Thursday, April 18, 2013

Odds and ends and back to stitching

I received another box of goodies from my friend. Lovely laces and silk scarves and a lady in distress (a half-doll pincushion I will reskirt). Here are two items from the box (which also included some lovely chocolate and a charming tin-litho Easter egg that would not photograph today--too reflective).
The triangle is a beaded applique, rather fragile.
I'm finding the purse handle particularly inspiring right now. Not quite sure why.
I finally began the crewel piece on blue felt. I had completed basting the design lines a while ago, had the threads and just couldn't get it going. (the colors here aren't quite right--too light--it's all much darker) I've never worked on such a dark ground before and it needs a certain level of energy to stitch because while I have a color map, I'm adjusting all the colors as I go. I wasn't sure how the coverage would be on this dark ground, and I think I'll need to use a felt underlayer for white or pale yellow, but so far I really like it.
I recently ordered these hand printed fabrics from Mabon Arts. The Little Deer project was in a recent issue of Stitch. I kept going back to it--I really like it--so I decided to make it up. Now I'm on the hunt for fine red gingham and a couple of other fabrics. 

 I have some other things in the works. I'm still plugging away on the London quilt--I'm nearly done with the hexagon pieced ground. I've chosen fabric to add on each side and laid it all out last weekend to determine how wide the side borders will be. 

I'm going to make a ring-bearer pillow for a friend's wedding. Crewel strawberries. I have a size and draft design that needs some tweeking--now I'm looking for ground fabric. I'd like a pastel yellow or green wool (not felt) for the ground. If not wool, perhaps a heavy linen. Time for a trip to a fabric store!

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