Thursday, April 25, 2013

Scooter has his way....

I thought Karen liked pockets... but this guy... honestly... he found every bit of loose frill and anything that looked like a pocket was fair game for a dive into and play around inside....

"Good thing I'm your skinny bear "...



















"ooooh, a frilly corner"...















"Hey!  This one's upside down" ..















"Guess it's okay this way.... I can sit under it like a big parasol"...















"Wheeeee....  knees up Mother Brown, knees up Moth.... huh?... I'm off key? ... oh.... alright then...I'ma hums quietly ".....  ....















"Kind of short mountains...only me feet fit inside these little guys"...















"I thought I'd be able to climb right inside this silk pouch...but, no.... only feet again.... it's stitched down on the bottom...."















"yoohoo... here I am ..hiding under this little flap with it's pretty flower trim..."...




Tuesday, April 23, 2013

I've got big nuts..

What? ...


They're knots? ....okay then...I've got big knots.















Chinese Knots too.  It took me the better part of the day yesterday to make two of them.  About midnight...I cheered myself right out loud....woohooo ... got it!

Today I will try to make a third with the remaining cord and see if I can even go one better and hide the seam as one is supposed to do.  The instructions say "keep seam facing down at all times when you work"...yeh...right.......I'll just do that .. along with standing on my head and facing south, while I try to get the loops in the right place at the right time and remembering to put the trailing piece of cord over or under or beside the leading piece of cord etc.....  and then tightening it all to get a round knot...

I'm sure it will all be much simpler when I have made about a dozen...or so....

Of course, the first part where I had to stitch some silk fabric onto a cord..turn it and make it look right wasn't easy either.... for somebody who is not on intimate terms with a sewing machine.... oh, and.... I had to cut some nice bias strips before that .....  which I did from a print out on folding fabric to get the most out of it for bias strips.






























... tacking silk onto cord.
















Pretty happy with my first two nuts...er ....  knots.....

Saturday, April 20, 2013

A Doodly Bird

...popped out of my mailbox yesterday....

He brought me some bits of trim from the UK!  Lynn... (who I always call Ms. Doodly Bird .. behind her back) ... is taking the same "wrapping cloth" class from Karen Ruane.  As a matter of fact, it was on her blog that I saw the info about the class.  She is taking several classes at the same time.... acckkkk!  She must have a ton of energy.

Another thing she does is make Doodly Birds .... like this guy... although, usually they are painted... this is a Sewing Dood.... hahahh...love it.... thanks Lynn.




















Anyway... back to the fun ... she offered to send me some bits to add to my stash...and I gladly accepted the offer.  I'm in the very early stages of creating my "stash" of white and off white fabrics and trims for making these "wrapping cloths"..I'm definitely going to make more than one.  As I mentioned before, I'm going to call it my "friendship cloth" because it will be made with gifts of fabric and trim from blog buddies, relatives, friends and friends of friends...  I've already added several to my first three blocks....

Here are some of the goodies in my Doodly Bag.... thanks so much Lynn.  What a great addition they will make to my next block...or in the case of my third block.. because I am debating taking out one bigger piece that seems to jump out at me and I'm not convinced it belongs....















As usual.... every time the postman comes to our house, ...'you-know-who' is on top of it.  Or in most cases..several 'you-know-whos'... barely left the room for a minute to get my camera and when I got back.... they were all sitting there having a great time on the new fabric..... hmmmm...















"Look, I found a snowflake ... the colour of ...  me !"  ....
















"Ooooo .... can I hold it?"















"Uhm, .... not now.... maybe later....."
















..."or........ not........................."  "I really like my little snowflakey"........















"Never mind.... found my own".....














"oh............"















"us too".... "look there's enough for everybuddy"

...  Frikkles and Posie found some too.....
















... and, my other birds were eager to chat with the Dood .... about his long flight and all I guess .....


We all love the goodies Lynn....!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Late bloomer

This cactus bloomed before Christmas .... it is Canadian...but, it usually blooms around American Thanksgiving ... I forget now when that is ...but, about a month before Christmas.

Posie was pretty impressed.















... but, I think she was more interested in this bit of gold fabric... is it 'silk tissue'?  Taffeta? ..















Poor cactus is in such poor soil and hardly any at that.  I'm a terrible person to my plants .... sigh .. no wonder they don't do major blooming like my sister's plants do.  She even re-pots hers and replenishes soil from time to time... practically unheard of around here I have to say.  This year.... I must do it.














Anyway... over a week ago I noticed a tiny pink bud and began to watch it ... gave it a big drink of water and lo and behold...one solitary beautiful flower appeared over the past few days ...















Gwendolyn really is quite thrilled with it ... honestly, .... she is ........ it's just a bit difficult to tell sometimes..........


Sunday, April 7, 2013

maybe third time's a charm...

Definitely not the second.

Remember how long it took to piece together my first block of fabric for my wrapping cloth? .... and how I thought maybe the second one would be a bit easier and therefore take less time?  hahahahahha..yeh...right.... it took even longer if I'm not mistaken.

But, I love it. ...   and, that's all that counts really isn't it?

Mooooommmm.... c'mon... hurry up willya? .... how 'bout this lovely lacy hankie? .... ..




















The guys and Buttercup were getting exhausted trying to help... poor little tykes.  Still burrowing in and out of all the lovely whites .... trying valiantly ..holding  up bits every so often for approval .... Mikki just finally fell asleep under his hat...which is not his really...he just "found" it and wanted to wear it even though it's a bit girly and quite obviously far too big for his little head.















I used a few bits from my newly acquired 'stash' from Twig too.  See the fabulous lacy looking scallops at the top right ? ...I love that piece... and just under it...the one with the cutout circles? a portion of a little blouse or dress top...  this is a piece of the collar... so soft and fine that cotton is...  there is one other piece of it with a button still on it...that will go on another block... definitely leaving the button in place.

My Friendship Garden is well under way now.....















.... today I'm going to cut up some hex shapes to piece together .... that's my new found info from Karen for this week ...

and...in other rnews..... whoops..I mean news..... it is snowing........................better get out to shovel too..........


Friday, April 5, 2013

I'm a lucky bunny!

Look what arrived in the post yesterday!  Bits and bobs from the UK, most of it vintage .... wheeeee... woohooo !! ......















Which is exactly what Ms. Goosie quocked and honked as she got just as excited as I did when I unwrapped my parcel.  There was a lot of flopping about (she still has no feet) ... her wings flapping madly ...  picking up this and that .... and a grin from ear to ear... do geese have ears? ... They must ...how do they hear if not?..hmmm... one of those questions ...I'm full of 'em......















Anyway.... look!  Look at my treasure from  Twiglet .... who knows exactly what is needed to do this type of piecing together of special fabrics.
She makes lovely cards with fabric bits.. this particular one she sent is perfect... it celebrates lace, embroidery and soft colours.... I love it.















This piece of silk is sooooo delicate I must find a way to protect it when I do use it... I wish I knew more about fabric...so I would know exactly what it is.















Obviously all the flapping and squawking got the attention of others..because this morning when I walked into the kitchen ... there they were ...looking slightly guilt ridden ... caught in the act ...  playing in the pile of goodies....















oh, sorry.... just let me smooth this down for you...














Yep...I'm goin'......but, make sure you use this piece in the next block willya? ...















Absolutely, Percy....I'll just get right on that.......

Thanks so much for all my treasure Twig!  love it!  What a fun day.........



Thursday, April 4, 2013

An amazing thing...

Damp stretching.  Ever heard of it?  I hadn't before I started this EEC class with Karen. (embroidery, embellish, create)

She showed us how to accomplish it... mentioned that she does it often..even for a better photo of her demonstrations etc...but.. I didn't try it right away... sort of thinking more of doing it later I guess.

However, I got tired of looking at "Rumpelstiltskin"...  which was what I had begun to call my first block of work.  Not very complimentary I know... ...but, it was looking pretty bedraggled and it just sort of sprang to mind.















I couldn't find a cork bath mat, which was Karen's first choice for us to use.... so settled for a cork display board from an office supply store.  She had said to check if colour came off ...which, luckily I did...because it sure as heck does!  I sprayed the cork surface..wiped it with paper towels... it was almost orange-y ... and it only got slightly  better with several wipes and then even a good wash.  I thought about taking it back ...hahaha..yeh... "I washed it down and then decided I didn't want it" ...  can you see the look on the clerk's face?

I decided to lay a couple of pieces of Saran Wrap on the board and then pin my fabric to it... spray... wait....fingers crossed... and hope for the best.

I put the board on the bathtub...just above the heat vent...so it dried nicely in about four hours.... 
















Perfect!  My fabric was pristine when I removed it .. and ..... big 'AND' here!! .... what a great job damp stretching does to fabric and embroidery stitches.  It looks freshly laundered and ironed.  Not that it was dirty..but, just being all rumpled makes it look somewhat less than clean if you know what I mean...

Look how lovely and smooth!





Tuesday, April 2, 2013

new header

Check out little Tanner... remember him?

He went to live in the UK with a blog buddy.  She took this great picture of him ...  he was very busy 'helping'... they did a search for some white fabrics to add to my embroidered cloth that I am making.

She put it in the post last week ....so now...this week I will be looking out the door every 10 minutes.... to check the mail.... even though I know full well nothing has moved all weekend what with it being a holiday and everything....sigh..... maybe by Friday..........................................

Meantime.....what fun I'm having with every part of this Karen Ruane class.  She calls hers "wrapping cloths" ...but, ....I think I've decided to call this first one my "Friendship Garden Cloth" ...  because it is going to be a collection of bits and pieces that friends are helping me gather to make it.  My sister has found a pretty doily to send me too now... and a lady up the block has said she will go through her quilting pieces .... I've been thinking I may also be able to trade something, including two silk hankies (that are too colourful and not my choice for colours really.... to others in our class for some trims or hankies of other colours) ...  .. we'll see........

I added what was going to be a little silk pocket.  I was just fastening it with the two shell buttons and the thread wrapped loops when something happened....   my hand caught it kind of funny... it tipped up on the back end... the button fell off before I poked the needle through the hole,  ...  ... and ... all of a sudden, all these little white and gold stars and gold knots spilled out all over the place !! ....