August Take-It-Further

I haven't come very far with this. I'm still having lots of thoughts about balance and how to achieve it. I'm watching the Olympic gymnasts balance on a narrow beam (and leap and flip on it!) with admiration and awe. I have issues with vertigo and balance is a big deal for me physically as well as emotionally and just in general.

I made a Photoshop image of one of my ideas. I've discovered that after taking the Studio Journals class, now I keep asking "what if?" and am having trouble on settling on a design and getting down to work.

My image for the line--the fine line we all walk--is a cord wrapped with thread in rainbow colors. Now I'm thinking I might like to make the background fabric an inkblot on fabric rather than a plain solid. I'll post more as the idea evolves

TIF and Vacation!

As I was getting ready to leave Friday night, I scanned the next two finished bands. It was frustrating because my thumb drived died on me. I finally gave up on it and borrowed my husband's. The first band adds a little color and stitch variety. I did it on an ecru linen with a darker perle using four-sided stitch. The third band is on lugana and it went quickly. I used satin stitch and purple perle.

Saturday morning I left on vacation. First I drove up to the Rockford area to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We went to the 12th Annual Stephenson County Fiber Art Fair. It was very nice. Many spinners. You could by a fleece and a drop spindle and learn from scratch! They had lots of lovely tools and accessories, gorgeous yarns, many hand-spun. We had fun paint-dyeing our own wool. For a nominal fee we received a skein of handspun wool, a lovely trash-bag coverall, dye and instructions. The dye was in old-fashioned baby bottles and you squeezed it onto the wool in the colors and pattern you wanted. Mine is all shades of green from yellowish to teal. It was a load of fun.

After a nice dinner, I drove backroads up to Madison, Wisconsin. It was a lovely pink and purple sunset as I drove along the winding roads. Now in Madison I'm at the Embroiderer's Guild of America Great Lakes Region seminar. I thought I'd share with you how much fun and what a bargain this regional seminar is. Many EGA regions hold them, but I would guess they vary in style and content. The GLR seminar is wonderful.

I checked in last night, had a lazy morning and lunch and then headed to my first class. It was a beaded pendant taught by Andrea Sapon and was a lot of fun. The class was only three hours and my piece is nearly done!

(I brought my camera so I could take and post pictures but forgot to bring the interface thingy that allows me to plug in my data chip, so no more pix 'till I get home.)

After the class I had a board meeting and then there was a "meet the teachers" where all of the seminar teachers displayed their seminar pieces and often other things they've been doing. So I got to meet my teachers for the rest of the week. The opening banquet featured killer chocolate cake and a talk by a local quilt artist. She brought a lot of her quilts (pieced, applique, painted, dyed, thread-painted, etc.).

I ran into the boutique after dinner. If you don't catch it early, you may miss that treasure! I got a kit for a needlepunch pincushion. I like to buy a kit at each event I attend and then do my best to finish it before leaving. It's kind of a souvenir for me.

That's just day 1. The seminar offically begins tomorrow.

The GLR seminar runs from Sunday night's opening banquet through Thursday night's closing dinner. The classes are all day M-T-W-Th or M&T and W&Th with the Sunday afternoon short classes for those who come in early.

The seminar package includes all but one meal from Sunday night through Thursday night. One night there's usually a special tour and dinner you can sign up for. I usually don't--I need that night off to just absorb everything. Our fee for this seminar was $395. So that's four days of teaching fees and twelve meals, plus all sorts of goodies, door prizes, events, and fun! Kit costs and hotel are extra, but they do a great job at keeping costs down and the rooms are one rate whether it's one of you or four.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'm doing "Perfect Forest" with Catherine Jordan and I need to gather my supplies.

TIF in progress

I finally began stitching on my pulled thread bands for April. Band one, on the pink, is complete and band two underway. Band one is the most traditional. I don't consider it seriously traditional because I didn't count it out exactly. It's off center. I didn't count the number of threads in the drawn section so I was lucky the twists came out even. I used perle 12 and 8 on linen, white on white.

Band two gave me fits. I scanned these images last weekend and I have the band nearly done now. The linen is 32 count and my eyes just can't see it. The sample shows the threads for the outer edge withdrawn. I did four-sided stitch with perle 12 around the edge and then folded under a double hem and backstitched it through the four-sided stitches.

