Internet Impossible

Hi everyone. I’m back online temporarily, and scheduled to get a new satellite system installed next week. Hopefully that will resolve my intermittent internet connection, and I’ll be able to post whenever I want. Yay! During the past week, I've been unable to upload pics, when the system was working, so I haven't posted anything. If possible, I’ll post this weekend.......if it’s working....sigh.
My body is tired from all the shoveling over the past few days. We received over a foot of more snow....grumble, mumble. Where's spring?  lol...well, sort of.....
Hope everyone is well and enjoying some sunshine.
Hugs from Suz

CQJP 2013 and WIPs

I finished my February block!
Here's how it looked last time:

I added some cream gimp cast-on chains to the dark brown trim

and a bit of sparkly thread to a short seam

although I didn't like covering that nice lace pattern, I think adding the gimp repeats the colour in the gimp- and-pearls-trim, as well as the 'pearls' in the combination seam treatment. It also picks up the colour of the fabric beneath the trim, and lightens the whole effect. I felt the darker trim was too heavy .
 What do you think?
The other seams will be left bare until the blocks are joined together.

the block for March

center block for my CQJP has been prepared. I sewed Debra's embroidered roses to the large crocheted doily, then edged the rose motif with some of the tea-dyed lace.

WIPs
Heart for Sandy Hook
I completed sewing the gimp trim to the heart, added some stuffing, then attached it to the block.
Some of the seams have beginning embellishments, and work will continue on this.

at StitchMap, we had a Fun Friday Tute, and the challenge was to create a needlebook decorated with  sashiko embroidery.

sashiko:  a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery)
This was challenging, as my pattern kept disappearing. I had used a new-to-me wax-free tracing paper and the white tracing rubbed off as easily as if it were chalk. sigh

So this meant that my pattern wobbled here and there.....and the individual designs are not as well defined as I'd like

the stitching was very meditative, though, and this pattern creates a nice geometric design. I may just do some more in future


Still no TAST. Guess I shall have to play catch up next week. maybe... ;-}

That's it for now

Hope you've been having a great weekend!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz





 

Mixed Media Fun

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! 
Hope everyone has lots of hearts in their day.

I was up a little early this morning, and the view out the living room window looked like this:

A golden glimmer just easing into the sky

The mist rising from the lake ice?


Snow whipping across the lake's surface?

an hour later the sun was out creating shadows on Turtle Island

I signed up for a free workshop with Carolyn Dube  and the workshop is called Use Your Words, so I had a little playtime last night.

a border made by some overspray on another project

green glimmer mist over a ratty onion bag and a bit of stamping ink in a golden brown pounced through the bag

 stamping borders

adding sunflowers  and then colouring them in with watercolour crayons, and sharpies

using my words : BLOOM

more colouring and ink, then I added some iridescent gold acrylic paint for some sparkle here and there, and some stickles glue drops in the flower centers

taking a photo of the page on an angle, really shows the gold glimmer.
 I added a little wash of purple

I had lots of fun playing, but this is why my TAST is not yet done......lol!

now it's time for some dark chocolate!


Hope you have fun playing today.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

 

There's Been Some Stitching........

CQJP 2013

I added a line of 'pearl' beads down the center of the rectangles, and lazy daisies. The center lazy daisies wear a pink bead...... 

some adorable off-white gimp trim and beads-I love this trim!

a darker piece.... looks like part of an edging.....

and February looked like this....

a short seam with the variegated pink rayon thread......and a reflecting line of chain stitch...

Is it finished?


hmmm, that seam above the dark, lace edging needs something, I think

I had a little tea party and invited a few of my lacy friends


and they enjoyed a little dip........lol

now they're auditioning for a spot on one of my 2013 blocks.....


;-D

The Jewel Block is now transformed into a pillow!   Yay!   A little seam binding, and lace was added to the block, and then sewn onto a dark pink fabric.
The back has an overlap of fabric to create a pocket for the pillow insert.

The only addition was a 'silver' and pink crystal 'J' on the upper left. It's a pin and can be removed from the pillow and worn as a pin, or as a pendant.
I sure hope Jewel likes her pillow!
Soon, it will be flying to Australia for her to discover once she returns home. Right now she's traveling in Thailand, and will soon be in Malaysia to attend a wedding with her parents. Such a jet-setter, and she's only 16 months old!

Like many people, we were hit by the latest 'blizzard' and had over a foot of snow. There's more in the forecast, with the possibility of freezing rain, so it may take a while to get to town to post Jewel's pillow.

I hope everyone is safe and warm. Today the sun is shining here. I hope you have some sunshine, too.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

CQJP 2012 , CQJP 2013 and More Playing

Our satellite equipment broke down, and it took a couple of days for the serviceman to arrive to repair the problems. Add that to a hydro outage from the recent wind/rain storms, and I've been off the internet for several days. It's good to be connected again!

We had mild temperatures for 2 days, and a layer of water formed over the lake ice......you might be able to see the ripples in the foreground

Yesterday there was some colour in the sky

I liked the reflections on the ice. It's solid again as we've plunged back into the winter freeze

CQJP 2012 has the lace border sewn and I've begun adding stitched and beaded snowflakes, but they don't show up very well. Even the tatted blue one just looks like a little blob....So I shall have to make them bigger and bolder so they can be seen.......like the cut glass and tatted one in the lower left of center

here it is.......




   Once all the snowflakes have been added, I'll sew the lace border to the dark green fleece

CQJP 2013 January block has a seam treatment of  knotted fly stitch (last week's TAST) and I added 'pearl' beads

V's beads and more french knots

tatted JK flowers and curly stem

tea-stained lace with a cast-on stitch border

chain stitching

and the January block is finished!

I started the February block with a few cast-on stitch roses in a variegated rayon thread.......

Debra (of Tuesday Stitchers) sent me a pile of doilies (thanks again, Debra!)

this one is very pretty, though it has a hole, and is stained in a few places


I thought I might use it for the center of my CQJP 2013 wall hanging

I'd use this beautiful machine embroidered rose picture ( hey, thanks Debra!) that Debra included with the doilies to cover the doily hole and stains

I finished the last three blocks


pretty rose fabric (thanks Debra!)

and another pretty rose fabric (thanks Debra!)



















This third rose fabric came from my stash



hmmm, lots of roses


that's because my CQJP 2013 wall hanging will be called Lace and Roses!

                              


 More roses were added to the February block with some pale green leaves, some of which are created with the woven picot stitch for a 3-D effect

I've begun a bit of other seam work, and plan to add more to both. Here's how my February block looks now.



















a trip to the second hand shop in town yielded this wonderful book for creating lace!

I've been creating some more cards

This was a painted background over which I added a layer of lace, then painted through with a second colour






it was a little boring, so I added some more paint .......

zowie!

this will make a fab background

I used a technique from Creative JumpStart 2013 to create this layered paint effect

then I used a some sequin waste as a stencil........
does it look like a fish to you?


BIL likes to fish, so it may just become a Birthday card for him......

gesso and acrylic liquid paints

a spritz of water  .............and.......Fun!


I sure hope you're having fun this weekend.

oh, yeah, Happy Groundhog Day! and
Happy February!
Wishing everyone lots of wonderful hearts this month.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz