Wordless Wednesday - Jumping through hoops

Stitched Journal Project - November

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one "page" or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn't about perfection, or getting it "just right," it is about process and perspective.

November - fabric collage

I am so late in getting this post up! Apologies. We went out of town for the Holiday and I've just had the chance.

I've been stewing on an idea for a story piece, a fabric collage about my family; a small story of us. This month I worked up a little practice piece; to get a feel for what direction I'd like to go, to use some of my thoughts and see what might evolve.

You'll no doubt see an homage to "Pa's Shirts" that I have been messing with. Old lace, an antique mother of pearl buckle, a well worn bit of hankie and a copy of an old letter envelope.

The envelop is from 1947, sent via Air Mail from The Southern Pacific Railroad... addressed to my grandparents from "Granddady". The letter inside begins:

Dear Children, 

While mother is getting ready to venture out shopping I shall write a few lines so that she may drop it in the mail...

The handwriting is a lovely old-fashioned script that one just doesn't see anymore. Of course, we don't see many actual letters anymore either.

I'm pretty sure the bit of lace edging was made by one of my female family members.  

I think when I finally get to making the story piece that I have in my mind, I will be taking quite a journey into the past.

Below you will find links to the wonderful makers and their Stitched Journal Project pieces for November Please keep your eyes on this spot in the next couple of days as more add their links. Be sure to visit them and leave comments!

If you think you would like to join in as well, it's not too late!  We will be sharing our pieces the last Friday of every month at least until the end of the year. We'd love to have you.

All of you wonderful Stitched Journal Project participants please link up below! Remember to add your photos to The Stitched Journal Flickr Group! and be sure to share with Facebook, Twitter, etc!

Stitched Journal Project - October

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one "page" or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn't about perfection, or getting it "just right," it is about process and perspective.

I am quite upset with myself. I did not finish this month's project. It's been a crazy old month! Along with technical difficulties and a slew of other mundane things I plum ran out of time. Though I did get started and hope to finish next week. All I have to show is a bit of printing on tea aged fabric. My apologies to all of you who worked hard and got yours finished. I can't wait to see what you have been up to!

Below you will find links to the wonderful makers and their Stitched Journal Project pieces for October Please keep your eyes on this spot in the next couple of days as more add their links. Be sure to visit them and leave comments!

If you think you would like to join in as well, it's not too late!  We will be sharing our pieces the last Friday of every month at least until the end of the year. We'd love to have you.

All of you wonderful Stitched Journal Project participants please link up below! Remember to add your photos to The Stitched Journal Flickr Group! and be sure to share with Facebook, Twitter, etc!

Stitched Journal Project - August

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one "page" or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn't about perfection, or getting it "just right," it is about process and perspective.

July

Mixed Media

It all started with an antique Czech belt buckle made of wood that my mother sent me over a year ago. The short version of the long story is that I got an idea, and then another one. Which led me to dig out some wooden game pieces I picked up at my local thrift about 100 years ago. 

I drilled some holes -  using the Engineer's tools while he was out. I stained them and waxed them. Then I tried to teach myself... with only my mind's eye to guide me... how to weave directly onto a very small wooden button using waxed embroidery thread.

Clearly, I need a little practice. I did however, learn lots of things NOT to do. Even it's roughest form, I'm liking where this is going, and I have some grand crafty plans indeed.

The background is an amazing antique linen, as in - at least 100 years old! Each piece was aged in an infusion of various teas. As luck would have it, my good mate, occasional glamorous assistant, and all around crafty inspiration, Jane from Flaming Nora; has just done a lovely tutorial   on aging fabric with tea! 

So, I've tried all sorts of new techniques with this piece and feel a bit of inspiration. Plus it has lovely muted colors just in time for back to school.

Below you will find links to the wonderful makers and their Stitched Journal Project pieces for August. Please keep your eyes on this spot in the next couple of days as more add their links. Be sure to visit them and leave comments!

