About the Garden

The weather is finally summery here and our garden is flourishing. A short while back I mentioned we have passion flowers and someone commented they were surprised. I don't know if they're unusual in our area or not--they came with the house. Here's the proof. They're finishing up now, but we have a couple still blooming. Each year I intend to really look at and stitch one of these wild flowers.We're THOSE neighbors. We are really encouraging milkweed because the butterflies love it. I find the plant to be fascinating, from it's multi-blossomed flowers to it's hard pods. The colors are amazing. I keep thinking it would be fun to stitch with milkweed fluff. It's very silky. I remember reading something about it being done, in haute couture in the early 20th Century perhaps. Or maybe it was used as quilt batting. I did a little Google "research" and found that milkweed fluff was used in life vests in WWI and can be spun (with difficulty). There were a couple of business sites promoting the uses of the various parts of the plant.
We have another bumper crop of oregano. It's hard to keep it from taking over. The bees and large black hornets love it. Anything for the bees.
Last, here are our tomato plants. If you look carefully you can see some tiny tomatoes. I counted six, but they're really hard to see in this photo so you'll just have to take my word for it. (They're mostly to the left or right in the center of of the photo).

Best Laid Plans

Well, the weekend didn't go quite as planned. Not that it was bad, just a bit more spontaneous.

I did manage to do something on each of my finishing projects. I found iron-on interfacing in my stash for the chatelaine. It's now sitting in the project bag with the chatelaine.

I found that a canning lid (the pop-off bit you can't reuse) is exactly the right size for my crewel ornament. I had one sitting by my chair that I've used for holding beads. Now that I have a right-sized template, I need to find cardboard.

And I began beading my stocking. I finished row one only to realize that I was missing a pack of beads from my well-organized project box (so much for my organization skills). I had stitched a few of the missing beads onto my plan card and used them to verify I'd written down the correct number at the SJ Designs website. Then I sent a heartfelt plea for immediate bead gratification to Susan. I'll have my beads soon and can continue.

So I switched gears. I made a new stencil screen for the Camp Quality project. We went to see the new Star Trek movie (we hadn't planned on it but a friend recommended it and we really enjoyed it). We washed my car, vacuumed it, waxed the roof and hood, washed the insides of all the windows, and scrubbed the doors with those molded pockets that collect grime and the dashboard and any plastic bits that could be washed.... and this time the "we" really meant both of us out there in the lovely weather working on it together.

I enjoyed the weather so much, I decided it was time for more rust. Upon our return from our trip to New York to see Susan in May, Marge gifted me with a bag of old rusty pans. I was, and am, thrilled.

I washed them and let them rust a bit more. Last week on my trip to Jo-Ann's I got some sale fabrics: bleached muslin, unbleached muslin and gray cotton. I got them washed on my long weekend and had them ready to go. To rust-dye fabric you need rusty things but you also need heat and water. It's supposed to be hot and rainy this week. (Finally, a good reason for hot, muggy summer weather!) This is the pile after I packaged it all up. The plastic bin has a roll of fabric layered with steel wool and wrapped with copper wire (as of this morning it was rusting nicely). I've layered the muffin and pie tins with fabric, salt, tin, fabric...with some steel wool and rusty bits from my last attempt at rust dyeing (here and here) thrown in.

I have it in the back yard, rusting away (I hope). I put the plastic tub on top of the muffin tins to keep them squashed. I'd like to get some string and tie the pie tins--I think that would provide more contact. But I haven't done it yet. (Our neighbor was out weeding as I was doing this; I'm sure he's now convinced that I'm totally nuts. He only suspected before.)

more silkscreen tutorial

I made a new silkscreen last weekend, for the tiki design and it came to me that I should add some notes on this process. I used regular embroidery stretcher bars a few inches larger than my design, flat thumb tacks, shipping tape and chiffon from the bridal aisle at J0-Ann's. Be sure to cut your chiffon large enough--this stuff frays like mad and you want a good grip with the tacks.

