Emboridery

This week I was sick and needed something to do while sitting and groaning, being totally ignored by my family unless they wanted food.

I decided to embroidery a piece I had been dreaming up and went to work.
Here is a picture of Klimt's Tree of Life.



I drew out my version onto a piece of fabric and got to work in stem stitch (which is not my strong point) and was delighted with the outcome, but of course I had to embellish more.



This was about half way through.  I filled in the green knots a lot more as I felt that it needed to be more lush The concept is spring through winter.  I had just started on Fall here with the red knots.

Now I am done with the leaves and I am working on lettering the seasons around the edge.  I am using chain stitch ( my favorite) to write the words.  When that is done I plan on decorating them with more embroidery; blooms for spring, a sun for summer and so on.  Ambitious aren't I?  Yeah.  I am already thinking about my next project.

What am I going to use this for when I am done?  Well I don't know.  I thought about a pillow, but I really don't want someone sitting on my hard work.  Maybe I will frame it.  I don't know, I will probably give it away. 

On a side note, I went out to make glass beads yesterday.  I bribed Meghan at the beginning of summer.  I told her if she would practice her flute that I would give her bead lessons.  Well, she has practiced (only a few times) so I took her out and let her make some beads.  She did pretty well for her first time, and with practice I think will be great.  This is definitely a parental supervision only activity though and I hate giving up my own time at the torch.  Maybe I can set up my old Hot Head for her to use. It is a beginner torch and will be great for her to learn on, but it is noisy!   I will see how it goes.  I learned my lesson after she was gone though.  I have a habit of getting really close to the torch to see, too close actually.  A piece of hot glass popped off my rod and landed on my lip.  As most everyone would do I used my tongue to push it off; bad idea!  I burned my tongue too.  As any respectful beadmaker would do, I finished the bead before going in the house for ice (it is not a bad burn, just not in a good place). Glad I did finish too because it turned out pretty cool.  Pictures soon.

The perfect bag

  I can't ever find a handbag I like, you know they are too small, too big, too soft, too hard, too....well just too wrong!  The same applies for a school bag and since I am going back to school in August I needed something to carry my laptop and any over priced books that they are going to make me buy just so I can carry them to and from class but never use.

So, I decided it would be a good idea to make one.  *sigh*  I should have a little alarm in my head that says "no..buy one, it will be cheaper in the long run.  Make do with the imperfect  (insert any item here) in the store.  Don't waste your time!"  Alas, I have no such alarm BUT; and this is a great 'but' this time,  I took a long time planning this project.  First I got out my handy dandy graph paper, a ruler and a pencil.  I measured my laptop, a file folder and estimated how thick text books would be.  I made my calculations and I drew rectangles and erased and planned and added seam allowances, then realized that I had it wrong and calculated again.

OK, so I had that part down, now I used my wonderful laptop, that I can draw straight onto the screen to plan out the construction.  As I wrote the steps it became clear I had forgotten things and I was able to go back and rearrange my steps.  Writing the directions step by step really helped me to see each piece and where it would go.  I never do this step, I just go blindly into a project and usually end up ripping out seams and cutting again.

Next I bought fabric, heavy duck.  I was excited to find a piece of patterned that kind of matched in the remnant bin. And there they sat for a week.  I was afraid to cut, I was afraid I would mess up and ruin the bag.  Now this is not something new to me, but in the last few years I have gotten over it a lot.  I figure there is no point in keeping that beautiful fabric, yarn, glass stored in neat bins never to see the light of day.  Use it!  Take a chance!  So here I was dithering about some cotton duck.

Finally I cut into it, made my pieces, pinned the lables to each so I knew what went where.  Then again I let it sit, scared to mess up sewing into it.  Finally I pressed the parts that needed it and bit the bullet.

Things are never as bad as you think they will be.  It all went together really well.  I even added an inner pocket for the power cord, since I had some left over material.

I didn't have to unpick one seam.  So, is it finished?  No.  I need to add a strap and I didn't quite have enough for that.  So I will go back to the store and get an eighth of a yard or some strapping stuff.

So here it is...







Of course there is no way to know if this is going to be the perfect bag.  Actually I already know one problem I am going to have with it.  But I hope it works for me to go bad and forth to classes.  I can always plan another one.  "NO!  Go to the store, buy one!"

Some of my UFO's

Today I am going to show you just a few of the projects I have been working on. I can't seem to keep my mind on one thing at the time and then there are some I work on while watching TV and some that I can do without a mess or getting hundreds of supplies out.
Only a couple of these are on my to finish list. What can I say? I found some more to add to it.
I hope you enjoy looking at them.


This is an embroidery that I made. I really enjoy to embroider but I don't do it so often. Since this is on a scrap of fabric; I was trying out stitches and it grew, I have to find something to add it to and I have been waiting for the right project.















This is a fish that Meghan made, I showed her how to do the whip stitch and the button hole. She had some trouble but I thin she did a really good job with it.











