Giveaway #4 winner

Today's number was #5 (thanks, Random.org): Colleen is the winner. Please send me your snail mail address and I'll get your goodies off to you upon my return from vacation.

Dolly has decided to come with us on vacation. She's quite excited. We'll share photos of her adventures upon our return.

curlicue plant and vacation

The school added new large concrete planters around the building last year. I've shown the lantana in the one by my parking space. These two planters are on the other side of the building, by the main entry doors. I have no idea what these spiral plants are but I've watched them grow with fascination all summer. I finally got my act together to get their picture to share. Aren't they cool?The leaves form the most fascinating spirals and the rose-colored edges add just the perfect touch. I'm seeing designs and color schemes both here. I've not seen this plant among those mentioned in spiral/Fibonacci articles (nautilus shells and sunflower seed patterns are the main examples used), but this seems a good example to me.

As I framed this one in the camera, I saw OWL!

I am going on vacation (woo-hoo!). It's finally planned; we'll be heading north. I'll be here Monday for the draw but the package most likely won't be mailed until my return. I do not expect to have Internet while gone. I'll haul the beast along, just in case, but I don't expect to post again until after the 15th. I'm already in withdrawal!

Long and Short

I'm all caught up with the silk shading and actually ironed it so you could see it. The top squares look skewed. Partly it's the angle of the photo, partly the optical illusion of the shading, but mostly, well, they are. They ironed flat. The drawing was square. I believe it was just the tension of the stitches on the fairly thin fabric. I rather like it, it looks more dimensional, but it wasn't intended.

The other sections went better. I found I liked working with the blues more than with the reds, which surprised me. It was a strong preference.

I'm really enjoying this and look forward to the next step. You can find this project here if you wish to follow along.

Thank you!

Pat at Gatherings sent me a lovely gift. Actually, it's three gifts! I'm thrilled and awed. A lovely leaf needle rest (with a magnet to keep my needle from running off), a charming beaded (so it won't get lost ever!) needle threader, and one of her amazing nests. It has pale blue pearl "eggs" and a love tag. I'm wearing my "love nest" today (showing it off to everyone I meet!). Look how sweetly they're packaged, too. Certainly made my week! Thanks a bunch, Pat!

The lantana plants by my office are now sporting some really lovely purplish berries. The perfect color with the bright red/orange/golden flowers. I'm really enjoying them.

I had lunch today with a couple of friends, one visiting from France (she actually says oh, la la regularly!). Some days are just pure bliss!

Cars

Hmmm, well. It's not the expected red Rav4 for sure. It became increasingly clear that the local Toyota dealership (Highland, IN) was not going to come up with the car we had ordered. The (very nice and very good) salesman kept calling us to try and convince us we really wanted another model, another color, another package. Finally, last week we confronted them and the deal was off.

Car buying isn't easy for us in the first place and this was not happy making. My guy's a car guy and gets very attached. So, we decided to keep our clunker (he loved that thing).

But he's a car guy, so he's always looking (new, old, doesn't matter really). He found 0-down, 0% on Chevy Malibu (if you cut him, he'll bleed Chevy bow-ties) (it's their logo) so we went and looked. My bum leg didn't like it. But, being who we are, we had to sit in every single car in the showroom (except for Corvettes---just not our taste).

And we liked this chocolate brown Impala. And it also had 0-0%. And it qualified for the Cash for Clunkers program. Soooo, we have a new brown Impala. (It's actually Mocha Bronze Metallic, I believe. I suspect it will be called Cocoa since neither of us drink coffee in any form but I am totally addicted to chocolate.) The car has loads of "stuff," most of which we're not interested in (leather seats, on-star, cd player, satellite radio) and some we are: fold down rear seat, Bose stereo. It's pretty cool.

No embroidery in it at all. I think I was a bit burnt out after the intensity of the Japanese Embroidery class last week, so I didn't mind at all. Although the steering wheel is black and I've been thinking about making a cover for it, perhaps with a monogram initial, so we can keep it from getting too hot when sitting in the sun.

To round out the car-oriented weekend, we spent Sunday at the annual Orphan Auto Picnic. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny and not too hot. The site had loads of shady trees. I spent much of my time sitting in the shade with my knitting, chatting with my sister. Bliss! I love the rounded swoopy curves of many older cars and this show always gets great cars. Larry goes around with a portable microphone and chats with the owners about them and it's usually pretty interesting.

When I did stroll around, I took a bunch of photos. Last year I focused on photos of hubcaps. This year I went mostly with hood ornaments. They used to have such lovely and interesting ones. It made me realize that I haven't worked in my design journal for ages. (Last year I did the hubcap photos as part of Sharon B's Studio Journals class.) The curvy lines and shiny surfaces made me think of the silk shading I've been working on.

Giveaway #3 winner...

Is #3 (thanks to Random.org)--Cindy's the winner. Cindy--please send me your snail mail address.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I'm sorry I didn't have one of these for everyone!

Giveaway #4 is random stitching--check it out here.

August Birthday Month Giveaway #4

This one is a little more embroidery oriented, for someone who wants to try out some new things, perhaps. It's a goodie bag with five varied projects and a book. The first is a ornament kit, complete with frame, fabric and floss. The design is an ANG chart but you can do anything you want, really.The next item is a set of cardboard forms in teapot shapes. You can do any type of embroidery on your fabric and then mount it onto the cardboard form. I'd suggest lighter weight fabrics (not canvas). I've used the forms with light-weight wool and wool and ribbon embroidery. The forms can also be traced onto your fabric as shapes for designing (redwork tea towels).Next is a complete vintage Crewel embroidery kit. The flowers are pretty, the colors very 70s. The ground fabric is very nice and the design clearly printed on it. The instructions are pretty good but I'd probably want to have a stitch book handy, too.Another vintage item here, some lovely linen napkins ready to embroider and hem. One or two are done, with lovely little sprays of flowers, but most are not. One is stained (on top) with an unremovable (so far) blue smear. The linen is nice. I'd say from the 1920s. Practice a little embroidery and a lot of hemstitching. The embroidery looks like it's done with a fine perle cotton (perle 12) in a color to match the linen. The thread is not included.Last, a complete kit for a beginning Battenburg lace project. The plastic covered red fabric is the support for working the lace heart. I've made a bunch of these and they're fun. I've applied them to t-shirts and to other, larger projects and just hung them as ornaments (no backing needed, although some starch helps them stay stiff). Everything is included to complete the project.The book is a wonderful 1970s or early 80s book on smocking. It's a duplicate of one I have. The book provides a history of traditional smocks, explains how to do smocking (the key is to keep your needle perpendicular to the pleats--then it's a piece of cake), then it goes on to show some really lovely and exciting contemporary design ideas for how to use smocking in today's clothing and textiles.

Smocking is basically pleating to hold fullness and shape fabric. You embroider over the pleats and the result is elastic. So it's great for sleeves, cuffs, bodices and children's clothing (put in deep hems to you can let them out as the child grows--the smocking will adjust the width). If you stabilize or line it, it's decorative and textural without the elasticity.Please make a comment on this post before Monday, August 31, to be included in the drawing for this collection of goodies. Please include a way to contact you.

If you like some of the goodies but know there is something you absolutely will not do, note it in your comment. Perhaps someone else will speak up to claim that item. If you win, then it'll all work out! It you want it all, that's great!

I may not be able to draw the winner or get back to you right away, but I will do it as soon as I have computer access next week. We still keep trying to get away on vacation and I'm still not sure when we might leave, but it looks more likely that by the 31st we'll be on our way and Internet access will be sporadic.