Felt Project, Moy Mackay, Left Over Quilt Scraps

Absolutely PERFECT mid July weather the last few days!  Its quite warm/hot but we have a lovely strong wind to keep it from feeling too warm.  And yes, it is just barely past the middle of May so this weather is totally unusual for us but most welcome as long as it doesn't get any hotter. 

Anyways, I have very little in the way of stitching or quilting or felting news.  I did start a new felt project.  I'm sure I spent more time trying to photograph it and edit the photos than I actually spent making the darn thing!  It looks okay I guess in the photo, but the photo really makes it look horrible compared to seeing it in person.  Here is a photo.

I saw a sampler recently in a Sotheby's online auction site and it was done in brown and turquoise and I just loved the contrast in colours.  The brown and turquoise have been in the back of my mind for months now and I kept trying to decide what I was going to do to use those two colours.  Finally, a few days ago, I pulled out my merino wool and needle felter and the photo above is what came of it.  I really want to add stitches to it, but no turquoise perle cottons or similar types of thread.  I have only some DMC 6 stranded floss.  I am okay working with the floss, but with some stitches, the threads don't lay evenly and the stitch ends up looking messy and not properly done, so an online order is due.

But, before placing an order, I really need to do an inventory of what I have in perle cottons.  I ordered quite a bit since taking the Sumptuous Surfaces Embroidery and  Encrusted Crazy Quilting course from Sharon Boggon and really don't know what I have.

Recently, I came across a felting artist, Moy Mackay.  WOW!  I immediately fell in love with her art work.   On the link above, if you click on Moy's name, you will get her home page.  On it, you will also find her just released book, "Art in Felt and Stitch".  I am so glad I added it to my collection.  It appears that most of her work starts out being wet felted  and when dry, she adds needle felted and hand stitched details.  There are also 4 step by step projects that she works you through and I am eager to try them as I haven't really done any wet felting!   If you check out her home page, the blue bird with a golden mustard yellow background and the sheep art work are two of the step by step projects.

On another topic, quilting, some or all of us probably have scraps of fabric left over from our quilting projects. I've heard more than once where quilters, when they have completed a project, take the left over material and cut it up into common size squares with 1/4 inch seam allowance added, so 2 1/2 inch by 2 1/2 inch squares, 3 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inch squares, etc.  and then just store them by size.  Eventually they have enough to make something with what has been saved.  Here is a great web site that goes into detail about what to do with the left over fabric.  Don't forget to check out the photos at the bottom of what has been done with their scraps!


The rest of this blog is just me boasting about this lovely island!

If I haven't been stitching, what have I been doing?   I've had my hands in manure!  Manure and mulch and in the garden and flower beds.   Today, I am so incredibly sore, I'm surprised my fingers can actually type at this keyboard!   I can barely walk and muscles and ligaments and God only knows what else that have laid dormant all winter have been called into use and they are NOT happy at all!!!

In any case, the rhubarb is flourishing and the fourth batch of rhubarb crisp this season is cooling in the kitchen.  This is a photo of the garden, almost all planted.  I have a few seeds to put in and other than finding some zucchini seeds, all will be done for now.

We went for a drive yesterday and the trees are either flowering or almost in full leaf.  This is a photo down by Cavendish National Park.

The next photo is Orby Head.  The "Head", or point, is what is pictured.   When I first came to the island 13 years ago, this point was not as steep a slope as it is now.  It was much much wider and people, including me, were able to carefully walk down from the top of the cliff to the lowest plateau. As you can see, the many severe winter winds and storms and wave action have eroded the sandstone and slowly The Head is disappearing.  If you look carefully, you will see a lobster boat in the upper right corner!

Each winter, we have the most amazing winter storms with driving winds from the North.  They wreak havoc on our beaches and cliffs.  They take sand and/or rocks away, they put sand and/or rocks where previously there was none and slowly the cliffs are bombarded until sections fall into the sea.  The sand has been brought back to the beach at the North Rustico end of Cavendish National Park.

One last photo now.  There used to be only one way to get on or off this island.  A ferry.  The island is crescent shaped and is 139 miles or 224 km from tip to tip.  It is  4 to 40 miles or 6 to 64 km wide.  In the 1990's, a bridge was made to connect the island to the mainland, the Province of New Brunswick.  The bridge is amazing!  The bridge is 8 miles or 12.9 km long.   Its has quite the amazing story!