If you think you would like to join in as well, it's not too late!  We will be sharing our pieces the last Friday of every month at least until the end of the year. We'd love to have you.

All of you wonderful Stitched Journal Project participants please link up below! Remember to add your photos to The Stitched Journal Flickr Group! and be sure to share with Facebook, Twitter, etc!

Stitched Journal Project - June

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one "page" or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn't about perfection, or getting it "just right," it is about process and perspective.

June has been busy, big, and a little overwhelming. Full of highs and lows... and floods, both literal and metaphorical. The stitched quote in my piece is of course in reference to the 1975 iconic film, Jaws. 

I used a recycled brown paper bag and worked it until I got the texture I wanted. I printed the boat onto the bag and machine stitched the words next to the print. I really love a good brown paper bag, so many possibilities! 

Even the Engineer likes it, in fact, he wants to make a frame for it out of reclaimed pallet wood - continuing the recycled theme.

Below you will find links to the wonderful makers and their Stitched Journal Project pieces for June. Please keep your eyes on this spot in the next couple of days as more add their links. Be sure to visit them and leave comments!

If you think you would like to join in as well, it's not too late!  We will be sharing our pieces the last Friday of every month at least until the end of the year. We'd love to have you.

All of you wonderful Stitched Journal Project participants please link up below! Remember to add your photos to The Stitched Journal Flickr Group! and be sure to share with Facebook, Twitter, etc!

Stitched Journal Project - May

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one "page" or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn't about perfection, or getting it "just right," it is about process and perspective.

May 2014 - Cotton, fabric paint, cotton batting

The word of the month seems to have been "Home." We've been working on our home (Thank you for all of the lovely comments you left on my last post. I was blown away by all of your positive remarks!), I have been taking a lot of photographs of my home, I've talked about it in interviews, I've recently been asked by a couple of old friends how I feel about where I live, and I've had some great conversations with folks I know lately about what "Home" means to them.

I consider myself truly lucky to love where I live, to live with those I love, and to really have a place in this world that I know as "Home." It isn't all about the geography - though it sure is a pretty place that I live in. It isn't about the house that I live in - though I am so amazed that this is my beautiful house. No. It has much more to do with the people, the friends and the family; the deep sigh of "coming home" to a safe place, a joyful refuge, a remarkable life. 

When life gets hard, gets nasty (and sometimes it gets really nasty), shatters your heart, falls apart - again, when the hurt and mess of it all starts to break you down... there's just no place like home.

For this piece I finally got around to trying my hand at image transfer to fabric! I found an image of a vintage Oregon map and used my computer to print the image onto white cotton. I then dyed the fabric in a strong black tea infusion. I used fabric paint and rubber stamps to print on the map. I then used cotton batting and a muslin backing fabric and machine quilted the county lines.  This was a great introduction to the process and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the medium. Plus it seems that my duty as a crafty Oregonian, is to emblazon at least one of my works with the nondescript outline of my home state. 

I haven't forgotten that I still owe you April. I started April, I did. However, the piece is calling to become a larger work. So, April this is what I have for you...

Below you will find links to the wonderful makers and their Stitched Journal Project pieces for May. Please keep your eyes on this spot in the next couple of days as more add their links. Be sure to visit them and leave comments!

If you think you would like to join in as well, it's not too late!  We will be sharing our pieces the last Friday of every month at least until the end of the year. We'd love to have you.

All of you wonderful Stitched Journal Project participants please link up below! Remember to add your photos to The Stitched Journal Flickr Group! and be sure to share with Facebook, Twitter, etc!

Addendum

As a supplemental to April's Stitched Journal Project I wanted to feature a couple of pieces that you may not have seen. Not all the participants have blogs to link to, but have uploaded pictures of their work to the Flickr photo group HERE.

