They're here---Pieces of Friendship

My puzzle pieces from the Pieces of Friendship swap arrived this weekend. Aren't they awesome? I'm just thrilled...Pat did an amazing job of putting the group together for me.

The pieces I received are from (top row, left to right) Grace from IN, Liz from KS, and Pat from IN and (bottom row, left to right) Robin from GA, Annette from the UK, and Elizabeth from VA. Thanks, everyone, for sharing with me.

Pieces of Friendship are off...

I made arrangements to drop off my Pieces of Friendship at the Chesterton Art Center on Saturday, where Pat will be teaching. (Then I'm going to meet a couple of good friends at an Indian restaurant for lunch--woo-hoo! I am so excited!)

It was still dim and rainy this morning but I was able to take photos of the final version of piece 5 and the back of one of the pieces, with the label sewn on. Rapunzel's braid doesn't make much difference in the photo but it does seem to me to make a bigger difference in the actual piece. It took me a while to figure out how to do it and I'm glad I did.

I learned when I talked to Pat that the instructions for the pieces of friendship swap that I had printed out were the original version and had changed a bit. The deadline is now June 1 not May 1, but I have them done and am happy, so I'm going to drop them off and move on to other things.

I just got the latest (and, sadly, last) issue of Fiber&Stitch and the first article is felt beads that are really cool. And I have a big bag of felt out...

I found the NANI State Day Project last night, just where I thought it was (amazing). But it's counted and I just can't do much of that on weeknights. So I think I'll stay in "felt land" for a while longer, at least during the week.

Pieces of Friendship

I worked diligently and have completed the six pieces I wanted to create. Here they are, along with some labels I created for the back. Last night I stitched on the labels and added Rapunzel's hair coming out of the tower (hence no posting last night) . I'll get a photo of the Rapunzel block before I send them all off to Pat Winter for the Pieces of Friendship exchange--it was raining this morning and too dark for pix.


Number 4 is wool, pieced like a traditional crazy quilt but without seams. I used felted wool fabrics and wool felt. I stitched each piece to a felt base with tacking stitches and then added a line of herringbone wherever two patches meet. I overlayed this with meandering feather stitch, leaf stitches, and beads, all in greens to make a leafy bower for the bird on the brad. Yes, it's a scrapbooking brad but it's cloth covered (looks like ribbon). A couple of glass leaves and seed-bead flowers finished it off. Fibers used were silk floss, overdyed Medici wool, and perle cotton. The beads were unknown leftovers in a baggie from a kit.


This piece incorporates my original idea, that mostly went by the wayside. I purchased some pink fairytale toile that I planned to color and use as the center for my pieces. Most of the motifs, however, were too large. This is Rapunzel's Tower and it just fit. I laid the cotton fabric on a felt underpiece (I used a thick dark gray felt for all of my center "interfacing's" on all of the pieces) and then put the felt pieces over the top. I used pink perle #8 to tack each piece in place, covering the edges of the muslin. I had a hard time finding a harmonious seam treatment and ended up stitching coral stitch over each seam using gray perle. I used the same gray perle to buttonhole the outer edge.

My last piece was, again, an early idea. Last year at the EGA's GLR seminar (this year's is going on now), I found a small baggie of inspiration. It has some turquoise crystals, some silks, yellow metallic, a baggie of mixed beads, silk ribbons. I don't remember the designer but she had specifically created these baggies to inspire (wouldn't that be fun?)

I added a few more odds and ends (silk threads) and then pretty much set it aside. I found it as I began this project and decided to do a piece with it. Here's my jumble of threads, ribbons, beads and the beginning of my piece. Spring is bursting forth here and I wanted to capture that. The dark blue-green wool seemed to set off the thread and ribbon colors. The pink blob in the center is the center of my focus flower.

I like layering in my pieces. I began this one with a meandering stem stitch line creating a heart in each corner. You can't see it in the final design but I know it's there.

I've added a chain stitch outline, stems and leaves using two different variegated greens and begun adding layers of flowers. The pink wool blob has been satin stitched over with red silk for my flower center. Each chain in the chain-stitch outline gets a stem and each stem gets a flower (many also get leaves). The threads are all silk and the flowers are lazy daisy, cast on stitch, bullion stitch, oyster stitch, and sometimes straight stitch. I've begun adding colonial knot flower centers and accents using the yellow metallic thread.

