White Christmas

Last night was my EGA chapter's holiday party. It's always a lot of fun, full of good friends, good wishes and some really amazing embroideries. We have an ornament exchange and I also exchange gifts with some friends. I whipped up a storm of white wool things to bring. I made these white felt ornaments over the last couple of weeks. They're very simple but all my own designs. They feature felt holly leaves and silver and white embroidery. It's always amazing to me how whites can vary! One was my exchange ornament and the other two gifts.I made this angel for a friend. It has holly leaves too, and buttons. (The washed out picture of the oblong ornaments and the picture of the angel and wreath were taken on the same day in the same location. The only thing that changed was the strength and angle of the sun. I think it's very hard to see the oblong ornaments--I should have waited--but as I was doing it I was mostly worried that the angel and wreath would be too dark!)More antique buttons adorn this wreath, made for another friend.This little pincushion, given last night as a gift, began its live as a napkin ring for the YMCA kids. We'll be teaching it in March. It was just sitting there, waiting for March, when I unearthed a large felt bead. I wasn't sure where I wanted to keep the bead and in the meantime it kept rolling off the shelf. Finally I popped it into the napkin ring to keep it in place and, voilá, pincushion! I stitched it in place and added a felt bottom. I'll stitch up another napkin ring model before March.

As soon as I can, I'll get photos of the lovely ornaments I received as gifts.

Stitching

Over the last few weeks I carried this old stamped pillowcase around to work on in doctor's offices and at meetings. I finally finished it and washed it. It was pretty yellowed from age. It's nice, thick pure cotton--very soft.I had intended to press the case before taking a picture but I forgot until the ironing board was put away.

I should have been doing other things, but this new project called to me. I got it at the International Quilt Festival earlier this month. From Wooly Lady, it's all hand-dyed wools. Thread was not in the kit. I used the photo as a guide, because I really liked the model in their booth, and used blue floche and bright red perle cotton in the flower centers and Grape Impressions, which is mildly variegated, for the buttonholing.I did vary one thing. Most of the petal and leaf edges are not attached to the backing but float free. The lines between the petals ground them and I did stitch down most petals that were covering up the ends of leaves and other elements. This dimensionality doesn't show in the photo but I like it a lot.

There was no hanging instructions or guide for how to hang this piece. It's firm enough, I was thinking perhaps a couple of small rings on the back. I could sew on a sleeve, too, and add bell pull hardware (it's about 6" wide) or a narrow slat for support. Since I don't have immediate plans for it, I decided to just think about what I want to do for now.

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.