New Classes

I signed up for Quilt University’s Machine Embellished Surfaces class. It starts tomorrow morning – can’t wait to play! It should be a really busy month as Susan Sorrell’s Creative Embroidery class at Joggles is starting July 11th and I’m definitely signing up for that, too! Her classes are always such a delight – and really get the old creative juices flowing…

And Now for Something Completely Different…

In my profile, I mentioned that I enjoyed composing music. I have finally gotten an MP3 file uploaded to the Links page on my web site. Click on Strange Attraction under Original Music – and get ready to samba!

All of the istruments are digital. No analog instruments were harmed during the recording of this track...

Playing with Buttons

I was surfing the web for some information on champleve buttons (I only have one of these treasures). Anyway, I got sidetracked by this this cute article for sewing buttons (outside the holes) with embroidery floss.

My only champleve button...

Below is a small vintage MOP button (with beads and embroidery) added to the wedding collage this morning:

Vintage MOP button with carved chevron design

Embroidery with SharonB (It Rhymes!)

As everyone must know by now, SharonB of In a Minute Ago is very generously posting crazy quilt embroidery stitches everyday for one hundred days. I know I won’t have time to work on them everyday but I’m going to try to follow along as best I can and see if I can’t get a couple of UFOs finished (during the reign of the present monarch)!

Detail (detached chain stitches with straight stitches and beads) of a cq wedding collage I started over a year ago…


Detail (quarter buttonhole wheels) of a cq lingerie case...

More Books!

We went to the boardwalk in Ocean City the other night (for the best pizza in the world at Mack and Manco’s – super thin and crispy crust – yum!). And, of course, we stopped in the Atlantic Bookstore for deeply discounted books. I added these to my stitch library: Easy Heirloom Embroidery (with lots of nice full-sized floral redwork patterns) and The Embroiderer’s Floral – beautiful and useful books at $7.98 each!

Try it Tuesdays - Corroded Metal

This week’s Try it Tuesdays challenge is to attempt to recreate rusting and corroding metal using aluminum foil and paint. Here are my first two attempts:

Patriotic Santa in Progress

I’ve been busy working on Santas. Last year, I mentioned I was creating a patriotic Santa but was “stuck” on how to construct the hat from the pattern I drafted. I put it aside until now. I’m pleased to say the hat is finally finished (!) although I may decide to add some blanket stitching around the edge of the brim. Anyway, here it is on Yancy, my patriotic African-American Santa in progress. I just won an auction on EBAY for a sweet little vintage (48 star) flag for him to hold. I need to add his beard and a few more buttons to his outfit and he’ll be good to go.

Top Hat (Front and Back)

Try it Tuesdays - Collaged Background

The current Try it Tuesday project is to create an altered background collage with painted and antiqued torn paper. This is just too much fun! This technique can be used on all kinds of surfaces: altered book pages (like mine), old CDs, cookie tins, etc. Check out the group pool on Flickr for some terrific examples.

I used both smooth and textured papers for my collage. Then I painted the surface with a combination of yellow acrylic and russet Lumiere paint. After the paint had dried. I applied antiquing gel.

Try it Tuesdays - Papermaking

Here is my Try it Tuesdays effort for this week - papermaking. I used some really old construction paper and odds and ends of other papers and mixed them to a pulp in my old VitaMix blender. I bought that thing twenty-five years ago promising to make ice-cream for DH with it. Every once in a while he reminds me he’s still waiting for his ice-cream. But I digress… Then I added some cornflower, coreopsis and wild geranium petals – and some mica flakes. The mica doesn’t show up in the scan, but it really sparkles.

I would have never been tempted to even try papermaking if it hadn’t been for Try it Tuesdays. And I loved it! And will be playing with this some more!

Serviceberry Berries!

The berries are ripening on the serviceberry tree. These disappear quickly as the mockingbirds love to eat them.

Nature Journal Sketch: Serviceberry Berries