day 17

. . . and now, for something completely different . . . 

I myself have loads of earrings,
and in every colour
(a lot of them textile ones :
felted or crocheted or stitched)
:-)

So why not make some for this challenge ?

My PINK RIBBON Textile Jewel
for day 17 :

stitched earrings, one side felt, one side fabric,
with a glass bead and stitched with seed beads
(4 x 2.5 cm,    1.55 x 0.8")

For a donation
of (at least)

  € 15  

SOLD  !

these lovely earrings can be yours
or they make a wonderful present for someone dear
All you need to do is send me an email at
fiberrainbow@gmail.com
or say so in the comments below,
and we'll arrange the rest.
Paypal is possible and simple !
(+ postage)

ALL your money will go to PINK RIBBON !

"DROPLETS  OF  WATER"

Hope to see you tomorrow !
There will be a brand new Textile Jewel then !

critters

Some people stick to their own kind

of creative ways :

they knit, draw, paint, stitch, crochet or felt ...

and stick to that one technique.

Hmmmm 

not me.

After some time,

which can be days, weeks of sometimes even months,

I have to change and do

"something completely different"

So after more than twenty (or so) finger puppets

I wanted something new.
Though I think I will be drawing / painting soon,
there came first new critters in felt.

(uhhhhhhm ... not to everybody's liking probably
the real ones I mean)

The little one, bottom left, was the very first,

three more (other than these of course) are waiting for their legs :

I don't have the right colour metal wire ...

Ahhhh ...

I have been looking

at the amazing forms and colours of bugs

on Pinterest.

(sometimes you can't believe your eyes !)

But the death rate among insects is alarming
Not many people are aware that insects
are vital participants in Nature
and not just inconvenient and annoying bugs !!!

*

In the garden

and in the water next to it

lots is going on :

we're still feeding the birds

and the lovely grebes are busy dating in the water !

It would be fantastic of they indeed decide to make their nest here

which is quite close to the garden ...

Though we might not see the nest because there will be a new fence

between us and our (new) neighbours

(they ripped out the old conifer hedge which

was almost bare at the sides and green at the top)

But from the balcony we could see it.

Only if they decide ...

the water level isn't always the same ... !

But seeing them making their LOVE dance

is already a wonderful view !

... here comes the sun ...

The last few days were filled 

with stitching,

stitching,

and more stitching.

Done !

    Summer  Solstice   2016

(I'll have to check tomorrow,

with better (sun) light,

if the colours are okay)

More details of the left and right side.

It was really fun to use lots of different

embroidery threads :

silk, rayon, DMC  and thin crochet yarn.

I the outer circle I used all kinds of blues, purple and even green.

After I did the final bit on the bluish circle

I looked where there needed to be more yellow quilting.

In the end I folded the thin white backing fabric

over to the wrong side and stitched it.

I'll probably mount the quiltlet on a canvas.

*

There were a lot of wet days

this last week.

But sometimes when the sun came out

I could sit in the garden and stitch.

Some noise made me take a better look at the water :

(that runs along our garden)

a "baby" grebe and mama.

Mama had managed to catch a fish.

The little one was squeaking,

but mama held on to her fish

I had even time to fetch my camera,

and still she held on to her prey for minutes.

Bur the little one stayed close and alert

Then she finally handed the fish over 

and he finally could start swallowing the fish

(I did catch that, but the picture is unsharp ...)

Here he just had it inside

ha, you can still see where the fish is ...

Done

Hmmmmmm ...

I think he has a smile on his face !

Ahhhhh, that water is such a BONUS to our garden !

(oh, this is post 600 !)

day 11

As I explained yesterday :

some days it's hard to get started on a mandala

and it really takes time,

on another day 

it just flows on the paper smooth as water !

Today was a "water" day  ;-)

This is the Pink Ribbon mandala for day number eleven

 "splash"

Karisma colour pencils on fine watercolour paper  (A5)

the mandala is  12 cm  (5")  in diameter

If you like to have this original artwork

you can send an email to fiberrainbow@gmail.com

it costs  € 11, -  (+ postage)

Though it's a bit cold here to go swimming in the sea,

I wish you a lovely weekend

(see you tomorrow)

sun - day

The day started with some rain.

Then, the sun came out and I went into the garden

...

and found the shoes I had been wearing yesterday :

soaking wet on the stairs to the water 

GRRRRRRRR

(totally forgot about them after I took them off 

when I came home from the Rotterdam "Stitch")

Some tiny visitors in the garden clearly had enjoyed the rain

a mini toad

We should have gone to visit my brother,

but my sister-in-law was ill.

Instead daughter came by with her youngest

and brought me this wonderful present !

She spun the yarn herself

of lovely soft Icelandic wool.

Love alllll the greens !

And no better way for a child 

than spend a sunny day in the garden with some 

water !

:-)

After Jackie (Stitchworks) told me the mandala arrived safely

I now can show all of it

13 - 2 - 13 (mandala wednesday)

The second Wednesday in the month 

is mandala evening.

The subject tonight was 

WATER

In the middle is a stone.

(during the meditation I "saw" this stone lying by the edge of the lake,

it was such a nice smooth stone, I wanted to take it with me )

Here is the birth mandala I sent to Austria

wich will have arrived by now 

slow days

Nothing much is happening right now,

no work in progress ...

no new projects started yet ...

Plans ?

Ohhh yes, plenty.

But for the time being

only the garden gets attention.

The plants that clearly finished flowering are cut down,

others, still blooming, might need a bit of support.

I love seeing the change of the seasons

in all the different flowers.

One of my late-summer favourites

is this Altea Cannabina,

over two meters high sometimes and looking like a thin fountain

with no leaves but lots of pink flowers.  (3 cm)

They self seed very easily

but need to be replanted when they're quite small

because they make a long pen root.

Another beauty

Anemone Japonica

(with a visitor)

*

For some funny reason the water next to our garden

is full of duckweed this year

Though ... "duckweed" ... ?
It seems the ducks, swans and grebes don't like it at all !

(It's hard to imagine that behind that weeping willow
is a four-storey apartment building ....)

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 )

more water

There was time in the sun to stitch a bit more

on "water"

The little pleats are stitched.

They are there because I added Jude's cloud.

So the strip on the left side had to come down a bit : 

I didn't want to loose the nice "lightning" on it.

But then I realized I had stitched the bottom part already, so ...

pleats

I discovered something else.

Normaly I use one or two strands of  DMC embroidery floss,

I especially love the variegated colours.

But you can also find silk thread !

When you cut "doupion silk" the thicker weft threads come loose very easy.

Don't throw them away ! You can very good stitch with them !!!

The lavender thread in the needle is left-over doupion silk !

( easy also in the split- backstitch ! )

*

Something happened in the water next to the garden this afternoon.

A pair of swans with kids were on the little island, resting and grooming.

Then a lone male swam came with much noise of wing flapping.

"Papa" came down from his island while "Mama" and her two youngsters

disappeared through the "back door"

Then there was some real show-off !

they were trying to intimidate each other ....

... broad wings, heads back ... turning and turning around each other ...

It was really quite impressive and spectacular !

( but no harm done ! )

After a good five minutes or so

each one shook his tail, flapped his wings ....

and went his own way

( that would be the way to fight a war ...! )