the end is in sight....

* Thanks to some fantastic macro photography by my superhubby, I have finished some of the nicest handouts I have ever done for a class. (At least I think so.) It is hard to take photos of yourself doing embroidery. Not enough hands.

* We finished our taxes. TurboTax tried to tell us we made $332,000 last year (so not true) but we tracked that down.

* We cleaned the house from corner to corner. I would say top to bottom but we didn't do the basement. That's for another time. The main floor is spiffy and so needed to be done. Spring = muddy puppy feet! Still need to vacuum and find someplace to put a dining-room-chair-full of books.

* Walked and walked. It got up to about 45 degrees here and I wore my sunglasses. It was heaven. Our poor old dog was a little stiff when she got done with her first real hike of the spring. It's supposed to snow tomorrow.

* On our walk got to see the grand re-opening of one of my favorite local fabric stores - Crafty Planet They moved to a new location (still within walking distance - hooray!) and the new shop looks fantastic!

* Off to bed.

Freezing our $#@%)* off!

First bit of news is that my mini-quilt was not chosen for the show in Brooklyn. Disappointing, but it is part of the online gallery, which is cool.

I got inspired by that one and my hummingbird piece (posted previously) and have created a couple of mini quilts that I will be posting in my etsy shop soon. This is "Bean"


Hand embroidered on pieced cotton and silk, from an illustration I did from a photo of one of my brother-in-law's puppies.

And "Stops Traffic"

New and vintage fabrics, hand-embroidered illustration from a 1960's pattern envelope, vintage buttons.

cupcake & stitch

This is a little playsuit that I embroidered for my new niece. It cme from lands end and has little ruffles on the cuffs and on the butt. Too cute. I decided it needed this little cupcake with sprinkles. I hate making french knots with a passion. They are tricksy and uncooperative. These sprinkles are not french knots! They are a new stitch I learned, called a chinese knot! Let me show you how they are done...



1. Start with your thread coming up from the back (at the little dot). Make a loop that goes around clockwise.

2. Flip that little loop up.

3. Put your needle down through the fabric again right at that same space you came up (the little dot) and making sure your needle is inside the loop you just made. Before you pull the needle through...

4. Pull on the loose end of your thread to make that loop snug around your needle. Then finish pulling the needle through the fabric.

A pretty little knot that can be used just like a french knot! I need to practice some more, but I think this will become my new favorite.

I am a Finalist!

This mini quilt is called "Sewing Room". It is 8x10 inches. Made from new and vintage cotton fabrics. Yes, there are pieces in that tiny sewing machine that are 1/4" square. It has been accepted as a finalist in.... stay tuned for more!

Now Showing...

"Mango"
hand embroidered with cotton on hand-dyed silk.
This is my piece in the Textile Center's members show, A Common Thread. My inspiration for this piece was this story about a small South American hummingbird that found itself at the center of much attention at a feeder in Wisconsin.
Click the images to see a larger version.

Teaching!

I have filled up my spring with teaching gigs! Come and see me in Idaho at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts teaching wet & dry felting, beginning shibori and hand embroidery plus a teens shibori class and a kids weaving class. Or you can come to my "Starting a Blog" or "Opening an etsy shop" at the Textile Center in March and April.

Gifts reveal!

Time to reveal a few gifts! Here are some things that went out in Christmas packages.






Embroidery kits for my nieces packed with sewing goodies.



"Baa Baa Black Sheep" for my honorary niece to go with a book. (I have to say this is one of my favorite things I made this year.



Super hero capes for the small ones among my nephews. They each got one with their initial on the back.


Miniature "Weasley" sweaters for my sisters and parents to go on the tree.


Rachel's bamboo lace hat. Although she wore this a lot when we were there, we only managed to capture one lousy picture. So you get the hat but not the "get out of my face with that camera" expression.

Beaded Edging

A very simple beaded edge. I used all gold beads and this edging to finish my paisley.

First, thread your needle and tie a knot. Stitch through the back and secure the knot near the edge of your piece.

Now, thread on 3 beads to start. Make a little stitch through the front of the fabric about 1/8-1/4 in from where your thread started. This distance will vary based on how large your beads are. You want the beads to make a nice little loop and not be stretched too far.

Now come up from the back and go back through bead #3. You will have stitched through bead #3 twice now and your thread will be coming out through that bead.

Add 2 beads and repeat: make a stitch through the front of the fabric, come back up through bead #3 etc.

You can change colors if you like and make your edging look a little different by making bead A be something and bead B something else.

Embroidery Stitches - Paisley

The stitches. "Sharon B" does such a fabulous job with her Stitch Dictionary, that I am just going to link you there to see how these stitches are made. I use this stitch dictionary all the time and it is one of my favorite web resources ever.

Backstitch Stitched in brown with a bead added later between each stitch.

Detached Chain - Stitched in darker blue. Grouped in 3's and used alone with a bead added.

Coral Stitch - Stitched in pale blue. I chose this because the knots echoed what I had done with the backstitch and beads. I just learned this stitch and I like it a lot.

All of my embroidery was done with perle cotton. I switch back and forth between that and regular embroidery floss.

