Hood Knitting Patterns
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Knit hoods and bonnets are trending this winter, both because of cuteness
and because they are a great way to keep your head (and sometimes your
neck, to...
6 hours ago
Showing posts with label holiday block. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday block. Show all posts
Friday, June 25, 2010
The "Mo-tivator"
Monday, February 8, 2010
Finished - the Holiday Block
In September I flew to Denver, Colorado, met up a couple of days early with Gerry K, Leslie, Kerry and Debbie Q to get the shopping in for the September Shenanigans CQ Quilting Retreat in Breckenridge. It was wonderful fun (and I'm signed up for this year too). The left part represents the snowcapped mountains, the forests with the bright little patches of aspen, and the lakes. The band that is running from top to bottom has a few small samples of what we learned. There's velvet pansies, button painting, ribbon flowers and leaves, dying lace, using angelina fibres. At the top is a pin that Leslie made for me and all of us attending the Retreat.
The next section is New Orleans. From the bottom up, there's the wrought iron, above that the music, Carnival with the mask and beads, and the fancy lace on the side is a little touch of the saucier night life that is also present in the French Quarter. What isn't very clear in the picture is a sparkling crystal, a piece from a chandellier that I found in a charity shop in the Quarter that was very damaged during Katrina. The lady in the store said that the water had risen 8 feet up the wall.
On the right is Florida where I spent the last two weeks of my month's vacation. I used needlelace for the bird's bodies and wings, collected most of the shells on Nokomis beach, and the piece of orange crab shell was once on my dinner plate!
It's finished, but not framed. The framing will happen in the summer when my handy friend visits.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Monday Challenge - fourth week
I'm moving on well with my holiday block. Above is the Colorado section. I added more snow to the mountains and have put some snow covered trees on the section right below it. In Colorado the small patches of aspens in amongst the firs were brilliant and I've tried to duplicate the look of that here. Below is a closeup of the mountains.
I also worked on the wrought iron railings in the New Orleans section. This was tricky stitching!
These are two needle cases that I made on short notice for the Bazaar at St. Margaret's in the Pines Peacemakers craft group. Just one piece of fabric embellished with lace and beads. I think the monotone colour scheme worked out really pretty. This is one opened up to show the front side.
The front closeup.
The back closeup.
A second one with just one fold, this is the front.
This is the back.
Next week I have to get the waste canvas angel mastered, or it comes out and a nice piece of lace goes in it's place.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Monday Challenge - second week
This past week I finished the tea cosy. I even managed to get the piping braid in neatly too! 
I added a little face to the angel. She is ready to be mailed. Her wings are three layers of sparkly white organza ribbon. I drew the pattern on the ribbon, sewed small running stitches on the pattern line, then embroidered blanket stitched over the running stitches very close together and I trimmed very close to the stitching. 
The Florida part of my holiday wall hanging is finished. I redid the sunset reflection in the water and added a few grasses around the feet of the upper bird just so he doesn't look as if he is floating, but has his feet on the sand.
I took out the cross stitch mesh, because my stitching on the cross stitch angel was very uneven and some of the crosses went the wrong way. So this needs to be taken out and redone. I might use a bigger mesh the next time. 
Monday, October 26, 2009
And then there were two....
My one little guy needed a friend. The second seagull has a separate wing. He's not supposed to be flying here, but just on another part of the sand. But I think that would be neat to have some flying critters with 3-D wings on a block. Just for the record, I sat down and said to myself that I could have one hour to sew, but in actual fact it took me two hours and I worked on it until it was finished.
A presentable bird
It was quite good fun to do this little seagull. I made the stitches much closer together than my first attempt (see previous post) and because of that I needed to work with a magnifying glass to get the stitches into the right place. He's 1 1/4" from tail to beak and 1/2" high, not including legs and I stuffed a little cotton under the wing to give him a little more dimension. He's now on Nokomis Beach on my holiday block!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Another try at Needle lace
Last February I tried making a needle lace dragonfly and I posted about it. I followed instructions that used a heavy cardboard and several layers of strong fabric. I found it very difficult to lay down the thread pattern. Trying to find the hole in the cardboard from underneath was slow and frustrating.
One of my new books, Beginners Guide to Stumpwork by Kay Dennis gives instructions for a way to do it that's much easier on the fingers. The photo below is from the book. I tried the seagull. 
Kay Dennis suggests three layers of thin cloth, like muslin, your paper pattern and then cover it with a piece of Press-and-Seal wrap. Below is my pattern after I had finished using it. I didn't think to take a photo before I started. I used three layers of muslin, my paper pattern and the press and seal on top of it. It was very easy to couch down the outline. 
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Vacation block - progress
It's been lots of fun working on this block that represents my three-part month vacation this Fall. From left to right: The CQI crazy quilt retreat in Breckenridge in Colorado; New Orleans; and Nokomis, Florida. It's not finished, I have a lot more ideas, beads and other stuff to add, but it's well on its way.
A beach scene with the setting sun. Need to work on the reflection in the water. It's funny how things look different in a photograph! The long pointy bit is a bit of a crab claw that I actually ate. And most of the shells I found on the beach. It's surprising how many already had small holes in them. 
This is the Colorado section. I ran out of the dark green thread so the forest needs to be finished. The little yellow patch represents the yellow aspens, but I can see that they need to be much more vibrant in colour. They actually glowed on the mountainside.
This is my last day in Florida before I fly home tomorrow. It's pretty cold up north, but I have nice warm memories of all the places I visited across the U.S. this past month.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
An idea takes shape.......
I had in my mind to do a block of my month of summer wanderings, first to Colorado Rocky Mountains for the CQI Retreat, then to New Orleans for a couple of fun days, and ending in Nokomis, Florida. I wanted to begin but had to wait for the right frame to turn up, and it did yesterday, measuring 10" x 21". So between Wednesday afternoon and now this is my progress. I brought a few selections of fabric packages from my Etsy shop and the Slash & Dash the Stash at the Retreat provided some great pieces of purple and maroon satin and a saucy piece of lace.
After messing around ALL day, this is how it finished. It's all pieced and tacked by hand. Now I'm anxious to start the fun part!
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