Nettles in my book

A couple of days ago, I saw this post on Neki's blog, and well, I did hope I was the visitor she was expecting.
Because she does beautiful art, and this would mean she considers me her friend...

You guess it, I was indeed this visitor :-)
Look at the cover texture, and its little window, a gate to whatever I fancy (future, creativity, friendship...).

 The pages are weaven, nettles weaven. The touch is very soft. The embroideries are beautiful, and still another gate for dreams, inspirations, etc...

 We spent a whole day talking textiles, cooking, meaning of life, men, while enjoying the good weather and the sea, and the company of my daughter and her friend. You get the picture. Life is good!
Thank you so much Neki for this gift, and for those hours we shared. They mean a lot to me.

This is a little teaser for my next posts...

Speaking of life being good, the return to reality was bitter on Monday, when I heard that the same man who has killed three unarmed soldiers, and hurt one badly last week, has killed again yesterday morning at a school. A teacher, and his two young kids, then the headmaster's daughter who was running away. A teenager has been shot too. Cold-heartedly, without any hesitation, Chances are great he'll kill again. The victims of last week were either black or muslims, his victims of yesterday were jewish. Apparently a pure hate crime. I'm so sad for the families of his victims. Their sorrow must be unbearable. Because they lost loved ones, and because France did not protect them from hate and racism.
Please, take care, and don't hesitate to spread love around you...

Easter Koala

Look at what my sister gave me for Easter!

Aren't they cute?

Witch

Thank you for the comments on the embroidery, and on the lillac. It is the second year in a row that it is blooming so late...

Speaking of Halloween, look at what my sister sent me:

That's really me, the embroidery, the cat, the bird, every detail is here :-)

Garden...

I took this picture yesterday, my lilac has new flowers

Here is another kind of garden. This is a kit by CANEVAS FOLIES

It consists of the printed cloth and instructions on how to embroider. No threads, to let each embroider choose them herself (or himself).

I had already made this one:

I wish you all a great week!

Le bonheur est dans le pré...

I saw this project in the last issue of Stitch by the British Embroideres Guild. I fell in love with it.
Since I needed to renew my notebook, it was the perfect timing. My sister had made me one, perfect for doodling, but I needed one with a calendar in it, for appointments to the dentist, to the nail lady, etc...
I bought a refill at the size I needed and made a customized cover to go with it.
The background is green commercial felt. With mistyfuse iron on it. Then covered with little bits of green yarns. Stitch uses a net, that is heated afterwards. I preferred the solvable film option. So I covered the bits of yarn with the film, did a little grid sewing with the machine. Made sure the grass blades had their ends free.
Then I embroidered the daisies, by hand, with a leftover of white yarn, and some yellow DMC yarn for the centers.
Finished with a zigzag on the edges. And here it is!

How do you say "Happiness is in the meadows"???? as in my title?

Power to the hand stitcher

Thank you for the comments on the blouse.
Susan, I'm not fast: I'm on vacations :-) besides, this fabric and the pattern called to be made into something to go with the skirt. I could not resist their urge :-)

This is the title of an article by Laura Wasilowski in the Quilting Arts issue of February/March 2009. In this article, Laura proposes to practise hand embroidery around a heart. What we did at the patchwork club.
You can learn more about Laura at Artfabrik.
Here is my result:
First as a whole, in full sun :-)


The back (I had to find a way to have enough lime fabric! Hence the idea of heart square)

And the detail of the embroidery, in the shadow.


I'm not sure I'll keep it: if my neighbor comes and gives me cherries, he'll go back with it. If he doesn't come with cherries, I'll keep it :-) In both cases, I'm a winner.

Belt, another one

Even before being off-line, I wanted to make this one.
No design research for this one. I wanted rick-rack, and I wanted to embellish it with a combination of stitches found in Carol Samples's book.
The threads are silk threads, gift from my sister.
I could no resist the beads either.


I'm not sure this one will resist the wear, but that doesn't bother too much. I had fun making it.

IPOD cover

A little cover I made for my daughter's IPOD.
Commercial felt for the whole thing.
Pink and green Angelina fibers for the emberoidery background, fancy threads and beads.

Bag finished

Most embroidery pattern were taken from the book Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches by Carole Samples

Grafitti bag

Here is the last stage of the embroidery: Pekinese stitch and Basque stitch have been added.

Next step: sewing the bag...

A little bag

Yesterday was a most satisfactory day. Many items of my to-do list have been crossed. I like this feeling of having achieved my goals, whatever they are.
I've had made this embroidery some months ago, just because I found it cute. And yesterday, I thought it would made a nice bag for another niece. I made it very simple, as you can see. I hope she will enjoy it.

he strikes are over, the trains are on time again, so there was no problem to post all my parcels today. And I was lucky enough to go to the desk of the nice man at the post office. He is always patient, smiling, and tries to find the best solution for sending parcels abroad. What more would you ask for?
The weather cannot decide between sunny and rainy, nor between cold and mild. I had a surprise this morning went I went through the garden. In September, I have cleaned a bed. I was rather pleased to have removed all weeds. But with the recent rain, in just two days, this bed has turned green with tiny sprouts of weeds... I just had to laugh at the sigh.

I wish you all a very pleasant day!

I love weekends

... espacially those that last three days, like this one :-)



First, I want to thank you for the kind comments you have left on my blogs. I do appreciate them, and like many of you I'm glad to belong to this community!



This has been a quiet weekend, with a beautiful weather. My daughter was there, but she went out in the evenings to meet friends and came early in the mornings. So she has been sleeping most of the time. Leaving me plenty of free time for textile art.



At last, I've had some time to read Stitch. And the cracker inside was a good opportunity to see how the new machine does free embroidery. It is not finished yet, I have to put some embellishments. I like to make "lace" with hydrosoluble. So this is the first step,
and the result when the hydrosoluble is gone. In Stitch, they use soluble paper. But I think this one may be better: you can dissolve the hydrosoluble just enough to have the lace effect, and still have a stiff effect. I hope I will work on it next weekend. And more important, I love this machine, especially the possibility to select three sewing speeds. And to have the needle down anytime I stop pressing the pedal, with the foot lifted just enough to turn the fabric. My second priority for this weekend was sewing this lettuce. Quite a challence, especially as I drew the pattern on a support, and then cut the bits from that support. In fact, this produces defaults, small defaults, but added together, they end making a big one. The last seam was a bit difficult to achieve. So ladies, if you are sewing on paper and read in the instructions "photocopy", do photocopy :() Anyway, I like it. next vegetable is an artichocke. With curved seams too. I really must be insane to do that.
And the last picture for today is the TAST challenge, with the Lace Border Stitch. It looks complex but it is fun to do, and far more easier as it looks.

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.