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

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

Beading, Reading, and Eating

This is some beading I did a few years ago. The rainbow bracelet was from a sapphire bracelet I saw at a jewelers, and absolutely adored. But the bracelet retailed at over $7000, so not only did I not think my husband was going to get it for me, I would have been afraid to wear it in case it broke, or was stolen, or something. So, here is a picture of the bracelet I made...

Before I saw the bracelet, I did not know that sapphires come in all the colors of the rainbow. I knew about rubies, but sapphires also come in a lovely peachy-pink called padparadscha, and also in yellow, green, purple, etc... I still prefer opals, for the flash, and rainbow moonstone and labradorite for their blue shimmery flash, but I like sapphires a lot better now. Anyway, the bracelet is made with several different colors of 4mm crystal cube beads by Swarovski, and the outer band is silver lined gold delica beads. The toggle bar is finished on the ends with capri blue 4mm Swarovski round crystals.  I wrote up the directions as I was asked by a fellow beader to teach her how to make the bracelet, and ended up with several other students in the class. I discovered I like teaching people how to do stuff, and so did another class with my "tennis bracelet".

 This is just a basic daisy chain, with each loop separate from each other, and after finishing the loops, as in the bracelet at the top of the picture, I would go back along the loops and add other beads. The tennis bracelet effect was from using Swarovski bicone beads in each loop. I also did some with flower beads alternating with either crystals or seed beads, as in the purple bracelet in the middle.



Lastly, at least where beading is concerned, I am putting up a picture of my star bracelet, necklace, and a string of stars that I stitched onto a ribbon to make a choker.

This came about because I was noodling round trying to make stars, and figured out how to make a string of stars. Came in handy, as when I was doing the white stars for a choker, I was sitting in an emergency room with my son, who needed stitches. So instead of worrying, I beaded. Let me tell you, when I am stressed, I can really bead fast.

So on to reading. The daughter of the house, and Magpie in training, brought me a set of books to read, as she loves them and wanted to share. So I did, and now I am sharing with anyone who reads this. I highly recommend the Chris D'Lacey Icefire dragon books. This is the same daughter who, with her friends, came up with the term ADOS,  the letters of which stand for, "Attention Deficit...Ooooh, Shiny!" This is also known as Dragon ADD. Magpies also have this--well, I refuse to call an affinity to shiny objects a disorder, so...

On to the eating portion of this blog... I started making this because I love honey oat bread, but hate the prices they charge at the store. I brought several loaves to Thanksgiving last year, and my Mum and another lady wrapped the two leftover loaves to take home, and when I asked were they going to share, they both said, quite firmly, "NO!" I think it might have tasted really good--and the two loaves I left home were very yummy as toast the next morning. So enjoy, and maybe I'll make some tomorrow, it will go very well with the barbecued pork loin I am making for dinner.

Honey Oatmeal Bread
(makes 3 large loaves, or six small loaves)

6 cups water, barely warm (I finally learned that the temp of your hand is perfect, after killing a lot of yeast, and cold is better than too hot)
1/2 cup honey
3 tbl yeast
2 cups oatmeal
flour (I use unbleached white) 15 or 16 cups, something around 5 pounds)
3 tbl salt
vegetable oil, for raising and also for the bread pans

Stir together water, oatmeal, honey and yeast, let it rest so the oatmeal soaks up lots of water. Dump in most of the flour you are using, stir until it is hard to stir, then knead until the dough doesn't cling to your hands. This takes about ten minutes or so. I do all this in a large metal bowl, then lift the dough ball up, add a little vegetable oil to the bowl, smear it around and put the dough back in to rise. I put plastic cling wrap on top of the bowl so moisture doesn't escape. Let rise for a couple hours, until it has doubled. Punch down, and repeat the rise/punch down at least once more. The distinctive "baking bread smell" comes from at least two rises, and three is even better. I usually bake on cookie pans, and make the rounded "french" or "italian" loaves because it is way easier to wash a flat pan than a pan with sides.

After the last rise, turn the oven on to 400F. Oil a couple of cookie sheets (my husband says put foil down and oil that, as the oil otherwise gets very sticky and won't come off the cookie sheet). Punch the dough down and divide into six blobs. (Or three, or whatever) I like the six because it bakes in a shorter amount of time. Anyway, I flatten it on the cookie sheet and then roll the bread dough into a log. Repeat for the rest of the dough, place on cookie sheets and bake for 45 minutes (or 1 hour 15 minutes for the bigger loaves). I do this in two stages, three loaves per baking, as the bottom pan of bread doesn't brown as well, because the top pan shields it. Just let the second batch of dough rise until you are ready to form loaves and bake.

THE Magpie

PS, for those with bread machines, divide recipe into how much the bread machine likes. And I don't see any reason why this couldn't be kneaded with the mixer and dough hook arrangement, either. I just hate washing dishes, and the one bowl method means far fewer dishes to wash after. This is approximate measurements, at least regarding the flour, as I use what I need to get the result I am after. Do feel free to tweak the recipe to suit yourself.

Picture of beaded bead and Granny Weatherwax

Here is a picture of the beaded bead I am working on.

 I thought at first that it looked kind of like a frog's eyes, but later started thinking it looked a bit like a corset, at this point. Um. A friend of mine calls me terminally naive, and she may be right, but I'm getting better. Anyway, the little bumps are going to go all the way round, and then a row of slightly bigger bumps round the middle, and a second row of the small bumps for the last row. Then I add crystals between the bumps, and work some rows to tighten the ends, and I'll be finished. Appearances to the contrary, the yellowish beads are actually ceylon white pearl.

 Here is the little pot of beads I am using to stitch the bead up with. Pretty, no? Ceylon white pearl, Delica 24 kt Rose Gold, iris blue Charlottes, Capri blue 4mm Swarovski bicones, capri blue luster size 11 seed beads and three cut size 12 capri blue AB seed beads.

Here are two pictures of my avocado tree. I started her in August, and in November noticed that she had sent up a shoot, but that something had happened to it. So I brought her out from under the table, where I had placed her so that she could grow undisturbed, and added some water in hopes that she was still alive, She responded by sending up a second shoot, which got to six inches tall, and which one of the cats promptly bit off. I figured the tree had possibly gone to that big forest in the sky, but on the off chance she hadn't I put a glass chimney over her, to protect her from voracious herbivorous felines. Well, about a week later, I noticed leaflets poking out from the chopped off stems, and so she acquired a name, Granny Weatherwax, who had a sign she would hold when she was out borrowing animal minds, "I Aten't Dead Yet", so that no one would bury her by mistake. Well, the avocado tree "Aten't Dead Yet".

THE Magpie