I'll do more four-sided stitch around the drawn thread panel. In the scan, I'm in the process of doing the reweaving of the drawn threads for the edge of the open panel (that's the part I had a tough time seeing). I've withdrawn and rewoven a few threads here, working from the outer edge of the panel toward the center--you can see threads withdrawn all the way across ready to have the thread next to each unwoven from the center to the edge of the panel and then rewoven to the outer edge. I do one thread at a time generally and weave the threads back in before moving on just to keep things stable.

I've already begun marking the third panel, just to give my eyes a rest. It's on lugana which is much easier to count.

One tip I learned (I should have known better and paid for forgetting)--work with a well sized or starched, crisp fabric. The linen for panel one had been washed and it was really hard to keep crisp folds and to get the threads a the corners to stay put. It really wanted to unravel. If I'd added some sizing before I began I would have had fewer problems. The linen for band two behaved much better.

Take It Further

I realized over the past few days that I handle change best when I anticipate and have a plan. So here's my plan for my April piece.

I have the fabrics together and some fibers but I haven't done any thread withdrawing or stitching yet. But I have a plan!

Thoughts on April's challenge

I've been wanting to write all week about my thoughts on April's challenge and change in general but this has been one of THOSE weeks. One more day, filled with conference events (I'm organizing, not participating) then I collapse!

First, thanks to those who suggested the little tea lights for my landscape tube. I tried them but they didn't emit nearly enough light. They're very faint. So I need to keep looking. But it was a great thought, thanks!

On to change. It's been interesting to see how many other's relationship to change is similar to mine. It's inevitable but that doesn't mean I have to always like it! I do prefer it when I control it, that's for sure. And I do much better with evolutionary change rather than revolutionary change.

On the other hand, sometimes big changes can breathe fresh air into life and shake things up for the good.

So I know how I feel about change, good and bad, but it's really hard to put concepts like this into images. I thought about a blowing wind with people holding umbrellas and reacting to the wind in various ways—fighting it, sailing along.

But then last night I was reading Stitch magazine and saw an new bullion stitch design by Effie Mitrofanis and it reminded me of her pulled thread book that I’ve found quite inspiring. And from that I think I’ve decided to show the evolution of an embroidery.

The first formal embroidery course I ever took was Hardanger embroidery from Aina Momquist at the Scandinavian Boutique in Homewood, IL, in the very early 80s. Aina is a very traditional embroiderer and her work is exquisite. For her the epitome of beautiful Hardanger, drawn and pulled work is white on white in a fine count with precise stitching. I plan to begin there with a simple drawn thread area in linen, hemstitched with invisible darning in of the cut threads using fine perle cotton.

Personally, I like color and it was hard for me to stick to white so I introduced some color right away in my second piece when studying with Aina (she tolerated it). I love antiques and I've seen many pieces with grayish stitching on ecru and I love this combination. I plan to do a band like this with the same drawn motif.

All in all, I want to do a number of bands adding gradually color and different fibers, inspired by Effie Mitrofanis’s work add button hole stitches, ribbon work, eyelets and other variations around the same simple drawn-thread band.

So, that’s where I am for now. Sorry, no pictures today. Just thoughts.

Fiber & Stitch Challenge piece

I finished it last night and took photos this morning. I was quite unhappy with the project at first and feel I need to experiment a lot more with working with Misty-Fuse, sheers and fabrics, but in the end I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

The embroidery is all done by hand. I used only three stitches: straight, outline and French knots. Once I decided to see about lighting it from behind, I wanted to avoid the shadows that would have appeared with more extensive embroidery.

I made the landscape into a tube because when I showed it to my husband, I held it in front of a light. The effect was striking and he said it reminded him of those painted shades (with landscapes or cowboys and Indians) from the 1950s that would rotate. It just so happened that the landscape matched up quite well along the seam line.

We don't have a light that fits inside but right now it does fit perfectly over the ever-present box of Quaker Oatmeal in the kitchen.

I discussed the project previously here and here.

This project has sparked additional ideas. I'd like to do an all-felt landscape, using bits of loose wool to add the haze of distance. I'd also like to do a landscape with only one background fabric, building up the landscape from sheers.

