I've been commissioned to make a custom Priest's Stole

Cool, eh? So y'all get to come with me on my journey from fabric and threads to finished piece. This is for the priest at the church I attend, and she totes adores the stole I made and gave to the church, and gave me the impetus to set my hands to doing this--actually, what she said was, "You could make a lot of money doing these, people are always looking for custom and One of a Kind stoles for friends and family members who are ordained." I'd say money wasn't a consideration, but I looked at the prices for stoles, and the polyester machine embroidered ones go for $150 and up. I mean, like, ChaChing! Uh...and the custom jobs out of silk and hand embroidered etc...CHA-CHING!!! One of the few areas in embroidery where you get paid a decent amount for the labor etc...

Day 1: I typed in and printed out the wording I am stitching on the stole. It is a piece for the Feast of St. Francis, and the Blessing of the Animals, something our priest does with great aplomb, including the time my Mother-in-law's cat (we took him in after she passed away, because he was a vicious rat bastard of a cat that hated all humans EXCEPT MIL, and no one really wanted him. So...ANYWAY) MIL's cat swatted her chin while she was blessing him. Uh, If you look back over previous entries, I have pics of him on here. Because I love stitching, and I love cats...

The main fabric is a Laurel Burch print of animals, from her Jungle line. It is black with colorful animals, and I love the print quite a lot. Oh, and I'm going to be making two of these, because I'll be attempting to sell some of my creations from my Etsy store...just look for the Deranged Magpie's shop in a couple of months I should have at least two pieces up, maybe even three.

Here is a picture of the print. I actually had this because I love Laurel Burch's quirky take on creatures, and also because when you have cats, you occasionally get clawed holes in your clothing. So I use the animals as little patches. Fun is good, fun and cute patches is very good.

 So that is the base fabric for the stole. Then there is going to be a section with the phrase "All Creatures Great and Small" in bright overdyed embroidery floss, in this case Bravo from Rainbow Gallery, two strands, backstitched. Here is a picture of the front of the patch. I have a sandwich of two layers of cotton fabric, black on ecru. The reason is that I needed to be able to see the pattern of the words...

 And here it is. I plan to embroider the cross with the colorful spirals that LB is so very fond of. And yes, I'm stitching from the back... Hey, sometimes you have to suffer for your art. Okay, not really.

 

I used the Brushscript font on my Mac, but didn't bother doing the thick and thin lines, just a simple outline. 

 

And here is my cat Gandalf doing his impression of a Jack in the box. This is his absolute favorite toy of ALL TIME. He fits through the hole he has his head out of, but prefers trying to wedge his body into the other hole that he can fit his head out of. I do not know why... Probably because CAT.

The Magpie

It has been a long couple of years, filled with a lot of self discovery and tears and angst and too many of my friends and pets dying. But I am starting to come alive again, and I have so, so many projects in mind--creativity is sleeting down like...well...sleet. I lost my beloved Einstein, and a bit over a year later my even more beloved Berkeley--both were due to kidney failure. The daughter is in college now, learning to be a vet assistant, and one of the things she learned is that if it weren't for the thyroid and the kidneys, cats would live forever...and the thyroid is maintainable with medication...

I have two new kitties, both all white, named Galileo and Gandalf. What can I say, I am a total geek, and love the sciency stuff. Here are some pictures of them being totes adorable:

 Galileo, about a month after we got him, and about a year before the next picture...

 Gandalf. Don't you just love those HUGE feet?

 Galileo has claimed the new kid as his personal sleeping buddy...

Gandalf all grown up and exceeding fluffy.

Galileo is a sweetie, and he is also what I call a "caretaker kitty". If you are feeling blue, he will come and try to cheer you up. He has short hair. Gandalf is at least part Turkish Angora--a dead ringer for the pics on the net actually, so...Both have been neutered--there are enough cats still breeding to keep us up to our eyeballs in kittens already. Galileo has amber colored eyes, and Gandalf has bicolored eyes, one gold, one green. They started out much closer in color, but as he has aged, the green and gold have become more distinct. He is also completely deaf--we have learned to stomp on the floor when we want his attention, and he has learned to compensate also--meaning, he tends to hang around the cupboard where we keep the food if it is getting close to feeding time. He is also scary smart--most of my cats are, just lucky I guess, if you want to call it that, The only thing that saves us is the not having opposable thumbs. He figured out how to turn the electric can opener on...

The plan is to get some pictures of my projects up soon. Until then, keep stitching...or whatever your hobby may be.

