Finished the Lily, on to Michele's Challenge

 Figured I'd cut to the chase and just put the picture front, center and on top. Isn't it pretty?! www.bentonandjohnson.com, kits, Golden Lily. The kit contents are ample to do the project, including a bit extra, although because I am new to it I think I may have used more of the Japan Gold than ordinarily, there was enough but no leftover (not a problem, as I bought a spool of the stuff as well). I am going to be getting some plastic canvas rounds to use as a base for a box lid--I like it because it adds stability and I don't have to cut out cardboard or foam core. Plus, if I do a round, I don't have to worry about mitering the corners. I can lace rounds, but so far trying to lace squares and rectangles is beyond me. On the other hand, I can do mitered corners when sewing--I'll have to get a picture of the piece I am doing as a wall hanging that has a piece of stripe fabric that I mitered so that the stripes form a border around the piece. Turned out very cool.

Meanwhile, I have started the next piece, a flower from Michele's Challenge pieces.

 This is the design transferred to the back of the muslin. Next I affix the background fabric to the front of the muslin... like so

This is the background for the flower. Next step is to baste the shape so that I can start stitching it. I am limited to two stitches for the piece. I have decided that Satin Stitch will be one of them, as it is a very versatile stitch, depending on whether it is longer stitches or short ones, or on how hard you pull the stitches. The other stitch is going to be couching, another versatile stitch.

THE Magpie

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

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

Cats. More Cats. And, of course, stitching. And Hawaii. And quilts, but not Hawaiian quilts, not yet anyway.

So aside from the flowers and vases quilt that has grown a bit with time, I also have a long term cat quilt that I've been working on.

Cats have been on my mind today, partly because in an ongoing effort to eradicate the fleas (I have a dog. He goes on walks. He brings home fleas. Yeesh!) everyone got a bath. Yes, I give my cats baths. No, they don't like it. But after a few dozen kitty candies, they start sitting on my lap again. So. I had four cats, two children and a dog in an eight by five foot bathroom, and no, that isn't enough room. But I got it done, and everyone is much more flea free than previously, and so I could get back to my stitching and gardening.

So, I have four cats, so you can tell that I love cats. I also love humor, and there are several designers who do cat designs that are humorous. So I started accumulating them. And stitching some. And realizing that framing was _not_ an option if we wanted to keep the house, not to mention not having near enough wall space. So, the black cats quilt idea was born. The designs I have for the quilt are from several different lines, Kats By Kelly, Diane Graebner, Silly Snobs and Springberry Kreek, all of which I have located on the web doing a simple Google search, so here are a few of the designs...

http://www.katsbykelly.com/

http://happypages.com/diane_g/cross1.html

http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-perl/itemdetail.pl?item=02-1504

http://www.abcstitch.com/designers_php/designers.php?category=Springberry%20Kreek%20Designs

I am stitching them on white aida as being something that can be washed when necessary, and using plain cotton floss and occasionally some of the Kreinik Metallics. All the various designs tend to be black and white with a few touches of color, such that when I do put the quilt top together, I plan to even up the various sizes of stitched piece with black and white calico and then use the bright colors for sashing between the mostly black and white patches. I've been collecting the sashing fabric for a while, and have been trying very hard not to collect any more cat charts, as I think I currently have enough set up to do a king size quilt,  only they are so funny! I'll put a list of the charts I am using in a later article, in case anyone is interested.

Meanwhile, I've almost finished the Chrysanthemum from the Oriental flowers series, so will have to decide which flower to do next. Actually, I think it will be another yellow one, as the metallic gold backstitch is trickier because it is harder to see.

So, Hawaii...

This is a pretty close in picture of a white and yellow plumeria tree. They smell wonderful, and the flowers look artificial to begin with, mostly because they are so perfectly formed. They sell rooting stubs at the airport in Honolulu, so on your way home from this blissful gardener's paradise, you can take a piece or two home with you. Um, I picked up two "stubs", little branches that you take home, stick in some potting soil mixed half and half with sand and wait. Well, I got one pink and one yellow, and both have leaves growing out. I'm so excited. I feel like a Mom all over again. I also got lilikoi and guava seeds, and a red ginger root thingie, all of which have sprouted and are starting to grow secondary leaves.

This, I learned, is called a Heliconia. It is formed a bit like its much more famous/well known relative, the Bird of Paradise flower

which I have pictured here. Incidentally, my fifteen year old daughter took most of these pictures. Partly because once she had the camera in her hot little hands it took dynamite to dislodge it. So I finally gave up and let her at it. She is pretty good at framing, so I think I came out ahead.

This is called a traveller's palm, because water gets trapped at the base of the leaves and so if you know about it you can get a little drink if necessary. It is also a heliconia. I didn't get a good picture of the one with the flowers on it because I couldn't get close enough to the tree. And those fronds are something like 10 or more feet long. I think they look like some of the Hawaiian headdresses the dancers wear so this might be where they got their inspiration.

This is a closeup of a poinciana, albeit not a very good one. If you want to see a good picture of what the flowers look like, try this address. http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/royal_poinciana.htm. Tradewinds Fruit is where I got a bunch of seeds that I am currently waiting rather impatiently to sprout. Since a lot of them can take several months!!! to sprout, this is a lesson in patience for me (although the seeds I bought in Hawaii sprouted in a couple of weeks). Still, I like gardening. It is kind of like gambling, only less chance of losing entirely.

THE Magpie

Photos from Paradise--so this is how Adam and Eve felt--LOL

 I have no idea what this flowering bush is. I have a book, but have yet to locate this particular plant. The flower color is typical of the plants we saw in Hawaii, they seem to go for "the brighter, the better". I want to try to do my applique stuff with some of the photos I took.

This is a fish pond at the Ala Moana Mall. To say that it is big is an understatement. I think we did about a quarter of one floor before giving up in exhaustion. The sculpture is lovely, and a later blog will have it from ground level. I have to confess that I looked at it as a wonderful shape for a jungle gym.

These are called Rainbow Showers trees. The flowers are pendulous and are colored pink and yellow. I have since acquired some seeds of the parent trees of this hybrid, which I have been given to understand is a sterile hybrid. The parents are Golden Shower tree and Pink and White Shower tree, totally unsurprisingly. I found a website that sells seeds of both, and have them planted. Once they flower, I have plans. 

The trees shed the flower petals, hence, I expect, the name. Any place that gets freezing weather requires them to be indoor plants, so cleaning may get interesting once they flower, assuming I can keep them alive that long.

I am pretty sure that this is a very short Royal Poinciana. We saw some on the grounds of the Iolani Palace that were at least 40 feet high. The leaves are similar to the tree I grew up with that we called a Mimosa tree, but is also known as a Silk tree, with flowers composed of threadlike strands of pink and white. Royal Poinciana have deep red flowers.

I loved the richness of the colors of flowers in Hawaii. Reminds me of all the silks I have to embroider flowers with, so despite putting away the other project for now, I have lots of material for other things.

Last picture of all. Little Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, the little fish with the big name and he is right in the center of the picture. He is really cute, with his blue lip and gold and black striped body. We looked up the name, and it separates into three words in Hawaiian, humu-humu means triggerfish, nuku-nuku means nose, and apua'a means like a pig, so, triggerfish with a nose like a pig. I want to do some embroidery with this guy in it, I think he will translate well into embroidery.

THE Magpie