August Begins

Happy August! I hope this month brings us more rain and cooler temperatures. Sorry I missed last week's posting, but I was having technical difficulties with our internet and had to wait a day for the technician to arrive.
On those too-hot-to-garden days, I hid indoors and played with thread and paint.

These are repeats of former paintings that I'm doing for practice. Some of the originals were done in a rush on location, so this time I'm considering and painting slowly, trying to improve on the result.

I liked the bold yellow in this exercise, but felt that perhaps the painting could be a little softer.......that might allow for a gentler foreground.

So then I began another in softer tones. I stopped at this point to let the paint dry. I may continue just to see the difference a softer beginning can bring to the final result.

Then I began this rendition of an old painting.  Sorry I forgot to take more photos, but I was in painting mode.....

This one turned out much nicer, brighter, and fresher than the original, so I'm quite pleased with it.

I might punch up the foreground flowers a little with some added definition. Maybe.











I've been spending most of my stitching time on the wrapping cloth, adding a buttonhole stitch edging to each piece, then joining the pieces together, also with buttonhole stitch.

the right side

another piece to add

the left side

growing

draped over the loveseat

there are edged pieces awaiting their placement

the free-form tat is getting another addition, but this is how it looked before I added another row, more beads and picot rings

How the tat looks now. Sorry it's a bit blurry. I think once the beaded picot rings are finished,  the motif will be complete. But, you never know. I may change my mind. lol




That's all the stitching so far. I'm working on another fabric card which I'll show when it's all done and mailed away. Here's how my desk looks:

The fabric card is for my sister, and she loves blue!

In the garden, there is a lovely crop of beans. I picked a few for supper.

Yum!




Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Melting in July

There's a purple theme this week. First, a little tat in progress. I'm playing around with ideas, and making it up as I go along.

My friend is having a birthday this month. We've known each other since our children were small, and over the years we've volunteered together, and worked together. Now, we don't see each other very often, and we usually only send online greetings to one another. But, this year, I thought I'd do something a little different. I've been reminiscing about the good times and laughter we've shared, so I wanted to celebrate my friend on her special day.
She loves angels. And her mother used to dress her in purple when she was much, much younger, so I decided to work with both. (gee, I hope she still likes purple!)
It began with a paper card blank, punched.

I then auditioned laces, doilies, hankies, and some of the purple fabric I snow-dyed, creating layers. Tatted bits were auditioned also.

I then printed onto fabric some angels, plus a few angel quotes. This wee angel was on a postcard I received years ago.

Once I had decided on the lay-out, I stitched the fabrics together, adding embellishments.
You can't see, but there's a double pocket behind the purple hankie.
I wove some variegated, purple, silk ribbon through the openings on the hankie lace edging, then I added two lace flowers.

Purple foil was stitched onto this snow-dyed coarse fabric, then sandwiched with a lovely lace frame. I then added a tatted angel. A large star is surrounded by tiny bead 'stars', then a snow-dyed piece of ribbon was added as a border on three sides. Two different trims border the fourth side of this fabric page.

Here's how they look.

 The back page sports another angel quote, a lace angel, lace trim and tatting.
Before all the fabric pages were stitched together around each portion of the card, I laced through the punched openings with 2 pieces of shiny cord.  In purple, of course!



 And because I always sign my emails with Hugs from Suz, I just had to add that little metal tag onto the back page.

After tying, the cord ends were decorated with pretty dangles made with a selection of beads, a shell heart, swarovski crystals, and a shell sequin.

All stitched and blinged.
Happily the fabric card stands up on its own.

I then added a card I'd gelli-printed.

Lastly, I placed a wee tag into the hidden pocket. It has string dangles decorated with tiny purple heart buttons.

I mailed off the package, and I hope my friend is soon happily surprised!








Although the fabric book took me several days to complete, I also found a wee bit of time to stitch on the wrapping cloth. The last piece is finished, the edges bound with buttonhole stitch, and another completed piece added.

2 together

I only have 1 side to complete with the buttonhole edging, and then this third piece will be added to the above. Progress!

The crewel piece has been set aside while the hot and humid weather is here: I have to use a strong light and magnifier to see this clearly, and right now it's too hot to stitch under hot lights.










In the garden, the lillies are still blooming.

This is a pretty one!

The echinacea is in flower, too.

In the front yard, the black-eyed susan vine has gone a little crazy.

Here's the back side of the planter. Hmmmmm, maybe it likes the shady side better?
I hope you're having a fun and creative week.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz