I'm Featured on StencilGirl Talk Today...

I'm featured on StencilGirl Talk today to show how I used a Jane LaFazio stencil to help with some design elements in this predominantly hand stitched silk piece I'm currently working on.  I hope you'll pop on over to see what I'm doing.


Have fun and I'll see you tomorrow.

Stitches Like 'Buttah'...

As I mentioned last Monday, I've finally got out my Babylock 12 Needle Embellisher again and I've started a new piece.  I'm using little bits of dupioni silk as well as some wonderful silk 'yarn' which I've been hanging on to for a while, and embellishing it onto a felt background.  I love the richness of the colours and the texture is so fabulous to work with!  I just love hand stitching through felt and silk!

Here are a couple of close up shots of the beginnings of some couching I'm doing with some of the silk 'yarn' pieces.

It's time to pull out some of my embroidery books for some inspiration! One of my favourite books is Judith Baker Montana's Free-Form Embroidery.  It's a stunning book, full of so much wonderful inspiration!

Beginning a New Piece With Silks...

I've been wanting to get my embellisher out for a while, and I finally found some time. I'm starting a new piece in which I'm using dupioni silk and I have plans for lots of fun hand stitch.  I just love that richness of the silk, and these colours are really speaking to me right now!

 I'm using my embellisher (I have a 12 needle Babylock).  One of the things I love about the 12 needle is that even if I break a needle, I can keep working without having to replace it for a while because I still have lots of needles working for me.  Yes, this has happened a few times. LOL






I'm also thinking about couching down some twisted strands of silk to add more dimension and interest.  So far, those pieces are just lying on top, being auditioned, but I'm liking how they look.  I'm excited about having a new 'hand project' on the go so I have something to do while listening to TV!

Thanks for dropping by today!

A Treasure Map

"Searching for Serenity" is the treasure map art quilt that resulted from a funny bit of dupioni silk that my friend Heather gave me a few years back after she had done some dyeing.  It was actually her wipe up cloth, and the colours and shapes in it called to me to do some hand stitching.  If you'd like to know more about it's progress, you can read about it here (original post showing the dye stained silk), here (showing the extensive hand stitching), and here (where I posted about adding the machine stitching).  

As I completed the the machine stitching, the hand stitched areas seemed to rise from the surface and I watched as a treasure map emerged.  Jean noticed this too, and even commented on it in a previous post!  Free motion pebbling was used to add additional depth and texture, allowing the islands to rise from the sea, and the sea to flow out into the border of the quilt before changing to a linear echo of the flowing water.  I did free motion machine embroidery on water soluble stabilizer to create the pirate ship and the compass rose.  The island names are small metallic pieces with words engraved into them, including the word Serentity...the ultimate destination.

Taking Time for Fibre Art

In addition to all of the art journalling I've been doing lately, my other passion is to 'doodle' with my sewing machine.  I started this piece almost two years ago when my friend Heather gave me an intriquing piece of silk.

I have been working on it slowly, adding hours of hand stitch as I showed in this previous post.  I'm still not exactly sure where this piece is taking me, but I knew that the next step was to add some free motion quilting of these fun little 'pebbles' to fill in the areas that didn't have any dye on them, and therefore didn't get hand stitched.

I love how the machine work flattens the areas between the hand stitch, allowing the hand stitched areas to come to the forefront.

With this step done, I now continue to look at the piece waiting for it to give me some idea of what is to come next...

What Do You Do...

What do you do while listening to TV?  Since I started hand stitching and beading, I've stopped watching much TV, but I listen to it a fair bit.  If I have beading or stitching to do I take it to the family room so I can be entertained while I work.  I sometimes wonder if I should be taking advantage of the programs that have described video for the visually impaired so that I wouldn't miss anything.  I must say, I do quite well to follow the movies and shows I 'watch' though.  When my husband is watching with me he'll sometimes ask if I saw this or that (I think it drives him a little crazy that I don't watch more attentively :o) but what can I do...) Since we have a PVR device, if I did miss it he'll back it up so I can see it.  However, if I'm 'watching' alone, I have no idea what I might have missed so it's all good.

Lately, while I've been 'watching' TV I've been doing kazillions of running stitches. My spell checker is questioning the word kazillion, but you get the idea.  

Almost two years ago, I posted about this wonderful piece of silk that a generous friend gave to me ;O).  Thanks Heather!

I started by outlining shapes of colour and then filling them with running stitch, but it kept getting set aside for other hand stitching and beading that needed to get done.

I picked it up again in late December, and have been working on it quite a bit since then.  I don't know how much longer the hand stitching will take, but when it's done I do have an idea for what will come next.  For now, that's a secret.  The next time you see it, I will post the finished piece...don't hold your breathe, but I promise it won't take another two years!

Butterfly Transitions

The other day I gave you a sneak peek of this piece, in which I showed you some of the quilting from the back, as well as providing a link to the original photograph.

Since then, I've spent a few hours working hard to get the background machine quilted.  When that was finished I made a whole lot of French knots to add some additional texture to the dupioni silk that is the background of this piece.

And, here it is, finished and mounted over a stretched canvas.  I'm very happy with how it turned out, and wish that the photo did it justice.

Below are a couple of detail shots.  This finishes a fifth UFO.  I am so glad Tracey gave us the challenge that she did because I've really been tidying up a lot of outstanding pieces.  I still have four other UFOs to finish plus the three new pieces that I have in the works, all of which I started in the last month.

It's funny to think that when I first started to quilt in 1999 I did one quilt, from beginning to end, before I started another project.  Now, I can't imagine staying that focused on one thing!  Add in my art journalling and photography and I just have to laugh...

 

Dimensional Exploration

close-up to show some of
the hand stitching

I've been working on a piece that is one piece of silk dupioni on which I've been working to create dimension in the piece using only stitch and a little shading. I'm please with the results, and plan to explore this idea further.