I have asked permission to show the following photos on my blog. These were submitted by Anca, an artist who lives in Romania. Her work is beautiful and I wanted to make sure you all had a chance to see it.

Here is her piece for April

Wonderful stitching and layering!

As well as her piece for March

I love the combination of machine and hand stitching!

Thank you Anca for sharing these beautiful pieces, I can't wait to see what you come up with for next month!

So you see, even if you don't have a blog, you can participate through the Stitched Journal Project Flickr Group and I'll make sure to share your photos here!

Happy Monday!

Blue Monday

The Little Green Cottage and the inhabitants therein, are experiencing a bit of the blues this Monday morning. The Sickness II, the sequel, in which everyone gets really, really sick and the laundry has revolted and formed its own sovereignty, has made its blockbuster debut! It isn't pretty folks.

Pony Girl is on her 4th day home from school, which in the entire Pony Girl history is absolutely unheard of. I am considering buying stock in Kleenex brand tissues, as my environmentally friendly hankies are just not up to the task. Oh dear, I'm afraid I am painting a rather too graphic picture for you folks.

So what does one do on the 6th or 7th day of cruddy illness induced malaise, when all of the herbal tea we can drink has been poured down our gullets, all the movies have been watched, all the puzzles put together, and the fidget starts to set in? Considering couch activities are all we can muster, it seems a dandy time to put my pretty blue vintage vanity case to some higher purpose.

What a perfectly perfect place to store all of my embroidery bits and bobs, floss and whatnots! With its top tray of just the right size compartments, not to mention a handy little mirror for checking my embroidery day up-do. Alas, I wont be looking into that little mirror today for I most certainly will not like what I see.

Then there is the bottom portion of the case which is roomy enough to accommodate a few small hoops, the floss that awaits winding, and some works in progress. How lovely!

I do hope that your Monday is healthy and happy. I'm thinking it might be time for a little giveaway later this week to bring some cheer, what do you think?

Do you know the story of

No?
Well, neither do I. Not the whole story anyway.

There's Fleeto the Rabbit of course.

And a school bus...possibly a magic school bus...an unusual sort of school bus at the very least.

Though I don't know the whole story yet, the bits and pieces are starting to come together. The story of Fleeto the Rabbit. Hmmmm...

'Ta Da!'...It was fun, it was hard, I learned a lot...or the trouble with photographing an eclipse

and on with the reveal...
You'll just have to believe me when I say that this looks different in person...and by 'different', I mean better. This little art quilt is a trick and a half to photograph. I just couldn't seem to capture it's 'trueness'.

I'm calling it, Eclipse.

a patch of antique kimono silk, that was patched itself - long ago by distant hands.

When I see it hanging on the wall, it makes me smile and jump ahead in my mind to the next one, and the next one after that; for that is how much I really and absolutely like it. There is a good heaping helping of the 'journey over the destination' appeal here.

the print was made using a hand-cut stencil and detail masking with custom mixed fabric inks.

It was meant to be primitive, simple, and an experiment just to see if it might work, this long mulled over idea of mine. Oh yes, next time there will be less impatience, more care and a few different choices but, there will indeed be a next time.
What I learned for the future was:
1. A less loosely woven fabric for large prints would be much better, making for considerably less shifty infuriation, seeping inks, and nasty cursings.
2. Use fresh inks - I used some that were a bit past their prime and paid for it.
3. My embroidery skills need a little polishing up.

Oh, I do like it though, so does the engineer by the way. And I'm just going to pretend that the smaller wonky embroidered circle is not driving me batty! (I pulled out the stitches twice and on my third go it was still askew - so I figured it was best left to it's heartbreaking honesty.)

Well, that's all I've got for today. I think for my next unveiling, I might go for something a little less nerve wracking, a safe recipe perhaps...