March Take-It-Further Challenge

Here is my finished book page for March. I --- quilted around the printed sand/earth image with one strand of Needle Necessities overdyed floss. I auditioned a number of threads to "halo" the flames and the side and ended up using a mystery copper metallic thread couched with Kreinik #4 braid in Vatican. The mystery metallic is about the size of a #8 braid but softer. I stitched it to a backing of a commercial "tie-dyed" quilting cotton with rusts, greens, and golds. I used sage-color satin ribbons for the binding loops.

It still seemed unfinished so I couched a strand of SJ Designs Confetti (Strawberry Ice) around the outside edge. Confetti is a metallic thread inside a shimmery sheer tube and now the piece is "finished."

I’ve also been adding hand embroidery, mostly using various overdyed flosses, to my landscape challenge piece for Fiber & Stitch. Here it is so far.

I'm planning on making it a free-standing tube (it's wider than shown in this scan). All the wrinkles in it when flat are because I keep rolling it.

shopping!

With the big quilt show coming up, I certainly don't need to be buying fabric, but that's what I did yesterday. I recently got this book at Jo-Anns (with a 40% off coupon!)

I love the designs for small accessories in it but I just don't have the types of fabrics she uses (mostly lovely Japanese silks and cotton prints). But I found Amy Butler's Belle Collection at Windmill City Quilts in Geneva, IL and fell in love. I purchased half-yards of several.

I have been staying focused (my word for the year) however and have been concentrating on working on my felt tote bag. I got huge (abount 1/2" across) antique brass finish snaps for closures (the top's going to be heavy with those felt flowers so I didn't want it to flop). The bag's all together. I used the Eskimo Edging Stitch to join the bottom of the bag, using one strand of Watercolors. I also have a button closure. I got some beaded trim to cover the seam between the top and bottom of the bag. The bag's all together and I added half the snaps last night. Tonight I'll add the second half of the snaps and a button closure at the top and then begin adding flowers.

Terry had a perfect suggestion for my TIF project in her comment on this post--I do think I need to add a light line around the "flames." I'm contemplating how best to do that. Thanks, Terry!

Busy weekend

I had a busy weekend and got some things done finally. All were things that I'd been working on in the background and they finally began to come together. I printed my "world in sand" image onto fabric. It didn't come out as I'd hoped and I lost the background I'd added to make it the size I needed.
The colors are much more faded than my original. I expect some fading when printing but this was extreme. My hubby even got in on the action, doing some reading and trouble shooting with the printer and scanner. We found a couple of problems but I decided to go with what I had in a "make it work" mood.
I also realized that one of my difficulties with paying attention to the small things is that I tend to get lost in them and loose what little focus I have on the big picture (seeing the big picture is very hard for me). So I decided I needed to get on with it.
I filled out my page with some lovely hand-dyed silk that's been in my stash for probably 20 years. I fused the silk in place after cutting around the "flame" shapes. What I see is the fires of creation. What my hubby sees are maple leaves on the ground in autumn. What do you see?

While I was fusing, I began working on a fused landscape for a Fiber&Stitch challenge, using an article by Helen Suzanne Alexander on Depth and Distance. Last weekend I found this incredible rainbow chiffon that changes color as you layer it. I started with a layer of Lutradur and fused on some hand-dyed fabrics by Laura Wasilowski that I had in my stash (including the incredible sky hand-dye). I layered on the chiffon to make the sky look like sunset and ten layered over the landscape with layers of different colored chiffon. I also used some Misty-Fuse black, too, to add some texture.
I'm not totally happy with it and am glad that Misty-Fuse is so flexible because I pulled up and trimmed back some layers. I found much of the sheer fabric I had was too intensely colored or not sheer enough to be effective. I do plan to add some embroidery to it and I have a small skein of mystery-thread in a pale blue with a silver thread throughout that will really perk up the lake and waterfall.
There are two images of the landscape because it's bigger than our scanner bed. When it's all done and completed, I'll take a photograph to get it all. I didn't think about that size issue when I was cutting the Lutradur!
Originally I had some thought about cutting the large piece into smaller postcards but I needed to have planned better for that and, I think, worked on a finer scale.
For a first experiment, I'm not displeased but I will need more practice manipulating the fabric, sheer and fusible. I'm letting it sit for a bit now, before I add embroidery and think about how I want to finish the edges.