In which I digress.

I just discovered a fiber & mixed media jewelry competition on whip up and this paisley project seemed perfect.

project process - this is where you show off a completed project - it can be your own design or something you followed from a pattern - the point here is to describe the project and tell us how you did it - this is not a step by step tutorial - rather a description of how you felt, alterations or additions you may have made, challenges and choices you met along the way during the making of this project.

My paisley pin was inspired by a ceramic pendant I got for a friend (from an artist at etsy). I love paisley and this pendant yelled her name. Then I discovered that I had paisley on the brain. Nothing doing but to make my own version.

The first fabric paisley I made had a slight miscalculation and I couldn't get it turned right side out. It was a little too graceful (um... too narrow). It went in to the scrap bag and I made version two. I got it all stitched and ironed and then it sat for about 2 weeks while I worked on other things. When I sat down to work on it a few evenings ago, I had just a few leftover beads in a little cup on my worktable. Rather than go get out all of my boxes of beads, I decided to let my color choices be determined by those dregs from other projects. I tend to choose analogous colors (those that sit next to each other in a color wheel) so blue with green or blue with purple would be the first colors I would gravitate to. None of those in the leftovers, so I picked amber-brown (and I love it!) I pulled a few things off that just didn't work (sorry, blue pearls) and cursed myself for not switching out the pink thread in the sewing machine when I stitched it in the first place. A little edging of gold beads covers up most of the pink threads you can see.

I was actually so pleased with the way this turned out that I had started doing a tutorial about how I did it. I am planning to post this over the next couple of weeks (not in time for the November 15 deadline for whip up) so I decided to post it as a finished project and I will continue my tutorial from here.

Paisley Deconstructed Project

I thought it might be fun to teach you all a bit about this piece, so I have decided to break it down in to steps and show you how it was made. This is really an exercize for me to think about how I work, so that I can teach it better.



So here is step one. Making the paisley. I started with a little piece that I stitched on the sewing machine to use as a base.

As it says under #1 - Stack it. I chose batik fabric for the back, silk dupioni for the front and a little scrap of quilt batting inside. I like using quilt batting or felt as an inside "lining" because it gives you a nice something to stitch in to and then I don't have to go back and figure out a way to finish the edges - they are all stitched already. So stack up your fabrics. Use scraps that are just a bit bigger than you want your finished piece and leave them as rectangles to start. Be sure to put right sides of the fabric together (both should face inside).

#2 Stitch it. You can trace your shape on the lining fabric with a pencil. This will end up on the inside, so you don't have to be very neat. Stitch all the way around your shape with a nice small stitch. You can do this by hand too if you want to.

#3. Cut it out. Cut out around your stitching leaving a tiny little seam allowance - 1/8" or so. If you have a lot of curves, "clip them", by making little cuts through that seam allowance perpendicular (opposite) to your line of stitching. This helps the curves turn smoothly when you turn it right side out.

#4. Make a slit. Probably the trickiest step. You want to cut a nice 1" slit through just the backing fabric. Pull the layers apart and make a little clip. You can then use a seam ripper to slice a little slash through that fabric. This is the opening you will use to...

#5 Turn it right side out. Be patient and this will work great. Use a little crochet hook to help push out corners.

#6 Iron it. Use lots of steam and press everything smooth and flat. You won't be able to iron it later and trust me, it's worth doing this step.

Now you have a finished paisley or whatever ready for stitching. You can quickly stitch up the slash you used to turn the whole thing right side out. I usually do this later when I am sewing on a pin back or whatnot to the back side.

Class samples

I spent the weekend scrounging up and making a few new class samples for a series of classes I have been invited to teach in Idaho in April. I am thrilled that they have invited me. I wanted to expand my beginning embroidery class to include a little bit of bead embroidery too, so I made up these two samples to send off as photos for the class.

Book Reports

Aimee Ray @ dreamfollow.com has been in my list of bookmarks for years. Her paintings and little stitched pieces are charming and I sometimes just wander the website on gloomy days for a pick me up. I ordered her new book from her etsy shop and I am delighted. The illustrations are lovely. It really is a book for beginners, but anyone could learn the stitches from her clear diagrams. The book has a "learn the stitches" section with photos and examples and is then followed by dozens of little projects you could finish in an evening or two. When I was 12, I would have checked this out from library every other week all summer long. It will come to embroidery classes with me from now on, I am sure.


I just got this today and although I haven't done much more than flip through I know I am going to love it. First is that it is spiral bound and will lay flat in the table in front of you. This is huge if you need both hands to do the braid that you are trying to figure out. I have another of her books all about kumihimo and it is the best. In flipping, I discovered a section on the lucet (I have one that I haven't figured out yet.) I will have more to report as I make my way through.

Woof!

A gift for you!

Take one super cute puppy chewing on a shoelace, add a little photoshop and I give you: A puppy embroidery pattern! Print out the line drawing (if you click it will show you a bigger one) and trace on to fabric using your favorite tracing tools. Then embroider! I am planning to put this guy on a t-shirt so I thought I would share. If you do make something using my drawing, I would love to see a photo.