Blackwork and Bodypaint

I'm irritated because I'm missing things. Specifically the inner wall for the roombox that will become my kitchen and dining room scene, and the brown cotton leftover from a sewing project that I want to use for Hibiscus' skirt. Spent all week looking for both in between doing chores and whatnot. I shall be miffed if I have to re-cut the inner wall.

Speaking of Hibiscus, I added some painted details to her skin. I also painted her shoes.

I'm hoping to get her dressed this week, but if I can't find the skirt fabric I'm going ot have to change gears with her clothes.

I did find the severely neglected Aragon Blackwork project while searching for things. When I last worked on it, almost 3 years ago, it looked like this:

Today it looks like this:

The red thread above the design is me gridding out where the blackwork border belongs. 

So that's the extent of the creativity on my part this week. Except for planning, which is boring without drawings. ;-)

I'll leave you with pictures of post-bath Mercedes as I try and get pictures of the feather in her fur. She was uncooperative.

See you next weeekend!

A Mini Tutorial and Two Stitching Updates

I've been putting together a tutorial for minis to share with some friends.  I thought I'd share it here because it's lots of fun and it was a creative project.

First I'll get the stitching photos out of the way.  I'll link to the previous week's images in the name for easy comparison.

Black Bear is coming along nicely.

I did get the background trees in the middle of the piece going this week.  I also finished a chunk of clouds in the sky and started on the tops of the foreground trees on the right side.  The bear's face got filled in too... because I got tired of seeing a faceless bear.

The Aragon Blackwork did get the lower right motif outline in place this week, and its surrounding crosses.  I also stitched the right side pattern, started the upper left motif, and purchased a larger frame to make it easier to work on.

Now for the tutorial!  Here's how to make mini bolts of fabric and fat quarters.
You will need:

- pieces of thick cardstock, I used the backs off legal pads, cut to 7/8 of an inch by 2 inches.  I painted the ends of my bolts white, but that's optional.
- strips of appropriate fabrics 4 inches by 22 inches; if you're cutting from a fat quarter, just cut a 4" piece the length of the fabric.
- scissors for paper and fabric (a rotary cutter and mat would make things go faster)
- a ruler
- tacky glue
- clothespins for clamps

 Fold your fabric strip in half, wrong sides together, so that you have a rectangle 2" x 22".  Put some glue on your bolt .

Press one end of your fabric to the bolt and begin tightly wrapping fabric around the bolt.

 When you've reached your desired thickness, trim the remaining fabric off (save it for cutting fat quarters!), fold over the cut end, and glue it to the bolt.

 Clamp in place with clothespins.

As a note, if you have a light fabric and don't care for the dark card showing through or didn't want to bother with painting ends, use a white piece of card instead.  I had a small white piece that came folded inside a real life fat quarter, but only one piece.  That's why I opted to paint the ends of brown card.

For the fat quarters, neatly stack your leftover ends from the fabric bolts.  Cut two inch strips first.

Then cut 1.5 inch pieces off of those strips.

 This way to can create multiple fat quarters at once!  It saves time.

 Another note, I folded one mini fat quarter into a small square, like they come at JoAnn's and some other fabric stores.  You could also fold the fat quarter in half, roll it, and tie it with a piece of thread.

 Maddie and Nugent decided they would pose with some finished bolts.  If you poke the photo, Nugent is peeking out from around the bolts on the left.

I have many more bolts to make since I've got a mini quilt shop in mind.  There will also be baskets to display folded and rolled fat quarters in eventually.

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial.  It was nice to play with minis again... it's been too long.  See you next week!

Happy Mother's Day and A Tale of Two Bears

First off: Happy Mother's Day Everyone!  I hope today is filled with happiness and fun.  :-)

Now to the bears...

Here's the first one:

The Black Bear cross stitch has rolled out of UFO hibernation again.  The only post I could find about him was back in November 2009.  He's come in and out of hibernation a few times since then.

Here's a picture from July 2010:

This one is after I'd started stitching this week and thought to take a picture.  Whoops.  But at least I have a reference from earlier in the week.

I took this one this morning, after stitching until 1 a.m.