My other project this weekend is another stash-based project. A while back I'd bought a sale Leisure Arts kit from Hobby-Lobby for making a variety of felt flowers. Over the last couple of weeks, especially on evenings when I was tired and not feeling up to using my brain, I worked on finishing these flowers.
They're all done: roses, pansies and little forget-me-knot type flowers. I pulled out the felt stash and chose a loden wool for the top and handle, some very stiff felt for an interlining, and a periwinkle wool felt for the body of the bag. I'm going to keep it simple, no pockets or lining.
Last night I got the handles stitched and stitched the top for one side and inserted the stiff lining. It works like I wanted. I pinned on the body of the bag and think it will work. Tonight I plan to stitch the second top and handle section.

I feel like I'm starting the week in a good place, project-wise. I know where I'm going and I have a plan for things I can do to make progress during the week. I even got in a little work on my nephew's band sampler. I have begun working on the turkey work tails of the squirrels, using some Needle Necessities overdyed wool.

Take It Further & Weekend Projects

Looking back I got a lot done this weekend but I am feeling frustrated because I didn't get into that "zone" until Sunday night and then I had a hard time stopping and getting ready for the week. I was up way too late as a result and am tired today.

I had so much fun doing the Pink squares last month, I kept going. I had found a little silver cardboard open-top box that's the perfect size for the squares and I decided to fill it and keep it on my desk at work. Here are my first three squares. I used more markers and paint this time. I used Sharpies and colored the backgrounds and also colored some white plastic produce netting. It's hard to see in the scans but I left some of the netting loose and raised from the fabric. The shadows form nice designs. I also used painted cheesecloth, an image transfer, and beads.

Last week I played a bit in Photoshop and learned about layers and created this image for the March TIF challenge. I had wanted to play more in Photoshop for a long time and I really learned a lot. I manipulated a micro-photograph of sand to enhance the colors and texture and then layered it with photographs of the earth taken from outer space. I then added the text. Pretty basic stuff but I feel a sense of accomplishment.

I sized the image in a Word document and added a background to the page and brought it home to print. When printed on the fabric, the colors were dramatically changed and not at all what I'd hoped for. My husband and I worked with another photograph for which I had the original photo and not just the Word document and that came out much better so I plan to take the original art for this home and try again one night this week.

Tonight is the Homewood Embroiderer's Guild meeting. It's the last one before our Monica Ferris Lecture Luncheon so we'll see how ticket sales are going and plan favors.

March Musings

Thanks to everyone who commented on my February TIF challenge piece, Liberace. I really appreciate all of the comments here and on the TIF blog and on Flickr. I'm really happy so many people feel Liberace would have liked it.

I didn’t pick up a needle this weekend, except to do a bit of mending. Saturday we set up at Santa’s Toy Show in Highland, Indiana. We’ve been doing this antique and collectible toy show for probably twenty-five years and it amazes me each time to see many of the same dealers and the same customers. We’ve watched kids grow up and have their own families and seen those kids grow up. It’s gotten much smaller since it’s peak in the 80s and 90s, but it’s still fun.

Sunday we visited another conservatory, this one in Lockport/Joliet is called Birdhaven and it’s another nice one. As a postscript to my Liberace piece, here’s a photo of a candelabra cactus, complete with it’s own spotlight.

All the while I was thinking about the March TIF challenge. Once again the theme has my brain running. I also like this color scheme. I’ve long made a practice of trying to pay attention—to the beauty of a vegetable as I slice it, the sparkle of a snow flake as I shovel, and the flow of each stitch as I embroider. There was a book back in the 70s called “Be Here Now” by Ram Das and that’s what I’ve always striven for (with limited success).
So I have a huge archive of little moments of great meaning—it almost feels like too many ideas.

The first thing that came to my mind was the poem by Blake: “To see the world in a grain of sand.” Tanguera posted more of it on her blog. I played around with an electron microscope photograph of sand thinking about using it as a basis for embroidery.

The second thing was a stitch. Just a single stitch. Each stitch is the first stitch and all stitches, pulling the thread through. And so I’ve thought of doing a page with just one stitch. And then I thought of one stitch growing into dozens and hundreds.

I also thought of my niece’s recent stitched piece (link to blog page) and how it’s one small beginning but is part of a long chain with links going back with mom’s embroidery, and her mother’s tatting, and back further most likely.

