Goldwork redux, and flowers and vases. Also some plants.

Here is where I've gotten on my Benton and Johnson Lily kit. Actually, all I have left is some detail on the flowers and filling in the leaves with bright check "beads". Bright check is wire that has been bent into a square spring shape, and it is flat on the outside, so it really reflects light marvelously well.

Here is a picture from before I finished sewing down the leather flowers, with the check wire on top of the piece. That wiggly, squirmy thing is absolutely wonderful stuff. My daughter says it is very fun to hold it in the air and gently jiggle it, as it transmits a buzzing feeling to your fingers, so of course I had to try that. Plus, it absolutely multiplies light, sending sparkles everywhere. And sadly, what you do with it is to cut it into short lengths and sew it down like beads. Well, that actually gets us to why I stopped where I did. I thought I had my wire cutters with me, but I didn't, so got stalled yesterday, as I will not use my good embroidery scissors to cut wire. I was down at my sister's house, and she gave me a beech tree for my yard, and has promised a sassafras tree once she figures out where her colony of them is. I'm starting her a couple of trees from my yard, including the native persimmon tree, of which I have a female in the yard, so usually have a zillion seedlings to choose from.

I have moved my tropical trees outside now, as we should no longer be in danger of getting frost. Here are their pictures...

This is Granny Weatherwax. She is about eighteen inches tall, and her leaves are about six inches long. She had a little trouble with Marie the cat again, after I took her off the bookshelf she was on. Marie loves avocado leaves. Weird.

 This is the pink plumeria. The flower buds survived the winter, and I have moved her to the porch and given her some water.

Lastly, here is the lemon tree. Nero, in complete contrast to the normal run of cats, who allegedly dislike citrus intensely, liked the chew on her leaves. In front of her, in the two boxes, are dormant blueberry bushes. Not quite sure exactly where they are going to go, probably in what I call the "Way Back Yard, which is up a very steep hill with a staircase from the rest of the back yard. I also have a pair of raspberry bushes that I have not yet placed. One of them has flowers, so the raspberry loving daughter will be very happy.

 These are the vases that I have done for the quilt. They fabric is a square around 10 inches to a side, some a bit taller, some a bit narrower, but all will be trimmed to the same dimensions when I am ready to sew the quilt together. Three of them are from a chart titled Vase Row, only I have been stitching them separately so that I could use them with the flowers.

This vase is one of three I am doing that came from Mary Hickmott's New Stitches magazine. Being roughly the same dimensions as the other vases, I decided to incorporate them to make the numbers a bit more even. Stylistically, they are both different and similar, and I think they look nice together.

 

Another vase. This is the first vase I stitched. Not sure why I remember that, but I do.

Blue and white vase. The one I am working on now has more blue and white, and also has a spray of flowers in the vase. The other two from Vase Row are a turquoise vase with a coral pink flower and a black vase with a white flower.

 This is one of the fabrics I am using as sashing. this print is going around the vases. The oranges and golds of the flowers look very nice with the vases, and echo the golden brown in some of the vases.

 Tree Peony. And yes, it does kind of look like there is a bit missing from one side of the flower, but that is the way the designer did it. Um. Yes, several people have mentioned that to me, why do you ask?

Lotus. This is one I finished recently, and when I was doing it I was very unsure about the greens, mostly whether they would look nice together. One was more blue green the other tended toward olive. They worked well together though.

This one is Tiger Lily. My brother's in-laws went to Taiwan, and sent me a birthday card that they got there. The picture on the card is very similar to this one, which is why I started collecting the kits in the first place. Also, they are drop dead gorgeous, so there are two reasons.

 This is Chrysanthemum. The photo with the kit is much lighter yellow than it ended up being, which I was happy about. I love the spider mums, which is what these look like, because of the long curly petals they have.

 This one it titled Clematis, and I think I have done all the yellow flowers now. This is the one I was working when I took a very long break from cross stitching.

 Iris, and the only one of these which I varied from the kit contents. I really hated the change from the darkest purple to the next color, so I added an intermediate color. The top iris has the darkest purple with my intermediate and the next purple, for the two bottom flowers the darkest color is the intermediate.

This is Wisteria. Everyone likes this one the best, and it is the second flower I did. It really turned out well, but the metallic gold backstitching on it was tricky. I did a lot of what I learned is called Holbein or double running stitch, but which I call Bilbo stitch, and fans of The Hobbit will, I hope, get a giggle when I explain that it is because you go there and back again. This is all the flowers I have done, I still have Morning glory (blue violet), Quince, (orange), Poppy (red), Magnolia (pink), and Camellia (dark pink-red). I also have five vases left, and yes, I did that on purpose, so I can alternate flowers and vases. I am working on a blue and white vase right now, but have not yet taken a picture.

This is the fabric I am using for the sashing for the flowers. I think it looks like Gingko leaves, or maybe cilantro. One of those. It also looks absolutely fabulous with the flowers, so I have high hopes that the quilt will turn out well. Maybe I'll take a page from my sister's book, and get Mum to sew the top together in stages...

