Silk Paper Doodling

 I absolutely love my Oriental Poppies but sadly the delicate petals don't last very long and in 2 days they are starting to wilt already. 

 With one of my shaving cream marbling pieces of fabric I made this seascape atc. I had fun playing with different stitches and adding some dyed bits of cheesecloth along the edges.

 Close up of some doodling stitches:  straight stitch, fly, chain, buttonhole wheel and spiderweb wheel. I don't have any real design in mind but am simply enjoying stitching.

I received some lovely threads from Lorraine's Colour Complements shop and am using them to doodle on this piece of silk paper. 

Have a wonderful summer day everyone :)

Leaf on Silk Paper

 I'm really enjoying stitching on silk paper.  So much so that I made another maple leaf stitch sampler on it for myself.

 From left to right the stitches are:  chain, fly, needle weaving, french knots, wheatear, seed, cretan, seed, buttonhole wheel, chain, lazy daisy, cretan, spider web wheel, coral, satin, seed and a few more french knots.  Now I feel like making more silk paper and another stitched leaf :)

 We were on a trip last week and to keep my hands busy while in the car I crocheted this small doily.  I love doilies and have them under just about everything and love giving them away too.

 We had so much rain in June that up in the hills the pincushion cacti are blooming all over the place.  In 7 years, I've never seen so many.

 The female bluebird still has her young in the nest,

while this baby coot was swimming madly across the pond and peeping like crazy to get back to mom.

Have a great week everyone :)

Green Organza Dragonfly

Finally figured out how to make a dragonfly on my felted piece. I started with the abdomen and worked a raised chain band using metallic thread.  Next came the wings where I fused 2 layers of green organza together and buttonhole stitched them onto 4 pieces of memory thread.  Feather stitch worked nicely for the veins.  I had some beige chenille thread which I dyed and then couched down and then added the beaded eyes.  Voila!  I especially like that the wings are bendable.

 I had felted this a couple of months ago and then free motion machine embroidered the vines and flowers.  The completed size is about 10 x 12" or 25 x 30 cm.  Jane Nichols book Stumpwork Dragonflies helped a lot.  It's a good feeling to have another piece finished :)

 It was a delight to see this Common Goldeneye duck looking anything but common paddling by the window.

But more delightful was going up into the hills and seeing hundreds and hundreds of wild crocuses blooming!!  Hubby said "Forget about the supper dishes, let's go look for crocuses while the light it good."  This is just one of the 70 pictures I took :D

Have a beautiful and blooming week.

Kanzashi Fleurs

Kanzashi is the traditional Japanese art form of folding and stitching fabric petals.  I came across making them on the Joggles website using a simple flower making template.  The small blue one was the 1st one I made & it's a bit on the wonky side but not every flower is perfect right?  The whiteish one I made for my mom as a corsage to wear with her jacket on her 75th birthday party & the multi-coloured petal one I made for my daughter Amy.  I hot glue gunned a small pin clasp on the back of each. They are super easy & fun to make & I hope to try some different petalled ones too. There is also a wonderful book on making these flowers by Diane Gilleland titled Kanzashi in Bloom.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

This beautiful tiger swallowtail was flitting around the yard & needless to say I was very happy when it stopped for a drink of nectar on the lilac bush.

Lilies at Tea Time

For Mother's Day we went to the Regina Floral Conservatory & had a lovely serving of tea & strawberry shortcake. Lilies & hydrangeas were blooming all around us & with a barbershop quartet singing - it was a delightful afternoon.

Hibiscus Bloom in February

It's currently -15 Celsius outside, snowing with wind gusts up to 70 km/h. To cheer up our day at work, the hibiscus has decided to bloom. So much beauty that lasts for only one day.