More Hand Embroidery on Soy-wax-Ice Dyed Quilt

This week's stitch was the detached chain, otherwise known as the Lazy Daisy Stitch.  In the first one, I overlapped stitches in three colors and a variety of sizes.

   In this section, I did the classic daisies.

This picture shows more of the quilt with the embroidered areas.

Women's Rally and Soy-Wax, Ice Dyed Linen

On Saturday I joined thousands of other men and women in a rally at the Mission Plaza in San Luis Obispo to remind our government about what their priorities should be. I was glad to see that it was well attended and that many of us are feeling the same way.

As part of the TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) group, I added this week's stitch, which was the fly stitch,  to my soy-waxed, ice-dyed vintage linen tablecloth. In the triangular shaped area, I placed the stitches separately and along the left side, I joined them together, adding a stitch in between each one to create a plant like design. Next week's stitch is the detached chain stitch. Hmmmm

Embroidering on Soy-wax, Ice dyed Linen

I've been wanting to do something with an old linen table cloth that a friend gave me, which I soy waxed and ice dyed some time ago. So over the weekend I  took the lace off one side and reattached  it  to the side which was had more vibrant colors.  Some the lace is very fragile, especially at the corners so I needed to add a piece under it so it's supported. I plan on hand embroidering it. It's about 24  inches square.

Started a little buttonhole stitching on one part today.

Fabric Manipulation - Slashing through layers of fabrics

I'm progressing on my 'blooming' squares piece. It is very labor intensive, but I am enjoying the process.  Opening up every little square and choosing what I wish to unveil is a lot of fun! It's like opening up little presents. I've always related to the theme of layers. People and life itself  are made up of so many layers. Often we only see the surface of the top layer  unless we dig deeper. 

Here are the scraps of fabrics laid on top of batting in center.

I placed a piece of organza on top and stitched a half inch grid through all layers.

 This picture and the one below show how I have cut open each square

on two sides. Next I insert a needle from below up through the corner of the square and then through the top of the triangles of fabric to pull them back to reveal whatever layer I decide upon. 

This is as far as I am so far. Many more little presents to open.

For more information on this technique check out Fay Maxwell's youtube video on 'slashing.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiL19t56Xgk

Beautiful Blooming Paperwhite

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Have been very busy getting ready for Christmas doing the baking, decorating, etc. Not doing as much of it as in past years, due to still recovering from my back surgery. Really enjoyed having our sons celebrate Christmas with us.  Needless to say, didn't do too much fiber art during the last week or so. Hoping to start machine quilting on my Circles Pizzaz quilt after New Year's Day and finish my fun fabric manipulation piece, which is quite labor intensive.

Meanwhile to inspire you, here is a picture of my blooming paper white flower that I bought at Trader Joe's. It's been a fun plant to watch grow and blossom in its unusual glass vase that allows you to see the bulb and roots.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year's!

More Progress on New Project

I've been working on  a new project.  For this project you need to quilt the border first,

 as it would be to difficult to quilt after the center is finished. The center will  be done

 in a fabric manipulation technique.

The piece pictured below was done a couple of years ago, and is similar

to what will be in the center of my new piece, yet different. 

Super Moon

Hope you had a chance to check out the super moon earlier this week. Below are a few pictures of it from our house. It was a beautiful late afternoon with a rosy dusky sky complemented by contrails.

Started a new fun project but it's not quite photo-ready yet. I took out lots of my fabrics from the past decade or so to inspire me to make something new. My studio looks like a giant fan attacked it, stuff is flung everywhere. But I do have a couple ideas of where to creatively journey next. Stay tuned.

Other than that we have been dealing with a broken clothes dryer. My husband and I tried to fix it. The drum belt had broken. I was very proud of us. We got it all apart to discover a broken belt and metal bit on the one end of the motor shaft. We tried to JB Weld that together, put back on the belt, put it all back together and it worked for about 30 seconds before there was a 'ping' and it ground to a screeching stop. Oh well, can't say we didn't try. We've had that dryer for about 12 to 15 years, so not bad.