TAST up-to-date

I'm happy, I'm up-to-date with the TAST stitches.

Those are the stitches of the last four weeks:

• knotted buttonhole band,
• buttonhole bar,
• cable chain stitch,
• square boss stitch.

Chameleon

This was another challenge from our patchwork group. One of us had brought a book with modern illustrations. We had to choose one theme each and work on it.
This was my first try at woven background. It did not want a plain background and it seemed the perfect solution. Once I had made the background, the ideas for the chameleon itself came easily. It is made of scrap of leather, magazine pages that have been machine-embroidered on felt, then washed to remove the excess of paper, bits of zippers, washers, hanging hooks and pins. It was fun to do.

Green Thumb Sunday

Green Thumb Sunday


Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

This rose is the first plant I ever planted in that garden, some 23 years ago. I don't remember its real name, but it has become Emilie's rose, probably because Emilie had helped choose it. (Emilie is my eldest daughter, she is now 25.). This is a strong plant, it has survived two transplantations and is still happy to bloom. The flowers are large and the scent is very nice.

Welcome to GTS

If the morning glory has been a surprise, your welcome has been even a bigger one. I hadn't expected that, and I'm red with joy. Thanks to all of you for your kind comments.

GTS has played a major role in my decision to start a blog. I'd seen so lovely pictures, that I wanted to share some with you. It is motivating to see your pictures and think "What if ..."

And taking pictures, as well as looking at pictures, makes me discover details I have never noticed before.

Surely, morning glory can be considered as a weed. Mine was planted three years ago, and not at that place. But there is only one vine left, so I can manage that ;-). My personal weed is that:

This is not a beautiful picture, it is just to give you an idea. This is the largest patch, but there are many others throughout the garden. And the name of this weed is passion flower. This is the hardiest kind. Quite hardy and resisting to draught. Will even flower in the winter if a ray of sun touches it. It was a Mother's day gift, in a small container, years ago. Now it is all over the garden. I'm trying to control it, but it is very difficult. This wall will be cleaned up in a couples of weeks, when it is cooler (it has the advantage to make a curtain between my neighbours and me). I know people would be very happy to grow some, and I confess I like the plant. I think the flower itself is a real beauty. But I'd appreciate to have only a little bit of it.

Green Thumb Sunday

Green Thumb Sunday



Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

My first post within the Green Tumb Sunday is a morning glory. This one deserves its name well as it caught me by surprise a couple of days ago as I was checking the garden before going to work. That kind of surprise makes the day brighter, doesn't it?

Little Yellow Box

You may wander what this is...


This is simply a box

It is made of Vilene painted in yellow on the outside, with a purple batick for the inside. The embellishements are made of angelina fibers, painted and heated tyvek (recycled from envelops), painted scrim and some beads. The whole has been machine embroidered with variegated threads along the lines that appeared. It is closed by a cord, also machine embroidered, that goes through holes on the two extreme corners. You have to pull the cord to form and close the box. In fact, the box cannot close exactly this way, and I must add some holes on other corners. Promise, I'll do that this weekend !

Welcome and Thank you

I'm not yet completely familiar with blogger, so I may miss something from time to time. If so, please excuse me.

I'm thrilled that you like your visit here. Reading your comments tonight made the day more beautiful.

I've answered by email to some of you, and I'm answering below to whose email I did not find.

To No Rain: there were two stands with succulents and cacti. You would have like them, I think.
Emilie and I stayed a long time hesitating. I've made note for the spring, I surely will buy some succulents then. Regarding cacti, I'm more reluctant from the day where one of our cats fell into one, and I had to remove all the needles from the poor thing...

CrazyQStitcher, the alambic is quite amazing, that's true. This picture is for you. Maybe not the best one, but it was the first time a saw a lavender field. It appeared suddenly as I was driving and it had a great effect on me.

Dear Passe Temps, you are right, I'm French, and lazy :-). Since most of my contacts speak English, I've decided to blog in English. But if you want more information in French, do not hesitate, you'll be welcome.

Caroline, I'm not brave, I just like to chat :-). I've seen so many wonderful art or gardens in other blogs, I've learnt so much from them that I want to give some feedback too.

Conni, I visit your blog often too, and your pics on flickr. Thanks for coming.

Take good care and have a wonderful evening!

Plants Festival in Marseille

Today, I propose we go for a walk in Marseille. Right in the center of the town, there is a street where people try to do something special. I know they organize concerts, theathers, etc and the restaurants there are nice too. But what interests me is their plants festivals. They take place twice a year, in autumn and spring and last two days. This weekend was one of those.

The weather was ideal, warm, with a little wind. My daughter Emilie had arranged to spend the weekend at home. She is presently living in Normandy, where she misses the sun... She was more than delighted by our trip.

They have beautiful citrus trees, of all kinds:
This is used to distil lavender:


And they started the fountains just as we were leaving:
More photos at CoursJulien2007 .

Fabric Weaving

My patchwork/textile art teacher has opened a patchwork shop, just one year ago.
I use to go there once a week and meet 7 other nice ladies to experiment, for ourselves or to find new ideas for the shop.

At our last meeting, we were given a piece of fabric, blue and chocolate, featuring a winter landscape with trees. And we had to do something with it. Preferably, a creative something.

I wanted to alter the fabric, and weaving seemed a good option. I had already used this technique, and an article in the Workshop on the Web reminded me of it. It is fun, versatile andquick and it provides some texture. To have more texture, I have even used two types of weaving.
For the background, I have used some brown batik, and cut wavy stripes in both fabrics. I've rotated the original fabric by 90 degrees, so that the trees are horizontal. I find they form a kind of landscape, while the stripes of batik are a reminder of the trunks.
With the leftovers of the first fabric, I've managed to weave a second piece, with straight stripes, and made it the center. This time, the trunks are vertical, but I've cut them in half and played with the disposition of the stripes to create a new pattern.

And here is the detail of the center (I could not resist the idea of snow flakes):

To stay in the winter mood, I've used some silver thread on the weaving itself, silver and blue/grey threads for the flakes.
The blue background of the fabric was a little bit flashy for the batik I had in mind, so I've dyed it with some tea to soften it.

Here I am!

Hi to all, I've made a big decision, I will blog! At least, I will try to.



Who am I ? My name is Veronique, in short Vero. I live in the South of France. I'm almost 50 and have raised two daughters who can now do without me.



While they have been studying, I've discovered textile art, and many friends in the web with the same interest. Since then I've been experimenting and learning a lot.

On the way, I let my garden live on its own. After all, it was mainly bushes and perennials, so no big maintenance required. In the South of France, summers are hot and dry, and gardens suffer a lot. This was the other reason that I'd lost my motivation. But last June, I went to Sweden, and fell in love with the gardens over there. And the motivation was there again.

So, as you may have guessed, this blog will be mainly about textile art and my attempts at having a nice garden next year.

You will also certainly read of cats, birds and books, that are my other main interests.

I hope you will enjoy it and that you will visit often.

Lutradur and Lace

In the new online magazine Fibre and Stitch, Carol McFee explained how to combine Lutradur and Lace. I could not resist and gave it a try.
Since I want to make a cover to keep my gardening catalogs, my piece is large and cut in two. The front will have the lace and scrim on it, the back will be just painted.
This is the first step: placing bit of lace and scrim on the lutradur.
I have applied a first layer of paint:
Then another layer of paint:
Then some foil rubbing and paint stick, and some FME. Below are pictures of the front and of the back of the cover.

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