Zentangle Leaves

 I signed up for The CQT 2014 Postcard Exchange and decided to work a variety of stitches on silk paper.  I'd better get cracking as I need to be done by Friday.

 My finished felted landscape piece pinned onto a piece of foam board.  I needle felted the flowers and clouds and rolled bits of green felt between my palms for the tree branches.

 We were each given pieces of this paper at last months stitchery guild meeting to make into book covers.  We were shown the stab binding method and here is my book which I filled by making 10 zentangle leaves:

 I drew these on rice paper (poor choice) that I spritzed with ink.  They were definitely a lot of fun to draw and I finally used the zentangle book that I had purchased 3 years ago for pattern ideas.  There are tons of zentangles on-line as well.

Incredibly, we have a fox den under one of our sheds with one pup.  I crept out early one morning and hid behind our rhubarb to see if I could get some pictures. The clicking of my camera was so loud in the quiet morning air that it was no wonder that she is looking at me. 

Have a wonderful week everyone :)

Honeycomb Mock Smocking

I finished the last 2 rows of my linen challenge book cover with 5 rows of honeycomb mock smocking and a row of closed buttonhole. For the mock smocking a foundation of cross stitch rows are first worked then a second thread is laced from one end to the other through the cross stitches. I had never worked this stitch before and I quite like how it turned out.

 At our next stitchery guild meeting hopefully we will be given the instructions on how to make our stitched linen pieces into a book cover.  The meeting is 2 weeks away so I'll just have to wait patiently.

 Progress one cross stitch at a time on my Sampler in Blue.  Glad to have one bird done now. A flower is next.

 6 of us got together on the weekend and had the most marvelous time playing and being creative.  We felted one day and this is one of my pieces with the roving and some silk laid out. 

 After wetting and soaping and rubbing my piece, I wrapped it around a pool noodle and began to roll and roll so it would all felt together.

 The other day was a dyeing day.  We chipped in and bought some Procion dyes and dyed the day away. Here is our dye table that we helped ourselves to throughout the day.

 I dyed pieces of cotton, aida cloth, threads, washer sheets, paper toweling and here are my very colourful looking teabags that I had been saving.  Not sure what I'll do with them yet but it was fun!

Besides dyeing I did a little bit of painting on a dyed piece of evolon.  Down the road I'll use all the material I dyed and pieces I felted which I'll eventually post pictures of.

Stay well, happy stitching and enjoy being creative!

Split Stitched Owl

 I had started this owl a few months ago and was glad to get back and finish it.  It's worked on a piece of silk paper I had made last year and stitched mainly with straight and split stitches.

 A closer view and I have no idea why I stitched it so close to the edge!  Next time I'll hopefully think a bit more about what I'm doing.

We went kayaking a couple of weeks ago with our cameras and lunch to the marsh end of Buffalo Pound Lake.

 What a thrill it was to not only see Great Blue Herons but that we could get so close to take pictures.  They were so intent on catching minnows in the weeds that they didn't even notice us.

 So majestic and a wonder to watch and take photos of.

We saw a lot of other shore birds that day and here are a few beautiful and stately American Avocets. Thank you for stopping by :D

Owl Done

 Managed to get the 2 wings fairly even and I can now do woven picots with confidence.  I outlined the wings with a running chain stitch, the head was done in 7 rows of stem stitch, 2 whipped spider wheels for the eyes, a few straight stitches for the beak and for the border I worked the scroll stitch.  I had no design or plan when I began to stitch this and am quite pleased with how it turned out :)

One Wing

 At first I was only going to work a couple of rounds of stem stitch for the head but it looked too bare. Looked much better by row number 7.  My woven picots for the wing feathers started off rather clumsily but certainly improved by the 20th one.  Hope I can get the other wing to look similar.  I also did a running chain stitch to set the wing off.  I'm definitely enjoying making it up as I go along!

My view out the window this morning of the ice still on the lake but at least water is sitting on top now. 

Bluebird in Progress

 I so enjoyed making my Curtain Bird that I had to make another and found a nice bit of blue material to use. 

 Wings and tail added to the body.  Wire legs to come next.

 I scattered a handful of sunflower seeds on the wood box and it didn't take long for this saucy little female Redpoll to come along.