February Take-It-Further finished

Here is my February Journal page. This month's project felt more "doable" and I feel I had a nice balance between remembering, planning, designing/executing the design/and engineering the piece together.

The beaded section is pretty heavy. I strung long strings of mixed beads onto dental floss and then couched them down. It always amazes me how much slack needs to be left for the couching. I didn't use as many beads as I'd expected and still have a lot left over.

The only thing I bought for this project were the clear crystals for the candelabra. Everything else was in my stash!

The backing is glittered felt. I needed it to be sturdy and I thought the glitter fit the theme. The inside support is a piece of Fast-2-Fuse. There are a couple of layers of felt under the smooth piano section of the front so that it ends up level with the beads and not lower.

I made the loops with some gold cording, couched on. I should have couched the cording on before I sewed the backing on. It would have been much easier to couch the little swirls if I could have put the needle straight down. But I managed, although it's not my neatest stitching ever.

I made the inscription with a Sharpie pen.

I've really enjoyed reading everyone else's memories and watching their projects develop.

Over the moon!

My niece sent me an embroidery she did. This is the one for whom I did all of the wedding things. I didn't know she had any interest in embroidery but apparently she's recently picked it up. I am so thrilled. Not only that she's going to have the fun of stitching but maybe in the future we'll be able to do things together. Here it is--isn't it lovely! I'm just over the moon.

Once got got over my excitement from getting the package yesterday with the embroidery, some Christmas gifts I'd forgotten at my sister's, a packet of papers from our parent's estate all about the purchase of their first home and it's subsequent sale, and, oh, the memories, mom's worn out old kitchen shears!, I scanned my progress on Liberace and my niece's embroidery.

I finally settled down to do some work on Liberace at about 10pm last night, so I didn't do much and stayed up a bit too late at that. Full moon restlessness. Did you see the eclipse? It was eerie

Valentines

Here are our Valentine treats. The first is the "box of candy hearts" I made for my hubby. Below that are the two big bouquets of carnations he gave me. They're gradually all opening and quite lovely.

This was a mildly frustrating feeling weekend. On Sunday morning I realized it was because I was procrastinating beginning stitching on my TIF February piece.

When I think about it in retrospect, I did a lot. I got the piece pressed, basted to muslin and mounted on a stretcher frame. I went down into my basement stash and found all the gold metallic threads and all the crystal, gold and pearl beads I could find.

I also did a lot of things to procrastinate stitching, including laundry, errands, basting the margins in a sampler I plan to begin for a nephew's high-school graduation in June, and reading. I also found things to do in the kitchen, where the bouquets are residing. They really brighten the place up! Oh, and we watched the Daytona 500 (usually a big stitching time for me because it's easy to do both most of the time).

I also continued with my weekly clear-out. I have boxes of magazines I've stashed in the basement and they're getting musty and there are just too many to be of any use--I can't find what I want when I want it. So I'm going through a pile each week and pulling out the article or two I want to keep and recycling the rest. I don't pull anything from some issues and those I bring to guild meetings or send to a local animal shelter resale center that likes craft items. I can't do too many each week or it overloads the recycling bin. This is a wonderful procrastination activity.

I finally gave myself a talking to and at about 9 p.m. picked up a needle. After pulling out at least a dozen spools of thread, I ended up, thus far using only one: the DMC metallic that comes in skeins. I got the five arms of the candelabra done. I started the base and then realized I'd basted it off center. I ripped it out and decided to pad it a bit so I used some ribbon floss to lay the new lines and pad it a bit. I'll do a diagonal satin stitch over that. By the time I'd stitched, I'd already done my scanning for the day, but I'll try and scan the piece midweek.

February Take It Further progress

It's freezing here and snowy so we were home a lot over the weekend. I did a lot of cooking Sunday, to help keep warm. Along with some stitching, of course.

I made a full size sketch of my journal page for February, the first image here. I sketched in my candelabra full sized, too. I used tracing paper and penciled in the piano line on the back so I could then transfer it to a piece of plain paper.

Once I had the curve in place, I went fabric shopping in my stash.
I didn't find exactly what I wanted but I did find things that would work. Here's my notebook with samples. I used a beige polyester with some stretch for the curve line. I folded it over and seamed it (I tried to make a tube and turn it but it just wouldn't cooperate so I gave up on that.)

For the beaded background on the right,
I found a heavy white twill fabric. I had hoped for find a satin or moire for the piano, but I didn't have any so I am layering two layers of white chiffon over a quilting cotton with a white on white pattern. I like the effect.

To put the complex curve together, I basted my beige tube to the paper outline then I stitched the two white fabrics in turn to the tube. Lastly, I traced my candelabra to another piece of tissue paper, pinned it to the fabric, and basted through the tissue to transfer the design lines. Here it all is, still basted to the paper backing and unpressed. My next step will be to baste this to a piece of plain white cotton and mount it on stretcher bars to embroider. And I said I'd go for a simpler, quicker project in February!

February Take-It-Further Challenge

I've spent some time working through my ideas for the challenge on paper. I think this will end up being mostly a stash project, which will be a very nice thing.

Thanks to Wawanna for encouragement. It really helps. Thanks also for the comments from Leila and TerryB--I had hoped the choice of Liberace would bring back some memories for others.

He wasn't a major part of my life, my mom wasn't one of his many dedicated fans, but, still, he was around (and hard to miss) for much of my childhood and young adulthood!

Although rick-rack was a close second---I'd love to do a page all about rickrack and how we used it to edge, trim, make lace, create flowers... It certainly made life bright and a page about rick-rack would be fun to do. Maybe in my second life...

February Take It Further

I love this month's Take It Further challenge! It's really got the memories flowing. I had all sorts of ideas from 1950's cars with fins to Roy Rogers to rick-rack (I had a dress with a full skirt and rows of rick-rack that I loved and wore to bits!). I was really surprised that many of my ideas were related to early television, because television wasn't all that much a part of our lives back then. I think perhaps it's the visual aspect.

It hit me very quickly what my project would be: I remember Liberace! Oh, as a child I sooo hated him. When he came on TV, I had to go to bed for a nap. I had this feeling that if he was gone, naptime would go, too! Whatever you say about him, in the U.S. he was very visible. (as he said, he didn't dress like he did in order to be overlooked!) In the 50s he was somewhat revered, I think as a bit of glitz after the war. In the 60s he became a joke and in the 70s rather pathetic. In the 80s I remember thinking more positively about him--simply because he was who he was and he stuck to it no matter what. He did put on a real show and his fans adored him (still do). And he seemed dedicated to them.

I also think he's a sign of my childhood and the post-war years of glossing over and hiding reality. Every family was perfect, all mothers wore high heels and pearls to clean, all soldiers integrated perfectly back into society, and Liberace wasn't gay.

He was glitz and glamor and the very definition of "bling."

Here are some Liberace links I found. I rather suspect he was a totally American phenomenon.

www.liberace.org/ www.bobsliberace.com/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoP2PJFi2iY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WC1OsdX2LM http://missioncreep.com/mw/liberace.html

Liberace is rather icongraphic: white and gold and crystal (he used to wear a white tux in his early TV shows, long white fur coats later on) . He always had a candelabra on his piano, which in later years was covered in mirrors. He wore lots of gaudy rings. And he always played a grand piano.

My basic design will be based on the curves of a grand piano. I think I will piece it, perhaps with a piping between the seams. White fabrics, of course. Or, perhaps some gold. I must have a five-branched candelabra. I'm not quite sure how I'll represent that. Lots of beads: clear, gold, silver and sparkly. Shisha mirrors come to mind, too. I can't wait to get started. The first step will be a trip to the basement boxes to see what I can dredge up.

January TIF completed

My Take-It-Further page is done and scanned. I'm pleased with the way it came out but happy to have a few days before the new challenge. Looking at it now it doesn't seem like that huge of a project, but it's more than I usually do, quicker than I usually do it and I neglected a lot of other things whilst doing it.

I also learned a lot and experimented a lot and had a whole lot of fun. Here's the piece with all of it's flaps in order. Here is the back. And here is the front with some of the flaps opened.

This lovely little hand embroidered handkerchief was a gift from my husband to me; another antique find.

More weekend fun

Well, I'm still trying to figure out how to get photos where I want them. These are pictures of some of the things I did this weekend.

The red design follows the format I'd set out for the Take It Further challenge. While I love the gold and the texture, I don't think it reflects my sister.

I made a stencil from freezer paper and ironed it on. Then I coated the open spaces with gold stamp pad ink (pigment) or embossing powder (gold and clear iridescent). Then I zapped it with the heat gun. All went well until I think the heat began to affect the polyester in the fabric (I'd thought it was 100% cotton but was wrong). Fumes from burning polyester are not fun and not recommended. I do rather like the result, however.

For the second fabric above I used the cutouts from the red mask to make a reverse stencil and used gold paintstick to pain the background on dark blue fabric. Then I used rubbing plates (hard plastic from Target's paper craft department--they're advertised more for embossing and I think they may fit into a machine) and made rubbings in the squares. I do believe this will be my TIF background.

These three are rubbings using paintsticks on rubbing plates from Cedar Canyon, the company from whom I bought the paintsticks.

I used multiple colors on each and had a great deal of fun playing with the color mixes and blends. They are on dark blue or black

fabric. I did a rubbing or two on muslin, but the effect of the iridescent paint sticks is much more pronounced on very dark fabrics.

Next time I have play time, I want to try some of the fine stencils I have. I also purchased blending paintsticks so I can lighten and mix colors. But that's for the future, for now I plan to work more on the TIF challenge. If only my order of Misty Fuse and Organza printer sheets would arrive...

I've been rather obsessing about the project and am now working on the overlays and how I want them. Jane pointed out that putting sheers over the dark busy panel, as I'd planned, might have unexpected effects, so now I'm working to take that into consideration. Perhaps I'll make the bottom layer of overlay more opaque.

I've also realized that I have this page stuck in my mind as the back of the book (or the bottom of the stack, as I've been viewing it). It just came to me that this could be rather odd, I would normally think of January as the first page, or front. But I've decided to go with my intuition and leave this as the back and will add new pages in front of it.

It's done--well mostly

I finished the final row on the sampler this weekend. It's only mostly done because the instructions included a tent stitch border with a row of twisted chain to "finish" the sampler (and make it easier to frame or sew into a pillow). I've begun this in the upper right of the picture (which is the bottom according to how it was worked--the sampler's bigger than our scanner bed).

I've begun the rows of tent using basketweave and added a bit of the twisted chain (and ripped, and added, and ripped). The instructions call for two strands of the wool. I didn't like the look so I tried it with a half-step (kind of a back-stitch chain). Didn't like that, either. Then I tried a half-step chain with the perle. No good. This version, which I like, is a twisted chain using perle 3. I think it will provide a nice finishing edge. After I looked at the scans, however, I've decided to rip what I've done and twist the stitch away from the sampler rather than toward it.

Before I scanned most things, I would photocopy them, just to catch this type of thing. I didn't see it at all in the stitched piece.

I spent Saturday having a blast painting and embossing and bleaching fabrics. I used the Take It Further challenge as an excuse to finally try out my Shiva Paintsticks (I've had them since last April). I also wanted to try embossing on fabric, something mentioned in the Fiber&Stitch group. And I had a bleach pen just sitting there waiting to be used!

I spent most of the morning pressing the fabrics, adding freezer paper backing to hold them straight. I also measured, cut and applied freezer paper grids like the grid I drew in my last TIF posting. And finally I made some freezer paper cutouts to use as stencils for practice.

Then I got down to the fun. Here are some samples. I'll post more later on. These two hearts used freezer paper masks and were my first experiments with paintsticks.

They were pretty easy to use, like fat crayons. I found that the gold and silver sticks were crumbly and the tips pretty much crumbled off as I removed the outer dried layer. The purple stick was a sale item I found, it's a glitter paint stick. It is very glittery.

I think my flower is pretty lame.

Then I did this Fleur de Lis rubbing, again with a freezer paper stencil. That's more like it. I used a honey comb stencil--I'd read somewhere that bees were Napoleon's symbol and I always think of the Fleur de Lis as very French.

These designs aren't what I'll use for the TIF design, but were steps leading there.

Cindy: I visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe once many years ago and would love to go back. I had fun exploring your blogs (I'm jealous you got to see BB King last year--my hubby wasn't up to it). I have a friend doing the cirque des circles design, too, and pointed her your way.

Thanks for the comments, Wawanna. I really enjoyed your Krystal Joy blog.