gras

where he loves to play football (soccer)

She made him / her all by herself !

(with just a little help)

*

These are the last stitches on the Square moon

two corners

... and last but not least :

a little bit of magic thread around the moon. !

.....

(Tomorrow I'll take another photo of the whole piece :

there wasn't enough light anymore to take a good one)

something special !

Today I recieved a very special present.

With the envelope still sealed,

I was already "over the moon"

because I knew the envelope came from Jude !!!

WOW Megamendung !!!

(the real one)

.... and lots of other pieces ....

.... moons ....

.... and Jude's magic thread ....

and ...

one of Jude's stitched hearts !

Ideas, ideas whirling around in my head ...

....what a treasure ....

Thanks Jude !

square moon

The piece that I'm working on

for the Sun / moon / stars Whispering

is slowly getting to it's end.

But sometimes the stitching isn't easy !

Because some of the indigo fabric is very densely woven.

On top of that (literally) is the nine patch of the square moon,

so then there are about six layers ...

sometimes a pair of tongs is the only way to get the needle through.

In a thrift shop I found this beautiful blue hanky

that I immidiately planned for the backing as soon as I saw it.

It is very thin so I must think of a way to use it :

probably with another layer behind it

(then I could even cut out the middle part ...)

But

still a lot of stitching to do

(ánd I need to find a place for my magic thread)

(Tomorrow I will be assisting daughter with her big felt)

no name yet ...

This morning I did the last stitches on my March felt / fabric

( I know it's April )

There were some new things I tried in this one

and I like the way all of that turned out.

You can think things out beforehand

but it's funny how opportunities suddenly appear along the way.

I wanted this piece to be really "Springy"

In our garden there are lots of flowerbulbs blooming every year

so I wanted bulbs in the ground

and then ... above ground

a Daffodil "appeared"

But then I thought: it would be fun if the flower was

three dimensional ...

so that's what happened.

Such magic needs some magic thread !

After all the elfs were there I saw that the Daffodil

was right over one of the bulbs :

it was like they were just waiting to be connected.

magic

The very last thing I did after all the stitching

was putting some beads on.

( and signing it on the back ofcourse )

Now there are three pieces finished

although I don't have a name for the last one yet

( any suggestions ? )

After I saw Jude's post "Willow wakes" today

I made a photo on the balcony :

the Willow right on the other side of the water

is already fully awake and "weeping"

coming along nicely

So far the weather in April is quite good.

In the garden the flowerbulbs are racing one after another,

evey day there's something new to look at.

Winter aconites are over

and so are some of the early Daffodils

Lots of  blue, blue and blue again

I love my Fritellarias

( and each year there are more, because they sow around quite good ! )

On my felt / fabric the flowerbulbs are doing fine too

Another elf in the making ....

... and finished !

The magic thread is creeping up the stem of the Daffodil.

With still some stitching to do 

this piece will soon be finished all together.

some progress

Slowly the spring felt / fabric is growing

First I cut a piece of batting to the right size

and put a thin cotton backing to it

so now I have an even thicknes everywhere

The cut-outs of the felt will become flowerbulbs with chrochet roots 

And here is a little ground elf who's watching the bulbs grow,

there will be more of them

( and I must decide where to put my magic thread ) 

Today I had something else to do :

making a mandala for the daughter of friends, who is getting married tomorrow

... it went in the mail this afternoon !

What a day to get married :

the first of April !

We wish them a lot of sunshine

and many happy laughs

!

Have a good laugh, all of you tomorrow !

moon walk

Not exactly like Michael Jackson did it

but I liked this name

for my February felt / fabric

( maybe I stick to "musical" names for all of them !? )

moon walk

( you might have noticed the magic thread : 

thát will be in every piece of this year too ! )

... all the stitches on the back ...