THE Magpie

Goldwork, and other stitching.

Finished the waterlily, and started and finished the tiger lily in my oriental flowers, so I am now over half done with the cross stitched patches for the quilt. Yay!

Also, after studying the directions, reading, re-reading, and examining all the supplies, and finding my silk dupione stash, I have at long last started on the Golden Lily pattern from Benton and Johnson. To start, I drew the picture on the back of the muslin with a pencil, backwards. Then I basted it in with the same floss that I was going to use to couch the metal threads down with. Here is a picture of the back with the basting partly in...

Here is the front. Because I did the stitches on the front very small, you can't see them very well, which bodes well on me being able to cover them up.

This is one of the flower buds with the japan gold around it, and extending down as the stem.

The closed teardrop shapes are going to be finished with gold kid leather. There are also curled leaf shapes will be filled with bright check, after it is cut into "beads". All the lines will be couched japan gold, and I like the way they have you plunge one end of the pair of gold threads, then separate them to go around the open shape, and finally couch them together for the stems. I don't know if that is standard operating procedure, as I have not taken any goldwork classes, and this is the first thing I've ever done in goldwork, but I like how it looks.

The kit for this actually came with an ice blue silk piece for the ground, but the picture on the kit was more of a turquoise, so I subbed a piece out of my stash. The couching thread I am using is a cotton overdye named Whiskey, from Weeks Dye Works, color 2219. Other supplies are japan gold, check thread, bright check, gold kid leather and something called passing, which is a wire cored gold metal thread that looks kind of like japan gold. Ah. Just re-read the directions, because it occurred to me that I did not remember where the passing thread was supposed to be used. There is a bit that forms a bow over the stems on the bottom, and the passing thread is used to make them, and that is where the wire is handy, as you just make loops with the thread and then bend them into shape on the front.

I realized that doing this stuff intimidates me, at least until I start, although sometimes it runs all the way through the project. Even so, I still do it, and usually the things turn out very nicely. So to anyone who is reading/finds/whatever, if you want to do something that you fear is above your skill level, go for it. You never know, and it will most likely turn out very well indeed. Go for it. And have fun.

THE Magpie

Happy Birthday Berkeley and Marie

As near as we can ascertain, not having the precise date, this the the birthday of my cats Berkeley and Marie Curie. I figure that makes sense, as all cats are April Fools. Well, Marie is anyway, as she gets into a state in the Spring where she is, quite literally, bouncing off the walls. And racing up the hall, down the stairs, behind the books on the shelves, and otherwise going berserk. Mind, all that is without the aid of catnip.

Meanwhile, I have been working on my oriental flowers and vases quilt, I got some new fabrics for the sashing, and finished a couple more flowers and another vase. I just started the tiger lily, you can see a photo here http://www.choicesembroidery.co.uk/acatalog/Oriental_Collection.html, and that is all twelve of the flowers. I have finished peony, wisteria, iris, clematis, chrysanthemum and lotus. I just started the lily, so all I have so far is some green and brown curves on the fabric. Once the light is good, I'm going to get a photo of the two fabrics I just got for the quilt, and I think I may start cutting strips and adding sashing to the blocks I've stitched so far. With twenty-one blocks, the sashing is going to be a big job.

I'm also going to start working again on my Month quilt, of which I have finished the first four blocks and stitched them together. I started the cross stitch blocks in January of 2001, and after September put them aside for several years, and finally finished the last of them in 2010. There are three small stitched patches for each month, and then I picked out a fabric that went with each monthly set of three blocks to put them together into larger blocks. The sashing is a pretty green and cream swirl. I put it aside when I couldn't get the May block to come out even, but I think it may be time to take it up again. The stitched pieces were all out of a book titled "365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs" and some were done in themes, of which I did the samplers, quilt blocks and flowers of the month. The pieces are lovely, and as I stitched, I added the occasional deviation from the actual design. Sometimes I used specialty stitches, for the Easter Sampler I used angora yarn for the bunny tails, for the July Sampler I used beads and silk ribbon to do the ears of corn, things like that. Again, once the light is better, I'll get some photos of those.

I haven't forgotten about my Jane Nicholas Stumpwork pieces, or my Michele Chavez pieces either. Still mulling options in my head, and once I have my plan figured out, I shall begin. I just got the blue silks I needed for the blue peony from the Jane Nicholas book, so that may be the first piece I do from it.

THE Magpie

Woodlawn, Spring cleaning, and jewelry making

Well, I finally made it to Woodlawn to see my Arch-Chancellor's Hat on display. I was very disappointed as it was placed so that the words were unreadable. After they displayed my Priest's Stole on a bed and hard to see, and not in the same room where all the other vestments were placed, this placement is a big disappointment. Not sure that I will be entering anything else, as I doubt that I will ever do something good enough to get any prize. Yeah, I've heard the stuff about not entering just to win, but... Plus, I have just as much fun showing my stuff off at my local stitching groups, and it doesn't cost $20 to do so either. I would count the gas to get to meetings, but I have to drive to deliver the piece to Woodlawn, drive to Woodlawn to see it, and make a third trip to pick up my piece. All so they can display them in the worst possible ways. I have a picture of it, but they let us past the ropes so my friend could take the picture straight on. From the ropes, you can't read the quote, and it just looks like smudges. Talked to a friend of mine, who was incensed that they didn't give the stole at least honorable mention, and she agreed that they do seem to be doing a good job of putting my things in the wrong place, and that it was an expensive way to be disappointed.