THE Magpie

Hi to those still following, I am back--ish. Haven't been doing much stitching lately, but did pick up a couple books on kumihimo (Hi Tara, you inspired me) and tatting. Have to get to an opthamologist regarding my eyes--I have dry eyes and lately it has been affecting my ability to see what I stitch. So I did a lot of gardening this summer, and had a landscaper out to redo the boxes in front of my house. Then I paid my son to plant a couple hundred bulbs in them. Hopefully, this spring I shall have quite the display. Added five plumeria trees to my collection. Sadly, Granny Weatherwax did not make it through the summer. I'm going to try again next spring with a new avocado seed, and am thinking of trying again to sprout a mango.

I also had an eensy psych problem--relating to my childhood and remembering stuff growing up. I have basically cut off half my family as regards being in contact with them. Not that I don't still love them, just that it is bad for my mental health to try to deal with them. Or some such.

Paddy, plantings, and counted cross stitch I have done in the past

Hi to anyone still reading this. The last few weeks of summer got a bit crazy, what with being chosen for a jury, getting a ninth and eleventh grader ready to return to school, an earthquake and two hurricanes (well, technically, only Irene was a hurricane, Lee was just an amazing amount of water with not much wind to speak of by the time it reached us. Caused major flooding in the area, so the kids got two more days off school, in addition to the one they missed due to Irene.

But I am back to stitching, hooray! Spent yesterday afternoon at my Tangle group (anyone in the DC area interested in attending, just let me know), and we were doing salt silk dying. Here are some pictures of the scarf I did.

I love how the fabric looks very watery. Basically, you wet the fabric down, the spray with the colors of dye you want, then spray with water and sprinkle salt over it. I used kosher salt, which gives little tiny pools where the dye gets pulled up by the salt--each of the "bubbles" is around a salt crystal.

And here is Paddy, a couple weeks ago and yesterday--haven't had much "me-time" to stitch on him lately, but now the kids are back in school, hopefully I'll have more time to work on him.

Paddy's right leg, padded and started

Right leg mostly finished.

I had some cotton floche in a bright red which I used as padding, and just couched it down, then I started doing the long and short to cover it. Once I finish that, I'll do the metallic over his tail and then his hind legs.

My tropical trees have done well this summer. I am particularly amazed at the plumeria, she went leaf crazy.

Plumeria

Granny Weatherwax, the avocado tree

Lemon tree. I have two cats who like the taste of lemon. I always thought cats hated the taste of citrus

Castanospermum, an Australian tree

Hopefully, this fall will mark the last time I have to bring all these guys into the house for the winter, as we plan to build a greenhouse for my tropical gardening obsession. I am hoping we can make it large enough that I can set aside a stitching corner and turn it into a conservatory sort of space. It is the one room in stately English homes I really, truly envied.

Here are some of my other embroidery endeavors, in counted cross stitch. I have a couple of large counted projects I am working on, including a wedding sampler chinese style from Pinn stitch (no, I don't have a picture of it in progress... yet...) and a frog by Jo Lynch from the Heaven and Earth website. These are all finished projects, including the framing and hanging...

Teresa Wentzler's The Castle, finished as a hanging banner

 Curtis Boehringer's Queen Anne's Lace, from a series of which I only did this one because my Mum-in-law loves this flower. I was given it back after she passed away.

Anne Orr's pansy banner, inserted into a Sudberry box, also given to Mum-in-law, as she also adored pansies. I did this one ages ago, and she did not give color numbers, you just matched up the floss colors to match her colored in graphs. I used the closest matches I could find, and was quite sure I was getting the colors horribly wrong, but Mum-in-law had pansies in all these color sets.

I also put in an order for a new counted canvas project called Amazing Colors, which I purchased with the money I got for being on a jury. I ordered it from 123 Stitch, and Nancy there was so very nice about putting together all the supplies--except for the Threadworx which she does not carry.  I believe they are carried by Bedecked and Bedazzled, which gives me an excuse to go there--although it is dangerous territory for those of us known for our ability to get high on color.

THE Magpie

Paddy yet again

I've been working on Padparadscha, although I did take a week off to help the daughter to look for her dragon. Little idiot decided to take Calypso outside... and Calypso decided to make a break for it. We are now going to hope she survives until it starts getting cooler out, then we'll try to recapture her before it gets too cold and kills her. Keep both daughter and dragon in your good thoughts/prayers/whatevers as the one won't survive the winter, and the other would grieve terribly if she doesn't.

Anyway, I have started doing the metallic thread in fly stitch, and I think it looks glorious! Thank you ever so much Rachel for the suggestion. I also did the nostril with a four ply french knot in the two lighter silks, with a small stitch in the center of the metallic, to darken the middle, if you see what I mean. The eye is done with a size 11 seed bead, and I did a small stitch of the metallic thread over the center of the bead, sort of like a pupil.

As you can see in the picture, I added the bottom wing as well. I used the metallic to add the wing struts--what are those called when it isn't an airplane? I still have the tail portion to do with the metallic, but so far it looks lovely. I plan to add a trellis stitch over the pearl in the metallic thread. After that, I really need to get the legs in so I can do some of the vegetation he is standing in.

