Beaded Wish 3

I took some time this morning to work on my Beaded Wish. This one is for my daughter, so when I wrote the "Wish" (which is actually just telling how I feel), I wrote it to her. When I was deciding how I wanted it put together, I felt like a little batting in between the embroidery and the paper would look better, so that is what I did. I will whip stitch it loosely together and then use the beading to actually hold it tightly together. If it needs to be, I will then take the whip stitches out. The beading will be done using pearl beads.

(My batteries are so dead on my camera that it only lets me take one pic at a time, then close it and wait a minute for the battery to build before taking the next pic...ughhh As a result the color makes every thing look dingy.. sorry..)

Storm in Gainesville

There was a huge storm in North Texas last night. These pics were taken at out sons' home where a huge cottonwood tree was felled by the strong winds. This storm missed us here by a few miles, but I guess it continued on to Oklahoma where it hit our friends house with a vengeance. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

Damselfly Tutorial

While I am trying to find some time to work on my Beaded Prayer, I thought you might be interested in this site. This is The Caron Collection's online class page for Karen Kohn's (of Dandelion Designs) wonderful tutorial on how to do dimensional applique with embroidery using a damselfly as the central figure on the sampler... Very cool! Take a look...

In the meantime, we have finished one newletter (the 4 page one) and are beginning the really big one (12 pager..) in an effort to get it into the hands of LRRPs before June 1... With nothing as of yet to put in this issue (ughh!), we are pushing to dig some things up that will be interesting. Shouldn't take but about a week to put it together, then another week for the publishing at the printer and then (thank goodness!), mailed.

Beaded Wish 2

Well, I know I said the progress of this would be put on the Fabric Follies site, but WordPress is not wanting to upload my photos this morning, so I will put them here...

Yesterday, I marked off two squares on my fabric (the fabric is approx. 6" in square) and decided that if I wanted to embroider each square, it would be easier to work if the piece was left in the larger size, thus making 2 at a time. The leaves, tiny roses and the larger spider rose were made using silk embroidery ribbon. The French Knots, filler stitches and chain stitch border were done with DMC #8 pearl cotton thread.

This was very quick and easy to do and I will probably do the other square in something similar, but am leaning toward making the center flower a large white daisy. When that is finished, we'll be on to step 3...

My Beaded Wish

There was an international project a couple of years ago called the Beaded Prayer Project. The project itself was inspired by the African amulet idea of having parents, grandparents, friends, etc. giving a person they cared about a handmade amulet that could then be sewn onto a shirt (as shown here) or worn as a necklace. Thousands of people took part in this project and there are exhibitions of it continuing to tour the world even today.

In the West, there is little thought to the idea that an amulet worn is powerful in itself. But the idea of handwritten words of love, prayers, encouragment, wishes for joy.. or for that matter, anything a person wanted to say.. encased in something beautiful and given with love draws me to it.

Sooo... this will be my next project. I will put the step by step up on the Fabric Follies site... stay tuned..grin

Fabric Softener to set ink jet printing

Thanks to Sharon B. of in a minute ago for the link to Sandi's tutorial (her blog is great too... abeautifulcraft) on how to use fabric softener as a fixative for using your ink jet printer to print on fabric. I saw it a while back, but could never get back to it!!?? Thanks again to Sharon for the link.

3" Crocheted Heart Pattern Up

Had an email from Alice reminding me that I had not put the pattern for the 3" Crocheted Heart up. Oops! It's up now on the Fabric Follies site under the page My Crochet Patterns.

Contemporary Musings

I got an email from my Aunt Edna today. She has decided to join us in the blogging community with a wonderful new blog called Contemporary Musings. She has always had a gift for encouraging and inspiring the people around her and I'm so glad we will all be able to read some of that inspiration every day. Welcome Aboard, Aunt Edna! (By the way, today is her birthday... Happy Birthday, again..) Drop over and say "Hello!".

Painting Today...

Today is exactly 2 weeks since surgery. I am feeling sooo much better, but still cannot lift, sweep, etc (and according to DH, cannot even carry my own breakfast tray... we eat breakfast in front of the computers, you see..grin) so today I will paint. This has become my favorite painting book. It has the easiest to follow instructions and tips for any beginning artist (or in my case..grin.. someone who just loves to dabble!) of any of the painting books that I have. It covers watercolor, oils, pastels and acrylics. This was a Christmas gift from our sons, so I'm not sure where they got it, but for anyone interested in learning to paint...this is the book and would be well worth the time spent finding it and the money spent.

The hardback book that I have is out of print according to Amazon.com, but they still have it in paperback here.

Quilting Thoughts

Well, the boss (my dear hubby), has allowed me to be up for most of the morning..grin He still feels that 2 weeks post surgery is not long enough to warrant being up all day. He has been wonderful, I must say..

