Three Times a Charm

Lesson 2 With Creative Chick, Organic Embroidery

Again I am having a great time doing an on line class with Susan Sorrell. I love the freedom of working whenever I want and having all my materials right here. Often I make meals and paint backgrounds in the dining room at the same time. Proximity of my art space is important to how much I get done. Above is a photo of seeds I found in the neighbourhood manipulated on my HP 927 camera. Below is an original photo.




It is important to follow your lesson as you go along. I ended up doing it three times. I'll have three different art pieces based on the same photos.




This is effort number 2, the correct size but I stitched on the wrong side of the lutradur. All the sparkle and print is on the other side.




This is effort # 1, wrong size, too big at 8"x10". It will take forever and a day to stitch the inside patterns.

This is finally effort #3, correct size and the lutradur is the correct side up. I have had a lot of practise with the back stitch. I switched to pearl cotton which I had to rescue from Oatie dog, he was all tangled in it with the ball in his mouth and he wasn't giving it back. After the outlining I will be adding pattern to my shapes using a variety of stitches. Stay tuned for the finished projects! P.S. I finished Lesson 1!


Finished Cloth Doodle for Material Girl, Janet.

Cloth Doodle for Marda.

Cloth Doodle for Leslie!

Close Up of 'Nesting'. I hope you like it Leslie!

Finally, I was busy writing an artist's statement for my quilt that will be in the juried show, The Common Thread, in September during The World of Threads Festival. Thank goodness, my new Q' Arts Magazine had a very good article about writing these statements. Must get back to work! Toodles to Maggie, who always reads my blog!

Fun Fibre Retreat

Delightful flowers outside the Erie Beach Hotel in Port Dover on Lake Erie.

My group of four fibre artists, ( the Material Girls ), had a little retreat at my cottage at Turkey Point last week. We stitched, painted, and discussed everything fibre art. One highlight was our dinner at the Erie Beach which is famous for its salad cart and celery bread. I particularly like the horseradish jello and pickled pumpkin. After dinner we shopped in the area and found some very nice things to buy. Marda found these giant keys for her studio and couldn't resist a new straw bag. I bought a cute little nest with three eggs in it for my book shelf. Later, we all enjoyed ice cream at the local stand in Turkey Point.








Janet, in front, Marda and Leslie.






Janet, me and Leslie.





A view of the board walk in Port Dover.

Oatie, sleeping finally in his bed after a hard day of watching us make art! Note his toy he got at a garage sale, a Tasmanian Devil. He carried it home by himself.

A very good time was had by all, we made painted journal pages and worked on cloth doodles to trade with each other.

I've started another class with Susan Sorrell of Creative Chick Studio. This is my Organic Embroidery Sampler in progress.

A close up of Lesson One. This is really fun!

At the cottage, Oatie and I stayed over the weekend, I finished my sock stuffie. I call it Little Brown Dog. He is made from a pair of my socks and it is completely hand sewn. I used pipcleaners to give the ears some character, like Oatie's ears.

I traded for some journal pages with the Cloth Paper Studio ladies. This is one side.

Side 2.

Dotee Doll swap! I got one of my own back!

Postcard from Kathie Meyers. (Fibrein2Art Forum)

I sent my postcard naked through the mail today to Norma Soulet. The lady at the post office was so impressed that I got wonderful service. I think I made her day! Its nice to brighten some one's day with your art! Until next week, stitch away!

Before and After

The last two weeks have been busy as usual. Here is a photo of Oatis before the BIG Operation!




Here he is after, no worse for wear and all duded out in a red kerchief! Today's check up went well . He is all set to go.




This is my first paper stitchery mounted on a painted canvas. I just need to stitch it in place. I used the same method, using paper,crayon, paint, stitch witchery, fusible pellon. I machine stitched then hand stitched with added beads. I am very pleased with the results.




This is my first piece with all the embellishments completed. I just need to paint a wrapped canvas for it.

Button Cloth Doodle for a Cloth Paper Studio swap.

Go Green Cloth Doodle

More paper pieces ready for stitch.

I started embroidering my flower pounding piece I made last year with Kim Maticiw.

A felted piece waiting for some hand stitching.

I discovered this really old machine embroidery book at our guild. It was published in 1961! The year my baby sister was born. The drawings are amazing! I am practising in my sketchbook using Enid's drawings for inspiration. I hope to add some of these to my crayoned papers as design or in stitch.

Finally, I found an Ikea frame for the felted art I bought from Aileen Clarke. It is hanging up in the living room.

I also displayed my ATC's from My Embellish and Enrich Group on a memory Board my sister gave me.

My first spot is complete with all books in the bookcase next to an easy chair. I still want to buy an occasional table and a free standing lamp.

Well, I am off to a retreat to my cottage with my friends, The Material Girls, for stitching and relaxation with a bit of food and wine! Hope you are having a warm and inspiring July!

Playing with Papers

Decorated Papers, using hand made paper, crayons and paint.



My mom, sister Brenda, my aunt Elly and I had a delightful time on Monday on the Grand River Dinner Cruise. We saw a movie about the Grand River, were entertained by the Blazing Fiddles and had a tasty lunch on the Princess pontoon boat along the Grand River. Captain Al told us about the local history, especially about the Mohawk natives and the Six Nations Reserve. We saw from the river where the poet, Pauline Johnson lived.



This past week I have been completely enthralled with making design papers for stitching on. Using the instructions from Jill A Kennedy's Florabundance article in Quilting Arts Magazine, I've made one surface to stitch on and I have a couple more ready to go. Above is a design paper after using wax crayons and painting over the resist with Dynaflow. I added some Shiva gold on top. It's ready to be fused to craft fuse stabilizer on the back and fused with stitch witchery on the top. Once that is done I will scrunch up the paper fabric to soften it. The next step is to cut the pieces apart and reassemble into a design.




This is a close up of my first crayoned and painted Paper with stitching on it.




This is an over all view of the same paper. After reassembling and fusing to craft fuse again, I zigzagged the edges and free motion quilted the whole paper. I started hand stitching using a straight stitch, a few french knots and cross stitches. Its amazing that I started with a piece of painted manila paper from school and ended up with a stitchery.



This is my first cloth Doodle. I enjoyed doing this so much. I am keeping this one and making 3 more for a swap with Cloth, Paper Studio forum.
I finally got to working on making my studio spots in my house. My bookcase is up and filled with my art quilting books beside an easy chair in my living room. This is my reading SPOT! Since I can not have one big studio, I will have spots all over my house. Right now I am at my computer spot in the basement family room. This will be a summer project for sure! Until next week, try paper quilting!