Alphabet Stitch Pages

 Our stitchery guild's program for the year is to make our own alphabet stitch book in whatever stitches we want.  I'm doing Blackwork for B...

 cross stitch for the letter C ( I had made this years ago and it had been pinned to my bulletin board),

 free motion for F on a piece of eco dyed fabric,

 and wheatear stitches for the letter W also on a piece of eco-dyed fabric.  I haven't finished the edges yet or backed them as I'm still mulling over that detail.

 Sharon Boggon's Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST) on her Pintangle site is moving right along and since my last post I've added french knots and wheatear stitches, neither of which I thought would be good for a beak.  Hope next weeks stitch will be.

A couple of days ago when my daughter and I were doing the dishes, she noticed that a coyote was walking through the garden and into the yard.  Hubby went onto the deck and took some photos and it didn't run away but stopped and looked at him and then continued to walk through the yard.  It looked in pretty good condition but on closer inspection of the picture we could see that something was the matter with its one eye.  Hope it will recover and be okay.

Sending you all joy and bushels full of creativity :)

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 :)

Rust Dyed Owls

 I participated in Anna Hergert's Exploring Line:  Make Your Mark challenge in August.  I took the rust dyed cloth I had made and by following the rusty lines made by washers and wires I found 8 owl faces. I used buttonhole stitches, chain, stem, french knots, seed and fly stitches. 

 It was a fun piece to stitch.  Thanks Anna for the challenge :)

My sunflowers are definitely loving September's heat.

Wishing you all joy this day :)

Reverse Applique

5 layers of fabric, 4 wonky free motion circles which were cut into 1/4's,  different layers cut out and then sewed down onto a back fabric.  Have begun to do some running and french knot stitching.  This is another Beryl Taylor inspired piece from this Quilting Arts youtube video.  Think I'll try another one of these now that I know the process.

Finished my first Beryl Taylor inspired melted Tyvek piece with stitched borders and a beaded edging.  Our annual stitchery guild dinner is this coming Tuesday and it will be great to see everyone else's pieces.

Thanks for popping by and have a joyful June 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 :)

First Crazy Quilt piece

 Progress on my first ever crazy quilt piece.  It's a 9" x 9" block for this month's stitchery guild project.  Some of the stitches I've used are:  chain stitch, french knots, chevron, lazy daisy, fly stitches, bullion, ribbed spider web and straight stitches.  I'm going to try a herringbone next on one of the remaining seams. 

 I'm learning a lot about what not to do on my pulled thread chatelaine project.  #1 save doing the neat hedebo edging to the end so that it can go into a hoop easily #2 don't pull too tight as it can warp the design (as you can see on the left hand side sample).  Once I get the rhythm of the pattern going it's quite enjoyable and relaxing to do.

 4 layers of roving with bits of wool and silk hankies all layed out and ready to begin the felting process.  There's a rubbery circle piece in the middle to act as a resist.

 After wetting and rolling and shocking and throwing, I removed the inner circle and voila.  I was very happy that it turned out to the size I wanted.  I started with 15" x 15" and it felted down to 12" x 12" which is just what I wanted.

 This is a different felted piece that I was experimenting with some needle felting on as well.

It was lovely to see the bees on our blooming Nanking cherry tree.

Happy May everyone :)

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!!!

Felting and Hedebo

 The more I wet felt and sew and stitch on my pieces the more I'm enjoying it.  The ladybug was so enjoyable to do.  Sew in Love has an excellent stumpwork ladybug tutorial for anyone interested.

 Bullion knots and gold thread wings for a few bumblebees amongst the flowers.

 How to stitch a caterpillar came from Jane Nicholas's book:  Stumpwork Embroidery Designs and Projects. The body is worked in raised stem stitch over 3 lengths of couched perle cotton threads.

 Since taking this picture I've added threads of green grass all along the bottom with straight stitches.

 I've also begun a pulled thread chatelaine project.  Here is a piece of the edging which is being worked using the Hedebo stitch.  I could not for the life of me figure it out from the pattern and written explanation but thankfully I know someone who could show me.

What's a post without an owl or 2 so here are a few needle felted owls that I've also enjoyed making.  I gave my 2 daughters one each at Easter :)

Wishing everyone a delightful and beautiful day.

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!!