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.

FREE and FUN (Well, ALL my posts are fun...!!!)

ok, in addition to my Freebie section there on my sidebar, there are some times that I will want to bring special attention to a particular tutorial, tip, or whatever. Today, the spotlight goes on the Taunton site, home of the fabulous Threads magazine.

For instance, illustrated above is the front page for a fabulous tutorial on fabric knot buttons and beads which can be found here. The tutorial gives excellent instructions for five different styles of buttons or beads. Pics of my efforts do not yet appear for an obvious yet unmentioned reason. oh alright I'm not happy with the results yet!!!

Also on the Threads Tips and Tutorials page are:

• Garment Construction Tips, such as how to construct a no-slide shoulder strap, put a bead behind that button, and many more;
• Choosing and Using Notions Tips, like how to mark thread spools to remember settings or dental tools for sewing;
• Hand Sewing Tips for clipping threads on airplanes or one-stitch buttons;
• Design and Embellishment Tips -- did you know that you can cut fleece strips on the cross-grain to make great cord trim, or that there really IS a safe way to sew beaded fringe?!;
• in their Pattern and Layout Tips section, you can learn how to trace a pattern vertically;
• and in Fitting Tips, there are eight very on-time sets of instructions for better fitting garments.

Now a lot of this information, of course, is most appropriate for garment construction; however, especially from the Design and Embellishment Tips section, there are a LOT of cool suggestions that can be incorporated into many other of the textile/fiber areas.

Go check it out -- you won't be disappointed!

How to Create Your Email Signatures

Here's how:

Addendum following...

From your email page, look in the upper right corner, where you will see Mail Upgrades - Options. Click on Options.

Then you'll see three columns -- Spam, Management, and Premium Services. Click on Management, and scroll down past Mail Addresses, Archive Messages, POP Accesses and Forwarding, Filters, General Preferences, and then Signature (third to last). Click on Signature.

You'll see two lines, and then a text box. On the second line, where it says Plain or Color Graphics, be sure to click on Color Graphics (this ensures that any icons you want, plus any colors of ink or font styles will appear correctly in your finished product). Then, in the text box, pick your font and color, sign your name as you want it to appear, and list any blogs, groups, projects, etc.

When you are done, click below the text box on "Add signature to all outgoing messages" and TADAAA!! you have your signature.

Back at your regular email compose space, you'll see the line "Use my signature" with a little check next to it. This means that all your emails will automatically have your full signature at the end. If on a particular email you do NOT want your full signature, simply unclick that little checked box and sign your name however you want it to appear.

Good luck and have fun!!



SATURDAY -- Susan very kindly wondered which program the above instructions are for. Above is for Yahoo! email, which is my main address. However, I popped over to AOL and discovered their Signature Settings as follows:

In the top right corner, you will see a bar with the titles Today, Mail, Addresses, Calendar, Settings and Help. Click on Settings.

A box comes up called "Authoring Settings". Scroll down past Composing, Sending, Outbound Character Set, and stop at Signature. Click on the little box next to the term so that your signature will be added to all your outgoing AOL emails.

Now I haven't had time yet to go past more than the basic email services, so I don't know if AOL has the little icons that Yahoo! does -- but after the weekend (DH is home -- YYAAAAAYYYYYY!!), I'll venture further into AOL, and we'll cover MSN intricacies, too.

CQ Doodling

CQ Doodling
Originally uploaded by txstitchermom.

Practice Practice!

Omphaloskepsis

Ok, so the second I say something like 'stick with me as I blahblahblah', the Evil Blog Monster rears its ugly head and snorts my blog out of whack. My last post I told you about the spirited QA discussion and my mini-challenge from a wonderful lady who loves teasing almost as much as I do. And I even finished it within the required amount of time. She dared me to do something really risque (view a particular pair of consecutive syllables and draw your own conclusions!), but...

So anyway, what does this have to do with the post title today? Well, the conversation revolved around omphaloskepsis, meaning 'to contemplate one's navel (belly button)'! It's 6x4, paisley fabric with a round, orange fabric navel, fme that you can't see in this pic (more tomorrow,; I was too excited by my blog working, HAD to post!!) using the ONLY decorative stitch this old machine has (White Blue Jeans, at LEAST 12-14yo) -- a 'briar' stitch, it's called, looks rather like feather. I used paper from a hole-punch for the eyeball whites in the rounds of some of the paisley figures, and turquoise beads for the irises. A bit of silver fabric paint added to the eyeball effect, IMHO!

Anyway, I'm happy!

Tongue in Cheek or Foot in Mouth??!!

After a lively exchange today on and off list, I've ended with a small personal challenge due to be finished in 3 days (YES, that's right, THREE DAYS). "Contemplating belly-buttons" came up, and I replied, sort of tongue-in-cheek, and someone replied to *me* off-list, and I'm already excited about my Great Orts Project (posting/pic'ing in a couple days), so the replier told me she could just *see* two quilts related to the discussion, so I whipped back, ok give me dimensions and a time-restriction and you're ON!!!!!!1 So she did, she is, and I am... Stay posted as I grump, groan, whine, and whistle my way through to Saturday and the finished product(s).

Heart-2-Heart Postcard Project

VALENTINES FOR WOUNDED SOLDIERS
Receive-by Deadline: Wednesday, February 7, 2007
For more information -- get in touch w/Karey Bresnehan by clicking here --> Heart-2-Heart

"To recognize and encourage the many American servicemen and women who have been wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have created the Heart-2-Heart postcard project. Our goal is to send artist-made postcards as Valentines to our military wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, where all branches of the armed forces are treated. A quilt artist from the DC area has generously volunteered to deliver the cards directly to Walter Reed for distribution to the wounded. Thanks!"

Tags Part 2

The gold thread shown here is going to be couched down in a swirl design, interspersed with buttons, sequins (bunches I've collected over the years) and beads.

I have two of the rolls of that gold thread, and they have yards and yards of the stuff coiled on each roll. If you want some, email me privately w/your snail mail addy and I'll send you some. I know that not a lot of folks are reading my blog yet, but the first eight (8) people who email me can have at least 5 yards!

Another B-Find...~~

Ok, waiting A-gain for the dratted screens to catch up with my ever-churning brain, I went off on my usual pass-the-time poking around, guess what I found?! Go check out Bernardine Hine's Fabric, Dye and Threads blogspot and feast your eyes! Bernardine has an awesome Astral Quilt which you MUST see, and her next quilt pic'd, a tropical piece, won 2d prize at the Queensland Quilt Show. Also, her Alien Oddity quilt, a couple posts down the page, is too cool!

Tags - Part 1

I belong to a group led by Patti Medaris Culea, a fantastic fiber doll artist. If you go to her site (linked over there on my sidebar), you'll also see some what-she-calls Tome Pages. Each Page Project teaches you a particular set of skills, or helps you sharpen skills you already have; when the Pages are done, you bind them with the Tome Cover and store them in their Tome Box.

Anyway, we're making tags for trade! Never having done this before either, my first step was to cut a piece of cardboard (I usually use the backs of notepads but you can use cereal boxes) into the right size. In this instance, we're making a set number of tags with a set size -- 2"x5" max. SO, I cut both sides of the fabric that I want to use. The theme is "friendship". Being from Texas, I may go gecko and cactus, with turquoise (turquoise is one of the Gemstone Symbols of Friendship). I'll have to ruminate...

This is similar to FPC's, I guess, but different in that there are possible 3-D additions, movable parts, etc. I don't know why learning each new technique becomes such a task for me; once I get the hang, I love it! Am I the ONLY one in this virtual universe with this problem? AAAAACK!!!!