This is an altered book I am working on. It looks pretty ugly right now, but when I am finished with the painting and decorating I hope it will be a worthy piece of art. Everything is a learning process and I have learned from this. Like don't use felt!




These are parts of my chatelaine that I want to make. I am forever moving from one place to another in the house and leaving my pins and scissors around, then forget where they are. Not pictured is a matching scissor holder. I must have forgotten to grab it. all these pieces will be attached to a band that will go around my neck.





















Here we have some beads I have made a few weeks ago and a doll head that I made by making paper mache over a tea strainer and then covered with batting and fabric. I have just made a first coat of flesh colored paint on the face.




















Here is another pin cushion. This one I used foam for the bottom layer so that the pins would not push through. I hate picking up a pin cushion and getting stuck from the bottom.

I need another project like I need a....

So I have some pictures of what I have been busy doing the last couple of days. I don't have a lot to say as it is late and 6am comes way too early (what was that Robin Williams line in 'good morning Vietnam'? "It is 0 six hundred and what does the o stand for? OH my God it's early!") Yeah I am not a morning person.
So I wanted to make an art doll. I have done them before but not with any seriousness even though I enjoyed it.
I decided, call me crazy, to make my own pattern. HA HA, easier said than done. Actually I learned a lot from season four of Project Runway!
When I got down to it, I decided a dress makers dummy of the torso would help me make the clothes for the dolls and it would also help me with the original pattern.
So I sewed and I stuffed and I un-stuffed and I resewed and I pinned and I pulled and on and on. And this is what happened. I have learned a lot. I am on #2 now. Of the dummy's that is. Not the dolls.


Front and side



Side and Front.

As you can see I still need to figure out lots of things about this, but I am nothing if not persistent.

Skipping around

As you have noticed by now I have a tendency to skip from one project to the next a lot. Yesterday was sewing day. I got the machine out. I had ironed the fabrics the day before. I started to sew and, again, my concentration went from one thing to another and I didn't get much of anything accomplished. First I made a pin cushion as I have misplaced the ones I have and I needed a place to stick pins. I also made a hammock for the rats. I did make a muslin pattern for a doll torso. I then unpicked it and drafted the pattern on paper. Hopefully this will work for me to make a doll body without too much trouble. I had the idea of making awesome outfits rich in embroidery and rich fabrics. AHHH time! time is my enemy too. Sitting and trying to do one thing is almost impossible for me, I think what I need to do is stay focused and put any ideas that come to me on paper for another day, when the first project is finished. While dinner was cooking I was planning on using those minutes to finish some sewing, but alas, my focus shifted and I actually got my son to help me put the trim back around our sliding door and hang the curtain rod I have bought. I had one of the two panels I had bought and we put that up for now, even though they are ugly. (cheap) I will probably get a king size sheet to put up instead, but it is up and we finally have some privacy from the road behind our house.
I have some more of my art projects to share with you today. Things I have done in the last year or so that I have actually finished.

This is a tote bag I made for an online game I play. We all get a gift ready and then we are given a secret number for our gift. We pick in an order. Number one goes first and picks a number not knowing what the gift is, then number two picks to either steal number ones gift or pick a new number. As the order of picking gets longer, the steals get longer and it is a mess! But it is lots of fun, and I have made lifelong friends playing. Right now I am in my 8th game. It is not really about the gifts but the friends we make along the way. We share hopes and dreams, our days; good and bad and we support each other in ways that only friends can.



These are a couple of ACEO's that I have made. I used watercolor on these two and I am not up to speed on watercolor so an experiment really. I have swapped a few of these and I like to make them because they are quick and I don't feel I have to be perfect with them.

While I was looking for pictures I found this. My Mum and Dad came to see me from England and one day I drove them out to a park near our house. There is a pond when you walk in, before you go deep into the woods and trails and I took this picture for them. I thought it was so good I have it framed too. I think for me, it is more a memory of a moment in time, than the actual composition that I love about it. We had a great day and visit that day. Early spring and the shoots were bright green.

This is a sketch I did recently while I was watching TV.
I was searching on the web for altered art dolls and found some fabulous instructions for making sculpted faces. This is my effort in that area, a mix of all the techniques that I found. Just the head, and the others I made into magnets for the fridge. I love this one and wanted to keep it to myself. It is still sitting around waiting to be made into something, a pin, a magnet or something.

Which led to this, I was playing around trying to make an art doll, and I came up with this shape and put a face on her. Then I went to town decorating her with embroidery and beads. I want to change the shape of the dolls and that is what led me to making a pattern for a torso yesterday.
So there you have it, a peek at what I have been doing and hopefully where I am heading. Things pile up and sometimes I look back and get a better idea.
Today I have an appointment and I will take my moleskine to doodle in while I am waiting. Maybe I will get the plans down for some more projects or even to finish some that I already have.
If only I could concentrate on just one thing, I might get a lot accomplished.