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 The sample shows the threads for the outer edge withdrawn.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 I've withdrawn and rewoven a few threads here, working from the outer edge of the panel toward the center--you can see threads withdrawn all the way across ready to have the thread next to each unwoven from the center to the edge of the panel and then rewoven to the outer edge.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.

crazy quilting

Yesterday's mail brought a delightful book from Pat Winter on her crazy quilting: Pat Winter Gatherings, My Crazy Quilting Journey. I really enjoyed reading it and looking at all of the lovely photographs.

I read it cover to cover last night.

And then all night I dreamed of the huge crazy quilt I saw at the Lockport Gallery on Sunday (see yesterday's post). This quilt is amazing. Many traditional crazy quilts embellish the seams of the pieces and sometimes also stitch a motif or design within the piece. This quilt maker did that but it also just ignored the patches and stitched lovely flowers and appliqued motifs wherever they fit. A scalloped floral border breaks completely free of the pieced fabric underneath and the stitching is done as if on a solid ground. Motifs are stitched on in metal thread and also crocheted (and appliqued) in the same metal thread. There's a metalic thread crochet border, too. From the way it's tarnished, I suspect it might be gilt-silver.

All in all it's a magnificient piece. The more I looked at it the more I could see. The only photo I could find is this little one. (that's Christopher Columbus in the middle; there are other portraits on it, too) If you can, go see it in person!

International Quilt Festival

This was a fun weekend. Friday was the International Quilt Festival. If you can ever get there, do so. It’s just wonderful. The website has some great images of the festival. The galleries of quilts on display are awe inspriing and wonderful to see. The market place is very dangerous to the wallet (and a great deal of fun!)

When we got there the first thing I did was go to the Quilting Arts “Make-it U” and sign up for classes. Then I went around the corner to the Art Girlz booth. I stocked up on felt balls, cones for dolls, and faces, feet and hands. I got into the first class and Judy Coates Perez taught us her painted collage technique. (Woo-Hoo!) A picture of me is in her blog (two actually if you look close!) (how cool is that?) here

Just under the photo of Judy is a pic of three ladies hard at work. I'm the one on the left, wearing bright stripes. Here's what I made, still a work in progress. This was a really fun class and I got to experiment and play and learn things, too.

I shopped (more on that later this week) and took another wonderful class by Grinnel FiberWorks about making a collaged, painted, beaded brooch. The teacher (whose name I’ve sadly forgotten) had lots of wonderful ideas and suggestions. I was amazed to have been drawn for two classes!

So here's another work-in-progress from the festival, my "brooch" (maybe, it keeps getting bigger so it may become something else entirely.

My friends and I had a great lunch at Gibsons across the street. Our tradition is to do show-n-tell over lunch and it’s always great fun. Plus we always share one of their wonderful (and gigantic) desserts. In the afternoon it was more shopping.

Saturday was a fun lecture lunch with Mary (Monica Ferris) Pulver. Her talk was fun and really interesting. We had a good turnout for our guild’s first venture into this type of event. My sister and sister-in-law and friend Gena all came and we had a great time.

Today my hubby and I went out to the Illinois State Museum’s Lockport Gallery to see the new show there, Embellishment. I believe this show will go to other gallerys of the museum and if you can see it, it’s well worth it. For fiber artitsts there are laces, quilts, embroideries and an amazing crazy quilt. There are other media, too: wood, ceramic, metal, hair, glass—all examples of the human love of Embellishment.

Phew! I spent a quiet Sunday evening at home, petting my stash and scanning in some images of it to post later this week.

Next week I'm off to the EGA Great Lakes Region Seminar in Madison, Wisconsin. The fun is just overwhelming!

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!

paper leather and marker fun

Last Friday I ran a conference at work. In the past I could bring my laptop and work near the event room, so I'm handy if needed. Sadly, that no longer works because they've removed Wi-Fi from the classroom area. I didn't learn this until Thursday, so I was very happy to have just received in the mail a lovely package from Pat Winter (Gatherings) with a surprise in it--Pat had taken the images from some postcards I'd posted in January and printed them on fusible fabric and mailed them off to me.

So while the conference attendees were having serious discussions, I sat at the registration table in the hall with my Sharpie collection and some odds and ends colored pencils and had loads of fun with the photos.

I then sat and played with a couple of Pat's really cute sachet kits from her Etsy shop. I didn't stitch, I was too busy and interrupted, but I did some arranging and playing with the materials. I got two Christmas theme kits so I can mix and match the cool embellisments Pat sent.

It's finally spring in Chicago and Saturday we set off for the Dunes area for a day exploring around Michigan City.

I was pretty tired from the busy week and didn't feel much like stitching so instead I decided to make faux leather from paper bags, paint and shoe polish. This is based on a recent articles in Fiber&Stitch and Stitch magazines. I used materials that were right to hand so I didn't have to move from my chair.

This first piece is just shoe polish on plain grocery bag. I crumpled the bag and rubbed on cordovan color paste shoe polish. I let it dry a bit and crumpled again and added brown shoe polish. Antoher good crumple and a little black polish. I let it all dry and then ironed it and then coated it with a mixture of Golden acrylic matte medium and Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold. I didn't mix the medium and gold paint well so that the result is uneven.

The other two pages began with stamp pads brushed over the first two crumplings or stamp pad ink brushed on. I began with pink and added some gold and, I think, some brown. Then I crumpled the dried paper again and brushed on cordovan shoe polish.

I pressed the paper and then brushed it with the medium and gold paint mix. I used much less of the paint but still didn't mix it well so it's mottled.

I'm not sure what I'll use my new paper for. I added Wonder-Under fusible to the back last night. I have thought about fusing it to felt, cardboard for a book cover, or heavy pellon to make a box or vase. I'm still having fun thinking about it.

I used heavy-weight grocery bags so I'm not sure about stitching through it, except perhaps by machine. I love the something-out-of-nothing aspect of this project.

Love Squared--Pink Artists' Challenge

She's done! Go here to see the details and many, many more pictures. Monica did an incredible job.

I am so excited. I found one of my squares. Even more fun, it's a near neighbor to my friend Liela's square! Leila spotted this, not me. I'm not nearly that observant.

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.