Okay, here are a couple of pictures that will make you go, "Awwwwww!"

Detente kitties.

    

Calypso napping in her food dish--with lunch.

THE Magpie

Dragon noses

So I have been thinking about it, and I think I am going to do the nostril with a colonial/french knot. I am going to use either perle weight or something like it. I studied horse and cow noses, and also peered at Calypso, and I think I want to do something more like the horse. Or not. We'll see how it looks.

THE Magpie

Busy. But managed to carve some time for Padparadscha

Well, I got a bit more done on Padparadscha. I am starting to feel a bit more confident about my abilities as an embroidress, even to contemplating actually doing one of the Helen Stevens bird pictures, as opposed to just drooling over the photos in her books. I have an assortment of the flat silks, the ones used in the Chinese embroideries that so often crop up in the restaurants, mostly because they are drop dead gorgeous, plus the colors are to die for--or dye for, as the case may be.

Anyway, here is Paddy as far as I have gotten.

I am not sure how I am going to do his nostril, but his eye is going to be a bead--maybe one of my glow in the dark beads--we'll see. I think I am going to finish the mid color overlay, and then do the metallic fly stitch. His legs are going to be silk most of the way down, and the toes and claws I am planning to do in the metallic braid. Here is a close up of the stitching and overlay.

Once I stitch in the legs and finish the body, I plan to add the left wing, which will be tacked down to the ground fabric. After I finish that and before I do the feet, I plan to start the background. I have some fluffy and fancy yarns to use for grass and bushes.

Okay, I have to post some pictures of the other dragon in my life. She is a cutie pie, and sleeps in the most silly positions.

In this picture, she was asleep, but we woke her when we took the picture.

We measured her, and she is about seven inches long from nose to tail tip.

THE Magpie

Dragons, two this time

 First, here is a picture of Calypso, my daughter's bearded dragon. Okay, actually, here are several pictures of Calypso. Isn't she cute???

We don't know as yet if she is male or female, because it is hard to tell when they are young. However, we are assuming that it is a she for the time being.

Meanwhile, I have started on the body and tail of Padparadscha. I am using the dark rust silk to put the first layer of stitching in, which will follow with the other two colors of silk and end with the metallic braid in fly stitch.

If anyone reading this knows what the stitch is called, please do let me know. I use it as a filling that is more versatile than satin stitch, as you can follow contours, and usually I fill in very tightly but because I plan to layer three colors I am leaving spaces to fill later. I was assuming it was either long and short or split stitch, but it isn't split as I don't go through any of the stitches, but rather between them. Probably long and short, but all the illustrations I have seen of that are much more even than what I am doing.


THE Magpie

Dragon, take 42--no wait, that's the meaning of life, the universe...

First, Rachel and RogerBW, thank you for your kind comments. Also for your excellent suggestions. I think I am going to take part of one of Rachel's for the scales, I am going to do layered split stitch (I think that is the one) where you do straight stitches very close together--it isn't satin stitch, which I had pondered but rejected as too smooth, and I learned it doing a very pretty Rowandean kit of a black cat--I really liked how you can curve the stitches around and do very pretty contouring. I am going to use the three colors of silk, layering them from dark to light, and the rust/brown/orange metallic ribbon, which will go on last in fly stitch. I really liked that idea for showing the scales.

Here is the dragon's pearl, as far as I have stitched it. I plan to use some of the metallic and the overdyed silk to do a couched trellis over it.

 I did a padded satin stitch over felt padding. Here is a picture of the partial first layer of satin stitching showing the felt padding underneath.

 I finished the wings finally. I didn't use wire for the second wing, as I am going to tack it down to the ground fabric rather than have it sticking out. I wanted both wings to look the same however, so I backstitched around the wing shape and then whip stitched the same as I did for the wired wing.

 This is the wired wing, with the whip stitch done. I still want to add some veining to the wing, probably with the aforementioned metallic.

Here are both wings with the whip stitch finished. The sparkliness of the base fabrics really shows in the picture.

 I decided to backstitch around the body of the dragon so that I would have an idea of where I was going, and partly to fill time while I noodled around with what I was going to do next.

And finally, here is is with his body backstitched in. I think he is a happy dragon. Maybe someone is going to play ball with him...

In other news, my daughter finally wheedled me into driving her to the local pet shop so that she could acquire her own dragon, of the Australian bearded variety. Her name is Calypso, and I'm pretty sure that pictures of her will probably show up here from time to time. She has settled into her new home very happily, and loves to chase down and eat crickets and mealworms. Not that she has to chase the worms as they just squirm in her food bowl.

THE Magpie.

