2010--first finished project

Here is the crewel pincushion, all done. And photographed to show the bright colors. I almost had it done by new year's day but decided I wanted to steam the completed crewel and let it dry well before finishing it up. I really like it. The stitching is Appleton crewel wool on hand-dyed doctor flannel (backed with muslin for extra body). The edging cord is a silk fiber.

After I finished this, I began the strawberry scissors case, but I've gotten sidetracked, a bit. (more on that to come)This is a project I completed about a month ago but only showed it to one friend (I HAD to show someone or I'd burst!). It's a crewel chatelaine that I designed as a teaching project for my local EGA chapter (July 2010). All of the 2010 projects were revealed to chapter members last night.

I adapted the design from one in the A-Z of Crewel Work. I took a long design and split it into two and edited it to fit, and then came up with my own colors and stitches. It uses 18 colors of Appleton crewel wools. One side is a pincushion and the other a little pocket. I modeled that part of the design on the 1970s Erica Wilson chatelaine I stitched earlier this year. The neckband and trim are two different widths of cotton twill tape.I put loops of tape on the back of each strap so you can loop your wools for a project through and have them handy. I didn't count but I think it will hold about a dozen colors. The bows at the bottom are to hold tools, like scissors. With my name on it, it can also act as my name tag at meetings.

Ending up 2009

I have a hard time letting go, and that's true with years, too. So here's a few last items from 2009. I made these little felt items for some small friends. I hope the green creature resembles the Mario character it's supposed to represent. (I was working from an 8-year-0ld's description.)This is the third entrelac bag, all complete before the new year arrived. It was knit from the leftover wool from the first bag. I put a zipper in this one.

I usually do my felting on a lovely small washboard, but I lent it to my sister at Christmas, so I got creative. I felted the handle using a cake rack (rubbing it up and down across the wires), a vegetable scrub brush, bubble wrap (a bit more delicate than what I tend to use to convince my wools to shrink up), a wire mesh colander, and lots of alternating hot hot hot water and cold water and soap. It worked.It's cold here. Not nearly as cold as friends further north are experiencing (brrrr-- 16 below!!). We're between 10 and 20F most days, which really isn't too awful. We've had some sun, which has been nice.

On Sunday we went out to the Illinois State Gallery in Lockport to view their current exhibit, The Leaf and the Page. It features artists inspired by nature. Just outside of the gallery, we found a more natural artistry--amazing frosted windows. Most were etched in incredible overall patterns, like acanthus leaves. This is the only one I was able to capture without background reflections, and it was the least impressive window (there were five). The reflections are the curse of the digital camera--hubby went back the next day with a real camera to get good images. We were awestruck and amazed by the frost patterns.A last Christmas shot--on our trip we visited Birdhaven greenhouse in Joliet and their poinsettia display was just finishing up. I think these would make a lovely holiday greeting card.

back to stitching

These two towels are gifts for friends. They are Aunt Martha's iron on designs from Jo-Ann's and they worked wonderfully and washed out completely. Both are stitched with floche, a fiber I love to use. The majority of the designs are done in stem stitch with some straight stitches, French knots, and lazy daisies thrown in.

I had a baggie of floche in my stash that I'd either purchased or won. It was a set of colors with two greens, red, two oranges, yellow and beige. I have no idea where or when I acquired it but it was perfect for these designs. I used all of the colors except for the beige.

I have two more towels with designs ironed on ready to go. One is in this vegetable series: green beans. I think I'm going to use floss for it, perhaps an overdyed green. The other is a blue-and-white striped towel. A teapot design is on it. At first I was going to stitch the pot, ignoring the stripes, but the design transfer is the same color as the stripe and I've been debating stitching the design only on the white stripes, leaving the blue stripes blank--so it looks like the teapot is peeping out from behind. It's set aside while I think about it.I began a new project from my stash last weekend. The three crewel kits below are from Australia and by Lorraine's on Capri (they don't have a website). The colors are bad on these scans of the photos that came with the pieces. I began this pincushion over the weekend and am about halfway done. (I'm staying up way to late at night to stitch!) The background is greenish and the central flower is bright pink. The red stem and yellow leaves are the only colors close to what they should be. Once it's done I'll get better pics.These next two projects are ready to go. The colors on the needlebook are closer to those in the magazine and kit. These are unusual colors for crewel projects and are what had me interested in them. This project was featured in Australian Embroidery and Cross Stitch magazine a few years ago. (You can see some of the issues here atErica's.) They're stitched on hand-dyed doctor's flannel with Appleton wools. The wool fabrics in the kit aren't as mottled as those in the magazine and the photos. I love the concept, but I'll have to dye my own. The scissors case below is more traditional. The kit includes the strawberry fob. All of the designs are finished with cording made from silk threads included in the kits. I've been keeping track of the projects I completed this year over on Flickr, in Finished in 2009. It's a new way for me to keep a record and I like it. I've found out I can import the images to Snapfish and make them up into a little book. I may need to do that!

One-Word Resolution for 2010

In terms of my word of the year for 2009, Move, it was a dismal failure. I did notice that during 2009 the word from 2008, Focus, was more in mind, so perhaps Move will carry over and I will improve in motivating myself to getting off my duff more often. I’ve been contemplating resolution words for the coming year.