Meanwhile, the cleaning goes on, and I actually got rid of four boxes of stuff last week! And, I found the supplies for my rainbow crystal bracelet, and made a new one for myself, having given my other one away. I designed this as a look alike for a very expensive bracelet made of sapphires--they come in every color of the rainbow, and the bracelet is gorgeous, but wearing something that expensive--as Rita Rudner says, "I don't want anything around my neck that is worth more than my head", and for me, the same goes for my wrist and hand. This bracelet, if someone steals it, I can always make another one. I'll have to do another picture, as this one dates back to when I was using only nine colors of swarovski cubes (all the colors they had at the time) and I now have twelve colors, they came out with indigo, olivine and jonquil after I designed the piece.

Lastly, my avocado tree is doing very well, and once frost danger is past will be moving out on the back porch, along with the lemon tree, the castanospermum, the pointsettia and the plumeria. I lost one of the stubs over the winter :-(, but the pink/red one is doing fine, and still has the flower buds she set last fall. Over the next week, I plan to start a bunch of seeds, tomato, pepper (green and hot types) black beans, corn and other veggies, and a few herbs. I also am going to be rooting some sage for a good friend of mine who is starting an herb garden.

THE Magpie

Syrian Tiles supplies came!!!!!

The supplies I need to do Jane Nicholas' Syrian and Persian Tiles just arrived!!! WoooHooo!!!!!! Gonna be busy for a long time to come. It's the perfect cure for boredom. Unfortunately, it is hell on cleaning.

I ordered gold glass pearls in four sizes, and some wire for the detached parts, and the volume of wire is amazing. I think I may have a lifetime supply now, and for a mere 12 dollars American.

Hmmm, thinking that I may do detached stuff for Michele's flowers too... Uh-oh, I am totally high on projectery. Don't talk me down, I'm having too much fun!

THE Magpie

Pictures of the beginning of the project

So here are the materials I am using for this project. I have a choice of eight different flowers, and any materials I want to use, but am limited to two different stitches for the flower I do. I am going to do flower number one, the top left flower in the picture. Based on the materials I got from Michele, I decided to do textures. And colors, duh, I am THE Deranged Magpie, after all. I think I am going to use the fabric that is laying over the pictures for the background, and yes, I am probably going to do most, if not all of the flowers--I have til October to finish the embroidery after all.

This is a pretty good photo of the fabric I will be using for the first flower, and also the flower pictures themselves.

Here are some of the fibers I got from Michele. I have rayon floss, and a selection of wools and other yarn type stuff, and also some metallic braid. I'll probably supplement this with my own fibers, and, of course, beads, which I have spent most of yesterday putting back in order. I have found that I am a visual creator, and that in order to make pretty things, I start with disorder--well, actually, I start with everything categorized and tidy, and cause disorder, and then put things back in order. Or something of the sort.

I really liked what a priest at the church I attend challenged us with as a Lenten Discipline. Instead of giving up something (chocolate is the one I hear most, actually), he suggested we do something positive. So for mine, I decided to wage war on junk--I have a lot of stuff, and some of it needs to go. So I am trying to empty at least two boxes of stuff a week, throw it away, give it away, or put it away. I don't think it will solve the whole problem, but it will make a dent at least. Which led to me tidying up my beads, and I got rid of a cardboard box, hooray! Next is to finish putting beads away, and then on to another box of stuff, in between updating this blog and embroidering, of course.

Anyway, you wouldn't think bringing more stuff home was a very good start to the thing, but hey, I have places for all this stuff.

Plus, the fabrics are pretty. I may supplement these with fabrics from my stash, who knows. In my cleaning, I found a box of fabric I got from a woman on RCTN (rec.crafts.textiles.needlework) as a swap for something--don't remember what I sent, but she must have really liked it.

THE Magpie

New project!!!

On Wednesday I went to my Embroiderer's Guild meeting, and a former president of the chapter and current designer of very cool stuff, Michele Chavez, had a new challenge project. She had done several (oh, okay, eight) Jacobean type flowers. The challenge was to interpret one or more in fiber, fabric and whatever else you wanted to toss in the mix, and to only use two different stitches on any one flower. So you could use running stitch and french knots, for instance. She also had a bunch of bits and pieces of fabric and different fibers and flosses for stitching with.

I got a bunch of little pieces of fabric in interesting textures, and also some crewel yarn and other interesting textured fibers, and decided that I am going for textures in the flowers. I think this is going to be lots of fun, and there will be lots of pictures here to look at.

Incidentally, this is the same person who caused me to make the priest's stole that started my crazy mad embroidery obsession, so big round of applause to Michele, my muse.

THE Magpie