Friends

 Yesterday my friends Lisa and Kathleen came over and spent several hours sharing and eating. This is the first time we have been able to get together this year so we had lots to share. They are both incredible artists and had wonderful new work to show. I always feel so inspired after spending time with them.

Today I spent the afternoon with another group of friends, we all met at Curves several years ago. We used to share and do show and tell early in the morning at Curves. Then our local Curves closed, so we've been getting together once a month so that we could share what we've been doing. There are five of us, we take turns hosting and we all really look forward to our get togethers - at least I know I do.

I feel so fortunate to have all these women in my life, they have definitely enriched it. Thank you.

This month I will be doing some guest posts on the "and then we set it on fire" blog.  Beata is a regular on the blog and has invited several of us to join her this month to explore hand stitching. My posts will be on the 14th and the 28th, but be sure to check out the blog all month long.

The Weekly Leaf #9

This week I used a hand carved stamp.

Daily Stitching

Indigo and Rust #349 - #355, only ten more to go.

Line dance #56 & #57

The first three rows

#58- #62

Monthly project
Mom and Me #3

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Vintage block quilt done

The quilt made from vintage blocks is finished, except for the label. I need to get some information about the woman who had these blocks, she passed way recently and was in her 90's. The quilt is 75" x 75" and too big to photograph on my design wall so I've put it on a spare bed to get a photo.

The leaf this week is based on a doodle that I did while in a meeting. I enlarged it, reversed it, made a toner copy and used Citra-solv to transfer it to hand dyed fabric.

The original doodle and the enlargement.

The reverse image and the transfer.

The Weekly Leaf #7

Daily Stitching

Indigo and Rust #338 - #342

Line Dance #45 - #49

Monthly Project

Mom and Me, February

This is one of her crocheted doilies that would have been starched so that the edges would ruffle. I don't think it was ever used. I found that if it was folded not quite in the center and pressed, it would lay fairly flat. It's mounted on an eight inch canvas.


Linked to "Off the wall Friday"

New Monthly project

My Mom did a lot of embroidery when I was young and even though I don't remember her teaching me how to embroider, I'm sure she did. I feel like I have always known how to embroider and until the late 1970's I did quite a bit of it. Now after a thirty year layoff you've probably noticed that I'm back at it. I have a box of my Mom's old linens that are embroidered and/or crocheted. Most of the ones I have left are either very worn or stained, but I've kept them. Recently I decided to use them in combination with some of my old jeans. My Mom never wore jeans and I almost always wear jeans, so my plan was to combine the two; her linens and my jeans. This was to be my monthly project for the year. I have spent most of the month struggling with how to combine the two, finally I realized that it just was not working.

Yesterday it finally hit me that my embroidery looks nothing like her embroidery. She always followed patterns or iron on designs and was very neat and precise. I on the other hand make it up as I go, generally with not so perfect stitches. So I've given up on including my jeans and I'm just using parts of her pieces, some plain cotton and my stitching, then mounting it all on an eight inch square canvas.

January, Mom and Me

I'm not sure if I'll do a whole years worth or just a few and then move on to something else. I'll just see how it goes. So far I like how my big chunky stitches contrast with her very fine delicate ones.

Weekly Leaf
This week I used a rubbing of a large (10"long) leaf tjap.

I did the rubbing when I first got the tjap using a black paintstik on silk broadcloth. Then recently while dyeing some threads I also dyed the rubbing.

I use a viewfinder to pick the area to use.

Fused flannel to the back and then added lots of stitching
Week #4

Line Dance #21 - #27

Indigo and Rust #314 - #320

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"