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

Do You Floss?

No, I don't mean your teeth. I mean your needle!

I popped into the second-hand shop to see if they had any more new-to-me embroidery or tatting books. Just below the book shelf, I spied these:


4 bags filled with embroidery floss!
each bag cost only $4!  oh, my!


I grabbed them, and a cute little heart pin for $.50

Once home, I dumped all four bags onto the counter

 I sorted them according to brand and #

here's some of the DMC floss

there's also a pink floss winder. I haven't used one before. Do they work?

more DMC floss, plus Anchor, J&P Coats, and a brand I'm not familiar with called National, in the bottom row


Some of the floss is old, and is priced at $.05!, a few at $.08! Imagine how long ago that was!?

But all the floss seems to be in good condition.

 The Anchor floss

The lime greens are J&P Coats, and the National brand is on the right.

Does anyone know anything about the National floss?

All in all, there were 264 full skeins in the 4 bags! Wow! There were a few partially used skeins, and a couple of mixed tangles, too. :-o

There were up to 6 skeins of some colours, so I'm wondering if the supplies were purchased for a particular project, or if an embroiderer was restocking favourite and missing colours.
This was a very lucky find, and I know I'll be using the floss for some time to come. I do wonder, though, about the person who donated all the wonderful floss.
I hope you find treasures today.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Chikan Embroidery

I signed up to join in the SAL with Anita, who is teaching us a different style of embroidery.  Chikan embroidery often decorates clothing, and the stitches used create a shadow effect on the fabric.
 The first stitch we learned appears like a straight stitch on the fabric surface, but creates a herringbone design on the reverse. If the fabric is translucent or transparent, the design shows through to add dimension and interest.

I began with a piece of muslin, and stitched a small practice bit.

As I held the embroidery up to the window, I could see the herringbone design from behind.
Hmmm, I wondered if another fabric might show it better?

I have this piece of almost burgundy fabric. It's light and almost sheer.

You can see it has a pattern of its own, but I thought I would try it anyway and see what happened. Experiment a little.

I tried two strands of white embroidery floss, but I felt the colour difference was too much, and it looked chunky on the sheer fabric. I was hoping for a more subtle effect.



So I tried 1 strand of floss. The shadow shows through nicely, but it was too white against the dark fabric, for me.

 Next, I tried pink tatting thread size 80. The shadow shows through nicely, but I wasn't fond of how the pink looked.

Hard to please, aren't I? lol

Then I tried red sewing thread, two strands.

This was too subtle!


It's a little difficult to see.







Not wishing to give up too easily, (what do you mean, stubborn? lol) I tried the pink thread a second time.

I still didn't like the colour, even though it shows up a lot better than the red.

 But the shadow work didn't quite show up as well as the two floss strands......
sigh

Back to square 1!




I'm using a light variegated, hand-dyed embroidery floss, called Pink Grapefruit. As you can see, the colour variations are subtle.

 Holding the fabric up to the window, I see my stitches look more even.

Maybe all that practicing really wasn't a waste of time!

And, for now, I've satisfied my curiosity.




You can see the colour variations more easily with the light shining through the muslin.

Now, I'm almost finished lesson 1.
Which is a good thing, because lesson 2 has been posted!





Thanks Anita.

I'm off to do some more stitching!


Hope you're having fun doing something you enjoy.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Encrusting Calico- a Pebble Adventure Part 2

Here's where I left off last post with my pebble:

It was beginning to take shape, but there was a lot more encrusting needed.......

 I ummm, got a little carried away with the encrusting, I think


All the stitching on the pebble is completed

Here's a different angle


As you can see, I added a bit of colour........and some beads

shaped, stuffed and sewed


I think I should have added more stuffing



there's lots of tatting on here: Josephine Knots and chains in different threads



I think the tatting adds an organic look to the pebble

I used some plastic canvas for the base, and it worked well.




Gee, there's not much pebble showing, is there?  oh, dear..tsk tsk


maybe next pebble I'll have to use some restraint.  hmm, is that possible? lol

I really, really like the net stitch shown here


it seems to have captured some worn, unraveling rope...


I've so enjoyed myself working on this challenge
Thanks so much Deb and Marjolein introducing me to this new madness.........

I've been scoping the drawers and secret places looking for more goodies to use in more pebbles.
Just think, I could use some rusty bits fabric and add metal items, letting the metal bits add more rust to the fabric and the thread. That would be cool.
I want to start another pebble, but i think I should do my TAST first. maybe. muahaha
 I hope you're doing something you love.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Warm Tones Beginnings

 I've been stitching on a pieced cloth of warm tones.

Included are rusty bit, swap, and stash fabrics.

 stem stitch

 playing with fly stitch on rusty bits fabric

 french knots and straight stitch

 In tatting, it's called a cluny, but I embroidered these leaves using a woven picot stitch

rusty bits cotton with varigated thread

I love the colours on this fabric: brown, turquoise, and golden yellow













here's my tatted millipede!
and some tea-dyed yarn couched onto an upholstery fabric strip












I've made a small beginning. What will it become?
Have you been creating today?
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

White Piece Progress

Progress and changes in my white piece:

I went a little quirky. What do you think of the woven picot leaves on this 'branch?

Too quirky and weird even for me so I removed all but one and added 'pearl' seed beads instead

.  

              I auditioned a green shell heart.

Too green, I think. Off with it!                                                               

                                              blinged a white shell heart

 I love the 'sugar crystal' and the mother-of-pearl buttons. If you follow the line of buttons to the right, they end in a faceted donut crystal that blings all the pastel colours in the block.

Buttons and beads and crystal 

Seed 'pearls' added to the lazy daisy leaves 

C'est fini!!!

I love my White CQ!

I shall roll it in tissue paper until I can get to the framer.

What have you been creating?

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz