stitched lines

These last two weeks
we had a STITCH  CLUB  workshop
by Joetta Maue
translating photos into stitch>

Hahaha :
sooooo many of the Stitch Club members
have been looking through their photo stash
for hours and hours,
catching up on lovely memories !

I have many photographs on the computer too
more than one used to have in an album.
When there were still rolls of film in a camera,
I mostly used 36 frames
because you never knew how many would be good
(and how many not !)
How different things are nowadays
with digital cameras !!!

I chose a photo with grandchildren
(digital, so easy to enlarge and print)
I printed several
and asked the "subjects" to choose

Because I didn't have any vintage "beauties"
I took a piece of an old linen blouse
that I had cut apart, to use for some textile work.

I didn't want to use only black for the stitching
but chose the colours from the photo
only in a "dustier" shade.

After MANY hours if making lines of tiny stitches
the "men" of the family are there !

The original photo and the stitched piece  (A4)

The "middle" one (here 11) trying out his mum's old racing bike.

wordless Wednesday

brrrrr : Easter ! (and other things)

I am really sure we never had an Easter Monday
as cold as this one :
with wind and rain and SNOW and HAIL

For our little family Easter means : looking for eggs in the garden.
(Oh yes, we had rain a few time s and then
the Easter Bunny hid the eggs somewhere inside !)

Because this time we had no wrapped eggs (vegan)
I wrapped them myself :

some in alu foil (for outside)
and some in coloured tissue paper (for inside)

In our spring garden there are plenty of places where eggs can be hidden !

The first few eggs are often easily found
because a small part is showing
. . .
but after that, it gets a bit harder

And no matter how small or how big you are :
looking for Easter eggs is FUN !

(as helper of the Easter Bunny, I  always count the eggs,
because after a bit I have forgotten where I put them !)

We didn't find them all (!)
but it was so freezing that we went inside to look for the "paper" ones

Sometimes it's hard to see things
even if they're right under your nose !
(in the white felted shell )

After an hour the weather turned
REALLY  BAD !

*

Last week I mentioned "mending"
and that there were two real things
I still needed to do

The big guy was totally satisfied with my work
and glad that he could wear his trousers again !

My wonderful "knitting-daughter"
made a present for someone :

For the Stitch Club this week
I made this "wrap"

I hope the sun and warmth return next week !!!

(p.s. : still some eggs missing outside !)

mending

 
I found some little paper bags with old used postage stamps,
unfortunately there were no more landscapes
but I might give it a go with some animal stamps
. . . . .
But there was something else
I could do this last week :
another Stitch Challenge on FB
by Textile Artists.org
(like the ones we had last year's spring)
This time by my favorite Merill Comeau.
"text in fabric"

I chose the word "mending"
something that isn't done very often
since the "throwaway society"
is more common than not.

I get a lot of little repairs from daughter and the kids
(two trousers waiting for me right now)
I love it when things are functional again
with just some fabric, thread and a little effort !

all kinds of small scraps
in not too bright colours.

and a variety of matching threads
(after basting everything down)

finished !

Here some detailed pictures
to show the details of the different ways
I stitched the letters down.

That was really FUN
. . .
and now on to doing the "real thing"
which has to be less visible !

a stamp as start

Looong ago
our little baby was born :
a strong mum now !
Happy birthday my LOVE !

Jette Clover
hosts the workshop these two weeks in Stitch Club.
I love her work :
always lots of text in it.

A stamp as a start
. . . . .
but what if you chucked out a box of old stamps
only two months ago ?
Luckily I have a lot of envelopes
of other artists I swap with
and there I found on a letter from Mo
a beautiful Australian stamp !
Just the right thing to use !

"Twelve Apostles"
(Victoria)

Thanks Mo !!!

:-)

some more beads

Stitching beads and sequins for
Kate Tume's workshop
was fun, so why not continue with another piece.
"Rock or biodiversity"?
Or "something completely different" ?

I took some hand dyed (procion) cotton
and a snippet of Kaffe Fassett's "Paperweight" blue,
some stretchy cotton velvet, some glitzy purple
and threads, beads and sequins that matched with that.

First I made little poufs of the velvet
and took a tiny bit of "Paperweight"
(oh, and I ironed a 10 x10 cm piece of interfacing on the back)

Then it was just fun stitching beads and sequins,
but oh my :
that takes TIME !!!

With so many things lying around,
why not play a little more
. . . . .

on a wet felted circle
. . .

THANKS Kate
it was really FUN

beads and sequins

Beads and sequins :
I often respond to them like a magpie would.
I've done my share of jewelry making
so there still is a stash of that.

That came in handy for this week's
Stitch Club workshop of  Kate Tume :
embellishments !

A fun workshop for me (magpie)
I decided to use some fun fabric that was in my stash
for quite some time :
the flower fairies by Cecily Mary Barker,
that would be a good starting point.
So I chose one to which I had some matching sequins.

I basted down the fabric around the fairy first
and started with matching cream sequins.

Then I decided it would make a lovely front
for a needle book.
Now I hope to really put my needles there
because I always loose my needles !
I lay them down somewhere,
or leave them in some WIP.
I mostly work with several needles with different threads,
so I often loose more than one !

The front side of the book is finished (10 x 10cm)

For the pages inside I felted some neat squares in the right size (!)
and in colours that went with the colours of the cover.
I also had some fabric for the back cover and the inside
plus, for another page, some sweet fabric that I backed with some
 commercial felt, attached with buttonhole stitch
with my variegated silk thread.

Then I assembled the backing fabric and the pages
(in the way Jude Kingshott did)

And on to the next project !
:-)