I stretched this the same way I do any fabric or canvas. Square your frame. (I usually place it in the upper corner of a door frame and whack it to match the right angle, turn it and whack again if it needs it--even if your house is older and not too square a door frame tends to stay fairly on the square and they're handy--no tools to find.)

Lay your fabric over the frame so it's even and pin the center top. Normally for embroidery I pin on the top of the frame. For this, however, I want the frame to lay flat when I put it face down on the fabric to be printed, so I pinned the tacks along the outside edge of the frame.

Check the grain and keeping it aligned along the inner edge of the top stretcher bar, pull the fabric taut and pin the center bottom. (This is more important for embroidery than this project.)
Then pin each center side. Now go back to the top and place a tack on each side of the center tack--maybe 1/2" apart. Pull the fabric taut each time. Keep going around, moving to the corners. Pin the corners last, folding the fabric (like putting on a bed sheet) and pinning it. Then I covered the tacks with tape, which helped corral some of the frayed chiffon edges.

I laid the frame fabric down on my printed design, centered it and traced the design with a fine Sharpie marker. This isn't going to affect your final design, just give you something to go by as you paint the screen.

I used Modge-Podge by Plaid for painting the design. I painted from both sides, but mostly from the front, holding the frame in my hand to make sure the wet-painted fabric side didn't touch anything.

Modge-Podge has always seemed to me to be an acrylic medium, but it dries a little harder than most. I had read somewhere it was good for this because it's more waterproof.

I used a small paint brush for details and a slightly larger one for background--just brushes I had on hand. I painted around the edges of the frame, working a bit to adhere the chiffon with this "glue" to the stretcher frame and to provide an edge for me to work with when spreading the paint.

Then I painted in the design areas I wished to block from the paint. (In this case the flower petals.) As I painted, I could see areas where the stuff covered, some areas I missed (hold it up to the light to check), and areas where the stuff pushed through to the back of the fabric (I turned it over and smoothed that out a bit). I wanted complete coverage but also fairly smooth coverage to allow the screen to lie really flat for printing.

Once I had it all painted, I set it fabric side up to dry for at least 48 hours before printing. I found a flexible squeegee (like an old credit card, a piece of flexible plastic or, if you have one, a squeegee) works best for spreading the paint for printing.

My designs for this project are fairly organic and I didn't worry about being terribly precise (which is good because I'm not good at that). I'd love to see what you do if you try this.

Three projects nearly done!

I've been busy this week and over the last, long weekend. I stitched this beaded stocking together and added the lining this week. I'm glad I wrote up this design plan when I began it, at least five years ago. I never would have remembered that beading pattern I came up with. The stocking has been beaded and sitting in a little box with all the beads, thread, needles, the lining fabric and the design card. I must have been at a very organized point in my life! Once I bead the fringe and a hanging loop it will be done.

The local American Needlepoint Guild chapter (Ridge Needlepointers) had issued a challenge to use a men's tie in a holiday design. By the time of the challenge I wasn't doing much counted work but I liked the concept. Most people were either adapting a design pattern from a tie to needlepoint or using the tie fabric as bands or trim on a needlepoint piece. My husband found this tie while taking a walk one Sunday afternoon. It was near a couple of churches, so we're guessing someone removed his tie after church and thought he stuffed it into his pocket. The fabric of the tie was gorgeous, but it was a narrow one.

I had loads of fun selecting beads (SJ Designs) and designing the beading on the stocking and the fringe.


This is the second of two crewel projects I inherited from my friend Rita. The first, here, had some stitching done on it by Rita. This one just had the design on (very nice) twill and the stitch and thread key. I'm sure this was a practice piece for the larger piece and I'm sure Rita just jumped in on the "real" piece, bypassing the practice. It's what I would have done. The colors are the same for both pieces. It only took me a few evenings and one morning to complete (I got up early today--I just couldn't leave it unfinished.) I plan to finish it as a flat ornament and use it as a doorhanger for my door at work.

