Singtatter's Swap

I'm swapping ATC's with Singtatter and she has posted the ATC's she's sending me. They are so cute! We had a theme for each ATC- one for a flower in colour, the second for something that flies. So I thought,......  ' Oh,  Hmmm, a butterfly? ........dragonfly?..........bumblebee?'  Leave it to my swap partner to be totally creative: she's sending me....................... a flying pig!! Fantastic!!  Love it!  And beautiful flowers, too!
And what did I send Singtatter?

On a background of hand-knit, varigated pink mohair-blend yarn, I added other textiles, covered it with a layer of burgundy organza, and then quilted all the layers onto felt. I then tatted a flower and leaf design with Yarnplayer's 'Garden Afternoon' in size 40. White seed beads were sewn for the flower centre.

I used the same base as above, added more fibers, and bronze organza, then quilted all the layers onto a felt backing. The dragonfly was tatted with three threads together: a metallic turquoise, silver metallic, and a sulky blendables to create a shimmering effect. Fire-polished crystals, 4mm, in Capri AB were used for the eyes and tail, and a larger turquoise bead for the thorax.

I had such fun creating these ATC's for Singtatter, and I sure hope she likes them. Thanks for swapping with me!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

5zie # 3!!

It was a blustery day, and large snowflakes were whirling about under a dark sky. Snowlady was feeling so cold and lonely watching the small clouds scuttle across the ominous grey.
' I know,' she thought to herself, ' I shall invite a friend for tea.'  And so she did. She sent a message with mr bluejay, and soon saw a happy sight from her kitchen window. There was her friend, Stan the Snowman, plowing through the snowdrifts, his scarf dancing in the brisk wind, black top hat pulled low onto his head, smiling as he thought of a nice warm cup of tea, and a natter with his friend.

This 5zie was created with a hand-knit base. Other fibers were added, topped with a bronze organza, and quilted onto felt. Stan was created with yarn couched onto the surface, his hat embroidered with  satin stitch, his mouth with  straight stitch, and french knots define his eyes and buttons. His scarf is eyelash yarn, and his 3-d nose is tatted with floss. 3 small tatted snowflakes were sewn onto the square.

I hope you enjoy a nice hot cup of tea, and a visit with a friend today, too.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

ATC's Sent and Received

Val Thomas received her ATC, so now I can post this:

When I learned that Val loved seahorses, I just had to tat one for her. Using two threads, a variegated green, 'Leafy' by Yarnplayer, and a DMC varigated blue in size 80, the seahorse was created, then sown onto a handknit base of varigated yarn that was quilted onto felt. I added a subtle layer of dark blue metallic thread to the background and air bubble beads. I'm so pleased that Val liked her ATC!








You may remember that I received this beautiful ATC from Val . She wrote that 'Neptune's Daughter' was created on dyed velvet, with hair made of scrim.   
Scrim? I had to look it up. Wikipedia wrote:
"A scrim or gauze is a very light textile made from cotton, or sometimes flax. Its light weight and translucence means it is often used for making curtains. The fabric can also be used for bookbinding and upholstery.

Scrims have also seen extensive use in theatre. The variety used for special effects is properly called sharktooth scrim. However, in theater a scrim can refer to any such thin screen, and are made out of a wide variety of materials. Scrim has a rectangular weave that is similar in size in its openings to a window screen.
Another type of scrim is called bobbinet / bobbinette, this material has a hexagonal hole shape and comes in a variety of hole sizes. It is used for a number of lighting effects in the film and theatre industries.
Scrim is also used in clothing, usually covering the face or head. This allows the wearer to see out, while preventing others from seeing in. This may also be combined with camouflage to completely hide a person, such as a sniper.
A scrim is also an integral part of the Beijing Olympic Stadium in Beijing. That was the screen running around the top of the stadium during the opening ceremonies on which all kinds of scenes were projected."
Wow. I learned something new today.

.....Dotti ..of Pieceful Musings sent me this gorgeous ATC in a swap. The colours are more vibrant than what you can see in this pic, and slightly more blue. It looks as though there is paper, fabrics, paint, dye, trims, glitter and metallic threads all put together to make this cohesive design. I love it! Thank you so much, Dotti!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Knowing that Dotti loved colour, I sent her this tatted flower. I used Yarnplayer's 'Nectarine" in size 30. It's on a background of hand-knit pink variegated, mohair blend yarn, with added textiles, covered with a layer of burgundy organza and quilted onto felt. I added green, silver-lined beads for the flower centre. 

To me it seems to shimmer with the hot colours. Sort of like our summer this year.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

5-zie #2!

I finished the second 5" square for the Winter/Christmas theme swap! It's being run by Jillayne of "A Fine Seam".  You can check out her blog  here.
It began with a pink variegated, hand-knit, mohair blend square. Layers of fabric and ribbon were added, and topped with a burgundy organza, then machine quilted onto felt with burgundy thread.

        5-zie # 2 !
A background of knitted, pink, mottled mohair
Was the beginning for my second 5-inch square.
A pattern of off-white, needle tatted lace
Was carefully created and sewn into place.
Mounds of it piled like a wee drift of snow,
That, in daylight or moonlight, would sparkle and glow.
And onto the snowdrift in circles of white
Was a beautiful Snowlady. What a delight!

Her scarf is dark purple, her felt hat is blue,                                         

 She has a carrot-orange nose, and blue bead buttons, too.

The sky's full of snowflakes, some large and some small.

They turn and they sparkle as we watch them fall.

