Mail-Box Pleasures

I've been finding such wonderful goodies in my mailbox.                                      
Some beautiful thread I ordered from LadyShuttleMaker. MMmmmm such yummy colours.                         


















My copy of Crazy Quilt Gatherings arrived!















MA of Magpies Mumblings was clearing out some stuff, and offered this book! I was first to request it!
It has patterns for edgings for knitting, crocheting, and tatting! Yahoo!  There are some patterns I'm itching to tat. Thank you, MA!!

My order of laces from NickiLee arrived. OMG they are gorgeous!

I can't wait to play with these!              

Orna had a little contest and I won! She sent me this wonderful bundle of threads in my choice of a green/gold mix! There are all sorts of threads, including metallic and netted threads in different shades and sizes. I'm looking forward to using these in my CQing.

Thank you so much, Orna!
 
 
 
 
 
 
What have you found in your mailbox?
 
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Free Embroidery Thread!

You can receive 3 skeins of embroidery thread--FREE! No charge.  No shipping. Nada.
How?
Ati wrote about it on her blog and she's already received her thread.
http://www.threadrosace.com/ 
The promo runs until March 31, so hop on over and order 3 thread skeins free. I did!

After placing my order, I received a nice email asking me to spread the word about the promotion. So, I'm telling everyone!

Don't you just love free stuff?

Have a great day!

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Inspiration Sunday

The challenge this week seemed very difficult:
card 1:- choose an old painting that doesn't work, choose a subject unrelated to that painting, and paint over it using a medium of choice, using transparent and opaque paints


card 2:- combine themes, painting something that makes you blue, something that makes you green, and in between them, something that makes you laugh

I was having difficulty thinking up something that would include everything in the 2 cards. I thought, and thought,.....and then it was Sunday morning.  The storm overnight dropped another 9" !! of snow, to go with the other 9" we'd already received this week! That meant no painting, as I needed to shovel.
The satellite hook-up we use for the computer and phone wasn't working. sigh. Snow-covered. Rats.
So I shovelled, and painted a bit, shovelled, painted, repeated, then clambered to the satellite dishes to sweep away the snow.
Once I started painting, I decided that the cards had inspired me ( kinda the whole point, right?)  and I just went with the spirit.
The old painting:

 yuck! flat and ugly

 gel medium and white acrylic

 blue, and green, and something that makes me laugh in between? Well, quinacridone makes me smile.
I used transparent sap green and indigo watercolours, and the opaque titanium white acrylic

 scraping into the still-wet paint with a palette knife showed the colours from the underpainting

 See? I love this!

 the blue and gold were a little too dry, so the scraping was not as effective

 I added branches of indigo, green and gold to complete this challenge






I like the colours from the underpainting peeking through and looking almost like ghost branches in the background.



Next challenge:
card 1:-picking a colour scheme, enhance your painting with acrylic ink
card 2:- paint glass in an intriguing way

Hope you've been having a creative weekend.
I'm off to clear the snow from  the truck, walk Cody-dog, and probably do some more shovelling.

Thanks for visiting
Hugs from Suz

White Piece Progress

I've been slowly working on my White Piece. Here are a few photos showing my progress:

 This  (oops it's upside down!)










became this: my first attempt at SRE!!  I like it. I used a silk ribbon - 'Hydrangea' is the colour with soft tones of blue, pink and mauve.

more fancy picot tatting with some seed beads

and with beads added to the picots on this white flower

some  'pearl' beads

a shell heart

another shot of the beaded fancy picot flower

white mini heart beads and little 'pearls'

embroidered hearts

 'Pearls' added to the lace with a crystal centre.
There's still a little bit more to finish.
I hope you've been having fun tatting, or CQing, too!

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Tuesday Tats

Happy March!
Fox shared her wonderful pattern 'Maeve' with The Online Tatting Class. I wanted to try out a thread from Yarnplayer-- "Teeny Bopper' on this pattern to see how the colours flowed.

 

Aren't the colours pretty?
(a little blurry around the edges, sorry)






But,.....you'll notice the motif isn't finished.  Looking over the whole pattern .......what?.... No!!

I'd missed part of the repeat in the 3rd row!  Arrgh!!


I'd already tonked several times, because I wasn't paying attention, but this error would require major tonking or surgery. gulp!

 Although I like the thread, I think it's too busy for this pattern. Because I'm distracted by the colours, the pattern isn't visible.  Or is it just me?   What do you think?                                            






What about tatting it in white? And  how about
adding some subtle seed beads?  ( Hmm, they don't show up in this pic very well)    

So this is my progress, so far. I love the pattern!




I could stop here and have a lovely mini-motif and be quite happy. I think, though, I'll add the third row with a few more beads and see how it looks with the full pattern in white.

Thanks so much, Fox, for sharing your pattern!
Have you been tatting today?
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Bye-Bye Heart Month

February ends, and we wave good-bye to Heart Month with a little poem for heart happiness.


She’d loved fully, loving well.                          
Her lover’s leaving broke the spell.
She then began to hide her heart
Inside a locket on a chain.
She forced it in a too-small space,
She bent and twisted it in place,
And once she’d snatched it from the sun
Saw not the light in anyone.
It could not swell with pride or care.
It could not grow held hostage where
It could not breathe locked from the air.
So, it began to fester there.
                                          S. R. Cuss

Don't let this happen to you!

Keep your heart happy. Wear it on your sleeve and let it breathe, exercise it often, and show it off to everyone.








Okay, I'm climbing down off the soapbox now.
Hope you cultivate a Happy Heart!

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Inspiration Sunday

This week's challenge:

card 1:- place an assortment of found objects on your paper and spray around them with a watered down gesso mix. Allow to dry. Then paint


card 2:- find one of the following: a rock, branch or driftwood and use the shape or object as a basis for your creation.

I began with a warm wash.

 added some burnt sienna

 arranged the found objects

 sprayed with the gesso mix

 added some acrylic irridescent gold to the gesso mix and sprayed again

 added quinacridone gold to the mix and sprayed

 once dry, the found objects were removed and showed some nice texture, but I wanted more

 red oxide was added to the gesso blend , the objects were re-arranged, and then sprayed a final time

 Ah, this is more like the textured background I had visualized

I painted in a branch in blue/brown mix, added small touches of green and a hint of orange/red  and this challenge is complete














Next week's challenge:
card 1:- choose an old painting that doesn't work, choose a subject unrelated to that painting, and paint over it using a medium of choice, using transparent and opaque paints
card 2:- combine themes, painting something that makes you blue, something that makes you green, and in between them, something that makes you laugh
wow! that sounds like a challenge, for sure! What would you paint to make you blue? Or green?
Hope you're having fun creating.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."   Scott Adams

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz