Felting & the Eastern Stitch

I tried my hand at making a wet felted vessel using a resist.  It was too thin in spots so I needle felted an owl and added stitches to it as well. So that it would sit well I cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle and put it inside.  Looks MUCH better now than it did at first.

Here I laid out some roving and did a bit of needle felting as well.  Next step is to wet felt it and hope everything stays in place. 

This is the card I made for my mum for Mother's Day.  The free pattern is available from Happiness is Cross Stitching.

Cloud Filling Stitch was the Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST) Week 38 stitch on Sharon's Pintangle site. The idea on what pattern to make with this stitch came from Annet's Fat-Quarter blog. I was very pleased on how nice this stitch looked and it wasn't too complicated either.

My TAST Owl slowly but surely filling in.

Another new stitch for me was this Eastern Stitch - the week 41 TAST stitch.  I'm going to do a few more and then I'll begin this week's TAST stitch which is the Fern Stitch.

Yesterday this beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler flew down right by the window.  Thankfully it stayed still long enough for me to get this photo :D

Thank you for stopping by and wishing everyone a creative rest of the month.

Herringbone, Running & Satin Stitches

 Our stitchery guild began a program last month to make an alphabet book with stitches.  We can use any material or stitches or sewing we want.  I decided to use my rust and eco dyed material and began with the letter H and Herringbone stitches.  This piece of fabric was rust and loose tea dyed.

 The letter R for running stitches as well as for the rust and rose leaves.

 I've been working on this embellished purse for months and the end is in sight. Various yarns, cheese cloth, wool roving and organza was first "sewn" down using an embellishing machine onto a piece of denim.  I've added seed, feather, herringbone, cross stitches and beads and just have blue wooden beads to add to the tassels.  Not sure if I'll ever really use it and think of it more as an art purse rather than a functional one. 

 Caught up with Sharon's Take A Stitch Tuesday and this week added satin stitches.  Don't know what next week's stitch will be yet but I'm hoping it's one that I'll like for the beak.

 We don't often see a Blue Jay in the yard but this one showed up the other day.  Today we enjoyed his antics at getting the peanuts out of the coil and watching him fly back and forth to hide them all.  The wiley Magpies were watching of course and more than likely ate them all.

Finally, finally dug up the rest of the carrots today so that's it for another bountiful garden year.

Wishing everyone a fabulous Fall day :)

Beryl Taylor Inspired

 The stitchery guild program challenge this month was to make a  9" x 9" Beryl Taylor inspired piece.  We were each given a piece of Tyvek and our choice of fabric.  Wanting to work with a different colour for a change I chose this purple cotton and painted my Tyvek with teal metallic acrylic paint.  To help prevent pulling of the threads when they melt I sandwiched stabilizer, batting, fabric and Tyvek. 

 Finished grid with lopsided swirls.

 Now for the really fun part with the heat gun!

 After I melted some of the Tyvek away I added a couple borders of ribbon and teal fabric.

 Herringbone, seed stitching, a border of beads, cross stitches and more beads and my piece is almost done.

 I think I'll give it a buttonhole edging and maybe add some beads.  This has been such a fun piece to work on and in a couple of weeks I'll see everyone else's Beryl Taylor inspired blocks.

Have to close with a bird photo.  I scattered some largish bread crumbs on the lawn and in seconds this greedy gus crow was stuffing his beak trying to fit in as many as he could.  A few were left for the watching magpie.

Have a most delightful, creative, joyful June day :)

Whimsy Woods

 I had a miscellaneous piece of wet felting that I didn't know what to do with so it just sat waiting patiently.  I also had a few needle felted owls that needed a place to call home.  I embroidered a few blue beetles and wrapped thread around a few beads.

 Needle felted a couple of caterpillars and wrapped more beads

 and added a butterfly on a tree

 and voila, my owls are happy with their whimsical home :)

We spotted this Sharp-shinned Hawk in the back yard no doubt looking for a tasty sparrow or chickadee.  It was gorgeous to see but it eventually flew away empty clawed.

Have a most beautiful day!!!

For the Burrowing Owl Centre in Moose Jaw, SK.

I've been working on more Owl Advice accordion booklets.  Proceeds from their sale will be given to the Burrowing Owl Interpretative Centre in Moose Jaw.

 I just love working with Lorraine's hand dyed threads and I received these in the mail last week from her Etsy shop Colour Complements.  Thank you Lorraine!  Can't wait to begin using them :)

 I participated in an atc swap recently and this was the lovely canvas stitched atc I received.  Thank you Kerry :)

 Played with the end of a pool noodle, a stencil, and a rounded stamp to make marks on a couple pieces of yellow cloth.  They are going to cover a book box which we will learn how to do at this evening's stitchery guild meeting.

We have 7 Black-billed Magpies coming into the yard every morning and this one perched on top of a pine tree long enough for me to grab my camera and take his picture :)

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Hearts and Tyvek

 A quick and easy cross stitch heart pattern that I came across at dandee designs.  One for each of my daughters and I'm set for Valentine's Day :)

 Hearts stitched together pattern also available from dandee designs.  She stitched her hearts separately which actually look better.  If I have time I'll do another one.

 Been playing this week with some Tyvek (house wrap).

 I cut it into pieces and painted them with metallic acrylic paints.  They all dried in less than 1/2 an hour.  Then I ironed them between sheets of parchment paper.  Some I ironed a bit too long as it just melted and disappeared.

 Other pieces bubbled and puckered and holed up nicely which I then free motion stitched owls on.  Not sure yet what I'll do with them yet.

 This one will become an artist trading card.  I need to back and put an edge around it.

 Also played with candy wrappers again and made another couple of atc's to trade.

 Thankfully I have co-workers and friends saving wrappers for me.

 Last week we went down hill skiing at Castle Mountain in Alberta and I was thrilled to see Stellar Jays.  I had put out some peanuts and cracked corn and within minutes there were 5 of them right outside the door.

Have a wonderful week everyone and a Happy Valentine's Day :D

Chain Stitched Applique

 Slow progress on my whole cloth piece but I did manage to add a couple of bright orange flowers to it.  Using fusible web I ironed this flower down and chained stitched around the edge and added some pistil stitches and beads.

 Wanting a 3 dimensional look as well I buttonholed around this flower and stitched it on with french knots.  I have 3 more flowers to go and then will add a few stitched bugs.

 This is supposed to be the beginnings of a cross stitched robin but I've already made 4 mistakes so we'll see what bird it will be by the time I'm done :)

 Grouping of 4 of my owlet accordion books that I've enjoyed stitching.

Owl accordion booklet opened up.

 4 more owl accordion booklets. 

It always makes my day when a Sharp-tailed Grouse comes into the yard.  We've been having -28 Celsius and into the - 30's at night so I am glad to scatter a bit of seed on the ground for the birds.

Happy New Year and wishing everyone a creative and wonderful year!

Seed Filler Stitches

 A bit more progress on my whole cloth piece namely chain stitches around the purple flower with french knot centres, open chain stitches for the tendril and then seed stitching.  Seed stitches are certainly a great filler stitch and so easy and relaxing to do.

 Thought I'd try my hand once again at some free motion embroidery and had fun with these squiggles and leaves around this tendril.

 Back to more owl covers for my accordion books.  Learning from my previous mistake I drew out the design lightly with a pencil and then stitched.  Before glueing the cloth to the book cover I made sure I had stitched the beaks this time too.

 Another accordion book cover.

 I wrote out owl sayings on the inside pages. 

 Wish that I had taken calligraphy or had much neater handwriting.

 I'll be making more of these accordion books with owl covers next year too and plan to learn how to bind books using the coptic stitch as well.

 A beautiful flock of Bohemian Waxwings showed up in our cotoneaster hedge for a few minutes.  They busily gobbled up as many berries as they could and then were off.  They have such a beautiful trill.

Have a very joy filled and wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!!