OOOOOPPSSS!!!

Again, my apologies, to Corina this time...She lives now in Colombia, not Romania, but her pix are still gorgeous, and she generously gave me a link in her comment to her cousin's Yahoo 360 site, where Veronica shows what she can do with the photos. I can't get the link to publish herein the post, but it's VERY worth it to go to her comment (in the just previous post about her Seahorse) and cut-and-paste the link in your navigator or search box and go feast your eyes!

Be adventurous, be creative, and I'll be back!!!

Seahorse in Needlework

marina
Originally uploaded by corinas.

Still relaxing...I found this piece in the Flickr photostream of my Corina. I admire her talent and work; plus she has some gorgeous pix of Romanian gardens and plants. Go visit her photostream, and she has a blog, also!!

Art Dolls: Marj's Cone Doll, side view

cone doll side
Originally uploaded by Marjorie from Illnois.

Look at this! I couldn't resist; I like to check Flickr before I go to bed -- it relaxes me to see everyone's wonderful work. I just love the colors here; this is a side view. Go check out Marj's other projects on Flickr!

ADDENDUM to NEWS FLASH...

BTW, I'm still working on my sidebar -- I've still got quite a few links to move and reorganize, so please be patient with me!!

NEWS FLASH! NEWS FLASH!

Hey, everybody! Earlier I posted about how thrilled I am that my friend Lenni has had the opportunity to put up her work up on a website. However (mega-apologies, Lenni), I got the name of the site wrong, although my link was correct. Abel Designs is Lenni's wonderful husband's web design work. Lenni's site is: Lenni Abel: Art Quilts. I have corrected my sidebar entry, and I am SO sorry, Lenni! But everyone would have ended up there anyway since I got the link right (do not EVEN ask me how I made that!). So, GO VISIT LENNI's LOVELY QUILTS!!!

So be good, be creative, be happy! And I'll be back!!

Sampler Prep

I'm in a small group of women participating in a band sampler RR. Samplers are an interesting breed of needlework. I'll cover more about them in another post. For the moment, I wanted to post a pic of this one on which I'm working. The photo was taken a bit ago, as my band is almost done. But I wanted you to see one of the ways to prep a sampler. The red threads are are J&P Coats sewing thread, back in the day you could get them 3/$1. No, I'm not telling you when day, except the dinosaurs WERE gone! I use red as my prep thread because it's easiest to see. Anyway, Norma's sampler is a gorgeous shade of pumpkin, and my red threads go horizontally at every five count. Normally I'd grid it at 10ct x 10ct, but my design was planned to be more horizontally oriented rather than vertically. Again, samplers WILL be covered further in future posts.

Be good, be creative, be happy! and I'll be back!

Another Very Cool Blog with FREEBIES

Well, yet again I LOVE following everyone's links. I found an adorable blog with great art and awesome sharing. The name of the blog is Kissy Cross, and she is now listed in my sidebar. The site is in German, but you'll always understand beauty in embroidery and the word "Free" is similar all over the world!! Definite worthwhile, so go visit her!!

Be creative and be happy, and I'll be back!!

Art Opps Don't Grow on Trees!

Under my Great Opportunities heading there in my sidebar, you should check out ArtGroupDFW. There are a LOT of studios and show opportunities in my particular area, and I bet there are great show opportunities near you, too. Do a Google search, and I know you'll be surprised with what you find!

The Artist's Way

Several months ago, a group of us from various art disciplines got together and started our own Yahoo! group here to study it together. The group is moderated by Aisling d'Art, and we also have a blog here. Many of us finished the 12 weeks, many of us got sidetracked by life.

Those of us who got sidetracked decided to go through it again. We go at our own pace. Sometimes some of us will take a couple weeks on a particular chapter. Sometimes a chapter get skipped and then returned to.

Either way, the feedback and shared insights are tremendous and add a whole 'nother element to a fascinating opportunity.

I just wanted to make this opportunity available again...I know a recurring theme in blogs lately is how to get past the BOULDERS of blah and back into a Creative Mode. So if you are interested, beg, borrow or buy a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I picked up my copy at Barnes & Noble (NAYY), it's the nearest bookstore to my home. And come join us !!

There Are Some AWESOME Folks Out There...

My friend Lenni is an incredible woman. And I know a LOT of incredible women! Lenni's a quilter, and a member of our Survivor Challenge group (from the Quilting Arts list). She has finally had a wonderful opportunity to open her own website to showcase her beautiful work at Abel Design. Please go visit her site and be inspired!!

Be good, be productive, and I'll be back!

Blog, Flickr, What's Next??!!

Well, in addition to Flickr accounts for Needlelace and More, and Pulled/Drawn Threads (see sidebar), I've started another account, called Ever Embellished -- it's a public account. Please feel free to join it if you'd like, and post pictures of your own stitching embellishments! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's projects...my philosophy is that if it's important enough to spend time doing it, then it's important enough to be shared!

Irises!

Several years ago, when DH and I first got together, his mother had a twenty-foot long bed of iris in all the imaginable colors. She decided to move, so she gave us six. For the first time, this year they bloomed --what a lovely shade of purple they are!

Of Mice and Men (well, actually, birds!)

I can't always get out of the house. My "field trips" tend to be my backyard. But my yard is fixed up kinda cool, it's sort of my haven, and I love to watch which birds come in when. My particular favorite is the mourning dove, I just love their calls. And my most memorable -- well, have YOU ever been dive-bombed by a barn swallow??!!

