Treasures

This has been the month from hell physically.....it's too long a story and very boring on top of that, but suffice it to say it will take a long time for the pain levels to go down to more or less tolerable. However.....it has eased up quite a bit and my computer is back up to speed as well....so here i am......finally!

ONe thing i have to say though, it hasn;t been the month from hell for friendship...quite the wonderful opposite. I have been on the recieving end of beautiful fiber postcards that were exchanged in a swap on the CrazyquiltingFriends list on Yahoo. Sandie does such a great job on that list....it really is like an e-home!

Take a look at the postcards below and see if you don;t agree with me that they are just incredible and wonderful.,...and every other superlative that i can find.No amount of physical pain can take away or dampen the wonderfullness that they are!

Sandie Wilmott


Sandie Wilmott


This is Sandie's card...the finest most even stitching..a single strand of thread and just perfect.....Sandie made all her cards in white with stunning accents and all of us who have been lucky enough to recieve one have had the same reaction-pure elegance!

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Catherine Scott



This is such a warm and inviting card...isn;t it lovely....take a good look at that Santa face..is that the kindest,gentlest look you have ever seen.....it's like he's saying..that's ok...I know you've REALLY been good.....i love the SRE flowers and the red bugle beads inverting the colors on the foliage. Very very cool!
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Maureen Curlewis




Maureen says she doesn't like the red lacy knit, but i think it is perfect. I hope she finds yards and yards of it in her stash somewhere and decides it needs a new home...........gggggg....well, ok, one yard ought to do me for a few years...this is such a well put together card...i love the balance of the colors and the stitching....ok...i love everything about it....

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Ulla F.



This card is such a treasure.....i adore cross stitch, especially when it is pieced into cq....and this angel is just the right amount of detail without being fussy. The card is just gorgeous. I have such a long way to go to be good enough for these cards.
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Maureen Bond



If you look closely and really take notice you will see the most delicate curl to the flower petals in the upper left hand corner....this flower was made with the finest silk gauze...it;s amazing...Maureen cut the petals out of silk teabags! That tells you the size she was working with. There is something so elegant about the simplicity of the compositiion..I can;t really put it into words why it affects me so much, but i just find myself reacting to it so positively.

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Maureen Curlewis-Winter Haiku




I saved this one for last although if I had been able to scan them as the cards came in, it would have been the first image..this is the first fiber postcard I ever recieved....I wish you all could see it in person....the sheer overlay has angelina fibers in it so that it sparkles....there are ab bugle beads stitched on to represent ice and sleet...this is truly a winter card. When i first saw this card on Maureen's blog it was love at first sight....the single tree and the sloping lines have such a sense of space...and endurance.This tree, bowed but not broken....
and maureen was kind enough to send it to me as a sort of swap in trust.

11- 05-06 Postcard 2 finished/thoughts on UFO's

TheCQF group on yahoo is doing a holiday postcard swap and this the second one i have done. The third.fourth and fifth ones are in the works, with #3 almost done. I am glad to say that cause they have to be in the mail no later than 17th of this month.....needless to say i am pushing the deadline here....lol....



The white part on the left side is stuffed to look like mounds of snow...and the pinkish stitches you see are not really pink, it;s an ab specialty thread that reflects light in different ways. For the life of me i had no idea how to make a little cottage in the country with all the trimmings in such a small space. After i did the outline i went nuts looking for a wee wee miniature wreath...it would have had to be about 1/8th inch wide all told.....and no way could i find one in the usual stores.....then i went looking for fabric that might have tiny houses on it that i could applique...nope, all too big....soooo, this little brown country saltbox is stranded there in the snow.
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Sandie W. has put out a challenge to the rest of the stitching world....on her blog,
ABeautifulCraft
are more details, but the upshot is to try to finish those undone as yet projects in 2007 and blog our progress. These undone as yet projects are also known as:

WIPS-works in progress
WISPS-Works in SLOW progress
UFO's-unfinished objects..........
and for some of us.... formerly interesting things(FITS)

On her blog Sandie explains why she has a collection of UFO's and in an email conversation I enumerated the reasons why i have a drawerful of FITS.....and starts. And with encouragement from her...i now post them....(not in order of importance.)

1. once i learn the technique i get bored with the project sometimes.
2. sometimes while learning a technique i jump way ahead of it and want to try the next step asap!
3. sometimes if it doesn;t come out the way i think i want it and it is taking longer than i thought..or is harder than i thought then i put it aside till i either have time or patience...and then it sits!
4. My finishing skills are lousy..and i often will set something aside becuase i don;t know how to finish it and have it look nice too.
5. by the time i am near done with something, i am often so bored with it i don;t even want to see it again...unless it is for someone else....
6.I really have been impatient at times and jump from project to project.
7. i have so little time to stitch most of the time that i really coulnd;t finish anything but committments ..but i love to try things.

how's that for a fistfull of reasons........and i think one of the main things is that i need to leverage a little discipline into it!