Maverick Craftwork

I started a project that is a wee bit outside the norm for me. I usually make things that are useful in some way, as opposed to "just because it's awesome". There is something downright practical about me and making. That doesn't mean I don't get carried away and color outside the lines from time to time. I have ideas and they swim around in my mind occasionally making a big splash. Well, it was about time I paid attention and did something about it. I went maverick!

Not only did I go maverick but, I went multi-medium! I haven't been overly cautious, I have not plotted it all out down to the last detail, and I have let the piece guide me along. There have been messes, mistakes, wonk, and an undoing or two. Guess what, I'm loving it!

It's almost finished, I think. I'll be sure and show you when it's done. For now, I am just going to enjoy this new found freedom of expression.

Have a maverick day my friends!

It's Friday!

I'm gearing up for next weeks school holiday and family holiday. Truth be told my head is in a spin and a last minute B-day pres is required for tonight! Eeek! With all the planning, cooking, making, and general full house mayhem, I think that it might be wise for me to take a little blog break. So, I hope that you and yours have a truly wonderful week next week while I'm away being very thankful for all I have.

Oh yes, I have fallen behind on my own self portrait challenge, I know, I know. I could have picked a better time of year for this really! In any case, I do have one from Halloween that I have been remiss in showing you. The process of this photo has led me to the discovery of feather eyelashes, more fun than I ever would have imagined!



See you soon!

Tales of Stitchery

I have found when telling tales it is best to begin at the beginning...and so, let me begin.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon, the dwellers of the little green cottage were busying themselves with chores and other activities of industry whilst draped in sweaters of questionable repair. Amidst the cacophony of wind and rain hurling against the windows, the lady of the house discovered herself ticking off the last item on her to-do list. "Well now..." she sighed and spied with her little eye a small hat box on the mantel. Inside the box was a rainbow of floss and a half finished piece of embroidery that whispered sweet enticements.

Seeing as the wee lass that lived in the cottage was occupied with a rainy day movie and a plate of toast and jam, the lady thought it would be the perfect moment to take up thread and needle. She soon found herself in quiet reverie, stitching onto crisp vintage linen. After a while the lady left her cozy spot on the sofa to attend to a domestic matter in another room.

Suddenly she noticed an eerie silence come over the cottage and felt her blood run cold. Someone or Something was in the house! The lady ran down the hall, heart pounding breath shallow turning the corner to see the empty chair of the wee lass. The child was nowhere in sight, what she did see stopped her heart in terror. Over at the sofa, grabbing hold of the nearly finished stitching was the awful, dangerous, devastating and quite messy, Jam Monster!

"Noooo!!" the lady cried and ran to defend her hearth and home from the terrible beast. The lady demanded of the monster, "What have you done, where is my daughter?" To which the monster roared, "I just wanted to sew something." Fortunately, the lady was quite good at thinking on her feet and banished the Jam Monster with a good dose of soap and water. The lost daughter emerged with a rather exaggerated lower lip pout and a dramatic apology for inviting the jammy handed monster in for tea. "It's alright," said the lady, "would you like to sew something too?"

The wind died down, the rain let up and a very pleasant hour was spent... two heads bent together over stitches. The lady teaching the wee lass how to hold hoop and needle, how to keep stitches going in the desired direction. When the lady asked the child, "Who is that you've stitched there?" The child looked up with pride and joy and said, "That's you Mama!"


After admiring her work, my daughter said to me, "I'm going to put it in your shop for someone to buy, it will cost 2 dollars."
Thinking that was quite a bargain and really not being able to imagine parting with such a masterpiece, I handed her 2 dollars and bought it as a present for myself. I am one happy customer!

I'm off now to keep a date with The Fraulein to stitch up some pretties for my own shop update this coming Friday. More details about that in my next post.

The End

Friday On My Mind

Well, it's been quite a week! The shop has been open a little over a week, I have had 2 sales and was featured on a Treasury, I feel pretty good about that. I was laid out by the sickness but, I am almost all better. I have made 6 loaves of bread, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, an apple pie and mountains of dishes.

