Affirmations for Artists -- Always a Good Thing!!

Here's a cool video, "Affirmations for Artists in Today's Economy", which I got from Alyson at artbizcoach.com:



If for some reason you can't connect on it, click here for the original. I always like Alyson's column -- she has a lot of good tips and tricks. Enjoy!

Christine's Lovely Sampler

The scan does not do this beautiful work justice, but my camera batteries just crapped out on me and going to the store is a pain in the *** now that I can't drive. So, for now we scan. I know what I'm going to do now, and although I'm going to use some of the threads provided, I'm adding a couple of my own touches as well. I'm so excited!

The Birds Have Flown the Coop...!!!

Since I had posted previously about the birds, I thought y'all might like to see the finished piece... I was going to post it here but the image link isn't working for me at the moment. However, the final picture is at both blogs, with an explanation of my choice of subject on my Tumbleweed Designs blog. Please leave me a comment there and tell me (GENTLY!!) what you think! Thanks so much, girls!

For the Birds...

This is what the birds are being appliqued onto; the piece will then be sent out by Thursday to Breaking Traditions 2008:

The dots on the hands aren't chicken pox (*grin*) -- they're the pins which I've used to hold the layers together for free-motion quilting on the black background. The birds will be appliqued so it looks like they're flying from out of the hands. The picture of the piece in final will be posted on my other blog by Thursday.

AND...BTW...Christine's sampler has arrived and I've started on my band already, that pic will be up in my next post; OMG everyone's work is SO beautiful!! Girls, you rock!!

My Two-Cents' Worth, Finally!

Everyone is posting pix of their work "outside" our RR, so here goes some of mine!

Since putting the birds on Norma's sampler, I have become fascinated with that particular stitch. Jenny's specializing in Drawn work, I'm leaning more and more towards Pulled-Thread work. So following is my next effort, to be appliqued onto a 12" sq. quiltlet which will be entered in the Breaking Traditions 2008 Exhibit.

I've posted in more detail on my other blogs, Ever Embellished and Tumbleweed Designs. In a few days, I'll post a pic of the whole thing. With this particular exhibition, we are allowed to present pictures prior to the exhibition date. I'm quite excited about this chance and look forward to getting this piece done and sent off shortly!

humph

I'm obscure??????????!!!

Sarah's Band Sampler

I have finally finished my band for Sarah. I must admit that this one was a little harder to think of than the previous ones I have worked on, but I think it fits in with the theme.

In the package for this sampler was a little book with a card as a cover. On this card is a wonderful picture of a Chinese Emperor standing in a garden in front of a building. So I decided to use this card as the inspiration for my band. On the Emperor's robe is border featuring a key pattern, so I took this key, mirrored it horizontally, then again vertically, to achieve my pattern.

I found single crossed eyelets ( a stitch I had not done before) in a pulled work book and I felt that this would work beautifully on the fabric supplied. At first I graphed it so the key pattern was 3 squares wide. I wanted to use the eyelets in a checkerboard effect, but when I started to graph it out, the design was too wide for the sampler. So then I graphed it only one square wide, so each square would be an eyelet.

The eyelets were worked in 2 strands of DMC stranded thread, & when finished it looked a little bland. I needed to add another colour to give it a lift. I tried to outline the key shape, but as it was 5 threads wide, backstitching over 2 threads did not work mathamateically. I tried over 1 thread & also over 5 threads, both of which did not look good either. So in the end I worked tiny cross stitches over the single cross in the center of each eyelet.

Norma's Sampler

Norma's Sampler now has another band to add to the collection. The stitching is a combination of Wessex Stitching & Interlaced Herringbone stitch.

The Wessex stitching is made up of long-armed lazy daisy stitch & needle-weaving. The background is one colour & the motifs are made up of a change in colour for the long armed lazy daisy with added needleweaving in a different colour. I interchanged the colours of the motifs to give added interest. This is the first time I have worked any Wessex stitching, something I have wanted to do for a long time.

The interlaced herringbone stitch border is one I was exposed to during my Intermediate Certificate studies at the EG here in Sydney about ten years ago, and have not worked since. It is a stitch which is found in common use on embroideries from Central Aisia & India. It comprises a double row of herringbone stitch, worked slightly differently to normal herringbone. Tricky to work, it must be worked correctly or the interlacing will not work. I have used one colour for the herringbone base & two different colours for the interlacing.

Norma, I hope you enjoy.

Look what's arrived in sunny Australia!

On Wednesday I rushed around to the post office to collect my registered international parcel, which could only have been the package from Sarah. Inside were 2 beautiful pieces of work, the pumpkin coloured linen you will recognise as Norma's while the ivory one is Sarah's first piece on her own band.

Norma's now has 3 people's work on it, and is starting to take on its own identity. Sarah's is a "newborn" and you can see she has stitched with an Oriental flavour. I've arranged with Jenny to take Norma's "out of turn", so she can have something to stitch on. It's not that she has nothing to do at the moment, with a wedding and a 21st birthday quilt AND an exhibition coming up, but you know how it is ! You need to have an alternate project to relax with from time to time, don't you? I have them both pinned on my design board at the moment, hoping inspiration will strike me. In the meantime, I have a few minor projects to work on as well, VBG.

Christine
http://missmuffettwo.blogspot.com/

Jenny's band ready for England

Last night I was able to finish my band on Jenny's sampler. Here is the sea shell to go with the seahorses. The sea horse chart came with the running stitch motif on an angle, but I only wanted one stright motif at the end of the band so I charted it into an upright position which seems to finish things off nicely.

And here is how the bands look together.

I've had a request to bring this to my EGA chapter meeting on the 19th, so I'll send it off to Mandy after that. I've never seen anyone bring in hardanger work like Jenny's so I'm sure they'll be very impressed.

I feel a bit of lunchbag let down now. After the feast of two samplers, I don't know when to expect the next one!

Adding to Jenny's Sampler

My lecture preparation and family activities took all my time over our long weekend (I shouldn't be surprised, it always happens) but I finally have a quiet hour to show you what I am working on.

To start with, here is the page from the Color Play book by Joen Wolfrom that I used to get an idea of what colours I should look for. I used the same book when I was trying to figure out a palate for Christine's sampler. Here is the aqua page - since that is the colour of Jenny's band.

Here are the flosses I found to go with the band. I just loved the way these colours looked together and decided I had to use them.

As I mentioned at some point, I wanted to do something to do with the sea, but then the colours I found weren't the colour of sea life. Then I remembered this great sea horse motif I found while researching Assisi work at
http://www.stitchstitch.info/english/designs%20small/seahorses.htm
so I used that. I have designed a shell motif to go above and below this, but I wanted you all to see the start.

Band RR - Celtic design

I have just completed the next section of Christine's Band. This will be sent on to the next member of the group in the morning.

It was really difficult to know how best to continue the Band RR. Margaret's gorgeous orange 8 star design, Jenny's amazing open-work design and the intricacy of Christine's original work each being a very difficult act to follow.

The one thing that I focussed on was Christine's liking for stylised plants. After this, I had a very lucky find. I found myself in a Charity shop. Not unusual for me - since I often go into Charity shops to donate items, or just to browse. This time I found this wonderful book:

The book is full of the most wonderful illustrations - photographs and page border designs. I found it to be full of inspiration , with so many textures as well as images.

I chose this photograph:

The eventual design was based around the 12th century stone-carved doorway. I let myself play around with colours using the palette set by the Band RR itself. The completed design changed a little from the original sketch, most notably in the use of colour.