This Snowlady rests on quilted burgundy,

But you can remove her to hang on your tree.

~~~~

Now I better get working on 5-zie # 3!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Quilt Square Received

My quilt square has returned, and WOW! Wait until you see what it looks like!
I was in a 1:1 Round Robin with NickiLee of NickiLee Ravioli Dreams (http://cqnickilee.blogspot.com/) and she creates magic with her hand-dyed laces.
Here's a block showing the materials I used:

Here's my After block ( after NickiLee worked her magic)

This is beautiful! From layers of laces, beads, embroidery, and an eye for style, NickiLee has created a perfect little garden with winged creatures. Bumblebees, doves, butterflies, dragonflies all grace my block. I love it! Thank you so much!

Aren't I lucky to have such a talented friend?

Hope you have a day filled with friends and good luck.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Saturday at the Lake

Saturday morning was a cool one with temperatures near 5C! The air was colder than the water, resulting in a light mist over the lake. By the time I'd grabbed the camera and climbed half-way down the hill, most of the mist had evaporated. You can see just a hint of it here:                                                                               

Can you see the 'head' of the turtle, half in shadow, on Turtle Island? Turtles actually climb up the granite to deposit their eggs in the sand, found in a few depressions in the rock.

Saturday was a fine day: sunshine, a cool breeze, and not too hot.

After supper, DH, dog, and I climbed into the canoe and paddled around part of Bradley Lake. Here's what we saw:

Pink granite rising out of the water.








green trees reflected in the blue

Clouds 'behind' the trees.

The rocky edge of Blueberry Island.The granite ranges from Pink to dark grey, and here shows what looks like a streak of blue. It's probably just lichen.

A rocky ledge disappears into deep water.

Clouds began to gather.

                                                                                           Then spread across the sky.

The shadows deepened, and it was time to return home.

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

1:1 Round Robin CQ Square (long and pic heavy)

I finally finished my 1:1 RR CQ square! Yay!

But first, another picture of my favourite garden rose. ( I'm sure you're tired of it, but I had to share anyway. Last one, I promise! )       
The frills, the colours, the shadows, the glow.....I just loved the whole composition.

And my hydrangea is in flower.

I had shown you this tease a couple posts ago, and promised to show you more when I had finished. The clusters of flowers were tatted with Josephine knots : the leaves with Josephine chain (for lack of a better term), and the trunk with layers of twisted thread woven over and through a straight stitch base. The threads used were: Caron's Wildflowers in 'Tropic Seas' and 'Blue Lagoon' , DMC cotton perle 5 in a light turquoise, dark turquoise metallic thread.

This is a Round Robin CQ Square that I've been doing for NickiLee of NickiLee's Raviolee Dreams ( http://cqnickilee.blogspot.com/ ) who has a wonderful blog and creates the most beautiful hand-dyed laces. Her CQ squares are outstanding! I met her when I joined CQ International, and we made a swap: my tattings for her laces. She sent me her CQ square at the end of May. Talk about being in over my head!

I was so excited, I started working on it before I remembered to take a pic. Aren't the colours and the materials just gorgeous?  My favourite is the mottled blue/green/pink triangle on the left. I've always liked turquoise, in fact my little Honda is turquoise, but after working on this square, I think I love turquoise. I used my hand-cut stamps to mark some designs on the fabric, and decided to work with the circles and curves in the existing patterns. The theme NickiLee chose was 'Winged Garden Visitors'. I loved it.

I felt, though, that the cream material was such a contrast to the blues and greens, and wondered how to make it more harmonious with the other colours. I liked the touch of pink, but decided the ugly avocado greens in the busy pattern just clashed.

So, work with the theme, and circles, my stamps, incorporate cream elsewhere, and tone down that green. And, I wanted to try not to create a pictorial square, but rather have my embellishments all around. Hunh! Where to start? I began creating a sun, and a large allium.        I won't take you through each step. I'll show some close-ups of embellishments, and the completed square.                                 Here's a  dragonfly tatted  with Caron's  Wildflowers 'Tropic Seas', and beaded with turquoise crystals in the tail.

Picking up the soft pink and working with the creams and circles, I embroidered the leaf spray, added clusters of Josephine knot flowers in Yarnplayers HDT 'peace' in size 40. Then beads were added in groups and sprays, and a pink, glittery ladybug was perched among the flowers.

This butterfly was embroidered on another fabric, stitched onto the square and stuffed with fiberfill. Is that called trapunto? This allowed me to carry some yellow into the other materials. The antennae are tatted with a double strand of black floss, and are flexible, attached only at the black crystal bead head.

This is another close-up of the 'tree of life' in front of the circle sun motif, and also shows a button spray in all the main colours of the square, sitting on the cream seam.

The last two photos are different shots of the completed square. I am pleased with the individual motifs and embellishments I added. Visually, the eye does tend to follow the elements around the square, but I am not sure that harmony of the colours was attained. What do you think?     I did cover up some of that avocado green with a gathered turquoise ribbon, formed into a flower. The centre is a  translucent,'sugar', domed button.

I added the following winged garden visitors: 3 bumblebees, 2 butterflies, 1 dragonfly, 1 hoverfly, 2 ladybugs. As a fan of pictorial squares (I think that's the term used when there is a definite top and bottom to the square, but, I could be wrong) I am a little disappointed with my design, and think the elements might have worked better as a whole had they been placed differently. Do you agree? 

Well, all in all, as this is only my third CQ square, I don't absolutely love it. I don't hate it either. Both good and bad points are obvious, and made more so by seeing the completed square on the screen. I do hope, though, that NickiLee will like it, in spite of all its flaws. 

Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy long holiday weekend.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz