Not much to say

This week's been long days at work with little time to play. I've gotten some focus back and have been stitching a little bit each day on my embroidery for June's TIF project. It's slow going (fine threads) but is coming along.

I'm also thinking more about the back of the page, where I plan to collage some stash. I had a thought that I might tack the pieces on, to let them be removed and used for other purposes as time goes by. But I'm not sure of that. On the one hand it would illustrate the changing stories the stash can tell. On the other, I'm back to the "precious" attitude where I don't want to commit any parts of the precious stash to one purpose.

My Joggles class began today. (Studio Journals with Sharon B) I have most things but lack the all important journal itself. I haven't had a chance to get out shopping. I'm not one to dive right in--I'll read the lesson I got today and stop into the forum if I get a chance and probably let it swirl around in my head this weekend. And maybe I'll get out shopping.

Not so quiet week

Well, I thought this week would be quiet but it's as busy as last week. I hired a part-time assistant today for the summer. Jacob has already helped immensely. Yay!

I was exhausted this weekend and didn't do much. I can't seem to get up enough gumption to work on the Take It Further project this month. I'm happy with my plan and want to finish it, just not enough to pick up a needle right now.

I did some stitching on the needlepoint pincushion while working the conference on Friday and Saturday. It's coming along. It's a really nice exercise in how colors change depending on angle and stitches. The same colors worked next to each other but with a different stitch look quite different. I'm not sure how I like the color combination. It's taken from the backing fabric, which is also an interesting way to select colors for a geometric project like this.l

This weekend I played with felt. First, I made these dolls. They try out an idea I'd been considering for a while and use my new Cartwright's sequins. The faces of the dolls are large flat paillettes with one hole at the top. They're iridescent and change from pink to purple to green depending on the angle as you look at them.

I plan to send the two smaller ones to Pat at Gatherings for her Comfort Doll Project. I think the mermaid may be a bit too big for that. I drew on faces and attached the sequins to the dolls using shisha stitch. They were a lot of fun to do and I made all three this weekend as I sat around.

I also made the two bottlecap pincushions shown here. One is supposed to be a strawberry. Hmmmm. The other is for my niece, from her graduation water-bottle cap.

I'm becoming a connoisseur of bottle caps. I like the ones from my husband's juice. The ones on our water bottles this weekend are a good size. A bit deeper than most. Many are too tall and narrow or wide and shallow. My sweetie now saves all of the pull-tabs from our soy milk cartons so I can use them for finger pin-cushions. Never ending fun!

Weekend

This conference is finally over and I'm off for what's left of the weekend. Thursday night I got home with enough daylight to take a couple of photos. The first is my pot of flowers by the front door. They did like all the heat and rain of the past few weeks. This week has been much more pleasant for humans--less rain and cooler.

These are some sale threads I got recently: mostly Rainbow Gallery silks and Matte 18s with some Impressions and other odd fibers thrown in. A very good sale. They're out on the lawn to soak up some sun and chlorophyl and get rid of the nasty cigarette smoke smell they came with. (it worked, although I think I'd like to give them another visit to the lawn when I get a chance and a sunny day.)

Here's my TIF piece as of Thursday. I'm stitching on the left the mirror image of the design traced on the right. more or less. I'm using Rita's silks. It's very slow going this month.

Next month I'm going to start Sharon B's Studio Journals class on Joggles. I got the supplies list today. I know I have some things, not sure about others, and will need to think about buying still others. I've never taken a class from Joggles and liked the class list style--a complete list as an attachment and an e-mail list with links to the recommended products that Joggles carries to make finding them easier. Easier is often better.

I just got a book at Barnes & Nobles about using colored pencils that I think may be a good complement to this class. Oh, and my brother-in-law's book finally came in at Borders!

And as a bit of retail therapy, I placed a fun order with Cartwright's Sequins just in time to have a small box of goodies arrive on my office desk on Thursday. It was a sunny spot in an otherwise frantic day.

Opening my eyes

Last night on the way home from work the light was just perfect and I felt like I was coming out of hibernation. It was dark ahead with gray storm clouds and the sun was low on the horizon, my favorite combination for taking photographs.

The first thing to catch my eye was that the entire median on Stony Island Ave. was full of glorious golden day lillies in full bloom. How on earth had I missed these before? They were glowing! I wish I'd had my camera.

After that wake-up call, I began really noticing my surroundings. As I got closer to home I was passing through areas where it had rained. There was a sparkle and clarity to the air there and even the ordinary seemed magical. The "steel bridge" glowed white against the dark sky and everthing stood out in unusual clarity. It was a magical moment to treasure.

Rita

Every time I get out Rita's silks (and I'll never think of them as anything else) it brings up the whole swirl of feelings that go with Rita.

I met Rita late in her life. She was a very skilled stitcher with a true passion for learning. She was also very sure her way was not only the right way, it was the only way. I liked her and enjoyed our visits, but she often asked things I had difficulty with.

