CQJP March Block and Wrapping Cloth

My March block is finished! I added a bit of tatting, a herringbone variation in variegated pink, chain stitch half circles, and some cast-on chains.

 

Buttonhole seam treatments on my wrapping cloth

layers of cast-on stitch chains

a few additions to the basket

a bevy of bullions

beginning of a tatted branch with leaves

the right side of the wrapping cloth

oops, I should have damp-stretched my cloth...... shame on me......

followed by the left side

there are more embellishments in the works for this piece, and soon I'll create a second section of my wrapping cloth.

I bit the bullet, and made some rouleau loops with my wild fabric, so you may be seeing more wild on section number 2.

As always, your comments and suggestions are most appreciated.






Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

White Cloth Beginnings

My online class with Karen Ruane has begun! Yay. I'm having so much fun creating my wrapping cloth!
I began several months ago by searching the local second-hand shops for cloths, table runners, lace and clothing.

just 3 of the many items I was lucky to find.......

a table runner with tatting! There are holes in the runner, but the ends with the tatting look to be in pretty good shape

I like the roses in this subtle pattern

gathering portions of different cloths, I constructed the first piece for my wrapping cloth, including my first ever prairie points

The section in the lower left corner is part of the sleeve from my daughter's public school graduation dress. I made it for her over 22 years ago!
This was fitted for the elbow, and shows up better in the pic below.

I had first thought to create an all-white cloth, but I saw some photos of other people's beginnings and was inspired to include a little colour.
So I placed a piece of one of my fave fabrics beneath the beautiful lace strip

the colours show through the delicate patterns of the lace quite nicely

 

so then I made some prairie points with the same fabric and some fabric strips

it's a little bold, isn't it? But I love it!

I've begun some stitching on the seams, but there's lots more to do. Here's how the first piece of my wrapping cloth looks now.
I'm eager to get back to more stitching!

Hope you've had some fun stitching time, too.

 
 

Thanks for visiting.

 Hugs from Suz

CQJP, TAST and Heart

I've added a few seam embellishments to my March block:

I thought these cute buttons looked like roses
there's a row of bullion stitches, too

but maybe the silk ribbon ones look more like wild roses...okay then, more like a daisy..lol..

 French knot fun with added beads

 on one side of the line of alternating rectangles with chain stitch is last week's TAST- woven detached chain stitch Almost visible on the opposite side-detached chain stitches

a closer look at the woven detached chain stitch

and my March block is almost finished!

The Sandy Hook Heart is completed, and on its way.

one  amaryllis  is getting ready to open and there are four flowers on the stalk!

day 2 shows the flowers open a little more

I wonder how open they'll be tomorrow?


Hope you've had a good week. Right now it's storming outside, and the snow is falling.......aw,  c'mon, where is spring?
oh, well, at least I have a pretty flower to admire.

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

On Bloglovin

Since Google Reader is being dropped, I've switched to bloglovin.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4416939/?claim=99nkjshmcpu">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
So I've claimed my blog. Just letting you all know.
Hugs from Suz

CQJP and Heart

I posted my progress on my March block and the Sandy Hook Heart on the Tuesday Stitchers blog, but forgot to post here. 10 lashes with wet embroidery floss for me...lol
so here's part of that post:


CQJP March Block
I've just begun working on this block.

 a pretty piece of lace trim with ribbon woven through it
I added a few seed beads

with the large lace rose sewn onto the block shows the little progress I've made so far. Good thing it's still early.

I'm looking forward to stitching some more seam embellishments!









the heart block is almost finished!
Since the theme is children's toys, I've begun to add little, subtle stitched bits

bat and ball

starting a beach ball







a pipe blowing bubbles....right beside some bubble fabric

so the heart block now looks like this


Some of the seam treatments represent toys and play to me:
the ribbon woven bars are climbing bars; the woven circles are jacks; the upper right represents flowing water and tunnels as I often played near springs as a youngster, climbing under bowed tree branches and setting sticks floating along the rippling water



I've since completed the heart, and sent it off in the mail. I'll show a pic of the finished piece next post.

Hope you've all had a good week, with time for creating.

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz






























 

Mixed Media Week

I completed the "Use Your Words" workshop with Caolyn Dube, and had a swell time using different techniques and mediums, and my words to create the following:

 layers of tissue paper, watercolour paper, craft paper, stamps, and acrylics came together

the heart even opens!

 the next day, I created a background with acrylic paints to represent waves and foam on the beach

I then added a print out of ladies dancing on a beach (printed on computer paper)
I wanted to integrate the painted background with the paper background and used paint to blend the edges a bit, but I wanted to leave the ethereal impression
I used the words of Eckhart Tolle:
"Life is the dancer and you are the dance."

 My favourite project was the last--creating tags using gesso for texture
I began with thin paperboard inserts from my new socks, adding a top hole first, then using liquid gesso

On the top tag, I used tools to create the surface texture

on the bottom two tags, I created squiggles in a random pattern

 Once the gesso was dry, I used a plastic lid cut-out for my applicator, and dragged the acrylic paint down the tags

I loved how it would cover some areas, and leave others open, depending on the amount of paint and the pressure I used

 two shades of red paint for the base

adding 2 shades of blue

adding a bit of white

 gold and yellow were used

looks like a yummy piece of butterscotch

I love butterscotch!

I added a layer of titanium white and scraped through to the layers beneath
I really like this one

 Two shades of blue and 1 green and this baby was done
but, then I decided to add just a bit of white to lighten the center

my three tags!



ooops, where are my words?

here!
after spending the week playing, I thought this was the perfect word to use!


Thanks Carolyn for a very fun week!

I hope you've been having some fun, too. Now that our internet seems to be working, I can surf and see what everyone else has been doing!

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Ankars Tatting

Ankars Tatting

At the Online Tatting Class we're learning about Ankars tatting, used in making jewelery. Rings tatted and joined to rings and through previous rings makes for an interesting (and challenging) design. Due to my intermittent internet situation, I missed the first class, but I'd printed out the instructions during one of those times of access. 

The first attempt was in a lavender HDT size 50 and a DMC silver thread. I had a big error on the second half of the pattern, as everything was backwards! Acckk! The beads, added after the base is tatted, help to cover up my mistake, thank goodness.

So I had to make another attempt to get the pattern done correctly.

 I used a mint green thread, size 30, with a Coats gold metallic thread, and I was pleased with the result. The beads are hematite rounds.

Although this was tatted with a larger thread, the brooch design is smaller than the purple one, so I do need to lighten up when I'm tightening those rings!

And that's all I accomplished last week, given the three days I spent online with technical help trying to resolve our internet difficulties, and hours spent shoveling snow that's fallen in the last 4 days!

We now have internet, but no satellite phone. sigh.

Well, I hope you had a wonderful couple of weeks.

Thanks for visiting. 

Hugs from Suz