I was going to go out and plant those seeds, but just a few moments ago, I heard something outside that we usually only hear once or twice during the summer, and only at night.  We've never figured out if it was foxes or raccoons but it lets out the most terrible screeches as if it is being tortured. I can't go outside with the dog because if she sees anything, she will be off like a shot in the dark and we'll never find.  So, its housework for me! Yuck!  Maybe I'll stitch!

Enjoy your day and happy stitching!

Trying to Dye Cheesecloth

I recently saw on Judy Cooper's site that she was trying to dye some fabric and cheesecloth a gray colour to use as rocks in her fabric art quilts.  Immediately, it came to mind that I could try the same thing, but in a red iron oxide colour to match our cliffs. (Cape Turner in the Cavendish National Park)

I do not have fabric dye but have acrylic paints in the red iron oxide colour needed to match the cliff colour.  So I just added a bit of water to the paint and threw in my cheesecloth.

This is what the cheesecloth looked like wet.

It looked a tiny bit different dry!  I hate to admit to leaving the cheesecloth in the wet paint mixture for 2 days but I did and as you can see the colour did not take well.  A friend told me to heat set it and add back to the paint and it will darken but I wasn't so sure of this. 

I think perhaps it's time to get some fabric dye.  From what I have read in most blogs, Procion MX Dyes seem to be the dye of choice.   What I am not thrilled about though, is the reference to needing a mask during the process and rubber gloves.  If  the mask and gloves are because the paint is toxic, well, maybe I won't be able to dye.  I live out in the country and we use our clean well water for drinking and every day use. I hate the thought of using something that might poison my environment.  So, as I said, I will have to do some research.  As I type this, I wonder how safe the acrylic paint was that I had to dump outside?  

In any case, though you may not have learned what you thought you were going to learn from reading this post,  you certainly learned what NOT to do.

Judy Cooper mentioned a book that she referenced each time she dyed and I think perhaps its a good idea for me to pick it. 

Spring is definitely here and the farmers are in their fields planting grains.  A few fields of freshly planted potatoes have been seen as well.  Its looking lovely out there!

This next photo is an old fishing barn on the wharf of the French River Harbour.  I can't imagine how old it might be but I'm sure its feeling every year of its existence as it's spine is well worn and bent.

Hope you find time to enjoy your art and what is around you.

Pebble Finished!

Hi again!

Well, spring is most definitely here and I am finding it harder to sit down and stitch when there is spring cleaning to do inside the house and so much yard work that needs doing outside!  I spent some time in the flower bed under the kitchen window at the front of the house friday!  OMG!!   The back of my legs didn't know what hit them!  I was paralyzed with pain for days!!!  LOL...   That'll learn me for not exercising more, though I admit I thought the swimming and exercise in the community pool was helping.

In any case, I found time to do a few things.  I am just about finished my "Pebble".  Previously mentioned here.  Also, it was taken from this original posting with Stitch magazine website.

I have the front of the Pebble all stitched up and I enjoyed the stitching so much I went much higher on the 'pebble' than I planned to.

The Stitch website suggests using a Ladder Stitch to stitch the front and back together but it just doesn't seem right to me.  Having never done the Ladder Stitch before, I am probably out to lunch and should probably just do it, but I will need to try it out on something else first before proceeding.   This is the back piece, ontop of the rear of the front piece.  I have to stitch the two together along the sides.   (that sounds so confusing!  lol)

I will have to let you know how that turned out!  There are a few great resources that I have come across to help me learn stitches.  One is Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary.  There is also her Take A Stitch Tuesday, which is now incorporated into her Pintangle Blog. And since I'm here, I might as well mention her Stitchin' Fingers site.  I wish I could spend more time in there as it is the most amazing place!  And finally, there is Pretty Impressive Stuff.  I also refer almost constantly to my Embroidery Stitch Bible. 

I do have to tell you about my machine quilting day workshop that I took with Kathy Tidswell last week.  WOW!   (OH DEAR!   I do wish I could attach the songs from some birds that are singing outside my window right now!  How Glorious!)    In any case, the drive into Charlottetown is about 70 to 80 km for me from where I live.  I had to be in Charlottetown for 9 this past Wednesday morning (to get a good seat) and it was an all day workshop so I wasn't planning on going to her Trunk Show, also in Charlottetown, the night before.  But, I couldn't resist!   What a treat!   Some of the quilts on her web sites where shown and Kathy was ever so kind as to provide some explanation as to how she came up with the design and some of her processes in creating.  I am so glad I went but boy was I tired for about 3 days afterward! (160 km of driving Tuesday evening and again Wednesday!)   