The bag that contained these two projects also has the design for a third. The third design is larger and uses more colors (these two use only two color families, a pink and a green). I'm not sure if it appeals to me enough to do it. I think I'd like to try my hand at developing my own design for the next crewel project.

This project has been lurking in the bottom of the tote I bring to guild meetings for a few years now. It's a sewing tools "chatelaine" to go around your neck and keep things handy. Once in a while I'd pull it out at a meeting and stitch a flower.

I have one much like this, bought at an antique shop already made up. This one came from another antique shop as an original kit. 1975, designed by Erica Wilson for Columbia Minerva. The threads were bright Crayola green, olive (very 1970s!), yellow, pale orange and bright orange Persian threads and medium and hot pink perle cotton. The whole design is screened in blue on a nice white cotton fabric. I finally pulled it out after guild meeting this week and completed the embroidery. It's all cut out, ready to be put together. I need to decide whether I'd like to interface the ruler band (I think yes) and find a lining for the pocket (one of the squares is stuffed for a pincushion and the other lined for a small pocket. I'm also thinking about finding a way to sew or bond that strip with the pattern information (the date is printed at one end) onto the back of the long neck piece, to document it's history.

Hopefully there will be some DONE! posts coming up soon.

More Camp Quality--tutorial

I thought I'd share more of the design images for this year's Camp Quality project (more here) and write up a bit of a tutorial. I'm going to teach this at a meeting in a week or so and it helps me to write it out beforehand.

The top two images on the green were silkscreened using my homemade screen. I tacked good quality organza from J0-Ann's to a small stretcher frame, traced the design with a Sharpie, then filled in the flower petals and outer border with Modge-Podge. As I painted, the "screen" became all wavy and saggy and I didn't hold out much hope.

I let it dry 48 hours and it dried firm and straight so I gave it a go, using a small ruler as a "squeegee." I used cheap acrylics from Jo-Ann's for paint. I squirted a row of paint across the end (on the painted edge, not the open fabric) and pulled it across the open screen with my squeegee. It was partly okay--the squeegee was a bad choice but when I replaced the ruler with an old credit card, I got much nicer results--the card has some flex to it.

When I was done, I washed the screen in cool water. It got all saggy again, but tightened up nicely once dry. So, now I know I can't wash it to change colors and continue without letting it dry.

All of the rest of the imprints in the photos are made using freezer paper stencils. This is a fun technique that you can use to add images or words to anything you can paint (fill the open areas with glue and not paint and coat with gold foil). The paper works okay with felt, although it sticks much better to smooth cotton than it does to fuzzy felt.

Lay your fabric on an ironing surface right side up. Place the cut stencil, with the shiny side down. carefully on top, being sure to allow enough space for your desired margins. Press with a fairly hot iron until the plastic coating on the paper adheres to the fabric. You can't do this ahead of time and come back in a day or so to paint, but need to do it shortly before painting.

I use cheap acrylic paints and 5/$1 sponge brushes. I put some paint on an old, well washed foam meat tray (a paper plate, an old china or plastic plate, or palette paper would all work) and dab the tip of the brush into it. Then I dab the brush onto the open areas of the stencil, moving the brush up and down and not brushing it back and forth. Too much back and forth swiping and you'll pull the freezer paper away from the felt. Sometimes I'll gently swipe from the paper and onto the open fabric, but mostly it's up and down.

Don't use too much paint. Dip your brush in the paint and then tap it a couple of times on an empty area of the palette. A nice effect is to concentrate the paint around the edges of the stencil and let it fade a bit toward the center of the design area.

The row of brown tikis above are a freezer paper stencil pulled off of the design and ready to reuse; the design it was pulled from; two more stenciled designs, ready for the paper to be carefully pulled off for reuse; and a design in reverse.

For this one, I took the pieces I cut out of the stencils and carefully laid them onto my fabric in position, making sure the shiny side was down (this is important because otherwise it will stick to the iron). I pressed them into position and dabbed paint around them. I've pulled the mouth off so you can see the white fabric design that will show when the pieces are removed. I haven't tried to reuse these little bits.