Our main issue of contention was that she would ask me for photocopies of books, charts and magazines. I can understand--she was on an extremely limited budget. But I just couldn't do it. When I could I would buy a duplicate for her or give her mine, but I couldn't always do that. She also wanted (needed) more time than I had. I regret that a bit more...I feel I should have been able to work something out; others did.

I could have learned so much from her, I just wasn't wiling to pay the tuition, I guess.

Every time I pick up her basket of silk threads, I think about her stitching. I think she'd be happy someone's using them. I think she might even be interested in what I'm doing with them.

She made lovely brooches with the silks. Her process was painstaking. She would stretch silk fabric over hand cut card shapes, padded with batting. Then she would embroidery delicate flowers, birds and little scenes (through the cardboard and all!). She'd finish with a second padded (and often embroidered shape) and twisted cord, often with a jeweled tassel. (The trim with it's Swarovski crystal was a truly major expense for her.)

I know all of this because part of the collection included her notebooks of how she worked, sketches, precious bits of hoarded silk fabrics. I'm not sure if I'll ever use any of those designs or techniques; they seem closer to Rita to me than the threads, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Rita did any and all types of stitching. She was most proud of a huge phoenix she made as a banner for her church. I first met her when she was teaching a simple needlepoint project. She loved crazy quilting and I can just see how enthralled she be by all of the new online resources that are available. She'd be having a great time.

Calming down a bit

Well, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Two work milestones have been passed today and the conference tomorrow is either ready to go or it's too late to do anything about it. The day was full of last minute changes and upsets. Generally the worse it gets the calmer I get (at least until I get home).

This flower is from our garden. I don't know what it is but they're really pretty and generally last quite a while. When I see them I know it's summer!

Before we left on our little trip last week, I made this bottle-cap pincushion. At my niece's graduation I grabbed the cap from her water bottle at lunch. I gave her a little finger pincushion from a plastic pull tab made with some lovely random dyed fabric from my stash, but I think I'll make her a bottle-cap one too, from her graduation bottle cap. I wonder what her college colors are.

I found this charming photograph on our trip. I fell in love with the serious little schoolgirl with her book and shy smile. I can see a lot of projects with this one.

During our trip we visited the senior art show (I couldn't find any images online at the Lawrence University website). It was a lovely show. One of my niece's friends had an impressive video in the show, along with some very nicely bound books of watercolors.

What really impressed me is that one of the artists chose embroidery as her medium. It was embroidery as a way to make marks and lines, rather than embroidery as lovely technique, if that makes sense. She knew what she was doing but that wasn't the point. And it really inspired me so my TIF this month has changed again.

Not much. The artist used pencil contour drawings on the fabric as part of the image. I've been feeling that my embroidery design for this month is too spotty and not a coherent design. I decided to not stitch the penciled design I transferred and to stitch those designs in other parts of the fabric. I think it will fill the space more cohesively and echo the designs and also to link things together better.

My original transfers are pretty clear. My new ones are much less so and those are what I'll be stitching, so the designs won't be exact. But, then, I won't feel as compelled to "stay on the lines" as I would have with a drawn image to work with.

I began a bit last night. I got out Rita's silks. I'll get a picture up soon of her basket. Rita was very well organized. (I'm not so much.) I used some buttonhole silk and also some thinner thread. The buttonhole silk definitely has a mind of it's own. I can see why the Japanese emphasize keeping the silk threads in tension at all times. It's barely a start but it's something.

Busy week

The long weekend and graduation were loads of fun. I'm paying for the days off work now. It'll let up a bit next week.

Before we left I took a long look at our yard--the catalpa tree was in full bloom and it doesn't last long at all. It was glorious! I was right, it was all gone upon our return.

As I was walking to the car to leave, I noticed this fallen blossom--a perfect skirt for a fairy.

We drove through some of the flooded areas but our destination was north of the worst of it. We didn't see much from the expressways, but many of the alternate routes and county roads were closed due to flooding (which was why we were on expressways). It seems never ending this year. Now it's flooding over on the Mississippi!

Appleton is on the Fox River and our big dinner was in an old mill right on the river. The water was really rushing and pretty high and later that night on the news we learned that the restaurant and next-door apartment building were put on alert for high water and possible flooding.

This isn't flooding, it's the north end of Lake Winnebago from a tower at High Cliff State Park. We had a lovely stroll there.

We were enthralled by this baby bunny who inhabited the yard next to the building on campus where we parked each day. He (or she) was busy comping away each day, mostly sprawled in the grass so only the ears peeped up.

I did get in a little stitching and a trip to a really cool bead shop while we were gone. Oh, and a little antiquing, too, in and amongst the festivities. (Thanks to Terry and all of her suggestions.

At the hotel in the evenings, I made my quilt square for Deep River County Park's annual quilt. Leila's are here. I still need to get out a rotary cutter and mat and trim it up.

I also continued to work on the needlepoint pincushion kit from Jenny. It's easy to see and simple needlepoint with enough going on so it's not boring. That's all I've been working on since I've been home. At the end of the day, I just don't want to think anymore!