ADDING NOSTALGIA TO MY WORK

I didn't make it to the sewing machine last night, but I did however, unearth a small book that I ordered some months back, with beautiful pictures and embroidery techniques.

The book has instruction in both thread and ribbon embellishing, and I thought I'd share.

The pictures are beautiful and it's a smaller book that's easy to slip into my purse/knap sack/magicMaryPoppinsBag. I believe I got this from Amazon.com so while it was a used book it was in near perfect condition. And I like the idea that somebody before me owned it and has now passed it on.

Anyway - here is the book and a couple of pages that I thought were good to share. I just think that adding little bits of interest adds so much to the value of your work and the history of your life - sort of like "can I produce something that will touch someone for years?" ... or last a lifetime?

K

USING ALL I'VE GOT........scraps almighty!

I worked on three small pieces. There was such a mess around my sewing machine with piles of little strips of fabric, all the leftovers from my last several days of sewing, but I couldn't just scrape them off into the trash without trying to at least come up with something useable. I'm a little fascinated by a couple of things - 1) have you ever noticed how much thread you can waste by pulling the fabric out and away to cut it off, and the tail that you started with....it's crazy, so I'm going to sew a pile of it onto something and see how that looks....it'll be fibery kind of. And, the other thing? I may have forgotten but maybe I was thinking that you really CAN make something out of those tiny pieces. I think what I'll do is make a series of very small, pieced hearts, then attach them to a solid background and then frame them in little 4 inch frames. That sounds productive, right?

And I'll embroider a little on them. This will be fun. I just know it.

K

SEWING INTO THE NIGHT.....

I started so SO late last night and almost didn't get to the sewing machine, but once I got going it was great. I got TWO pieces sewn last night and will work on some hand embellishing today.

I sat at the machine thinking that it might pipe up and give me an idea and I had none so I started sewing the little scrappy strips together and that looked kind of cool, but you don't get to see that, and then after I ironed it I cut it into strips and then reversed every other one and ironed them down on Wonder Under....not sure what I'll do with that but it looks good, almost like a checkerboard but not. And then after I did that, I just started piecing bits together and going round and round, trimming and cutting, adding more, and came up with the little 3x4 piece.

So I managed to finish the sewing on a 3"x4" piece and just have to go back and add some stitching, and the 9"x 15" and I need to do the same. And these will be framed and put on Etsy.com when I get done.

So....... a challenge.......that would be fun, I'm just not sure what would be good...... I'm into flowers right now so it would have to be something different, something to stretch my little brain. Any ideas?

K

An Interesting Challenge Link

This looks like a really cool beginning. I love the challenge idea, maybe when people start happening onto this page, we'll have our own challenge. How fun!

http://quiltart.com/challenges/fffc/challenge1.html

K

I'm fudging a bit.......I did this the other day. I'm thinking, after seeing some quilt pieces in frames, bordered by wide, white mats, that I might like to see some of these smaller pieces that I've been doing framed. I don't think that I can actually piece any of these pieces together because they just don't go with each other. Seperately they're fine. I guess if I can to four that are similar, but not alike, they can be a small quilt, but I'll figure that out when I come to it. For now, I think I'll just try to stay on task and get one new thing done a day, and do the hand work while I'm watching tv or something.

Always thinkin'.......

K

Work In Progress

LINKS THAT ARE TOO GOOD NOT TO VIEW:

Here are the links.... I'll figure out at some point how to get them on one side.

This is great, maybe I'll do this with a few of my small pieces. I've never seen a bunch of pieces all framed, behind glass. They're quite impressive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/patchworkmemories/sets/72157603994702558/

Here is from a new friend in South Africa........very cool!

http://artpropelled.blogspot.com/

Here are two that I first saw and keep going back to because I'm dying to see what they've got up:

http://www.goingtopieces.blogspot.com/ and http://www.wowmelody.com/

http://twolimeleaves.wordpress.com/category/quilts/
http://www.andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/

http://www.kristinlaflamme.com/musings/

This should keep anybody busy. Great color, great ideas. These have all inspired me.

Kate

ONE PIECE A DAY? THAT'S WHAT I SAID?

Sunday was a busy, busy day. I barely got this little piece put together. It's about 12x15 inches. And if you ask me about dimensions and why that size, I'm not going to have an answer because I don't know. It just looked about right and it didn't loom HUGE to me. I want to get over that scary "Oh my god, it's a huge blank thing that I need to fill."

So... I think that the flowers shouldn't be so close in height and I am not sure what I'm going to do with that......perhaps embroidering stamen or something, or a little spray of seed pods ....something that will draw the eye away..... I've been warned by a friend of mine not to overwork the stitchery and put too much fuss into it.......we'll see.

I'm gathering quite the little pile of things that I will eventually need to put together or finish them as complete things by themselves. That will be my next thing to figure out ... mostly because I don't think any of them go together with the next thing. Grrr..... it's kind of like something an old boss told me some 20+ years ago - "... have you ever noticed that you can't... cannot, do the same thing, the same way twice? Why is that? It's impossible for you to send this form letter out without changing SOMETHING.....?"

Personally, I think it's a gift.

Kate

Yesterday's Effort

So this is what I did yesterday (well into the night). I thought I'd be able to do more but what I've found is this - the same hesitancy I feel with a blank piece of paper (or blank screen) that is screamin' "type something" "think of something" "PRODUCE SOMMMMMEEEETHING", well it happens just as much and just as loudly when I was looking at a blank piece of muslin. I could NOT figure out what to start with first.

This is probably an insane reference, but you know how dogs circle around and around and around some more before they feel like they're in a comfortable spot to lay in? Yeah......well, I've noticed that THAT is just how it is for me. I have to have just the right amount of chaos around me, just enough tidy cluttery piles of fabric, paint, thread, wood, whatever I'm into that week, and after I clutter myself - sadly like a little pig pen.....well then I'm just happy in my slop (evidently) that I can work to my little hearts content. I didn't even mind that I had to get up and iron (yes Mom, I ironed the seams) the little seams every couple of minutes. Now THAT is amazing.

So today, I'll try to do another piece or at least make a significant amount of progress on something else and see what I come up with. I've got a ton of pieces in progress that I haven't even shown you yet either. That will come as we go.

And in the meantime, here are a couple of really cool websites to check out. And I'm only going to put on here what I love!

http://emmyschoonbeek.blogspot.com/ I LOVE her textures and colors!

And I really want to do something like the Gee's Bend quilts - they look simple but I'm thinking it takes some work to have it turn out as great as these: This is a public broadcasting link but there's some great information and the other website took their pictures down, I think to re work the display. In any case this will give you an idea of what these women have done over the years. Look up Gee's Bend quilts, or Gee's Bend quilters to get more information.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec03/quilts_07-01.html

Kate