10-27-06 Piecework Magazine

I wish i could show you some of the contents of this issue of Piecework magazine....it is chock full of stuff that stitchers love...information about various types of stitching..history, some how-two and some patterns, but for crazyquilters and others who use things other than threads alone, this is an especially wonderful issue cause is tells you how to make crochet covered buttons! They are gorgeous! I can see them on almmost anything...a cq, an embroidered piece that wants texture and suggestion of shape....and of course, clothing.

There is also a project for a knitted, embroidered and then finally felted pillow.
It can be found on on their website.

PW MAG

There is also an ad for the 2007 costume calendar that sounds just full of eyecandy! That can be bought from the Texas Tech University Press-the Costume Society of America is putting out these calendars yearly as part of a Historic Fashion Series.
PO BOX 41037 Lubbock Texas 79409-1036(TTUPress)



Does anyone here remember all the felt kits you could(and probably still can) buy for things like christmas ornaments and such....all the tiny figures you had to cut out and embellish with sequins and tiny stitches? Well, there is a full article on a tree skirt that was made like this and it is gorgeous. The only time i ever had the money to buy one of those kits, i was so disappointed in my lack of patience and skill...i just couldn;t get those tiny figures stitched! Here is someone who actually got the whole thing done and the results are so nice.And of course there is a pattern for a gret bird ornament. My favorite kind!



I don;t want to spoil everything, but there are more and more and more wonderful articles...beading...needlelace, some Chinese embroidery with a pattern...the whole issue is just wonderful.

10 27 06 2nd Postcard-WIP

Have the second postcard started..I have begun to use a timer in the sewing room....and i found that it took 1/2 our start to finish to get a postcard pieced and with the basting stitch all around the outside. This will help me figure out a time frame to get the others done.



ktj

10 25 06 Xmas Post card done!(1)

Below are the two sides of the First Xmas postcard i finished to my satisfaction. I am so pleased with it.lol.....
I fused the front and back to their own seperate pieces of heavyweight interfacing and then fused them together, then whipstitched the edges all around and added a puurely decorative buttonhole stitch to the front.

10 24 06 Re-embroidered butterfly

I have been going nuts trying to make fabric postcards that have a finished edge i can accept for myself....i like having a nice, neat edge with no little hairs or fuzzies....and i don;t mind at all having a nice machine satin stitch as long as it doesn;t end up all fuzzy............welllll.....it just may take me a long time to get that down pat with my machine. So instead of the fiber postcard i wanted to post, here is a piece of work from the past..........a re-embroidered butterfly. It's part of the weave of the fabric and i used single strand metallics and other threads on it.

Eve's Dragonfly scissors bag

Dragonfly scissors bag, originally uploaded by dreamdress2.

On the LTE we have been doing small bags and Eve is on a roll! This is her second one and i can see her doing these forever! They are very easy to make and the creative possibilites are endless, as Eve so well shows us!

ktj

10-22-06 More of Nikki's Work

This is some cross stitch and beading as a seam treatment that Nikki did on a round robin many years ago....isn;t it great!All of her stitching is such a treat to see.

ktj

Great Egret

Great Egret, originally uploaded by hearman.

If you enlarge this you will see just how silken the breast feathers are. I think this is an amzing image of these birds.

ktj

10-19 06 Nikki's woven tapestry

This is a tapestry done by my friend Nikki Y. from Canada. It is her first one. Everything she does is perfect. She is incredibly talented and pays attention to details like nobody else I know.

ktj

10-16-06 Kate L's heart!

Well, it has certainly been longer than i expected to get back to blogging ...
Here is a picture of the heart i recieved from Kate L. from Denmark....the scan really doens;t show how vibrant the green color is...and how wonderful the little oblong pearl-type beads look in the row..they are so soft and have such a nice sheen. It's a delightful contrast that you see in this block up close...the gold on the fabric and the shiny sequins....I am so happy to have recieved this heart!

I need to hurry up and make some more hearts!





happy stitching to all...

10 05 06 Tagged! 5 weird things............

well, I am tagged! Not once, but twice,
first

Jo from NZ

of paisley and sequin flowers fame, but also Sandie W. from

A Beautiful Craft

.
Hearing from

Norma

and she had also been tagged so those three are definitely out! So, what i decided to do was tag some folks that don't really know me from Adam but whose work i really like and whose blogs i enjoy seeing. I hope you agree with me that they are worth the visit!
First up is

Alma Stoller

who has such playful and delightful work...today she is featuring a tutorial on polymer clay. If you are at all interested, this is a must-see.


Next is

Annie W.

who is doing a tut of sorts on chickens...you'll just have to go visit and see it for yourself...and whiile you are there...check everyhting else out too!


I don't know how many folks know

Cecelia from Brazil

but she does some fantastic redwork and quilting...she is also crazyquilting and has some lovely seam treatments going!

Gail's blog

is a wonderful mix of things, but what i love the most is that everyone is smiling! She is SO upbeat it's a pleasure to read and she does awesome fiber ATC's. She even has a cool tut about them as well.

