Copyright

(c) 2009 - 2024 (MEM)

Please keep in mind that, unless otherwise noted, everything on my blog is copyright material of some sort. Either by me (as picture taker, writer, creator) or more importantly by the designer of the needlework pieces I present. If you promise to be copyright mindful, my promise to you is to do my best to provide you enough information in my post for you to obtain your own legal copy. Please be respectful of these copyrights and not take business away from our wonderful designers. Thank you.
............. . ."She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight" Proverbs 31:13 NAS


Sunday, April 28, 2013

Monday Quote


"Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!"
--Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Sampler Guild Mail Art

As I reported last September, I participated in the Sampler Guild of the Rockies mail art project this year. My birthday was in September and I received a beautiful mail art from Jean. I pulled a name of someone whose birthday was in March and now I can show you what I made for her.

On the front are motifs from a Sampler Book I have called, The Sampler Company's Book of Alphabets Motifs and Borders, by Brenda Keyes. It was published in 1999 and is now out of print. It is 28 pages packed full of motifs, so if you see it someplace check it out, you may want to grab it while you can.

Each person who wanted to participate filled out a form answering questions with things they like, favorite colors, favorite designers etc. so we'd have a good idea on what to stitch. My person liked red houses and birds so I put them on the front. I made the bird blue to represent the bluebird of happiness.


The rest of the designs are from Blackbird Designs Summer's Last Rose, which I think came out last fall sometime. Blackbird was one of her favorite disigners. The design I used on the back flap has more leaves to the left and right, but would not fit so I just left them off. I may also have changed the flower colors, but do not recall. I think I used the redder floss on these to coordinate with the red used on the pocket (next photo).

Under the flap I was able to fit this design on the pocket. You can also see the lining fabric I used. I put a small Blackbird Design chart inside the pocket as part of the birthday gift, I may have put in some needles too, but do not remember! I finished it in January and had to keep reminding myself not to forget to mail it in late March!
 This is a closer shot of the area under the flap.

It was a lot of fun to make and the person I sent it to really liked it.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Long May She Wave Class

Last week I took a class called Long May She Wave by Ellen Chester of With My Needle. She is a WONDERFUL instructor and her instructions are great too! Here is my progress so far, I am about done. I only have the small flag at upper right to complete. Then all the parts will be cut out and put together to form a needle keep. I purchased the optional scrimshaw pieces - ruler and thread holder- that have the girl holding the flag and her dog on them. You can find more information about the project here. It was the April 12-14 classes hosted by Sampler Guild of the Rockies. I also took the Sampler Needlebook class mentioned at this link, but not the huswife. I will blog about the needlebook when I get more done on it, but it was designed especially for the Guild's 20th anniversary.


The stripes on the bigger flag are all different stitches and we had our choice of making the Betsy Ross Flag or the current 50 star flag. She gave us a mini history lesson about the flag too, along with some information about hornbooks. All and all a very nice day!!

The picture is purposely somewhat unclear at the request of the designer to avoid copying by unscrupulous folks. Now I know my followers would never steal anything, but this is the public Internet, so I am respecting her request. Her website may have better pictures.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Monday Quotes



“The April winds are magical

And thrill our tuneful frames;

The garden-walks are passional

To bachelors and dames.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson 

(from his poem, April)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Fortune Cookie Friday

 
"We are happy together"
 
This was fun to get since hubby and I were on our Friday night date. It had smily faces on each end of the quotes too.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Foothills EGA Workshop with Catherine Jordan

This past week I took a two day class with Catherine Jordan offered by my Foothills EGA Chapter. We painted fabric, stitched and played with fabric dyes. The class is to create a treasure map - here is the class piece done by Catherine.


To make us feel more at home with painting, she had us make the cover for a small journal before we put paint brush to the larger piece. So the two day class focused on the journal cover, but everything we did on the cover we would do on our bigger map (at least painting wise).

We also had the option of dying our fabric to be used for the bigger map (final size would be 11"x 11") if we wanted. We had cutch dye in our kits, but the other fabric dye she provided in class, so I decided to do mine in class so I could use some of the darker dye for the upper left corner. When stitched this darker area is to help give a feeling of illumination in other areas.


Here is my journal cover so far. The front is mostly done, just some borders are needed. Then I will stitch the spine and the back cover. I painted the sky, ocean and ground. In the ground area I painted shadows and in the sky and ocean I painted in the sun. Also the shadowy border around it all is painted. Once dyed it will pull it all together. You can compare the fabric color not dyed below with how it looks after it was dyed above.


Once done stitching, I will dye it using the cutch provided, and hopefully remember to post an update here on my blog. I do not need to wait for all the stitching to be completed to dye it, that is just how I decided to do it.

It was a GREAT class and Catherine is a wonderful teacher. I highly recommend her.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Monday Quote



“Spring would not be spring without bird songs.”

--Francis M. Chapman (1913-2004)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Fortune Cookie Friday And....

I saved this one because I got it October 23, 1997.....

"You will seriously consider a move by year end."

We moved in November 1997!  We knew we were moving when I got the fortune, so that is why I saved it and put the date I got it on the piece of paper.


AND...

Check back this weekend, I hope to post some pictures from the GREAT workshop I attended sponsored by Foothills Chapter EGA. Catherine Jordan was the teacher and we painted and dyed fabric and stitched on it then painted again!!  FUN, FUN, FUN. Catherine was a wonderful teacher too.