My word for 2010 will be Choose: what we choose is who we are. Who we choose to spend our time with. What we choose to do with our time. What we choose to eat. How we choose to treat our bodies. In the Monthly Aspectarian's Astro-weather report, a common warning is to make good choices. In 2010, I need to move beyond habit and ruts and view everything I do as an opportunity for making better choices. I want to think carefully about each choice I make.

I like the dictionary definition, in particular the etymology that relate it to tasting and enjoying (Merriam-Webster online edition).

Inflected Form(s): chose \ ch z\; cho·sen \ ch z n\; or obs chose; choosing; chooses
Etymology: Middle English chesen, chosen, chusen, from Old English c osan; akin to Old High German kiosan to choose, Old Norse kj sa, Gothic kiusan to choose, test, Latin gustare to taste, enjoy, Greek geuesthai to taste, Sanskrit jusate he enjoys, tastes, loves

transitive verb
1 a : to select (as one thing over another) especially with free will and by exercise of judgment b : to decide upon especially by vote : ELECT
2 a : to consider or assume as fitting, proper, or advantageous especially from personal preference b : to be inclined to (as by arbitrary decision or personal preference) -- often used with the infinitive
3 now dialect : to wish to have : WANT

received gifts

I have lots of lovely friends and family members who have the best taste in gifts. I didn't get photos of everything but here are a few. There's an obvious textile theme.

Isn't the threadcase above amazing? The letters are just beautiful. The inside is a cardboard cover with paper pages. The skeins of silk are held in the pages with straight pins--which have aged and rusted beautifully. The book cover is hand embroidered linen. It's a wonderful treasure.There's one word for this lovely large square of hemstitched linen--potential. There are so many things it could become but right now I'm just enjoying it as it is.
I believe this fragile bit of fine embroidery is a decorative coaster. I'm not positive but it's the right size. Have you ever seen anything like this? Do you know what it might be? It may be from India. I love the lotus.This is the gift I asked my family for and they went together and got me this book. It has really nicely detailed instructions for the ten phase pieces for Japanese embroidery. It's an amazing book and now I can get on with my piece much more easily. The lovely fabrics are from Japan, gifts from my niece.

She joined us for our family Christmas via Skype. It was really, really cool and also very strange. The laptop was set on a chair in our circle and plugged into the stereo speakers. At first we sat around it and talked to the computer, rather stiltedly, but later on, as she joined in the conversations, it was like she was really there--until you remembered it was a computer on the chair and not her. I was very, very happy she was able to join us in this way. The marvels of the modern age!

Gift Giving

One huge anxiety with the holidays for me is gift giving. Are you as fussed about it?

I worry whether each gift is nice enough, whether the recipient will like it, whether I’m giving equally (especially a concern with family). Once the packages are open, I analyze. Did they really like it? Will they actually use it/wear it? Were they just being polite.

Sometimes I think all of this stress is because I make many of the gifts I give. I have to balance what I want to spend my time doing with what I think the intended recipient will like. But I’ve found I react much the same way with purchased gifts or, as is often the case these days, giving things that I have collected over the years. I hold my breath until the packages are opened.

Now that the holidays are over, I can breathe a sigh of relief. Whatever the outcome, it’s done. I think this year was pretty successful. I think I made good choices (although I’d really love to hear from my nephews to know what they think, since the snow prevented them from making it to the gathering).

The red washcloth was a gift to my sister who wanted one knit tighter than usual. I used the usual pattern and cotton yarn, but went down a couple of needle sizes and knit most of the rows through the back loop. It worked and the cloth is much firmer than the usual. I couldn't show it before because she'd know it was for her. Most of my other handmade gifts for this Christmas have appeared on here at one time or another: the felted entrelac bags, the 1970s chatelaine, beaded crystal pendants from last spring...

Exhale and Relax

Christmas is nearly here!

This Christmas card was sent by my grandparents in the 20s or 30s. I found it in a stack of correspondence. I'm just about to leave work for the long holiday weekend. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday.These charming crocheted and felted hot pads were a gift. I love the fibers used and the way the colors blend.I didn't get everything done that I wanted last weekend but I did finish some things. I made these wallets for my nephews. I got a remnant of faux tooled leather last month and decided this would be fun. The photo shows my paper mock up that I used for a pattern. My "bad" decision was to use my rust dyed fabric for the pockets and lining. The sewing machine very much did not like that fabric. Two or three layers was fine but when it got more than that (and I think the folded pocket piece got to eight layers) it would not under any circumstances stitch that. I did what I could by machine and did the rest by hand and with fusibles.

Another could-have-been-wiser decision was to use an very fine iron-on interfacing to back the folded credit-card pockets. The idea is to stitch all the way around, slit the fusible, turn it and fuse it to the back of the pocket, holding it all in place. It's a great idea but the fine interfacing I chose was way too thin for the project and pretty much just shredded. I just slapped on more it and made sure all the edges got finished. Not elegant but it should work.This is entrelac bag #3 with the knitting complete, felting to come. It's smaller than the others and one row is mixed fibers--I was using up the leftovers from bag #1.Since I took this photo, I finished this towel and began on one with carrots. These are great fun and relaxing. Now on to wrapping!