The course was beyond expectations, though I will admit that I was in a bit of a kurfuffle and actually thought the course was something else, but it didn't matter.   It was more than I could have imagined.  Kathy is an excellent instructor and quite obviously very learned in her art.  We covered machine quilting with both the walking foot, and free motion.  All aspects of machine quilting were covered, such as needle types, thread types, how to start, finish and everything in between.  We made up a sampler of our sewing.

What I learned was, I NEED AN AWFUL LOT OF PRACTICE MACHINE QUILTING!   LOL
Kathy was quite thorough though and because of her instruction, I feel more than capable of proceeding along in this learning process!  Thank you Kathy!

Well, the sun is actually out and we may not see it for a few days.   My husband is out cutting the grass for the second time this season, so I might see how those back leg muscles are doing and weed a flower bed or at least a part of one.  I have close to 80 to 100 or more feet of flower beds, in 4 different gardens.  As you can see, the grass has really taken over because  you can't see where the flower bed is and when the lawn starts.

In the meantime, for some practice at free motion quilting, you might be inspired by visiting this site for some helpful tips.   I can't leave though without mentioning Judy Cooper.  Her blog holds not only photos of her most lovely quilts and artwork, but also a whole slew of links to other blogs and sources of information that teach everything about art quilting.  I get a gazillion more bookmarks every time I go into her blog! 

Don't forget to check out The Sunshine Deli!  It always brings a smile!

Enjoy!

Liebster Award

I was recently tagged for the Liebster Award by Judy Cooper from Judy Cooper Textile Images.  Thank you Judy!

"The Liebster award (German for Favorite) is usually presented to smaller blogs as a form of recognition and support. 'Smaller blog' is one with 200 followers or less. As a recipient you are to:"

• Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them
• Post the award to your blog
• Present the award to 5 other blogs
• Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award

There are lots of great blogs out there to choose from. Here are the five that I've selected for the Liebster (in no particular order):

1. London-Wul Fibre Arts
2. BSL Art Quilts
3. The Sunshine Deli
4. Embroiderland
5. Stitching Lady 

I couldn't find a link anywhere in Google or BING that lead me back to the origins of this award.  I was totally tickled pink at having received this Award but was a little hesitant at sending it on.  I decided that it is a way to promote other small blogs and that is a good thing.   So, the blogs I have chosen and listed above and they are  free to continue the Award or not, at their discretion.  I do think the blogs I have listed are a great source of inspiration and I might add that Judy Cooper would have been on my list if I hadn't received the Award from her!

 

Bringing up the Bobbin thread to the top

Hi again!
I realized after finalizing my earlier post from today, that I meant to talk about something and forgot.

When doing free motion quilting or any stitching on quilting, it is a very good idea, and I would almost say imperative, to pull the bobbin thread up to the top of your quilting before proceeding with your stitching.   I found this out the hard way when I did my first ATC/NTC.   I kept getting a thread nest, after thread nest under the ATC every time I began to stitch.  I changed sewing machine needles, changed threads, cleaned out my bobbin holder area, you name it!  I was so frustrated I'm sure there was smoke coming out of my ears!  

And then I remembered a little something from all the quilt shows I had watched.  Bring up the bobbin thread to the top of your work.  Well, I always thought this was just a little quirk of the quilter but NOPE!!!  Its a MUST!  You might get lucky, like me, and get a few rows of stitching in with no problems at all, but when the poop hits the fan and the nests start, oh my....    When the nests start, so do the curse words!

If you do a Google search for "Bringing the bobbin thread up to the top", you will get many suggested links.  I came across this one.  I do not endorse her book, nor have I ever seen it before, but when she finally gets down to giving the demonstration on bringing up the thread to the top of your work, its pretty darned good!

Good luck!

Mary Wigham, ATC/NTC, Pebble

Well, talk about stress!   They've changed Blogger on me so wish me luck on posting this blog as it all looks soooo different!
Well, what have I been doing?  

First of all, my progress on the Mary Wigham sampler being done in Facebook, "Sampler World".