2 weeks with the "challenge of the utmost kind", has found me in tip top shape, with no ill side effects what so ever. Easy peasy so far. When confronted yesterday by a shredded bedroom curtain (I do believe a certain wee lass and a particular Buddha cat share the blame), with no time to stitch up a replacement, no need to fret...throw an old lace tablecloth up and we're in business.



I'm all worded out so, I bid you fond adieu until Monday. Have a lovely weekend my sweets!

Time to Chop Wood

Last week I got up to none of my usual craftiness, what with the 'little miss' starting up preschool again (2 hours 3 times a week) and my man gone on a most manly adventure (hiking to a secret lake in the wilderness with a pal), I've been all a-spin, hands full, feet a-flutter and plum tuckered out.
Well, now that fall is falling, my fingers are beginning to jump - waiting to tackle some 'handi-work'.

Time for embroidery. An art I would very much like to become more adept at. I have worked the blanket stitch to all it's ends and there are so many lovely stitches I have yet to grasp.

A few years ago, I had a brief fling with yarn and hook known as 'The Crochet Affair of 2006'. It was over just as it had begun, impetuously tossed aside and nearly forgotten. Lately, I have been seeing so many lovely specimens of crochet - that I am considering giving my old fling a ring and suggest we get together over tea. Perhaps when we meet, we can discuss where it all went wrong, attempt a reconciliation and try again. I am cautiously hopeful.

What are your fall into winter plans?

One Begets Another

A little while ago I had a custom order for some baby clothes. The woman who ordered them showed them around to her co-workers. One of her co-workers then commissioned me to make up a similar set.


I have been wanting to try free motion machine embroidery for a while now but, I don't have the proper presser foot for my machine. Well, I decided to wing it and make an attempt with what I had. I drew a picture free hand with a fabric marker then made my practice run. I was a bit unsteady at first, filled with trepidation but, I kept on. The result turned out much better than I expected and that first practice piece ended up as a pocket on the new outfit! Yay, a new skill. Now I am ready to machine embroider anything and everything. Watch out, no clothing item is safe!

If you click on the photo, you can better see the pocket.
Now, I would love to own one of those fancy embroidery machines that they have now but, they are so expensive. It will be years before I invest in one. In the meantime, I can play around with this method and see what other things I can create.

There has been a flurry of activity at the cottage lately and so much I need to catch up on here on the blog. I need to update my lovely readers on the state of our garden, the progress of the chick chicks and their abode, the latest Lola Nova creations and much more. Stay tuned.

Hooty Hoo

With my new found embroidery and hand applique skills I thought I would whip up a little something for the girl, turns out it was more of a slow stir. I did a quick sketch owl, then with cotton fabric, wool felt and a blanket stitch with embroidery floss this little guy now adorns one bright red corduroy vest. Apparently vests are all the rage right now. The skirt was made from vintage seersucker and ribbon - super easy. If you have a yen to make up a really simple skirt for a little gal you know, you can find some free instructions through Oliver + S blog in the sidebar under free patterns "lazy days skirt." This company also sells some sweet patterns for children.

If I can get my scanner working again and can figure out how to link to a .pdf through blogger I will provide a free pattern for the owl applique. Probably after the up-coming holidays.

Speaking of feathered friends; I have been completely tickled the last few days by a post from Claire over at Is this heaven? No, this is Iowa. She had rescued some chickens and a few of them had lost some feathers, as it is getting cold, she needed to keep these little buddies warm. So she designed and sewed up what else, but fleece chicken coats! Now let me assure you, Claire is an animal lover; this is nothing like forcing a cat to wear a Halloween costume. Having had some experience with chickens myself - I totally get this and think it is absolutely brilliant! You must take a look for yourself. I hope Claire doesn't mind the extra attention (if you do mind, let me know via lolanovainfo[at]gmail[dot]com and I will take you off this post).

sewing