Tomomi, our daughter-in-law, is encouraging me to do a quilt for entry into the Quilt Show at Wichita Falls??...maybe Gainesville??... this fall. It's almost a given that there will be no entry into the Quilt Show. But she does have me thinking.

What if I took one the many kinds of leaves that are on the trees now and scanned in one that is perfect and has smooth edges into my pc? By placing several copies of this leaf on a Word page (or Publisher.. or whatever), I could either print them off plain on fabric and embroidery each one with the name of an ancestor... or.... I could put the names on while in the Word program and print them off already printed.. These leaves could be used to make a family tree quilt... What do ya think??

Another Trip to the Doctor..

Did you ever wonder what happens to that wisp of time between age 27 and age 57... well I'm wondering now... grin I had this surgery plus a bit when I was 27.. had 5 children and a husband to care for and my mom could only stay 2 days after I came home from the hospital... everything went fine..
Well... it is a source of wonderment for me that this time I cannot do all the things I did back then.. Back to the dr. yesterday with fresh bleeding and definite instructions to shut up (grin) and let my husband take care of me... And I am finally listening....
Not much crafting at the moment... but will get back to that..

The Pastels Are Hung...

The pastel paintings are finished and hung. Don sent me this pic in an email a few days ago. The decision was made to go with the sage inner mat and the frames were finished with a blue pickling finish. They sent a better pic that shows more of the kitchen and how very pretty it is, but Jim is sitting there in an Ohio t-shirt eating a sandwich with a "boy..I'm glad that's done" look on his face ... lol ... so thought it might be best not to put that one up...

One would think that having a wonderful husband that will not allow one to carry anything heavier than a coffee cup, refuses to allow any cooking of meals or cleaning or walking in the yard (there's a slope... he's afraid I will lose my balance).. etc... that there would be ample time sitting around to embroidery or crochet or something... But it seems that with the first few days of pain medication and then the development of a serious cough, I just can't seem to focus. My chair has stuff all over it.. knitting needles with 3 rows of knit done, a couple of squares cut 5 " square to be embroidered for the start of a pincushion, crochet hook in the Cebelia thread where I have started a small basket...the list goes on. It seems there will be little accomplished until another trip to the doctor is made.. ughhh...

It's a Meme Thing

I wandered over to Red Shoe Ramblings this morning to check out what Deb R has been up to. She has this meme up. What you do is go to Wikipedia, type just the month and day of your birthday in the search engine on the site and all sorts of things that have happened over time on that day will come up. Then you list 3 events, 3 birthdays, and 3 deaths that occured on that day. Really cool to find all the things that have happened on the day of your birth.. grin Here's what I found:

EVENTS

• 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe. (That's a scary thought!)
• 1869 - Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
• 1964 - The Smothers Brothers give their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City (Loved them! They were way ahead of their time.)

BIRTHDAYS

• 1859 - Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
• 1918 - Eddy Arnold, American singer
• 1930 - Jasper Johns, American painter

DEATHS

• 1036 - Emperor Go-Ichijō of Japan (b. 1008)
• 1609 - Giovanni Croce, Italian composer (b. 1557) (Wonder if he's related to Jim Croce...?)
• 1886 - Emily Dickinson, American poet (b. 1830)

Lovely Flowers and Teapots

Daughter arrived at my hospital room with the lovely, tiny Victorian print teapot with matching cup and saucer. Great friend Deb arrived with the lovely yellow Michel & Co. teapot. Upon arrival at home, Deb and Rog came in with their arms loaded with the lovely roses and a potted palm from the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 973...grin What a group of friends! Calls every day from children...

It's never fun to be sick... but it sure is a warming feeling to find so much caring...

Recuperating! & FPC Finished

Surgery is over, recuperation going well (thanks to DH who waits on me hand and foot... grin).

The Crocheted Heart and Basket FPC is completed. I think perhaps I am finally grasping that making FPC's and Art Journal Pages is not all about perfection. I keep seeing small things about this one that I could change, but that would modify the whole concept of what I was really trying to do... As a result, I am beginning to see that the goal is an ongoing practice of new things that can be tried, practiced and then liked or not liked.. perfection is seldom the issue when trying new things..

The patterns for the tiny crocheted heart and basket can be found here. The stitch guides for the ribbon and brazillian embroidery can be found here.

I think the yellow shine of the backing fabric is a little much, but on the other hand it, it looks pretty good with the purple... so will let this one go and move on to another to see if I can work out the colors a little better.

Round Robin Letter is here!

Back in February, two of my aunts and I decided to start a Round Robin Letter. Then a cousin joined in. Then my children decided to join in. The round just kept growing with each one adding a page to the letter and each of us corresponding with family members that we seldom get to see anymore since everyone lives so far apart. It seems as if it has been forever since I wrote that first note and mailed it off..grin I have to say that the wait was worth it.