With regards to the Mary Wigham sampler, when you download the free pattern, you are not able to download a photo of the completed sampler, as done by Mary Wigham.  Well, you can download it, but it is so small that you can't really see anything very well.  When I was first stitching the sampler, I found errors in the pattern.  At first, I was making corrections.  I then realized that the pattern may be following Mary's sampler exactly, errors and all.  And I was trying to figure this out by looking at this very tiny photo of the sampler, which I wasn't too happy about doing.  My eyes just aren't cut out for that! 

As I mentioned before, I am using some 22 count beige Hardanger fabric that I had at home and am stitching the sampler over one thread, using one thread of DMC.   I have been stitching on this sampler Monday evenings at stitching guild and Wednesdays with friends.  I think I have two or three more rows to do!

Well, I went looking for your link to view the Mary Wigham sampler and it is gone!?   I will have to take a look at the site when I have more time to see what is happening.  This is where it used to be:
http://needleprint.blogspot.ca/

I spent an enormous amount of time lately looking at blogs.  I'm sure we've ALL been there.  You start out at one blog, and that person has a gazillion links that you MUST visit and three hours later, you are left gasping for breath as your mind is swirling and whirling with all the new and exciting things you have seen and you wonder where the hell you are going to start!!!   All I can say is, I am totally overwhelmed with the depth and scope of imaginative talent out there!  WOW!   And it is all at there for our eyes to behold, after just touching a few keys or moving a little mouse.

Well, having said that, I decided to make my first ATC.  Artist Trading Cards, though I do not profess to be an Artist, so they are NTC's for me.  Newby Trading Cards.

This is the first I made.  There are a number of "firsts" for me in this NTC.  Its the first  NTC I made, the first time I made a scene out of fabric, the first time I used a stamp, (the trees with acrylic paints) and the first time I tried free motion stitching!   OH MY....   Those weird swirls are supposed to represent a windy sky!   When you see them on quilts, they look so simple and wonderful and so easy to make.   I beg to differ!   Go try to make a few!  Freehand, with no drawing to follow and I don't know if I even could have followed a drawing!!!

NTC number one

I was lucky to find a fabric that represented a colourful sunset but it had greens in it and I had to cut off a piece at the top of the NTC and add another piece so that there wouldn't be bushes in the sky!



My second NTC:

I've had this idea in my mind for a while about making a wall hanging, that sort of looks like the NTC, but a little fancier.  It is loaded with stitching and beads, and sparkle, etc.  So I decided to try an NTC first.  All went well, except I wanted to make some of the organza grass 3 Dimensional and so fused them turned half way.  Which was very time consuming but I liked the affect.  But, when I ironed the backing fabric onto the NTC,  I flattened the 3 D grass!   So NTC's are great to do especially when you want to experiment with something to see how it goes.  I found it physically impossible to cut little circles to put on the fish, so cut narrow strips and made squares instead!    And, I did try to stitch on the grasses before I cut them out but the stitching looked horrible so I left them plain.  Also, I fused two pieces of organza together but found them a little stiff this way so have some thicker fused organza grasses and then some one layer organza grasses.  I was going to stitch the tips and the bottoms of the grasses to the background, but then realized that the stitching showed so decided to fuse them to the background and thought this was such a brilliant idea.  Until I fused them and saw that the little tiny squares of fusible web were showing if you looked closely.  So, back to the drawing board on the grasses before I make a big wallhanging!

And finally, I have been working on my Pebble which was discussed in the previous blog entry.   I have stitched as much as I can on it and probably stitched to much.   More than anything, I LOVE this kind of stitching.  I could do this for hours and hours and hours.  In the course of cleaning up my craft room, I placed my cardboard or mat board in a very safe place.  So safe that I can't find it.  When it is found, I can complete the Pebble!

This is my Pebble:

There is a fuzzy little thing near the top left.  I was trying to make some sort of floaty leggy watery creature, an anemone?, and searched through my "The Embroidery Stitch Bible" and found the Rya stitch.  It was hard doing that stitch in a very tiny format but I did it in a double circle and cut the threads when I was done.  totally thrilled with it! Otherwise, there are bullion stitches, french knots, straight stitches, star stitch, woven picots, woven circles, buttonhole loops, and perhaps a fly stitch or two.  It was a learning experience for me to make both tight french knots and very loose french knots.

I am off  to Charlottetown on Wednesday!   I am taking an all day workshop by Kathy Tidswell.   I am really looking forward to this workshop and hope to come back with my imagination flying higher than it already is!