To make working on this huge piece easier, I make "working copies" of the chart, i.e. ones I can scribble on, and have been shading the stitches in when I've completed them.  I don't do this on the real chart in case I mess up where I'm scribbling.

Just to make it easier for me to know what I'm supposed to be doing, I started using a different color of pencil every day.  I hadn't been doing that initially, but I find it easier to keep track.  Taking time to shade in the stitches does slow me down a little, but that means fewer mistakes to frog and re-stitch.

The blue pencil is everything from 2010 and a little bit I did whilst we were in Michigan last summer.  I couldn't get comfortable enough there to work on such a big piece.  Orange pencil is this past Thursday, and part of Friday until I had the brilliant idea to switch colors.  I moved on to green for the rest of Friday.  Pink is yesterday.

I'll be choosing another color after this post and will spend quite a bit of today stitching.  I figure I'd better stick with this guy as long as I find him fun.  He's been neglected for far too long.

My goal for this piece for next week's blog entry will be finishing the pine trees on the left of the piece and moving into the background trees that stretch across to the "closer up trees" on the other side of the design.

I do have a second BAP stitching project going, but it's a completely different style.  I started the blackwork piece I kitted up two years ago... finally.  But I figured out I'll need the frame I've got the bear in to hold it before too long.  Using a regular hoop for the moment is fine, but once I get the center sections done, I'll need the Bear's frame so I don't damage the center stitches.

This is what I've done, as of Thursday.  There will be a total of four large motifs around the little motif on the left.  It's actually the center of the piece.  An elaborate border goes around the edges.

Unlike the Bear, I'm only working with three floss colors.  I'm hoping to finish the lower right-hand motif's outline by next week.  Bear is my main focus though, so really any progress here will be nice.  I like to rest my brain with this design since I don't have to really have to worry about "getting lost."  Symmetrical designs are nice that way.

Now for the other bear!

In case you didn't know, the name Artan translated to "little bear" in English.  Well my "Little Bear" was having fun this morning.  He loves fresh flowers... which can lead to lots of spilled water and petals all over the house.

One of our neighbors brought me a sweet little bouquet that was extra from the high school's prom.  (She's the faculty adviser for the prom committee and thought I could use a pick-me-up, which was really nice.  I'm hoping I feel up to spending more time with her this summer.)  Artie was in seventh heaven!

The best part is the flowers are all tucked into the plastic tubes that florists use for corsages and single cut flowers.  No water to spill!  He's already knocked them over twice today so he could get better sniffs.  :-)  I can keep refilling the tubes until the flowers wilt.

Well I'm off to pick a new colored pencil and start working on Black Bear again.  I hope everyone has a nice week!

Planning and Charting

I spent most of this week playing with a book I found at our library.  It's by Lesley Wilkins and called Blackwork Made Easy: Techniques, Patterns, and Samplers.  The illustrations are gorgeous and I've always had an intellectual affair with blackwork.. meaning I've thought about doing it, kitted up a couple of charts, but never did anything with it.

Now I've made a chart, which will probably get kitted up and set aside for when I decide I've finished enough UFO's (unfinished objects) and played with a couple of things I've already been promising myself I would do.  Like the previous blackwork chart I kitted up for myself.

I fell in love with the dragon design in the book and just had to sketch him out before I returned it.  Then he looked sort of sad and lonely on the page, so I gave him a friend.  Then I doodled with some border bits that I thought were interesting.  The next thing I knew, flowers had appeared and I decided he was in a garden.  So more flowers and creatures were added to make the picture filled out.

As I was working, it occurred to me that my best friend would really enjoy this piece, so I personalized it with her surname.

All of the motifs are from the book.  I really had fun playing with it.  I doodled out a few other things, but they haven't turned into anything fun like the dragon did.  I do believe I will be purchasing a copy of the book though.  There are so many gorgeous designs inside.

I've also been playing with designs for two charts that each feature a piece of my recent poetry.  Neither of them are finished though.   I keep changing too many things.

I also found the fabrics I'm going to use for the sashing on the appliqued table runner.

The purple was so seductive... I bought a full yard even though I only needed one third of a yard.

I wanted to get more done on the runner this week, but the sun was out on more days than not, so I wanted to be upstairs where I could see it.  And the stitching designs had my attention anyway.

Thanks for checking in this week.  See you next time!