Dragon my feet

On the dragon's feet. I figured out what I wanted to do for the pearl Padparadscha is holding, and it is finished, and I backstitched around his body while noodling about how to fill it in. I think I am going to use orange sequins held down with some really pretty orange seed beads. I am going to do a bit on a doodle cloth before I start on the actual piece. I debated doing his body in a sort of or nue variation, but couldn't figure out how to get a scaly effect. I have pictures of him as of this evening, but as I have yet to load them onto the computer they will be uploaded to the blog later.

Oh, and about the feet. I haven't yet decided whether to do them in the woven petals thing from stumpwork--they are often used for sepals on raspberries, and I just picked up an old British stitchery mag. that has a sunflower with them as petals--very pretty. Either that or I am going to do them in bullion knots. I am leaning toward the petals as I think they will look very dragonish.

THE Magpie

More on the dragon

His name is now Padparadscha, which according to Wikipedia is the name given to a pinkish orange colored sapphire, and the word is from the Sinhalese word for lotus blossom. Read more about sapphires than you probably want to know at this address,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire#Padparadscha.
I have seen padparadschas, and they are about the same color as the silks I got to stitch him with, hence the naming.

Meanwhile, I have been watching the children (home from school for the summer)  and so haven't gotten a lot done on him, but I did get a bit done. Here is the dragon picture transferred to the blue cotton background.

It is pretty faint, which is good so far as covering up the markings is concerned.

This is a much better photo of the contrast between the top and bottom fabrics of the wings.

These are the silks I got to use on Padparadscha, also the ombre Silk n Colors I am using from my stash and the metallic braid I am planning to use.

This is the wing partly tacked in. I made a pattern piece of the wing, and did running stitch around the outside. Then I tacked the wire down following the running stitch lines.

Here is the wing with the wire tacked down around the outside edge, and I have started whip stitching over the entire wire. I am using the silk and colors for this part.


THE Magpie

New embroidery/stumpwork project.

This one is an original design, by me. I draw nominally well, my Mom and my daughter are much better than I am, but after nagging the daughter for ages to draw me a small dragon to convert to stumpwork, I figured that it would get done a lot sooner if I just put pencil to paper, drew it myself and fix the poor drawing skills with thread and needle.

 

It isn't totally horrible, I guess. The hind legs took a bit of working out, and I am still not totally excited about them, but I think once I transfer it to fabric I think it will end up looking a lot better. I only drew in one wing, as I am going to make the other wing as a detached piece, using whip stitch to hold the wire armature in place. I am using gold lame sandwiched with orange organza. I used wonder under to connect the two fabrics, and attached them with the threads of one piece at a 45 degree angle to the other. This is a tip that Jane Nicholas gave during a class of hers I was fortunate to be able to attend. The reason is that this way you have way more stability when you whip stitch the wire armature onto the fabric, as the threads go every which way rather than being orderly.

Here is the detached wing pattern. I plan to do the outer border in one piece of wire, and then cut and whip stitch the three supporting bars.

gold lame side, underside of wing

orange organza side, upper side of wing

These two pictures are the front and back of the wing fabric. The colors did not come out terribly well, but are somewhat close to the actual colors. This is a four inch hoop, and the dragon piece is going to be about 6 inches in diameter, with borders and all. I didn't take a picture of the background fabric yet, it is a pale blue cotton fabric. The dragon body may be done in a pale orange satin with stitched details, or I may do padded satin stitch or something else.

This is the orange satin I may use for the body. I got some orange and rust silks, Splendour brand by Rainbow Gallery, along with a card of an orange and rust metallic also by them yesterday at the Stitching Post in Columbia MD. I'll put pictures of them up on a future post.

This is some Fun Fur yarn that I am planning to use for the background of the dragon picture. Except for the skein second from the left, which will be couched down as the dragons flame.

Moire fabric that my Mom gave me because she wasn't planning to use it. Pretty colors, and ivory as well. I may have to do a unicorn head on the purple fabric. Mum quilts, and I think she got these to do a fancy crazy quilt with. Oh, and a tip for people who like pretty fabrics to use as backgrounds for embroidery. Obsessively examine the remnant bins at your local fabric shops. I scored two sizeable pieces of ivory silk dupion for less than half price--the remnants were marked as 50 percent off, and then they had a sale going of 50 percent off that. I also got the satin and the organza for the dragon at the same sale. Also, go to thrift stores. I get old cotton sheets to use as stabilizer for stitchery there, it is way less expensive than the muslin from the fabric store. Plus, you get to feel all virtuous for recycling.

These are sets of prayer beads that I make for donating to a group called On Beads of Prayer. The organizer of the group started it to provide prayer beads to soldiers who want them at no cost to the soldiers. She sells fancier ones to make money to pay for postage and beads and wire and etc... I just found out that the last batch I gave her sold out "like hotcakes" so I have been assembling a new batch.

THE Magpie