Anyway, it's great for sketching and idea-grabbing, but what if I want to implement an owl or some other bird which doesn't reside within my fence?

HAH -- we go to the 'net!! So, I've added two links to my sidebar -- one's under Education, "All About Birds" -- attracting them, watching them, identifying them, and WONDERFUL pics! AND, under "Go Visit, Really Worth It", I added the Cornell LIVE-FEED BIRDHOUSE NESTCAM. Wow, is THAT phenomenal!

I forget who it was recently, Acey maybe? who had pics of a barnowl from Italy, TX, a town not too awful far from me, just down the road a piece. (Of course, if you're from somewhere large like Texas, Alaska, or Australia, you'll know the ramifications of that phrase...VBG!!) Anyway, the pics were great, and it's so fun to also be able to watch them on the live-feed birdnest cam.

Well, that's all the news so far...be good, be productive, and I'll be back!!

FINALLY!!

I humphed in my last entry because Blogger (please note my lady-like lack of single-syllable short-vowel fricatives (Anglo-Saxon)) would not put out my icons at the tope of the posting space. I was tres annoyed. So I humphed.





But Today I Have Icons.

Let's see what happens next...GASP!! My Botany Bookmark came through!!



And, in joyful celebration, I have the following announcement to make:

First, I have a regular flickr account now, at http://flickr.com/photos/txstitchermom/, which are all my general pix, plus we have started two new flickr groups.

Our first new addition is a public photo pool as an offshoot of our Needlelace and More Yahoo!Group (the NON-SPAM version). The photos may be viewed here, although we've all been quite busy and haven't had a chance to post much.

The second new flickr group is in the field of Pulled and Drawn Thread. If you are interested in either of those needlework media and have some work which you'd like to post, please get in touch with me either through this blog or through flickr.

More soon!

humph

Panel One

Coming Attractions...

Well, it's late and I'm tired out of my mind, but here's what's up for tomorrow. I have several projects going, a quilting one of which is actually "done". And, although I generally shouldn't admit it, I sort of play Minesweep, AND I WON THE EXPERT LEVEL!!! Yes, you guessed it, I actually took a pic of the screen (I hope it came out!!) cuz I knew DH wouldn't believe me!!! So be good, be well, and I'll be back!

The Illustration for the Taunton Post

The 22' Oriental Project and then some...

well, I got all these loaded up, it's after midnight and I'm tired out of my mind. So I'm just going to tell you quick what they are and tomorrow they will each have their own titles and paragraphs!

The top one requires a large para...it's a 22' long (I kid you not!) Oriental piece of fabric in panels. My wonderful Mom grabbed it from somewhere and we split it...you see my half!

Next is a tag project I'm working on with another group. What you see is three macrame dragonflies on side one. They'll be done finally in a couple days, at which you'll see front and back before I mail them out.

The third pic is a bee-yoo-tee-full miniature Goddess quiltlet wall hanging. It is an original, signed, Arlee Barr. I'm quite thrilled! Although I MUST say, shrieking in delight via email just does not have the same effect as shrieking into the phone and making the recipient hold her phone a foot away from her ear!!!

And the fourth pic is a wonderful pile of sparklies and thingies, including a darling little painted art doll head, which I need to get a close up of tomorrow to go with the sparklie pic. These are also from my awesome Canadian friend...again, the disappointment of email shrieks of delight!!

So that's it for now, y'all!! Behave, be good, and I'll be back!!

TAST Project 1

Well, my TASTing is not only experimenting with shaping of different stitches, but also combining stitches and ideas.

Project 1 here (not quite done) started with the centipedes. The fabric, as you can see from the top edging there, is a scrap of something received from one of my evenweave companies. I adore working with weird colors that no one else wants to touch and seeing how I can turn the fabric into a project to drool over. Well, I guess centipedes aren't exactly to drool over, but oh well!!

They started out as two little c's, crawling out in nice somewhat uneven buttonhole/blanket stitch form. Now come on, have you EVER heard of a centipede having uniform legs??!! Then I looked at the stitch and thought for a while. I added the curved seams on the side there -- the first and third are closely-worked buttonhole such as you'll find in whitework. The middle one (not finished) uses the detached chain. Not too bad so far...

I decided the c's needed something, so I filled them in with gradient pink glass beads down to the small rocaille beads at their tails. Their heads have French knots at the ends of the antennae, which is how you can tell which end is which. Just in case you ever need or want to know.

The blue leaves and tan branch tip were added and appliqued with very close, very small blanket/buttonhole stitch. I'll have to figure out how to get a better close-up, because I'm rather proud of the small size and consistency of those stitches, if I do say so myself!

Then, I wanted to fill out things a bit more, so I attached the periwinkle blue-and-white flower with detached chain stitch, also using periwinkle blue thread, in each of the white petals of the flower. The leaf is appliqued, again with blanket/buttonhole stitch, and some slight needlepainting in the dk green center veins.

Finally, at the bottom of the piece, there are two pieces of a "sample scrap" that is striped in pale and dark versions of the same olive drab type color of the background piece. So far, there is a pulled-thread eyelet in tan at the top of the vertical piece. There will be about a half dozen scattered throughout those two pieces.

I'm pleased with the quality of my work. I'm rather happy with how the colors have fallen together, although looking at the piece now, I would be happier if I had used a couple different shades. But this is a learning experience, and I'm enjoying it.

TAST stitches used: Buttonhole/blanket, and detached chain.