The grass is green, and though we've had some really wonderfully warm days around 20C, it is back to normal spring temps of 8 or 10C.  Still cool, but at least work is getting done in between all this wild imaginings!   I am now off to do something totally exciting!   Hang the laundry on the clothesline! 

And watch the dog...

 Enjoy your day!

Sketching, no TAST news

Hello again!

WOW! My last blog entry had us in the middle of a wild snow storm! Today, as I write this, it is 22 C, the sun is shining, the fields are dry and the farmers are planting wheat! And yes, there are still small areas in thickly treed areas and along the edges of fields that have snow in them!

After my last post and our last snow storm or maybe our second to last snow storm, we actually got some nice weather! We never knew how long the nice weather was going to last as the weather report seemed to change hourly, so the last few weeks, every time it was nice out, we ran out to do yard chores. We live out in the country and have almost an acre of land, so there is lots to rake. I also have about 80 bushes and trees, and four large flower beds and one large vegetable garden plus pots that needed to be cleaned out. We even did some pruning! So we are alot further along than we normally are this time of year, but I am way behind in stitching. Since we are an island and surrounded by somewhat cold or cool water, which can be in ice form this time of year, our springs are usually a long time in coming so it was a bit unusual for us to have the nice weather that we did the last few weeks. In between our yard work, we managed a few walks along various beaches near us. As a side note, there is no where on this island, where you are no more than half an hour from a beach!
This is Cabot Park:

In any case, I was able to start my "Pebble", previously mentioned. You can find more info on the Pebble in Stitchin Fingers or here. This is what I have done in my Pebble so far.
I started out with just the ecru but thought it was boring. Even though I have recently stocked my perle cotton supply with various colours, I didn't seem to have enough variation in colours to get a slight variation in colour from the ecru. I ended up with some somewhat sharp contrasts. The ecru right now is looking a bit lonely so I will have to spread it around some so that it doesn't look so out of sorts all by itself along the bottom. I'll keep you posted!

After all our hard work in the yard, I decided yesterday that we needed a day off. Not too much of a day off as I am now getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the pool by 6 a.m. so that I don't lose too much of the day and can get some work done. So, after the pool, we packed a picnic lunch and the three of us headed off to our nearby National Park Campground (me, husband, dog). The park is still closed to camping, but you can walk in and enjoy the quiet peacefullness. I brought along my sketching supplies and my husband took the dog and they walked the nearby 10 km trail as I sketched.

The results of my efforts:

The first things I drew: leaves, dried flower, pine cone, branch on the ground
The leaves:
The dried flower:

And the branches:


Then I got brave and tried to do a tree stump. I think I chose something a bit too challenging as there were too many angles and levels and it got a bit overwhelming for me and I kept forgetting what level I was trying to draw. Not displeased with the result though.

The tree stump:

After I sketched each item, I got up for a stretch and during one of the stretches, took a photo of my set up. LOL Not much of one! This is when I was preparing to do the tree trunk.
There was a picnic table behind me with the rest of my gear. I didn't use them but brought some watercolour pencils, some water and brushes, just in case. On my chair and with me, was a selection of drawing pencils, my pad, and two cameras.

These are two photos taken from the chair. One to my left and a bit in front, the other to my right and a bit behind.

To the left and a bit in front, which I love because I love backlit scenes.

And this is to the right and a bit behind me:

I am definitely behind in TAST for sure now. I have no idea what happened but I was unable to see what the new stitches were after week 14. I just got to see week 15 stitch a day or two ago and so am now at least 2 stitches behind. We are expecting some cooler and possibly rainy or snowy weather for the next week so I will hope to catch up!

I leave you with one further photo. Along the north shore of our island, lobster fishing season opens May 1st. The fishermen are allowed to put their traps in the water April 30th and then haul them out May 1st with their first catch of the season. These lobsters are the best! The meat in the shell is wonderful and full and the water is cold so they taste the best. We have another season in the fall, mostly along the south shore, but I find these lobsters just don't taste the same. In this last photo, the boats which were taken out of the waters in the fall because the water freezes up, even though it is salt water, are now back in the water. The new or freshly repaired lobster traps are being loaded and piled up on the docks waited to be loaded onto the boats for April 30th.
This last photo was taken just outside of the Cabot Park, in Malpeque Bay. Malpeque Bay is actually world famous among the good seafood restaurant world. Malpeque Bay oysters are among the best in the world! The lobsters are pretty good too! LOL

Well, enjoy your spring and have a lovely week!