This is Gerry's blog

which is visually beautiful and chock full of interesting things if you take the time to read the sidebars and the entries....if you scroll down a bit you can see the links to last several years of Hoffman Challenge winners...that;'s some serious eye candy!



Now, 5 weird things about me....well, ummm....lets see.....how to pick....

well, my coworkers think everything is weird about me, from my name to my furkids names.... is that 1???

I have lived at my present home for about 10 years and have no rugs....most people would think that;'s weird, but it makes cleaning up so so much easier.....lol..and easy is what i am after!

Ok, here's number three....I am the only buddhist in my county....i think that is amazing, but maybe it also qualifies as weird....

I have one small mirror in the bathroom, a little hand held one to make sure my hair is not sticking out all over the place .

And....#5..I guess, speaking about hair, it's very very short...very very short....did I mention that it was short....and i cut it myself.Except for the ones that are bald, everyone I know has longer hair than me.

I would have loved to tag everyone I know.....

like Susan N.the traveller

and

Barbara C.

who has some really interesting things on her blog all the time.

and Julia C's blog

Camille's Place

that showcases some exquisite embroidery and hand dyed laces.

If I keep going...the list will be too too long....enjoy!

10 05 06 Moving things around day

What a total mess....am moving things around in theroom i use for an office and i can;t believe what an ordeal it is....running extension cords, putting in lightbulbs, which means finding the step stool, figuring out how to untangle the cables into the PC tower....moving the peripherals.....arghhhh....now all i have to do is the major clean up! I know you all wanted to know this....lol...

happy stitching.
ktj

10 03 06 Bonnard

Every time I see this image, I imagine it interpreted in french knots and silk ribbon...this is Bonnard's "Garden in the Midi", painted about 1943.

10 02 06 Frernch Knots and Dover Publishers

There was a small discussion on the Stitching Post list about french knots. These three images from some antique Chinese embroidery are what has inspired me to try to do french knots as well and evenly as i possibly can. It's not till you get to the detail image that you realize that the shading is not from shaded satin stitching but from french knots!

overview of the panel



A little closer



Closest





This work is all done in silk.Till I can do something anywhere near this, i consider that i don;t know how to do a french knot!
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Nothing new just a bunch of appointments all this week and squeezing in time for stuff is getting a little harder........but I will be posting a little bit of a tut on satin stitching....just a few pictures of beginning to cover an area.




This is from the Dover Sampler series, which you can get mailed to you each week from Dover Publishing. The link is on the sidebar and what happens is that every week they send you a selection of titles and samples from thsoe books. Some of them are pages of text, but many are illustrations. They are free to download and Dover even includes the download instructions with the sampler. It's a wonderful way to not only actually get some graphics, but also to see what is out there. Dover Publishing is one of the places that artists and craftspeople can count on for affordable sources for designs and motifs.

happy stitching

ktj
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10 01 06 World Peace Day

Today is a major Buddhist holiday..it is World Peace Day,when Buddhists of many countries have special ceremonies in conjunction with sitting zazen.

This is not an image I have made, but to me it says peace and tranquility.


I wish you all peace, serenity, and a way out of the dark places.
ktj

09 30 06

Nothing new, just uploaded a nice nostalgia image to print, or use as inspiration.Even if i have no embroidery to upload here, i will almost always make sure that i change the Motif A Day image. And of course i try very hard to add more links every day from the interesting places i come across.

Janie-----i have just gotten up(late late late) and will have to get in gear to take that little walk.

OK JANIE! i did, it;s pouring rain here now so i am glad that i got it in before it really started, although it did start pouring while i was out...that;s ok, at least i got some in> Thanks for doing this with me.

By the way, for anyone interested in fibromyalgia, the best website on the net for information is The Orgeon Fibromyalgia Foundation. The link is on the sidebar.


ktj

09 29 06 Me and Janie J.

What a nice day for me...i actually got things done. I finally decided that I actually must do some excercizing and walking if I am going to get the fibromyalgia under control...and that's what i have ben doing for the past couple of days. Nothing major mind you, and i don;t walk very far and certainly not very fast but it is being done.Janie J. and I have decided to check in with each other every day and make sure we are doing what we need to do to keep our health from spiralling down.So, Janie.....yes! I did it ......gggggg.

Maybe one of these days I'll be able to walk, exercize AND go up and down the stairs a few times before getting worn out.

Anyway, nothing on the embroidery front today, have spent the dayso far doing chores and having a lunch with an elderly friend at the local family restaraunt chain.

ok, back to work!
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09 27 06 Can she get any more ladylike??

Took this one last night and dl'd it to the computer a little bit ago...i was struck by the easy elegance of this pose.....she is SUCH a lady.

09 27 06 Redwork Piece

This is a piece of redwork I did several years ago for an overseas friend. It is an adaptation of a plant illustration from a coloring book and because it was so detailed with so many small areas it got done in maroon sewing thread...one good thing was that i didn;t worry about running out of the thread!It was 8.5 by 11.