Below are flowers, done in the same technique. The top two are freezer paper stencils with the paper ready to come off. The bottom left is a finished flower with the paper removed. And the bottom right is another reverse stencil. The lighter color paper will be removed to reveal the pink ground fabric.

To make a freezer paper stencil, pull off a piece of freezer paper (the kind with plastic on one side to protect your food) large enough for your stencil and a nice margin area. For a small design like this, I whack off a piece wide enough for my narrow measurement and then cut two or three pieces across the length of paper to get cut several stencils.

I put it plastic side down onto my design. I made several photocopies of the designs to the proper size. I just place the freezer paper onto the design and cut around the lines using an X-acto knife with a fine blade. I cut carefully so I can use the cut-out bits for reverse stencils.

The layers I work on are a clipboard, a piece of cardboard to protect the clipboard, the photocopy, the freezer paper. That's it. I have always been able to see clearly the photocopied line drawing through the freezer paper without a light box.

I've found I can cut three stencils from one photocopy before it falls apart from being cut. I get a better design if I just cut rather than trying to trace the design and then cut. If you're not comfortable using an X-acto knife, then trace the design and cut it out carefully with fine paper scissors.

Have fun!

New July Giveaway

The ribbon embroidery giveaway didn't pique anyone's interest, so I've pulled it. This may spark more interest. It is two charts by Dancing Needle Designs: Woodland Delight and Fruit of the Oak. Both designs are primarily cross stitch.

Woodland delight makes a sewing pocket.

Fruit of the Oak is a sampler and pillow and features a drawnwork section.

To enter, please a comment on this post by 9am central time the morning of July 31, including a way to get in touch with you.

Holiday Weekend 2

We had a perfect day Monday--lovely weather, dry and sunny, not too cool or too hot.

I love our family get togethers. We have good times and I really like my family and being with them. As with holidays everywhere, we feasted. I have a sense that our eclectic feast is generally typical--most 4th of July feasts are made up of the traditional and favorite foods of that particular family, whatever they may be.

My brother made these baguettes and, oh, yum! N picked the wild black raspberries. I'd never had them. They are really good! Little bursts of flavor. We had cherries, too, and some strawberries. Fresh picked lettuce and herbs. Homemade tomato sauce for pasta.

I think it's probably an American law written somewhere that you have to grill for the 4th of July. We grilled chicken and brats and packets of veggies in foil went on the coals (zucchini, summer squash, onion slices, pepper slices and cherry tomatoes). Most of us had a hand in the grilling. C&N brought home grown corn (frozen from last year, but still so sweet!). We had the bread with butter, with olive oil, I added a basil leaf. My sister had made a tasty spread with cream cheese, chopped green onion (salad onions) and chopped dried cranberries. It was really good on the bread.

And our family tradition...tinned black olives. When we were kids at every family holiday meal the can of black olives would be carefully drained and served in the nice dish as a rare and expensive treat. For a really fancy dinner mom would add carrot and celery sticks and maybe some green olives and sweet pickles, but mostly the black olives were the staple.

And to this day, at every family holiday meal, one of us turns up with a can of olives to serve. With the olives, our feast was nearly complete. For my family, dessert is a main part of the meal!

I bought mini-cupcakes with poofs of icing and colorful sprinkles. My brother brought a few homemade truffles and flourless peanutbutter cookies he'd made. N showed K and me how to smush a truffle onto a cookie for a true delight. After feasting we sat around and talked (segregated, as seems to be tradition. This time the guys were on the porch and we ladies sat inside). D (in the shorts above) took us for boat rides on the river. It was perfect weather for a lovely cruise. The scruffy guy in the jeans is my sweetie. (C is off the the right out of the picture, the porch wasn't quite big enough for me to get all three into one shot.) We got our calendars out and planned our next girls day out (end of July for K's birthday!)

We drove home (it's about 60 miles) with the windows down, enjoying the perfect weather, feeling replete and very happy.