My bleak Sunday drive on a Saskatchewan highway. Not a sign of green yet anywhere.

Hedebo Edging

 Hedebo stitching was new to me and I'm so glad I took a class on it offered by a member of our local stitchery guild.  I made my small piece into a needle case and finally finished it. 

 An inside look. I just put in one piece of felt for the pages.

Caught this nice fat red squirrel dubbed Mr. Chub Chub at our bird feeder. Squirrels are quite recent in our area as we never had them around at all.  Looks like Mr. Chub Chub has adapted to our cold clime very nicely :)

Berry Stitch Lines

 Week 50 of TAST was the Berry Stitch which is simply a double chain stitch.  I worked the outside chain in #5 Perle cotton and the inside chains and running stitches in #8. Certainly amazing how many variations there are with just one simple little stitch.

A bit more progress on my pulled thread piece as I finished each of the sections off with a different pulled thread pattern. Now to finish it off into a pincushion but that won't happen until after Christmas. 

More Pulled Threading

 I know I should have worked on 3 Christmas gifts that I've got going but all I really wanted to do was work on my pulled thread pincushion.  I finished the satin stitches all around it and filled in another area with a cross stitch pulled thread design.  Not sure what I'll do yet with the last space and I had no idea that there were so many pulled thread stitches to choose from!

This is what was going on in our kitchen today as my Mom baked all these beautiful looking loaves of bread.  My Mom is a retired teacher and volunteers 3 days a week working for the Literacy Program through our Public Library.  She helps people with their English and most of this bread will be given as Christmas gifts to her students. Our house smelled heavenly today :)

Pulled Thread Workshop

 This weekend I took a 2 day pulled thread workshop offered by Janice Routley from the Regina Stitchery Guild. It was unfortunate that there were only 4 of us as it was a great class and it was super to learn this embroidery technique. Here Janice is demonstrating how to work the honeycomb stitch.

 First I worked 2 diagonal rows of faggoting using #12 perle cotton on 28 count linen and then worked satin stitches on the outside. I worked the honeycomb pulled thread stitch in the first triangle and a staggered satin stitch on the right side.  Not sure yet what pulled thread stitches I'm going to try in the other two but when I'm done I'm going to make this into a pincushion.

This also was worked on #28 count linen using #8 perle cotton thread.  The hedebo buttonhole stitch is such a nice edging stitch.  Once all the hedebo stitches were done I folded the material and worked a square stitch through the two thicknesses of material.  By the end of the class my hand was a bit sore from pulling so hard.  I have a ways to go but am going to make this into a small needlecase.  It was a great class and I learned a lot and sad to say but I think it's another embroidery technique that is being lost and falling by the wayside.

Butterfly Stress

 A few weeks ago a co-worker asked if I'd stitch a gift for her sister who is going to have major surgery in November.  I said yes but have been a bit stressed about it ever since.  She asked for something with a butterfly theme and I made this one on felt using machine free motion stitching, bullion stitches, french knots...

Then, panicking that she might not like it I stitched this one up too with lots of lazy daisy stitches and beads.  I came across this neat idea from Sweet Bee's blog.
I've e-mailed the pics to my co-worker to see if she likes either of them to give as a gift but haven't heard back from her yet.  I have to be okay with the fact that she might not care for either of them and not allow myself to get into a similar predicament in the future.

My Dad's Stitching

Today I wrote a blog post for the Embroiderer's Association of Canada on my Dad's love of stitching with pictures of some of the pieces he has done over the years.  He stitched this autumn angel as a Christmas gift for my daughter a few years ago. If you are interested please go to the EAC blog.  Have a lovely autumn day :)

Needlepoint in a Will

  In her later years my grandmother did a fair amount of needlepoint pieces for each of her 5 sons.  A few years ago one of my uncles gave me one that she had done titled Die Smiede ( The Smithy) which had been painted by Heinrich Burkel and was a kit from Wiehler Gobelin.  It hangs in our living room & I love that I have this beautiful piece that she made.  At a funeral last week I received something that another uncle had willed to me and it's rather humourous that I now have 2 of the same picture!  I was touched that my Uncle Rudy remembered me of course but I'll have to find out from my other uncles if she did another.  Good thing I have 2 daughters :)

 In remembrance of my grandmother and uncle.  My heartfelt thanks to you both :)