And here's the finished piece. I couched loops of ribbon for the petals (that's one long piece of variegated ribbon). Then I added piles of beads around the center, further anchoring the petals.

This was really fun to do and experiment with and it went quite quickly because of that.

My last photo is a shot of the ribbons I made as tags. I used a letter printer that looks like on of those old office date stamps only bigger with dye ink on ribbon. I put some Fray-Check on the cut edges and let it all dry for 24 hours.

I need to work on my EGA chapter's Indiana State Day project next, but I can't seem to find it right now. I'm sure it's nearby. The thing is, right now I'm really into playing with wool and felt and not quite feeling like buckling down to counted thread. I know once I get going on it, I'll quickly get into the swing of things and have fun. It's a gorgeous design.

More catching up

Last weekend we visited the Century Plant in East Chicago, Indiana, again. It was supposed to bloom the first week of April. I think it was probably the cold, nasty weather and snow that kept it from doing so (ya' think??). It has grown, at least a foot, and if you look closely you can see the tip is starting to open up. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a bloom this weekend. The weather has been a bit more moderate this week (at least there's not been any more snow).

I focused this weekend on my puzzle pieces for Pat Winter's Pieces of Friendship swap. I now have three done and have a fourth underway.

I showed this first piece before, here. Pat suggested that since I felt it still needed something, perhaps a charm would do the trick. I added a small bee charm and I do like it.

This second piece is more traditional crazy quilting, still using wool felt for the fabrics. I had fun stitching this one and another charm added a finishing touch. I stitched it to focus on the lovely little button I'd found in my stash.

This last piece is my favorite. The photograph makes the ground fabric a bit more green than it should be. It's more of a dull tarnished gold color.

In playing with these small pieces, I'm experimenting with colors. The dull gold is stitched edged with dark gray and stitched with a variegated green, a fine, dark metallic, a multicolored thread for the French knots, edged in turquoise and hot pink and topped with bright ribbon flowers. I like the layering effect on this piece. It has a dragonfly charm. (my husband liked this one so much, I set the thread mix aside and am going to make him one of his own, using a heart shape)

The red piece above is really more brick tones and I paired that color with lime, turquoise and taupe. Sounds odd, but I think it works.

I'm trying to move out of my comfort zone and pair colors I wouldn't normally and make it work. I have a theory that any two hues will work together as long as you get the right tint or tone or proportions or a linking color. I'm enjoying experimenting.

The piece I'm working on now is a pieced background of greenish wools with varying tints of blue in them. I'm planning some small beaded flowers for it but haven't gotten the rest sorted yet.

This size piece is perfect for play and experimentation. The odd shape makes it a challenge and keeps it interesting. I'm really happy that Pat came up with this idea and the swap.

Puzzling it out

For a while now I've been struggling with making puzzle pieces for Pat Winter's Pieces of Friendship swap. I got some fabric with paper dolls to use as a central image. blah. I colored in some toile with fabric crayons. feh. I tried some simple crazy quilting with fabrics I have. ho-hum.

Then last week, on our visit to Esther's Place, I found a large bin full of hand-dyed, felted wool fabric pieces (and bought way more than I could afford).

My first piece is an experiment in working with these materials. I pieced the wools and did seam treatments and then needlefelted a flower.

I often use a copier or the camera when a piece is developing, to help me "see." I'm not sure if it's the flattened plane or the different media, but I can often see things in a photo that I don't on the actual piece.

This wip photo clearly shows the large empty areas on the left that just stand out too much and detract from the flower. That solid green corner just pulls your eye away from it.

You can see in the final version at the top of the page that I used some simple embroidered swirls to break up these areas. Now the focus is back on the flower. At least, that's how it seems to me.

Photocopying can be even more helpful because it drops out the color. I almost always copy a design in progress, just to see where the lights and darks are and how things flow.

I think I'm on the right track. Pat Winter blogged several times recently about having a hard time with red as the main color. I think that influenced me to select a wool plaid in red and bittersweet as my focal fabric for my second puzzle piece. I have the background pieced and now trying to figure out where to go next.

I have a scrap of a silk print that has a bittersweet background with grayish-turquoise flowers on it, so I think I may try to incorporate that color. My initial inclination is to do something autumn with those background colors--perhaps a fall leaf or pine needles but I'd like to push a bit out of my comfort zone with this.

I also cut a solid fabric puzzle piece from a nicely mottled wool in a butternut color. I think it will be a stunning background if I can figure out what to put on it.