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.

09 26 06 WIP small embroidery

A small embroidery for the fun of it...lots of shapes and textures.There are some things that will look very different in the finished piece. In the oval empty spaces near to the right side i want to do some stitching that will be reminiscent of leaves. The purply blob on the left needs something to make it less.ummm. aggressive in the piece, but not sure what i will do.

09 25 06 100 details-002

When I finally did the first one, I had to laugh cause it ws so late in the game, and right after I got this one done, the scanner and the computer decided to quit talkiing to each other(AGAIN!)so now it is even later........but here it is. The same folk art colors and this time i did add a little wooden seed bead.


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And just because they are so much fun, here's another color swatch.........



and another color block...lol....

09 24 06 Sunday Already

It seems like just yesterday that I was wondering if i would get anything done this week...and now i know....and the answer isssssssssssssssss..not much..unfortunately!

Of course playing around on the computer doesn;t interfere at all!



Having so much fun doodling in Paint.


The M.A.Day is a line drawing of a grey scale image that has been posted previously. It is two birds on a very leafy ranch. It is copyright free.

Happy stitching.

For 09 23 06 Two Paislies on M.A.D. and Mija pic

Here is a picture of my female pup. She is so incredibly sweet. She is far more eager and willing to please that her brother Sin Huevos and wags her tail ALL the time. Both she and her bro have beautiful smiles and maybe one day i will be able to capture them.



And here is another of the two of them. i have this terrible feeling that now that i have a digital camera i am going to end up one of those people that just has a million pics of the babies and shares them at the drop of a hat....lol...........




Also, on the Motif a Day page (under "collections" in the sidebar) there are two paislies. They are adaptations of paislies from a Dover collection.If you read the sidebar on the M.A.Day Series you will know that the previous entries are deleted when the new one goes up.

And finally...more of the Easy Share software...i love it...it allows you to edit a picture(or graphic) in "coloring book" mode............which means it makes black and white outline graphics of pics....this is a great feature.You can easily begin to embroider a photo of...oh, let's say my dogs! Here's one from the bunch of photos I took this evening.



Some of the lines need to be darkened but otherwise this is just a great thing. I did this as well to some color vector clips i had of birds and the outlines are dark, sharp and clear. I don;t know if you can get this software without buying the camera, but if you can, and it is not exhorbitantly priced, this feature is just the greatest!

I have been having a lot of fun with my programs as you can see, so i thought i would share another color swatch..these are more fun than jelly beans........lol.....so here's "golden glow" for want of a better name.

09 22 06 Color Swatch-Peach

The Motif A Day can be found under "Collection" on the side bar, and today is a greyscale of two birds on a leafy branch. It was greyscaled from photo and i thought this would be an easier way to see the basic shapoes and outlines.

Got the scanner back running and even have figured out some things on the new digital camera..i am pretty excited about the new ways of capturing and keeping images!
Have also been playing around in MS Paint and my PSP program just to remind myself of the tools available. Here's a color swatch i came up with in PSP. It was made by using the airbrush tool at its largest(and therefore most diffuse spray of color) setting. I thought it would make a really pretty piece of fabric so i saved the basic swatch.

009 21 06 Paisley Challenge and a pic of Sin Huevos

Sin Huevos! Here's a pic of the male puppy and one of the two lights of my life!



Paisley Challenge in progress report.........lol
Stitched more on the Stitching Post Paisley Challenge piece and made many design decision and laid out more of the main areas.

Overview

Detail

09 21 06 Motif a day for today and stuff...

The Motif a Day can be found on the side bar under "collections'

Todays graphic is one i did and it is of course marked with a copyright and is for personl use only. It is a 4by6 landscape. It's just basic outlines and i thoutt it would be cool to use as the starting point for a fabric postcard. Or even for paper arts....the line drawing could easily be fused to some non woven interfacing and cut a part for templates.
I f any decided to try using this drawing in any way, i would love to see the results. Just give me an email to the link and i will be happy to include it here! :>)

Otherwise, not much, still waiting to see if the scanner is amont the living, or do i need to get a new one.I have the camera that i am slowly figureing out to use but i am not sure it will ever be as convenient as a scanner. Guess we'll see. Have been busily sleeping trying to get rid of some aches and pains........lol...and embroidering on on the Stitching post Paisley challenge.

I have also started and am just about done with a 4x6 size piece that i thought for sure would be going thorugh the mails...but as usual, i got very carried away with texture and i have a feeling this one is staying home with me....

ktj

09 20 06 Two Small Spot Motifs CF

Today there are two small spot motifs in color. Check in the sidebar under "collections".
have fun.

ktj

09 19 06

The Motif A Day series for today is a copyright free goldfish from a stencil.You can access it by clicking on the "collections" link in the sidebar.
enjoy.

09 18 06 Motif a day series info/links etc

The Motif A Day Series can be accessed by using the side bar and clicking on it under the word "Collections".When I add a new pic, the old one will be deleted. It seems that blogger occasionally changes the extension from .gif to.png.
I will try to catch these before publishing, but if you find a png, it will still save and you can then do a conversion to jpg or whatever you like in your editing program.

Irfan view is free and easy and does it.

Irfanview

And thanks to Lou Anne S. for bringing it to my attention that some of the graphics were .pngs and that the email address i put in the welcome section didn;t have the .com on it.

I add links every single day to the sidebar to the various categories. They are not labelled "new" or anything, but if you know of a place that you think would fit in one of the categories very well, please don;t hesitate to let me know. I'll check it out. My email is in the side bar.