Tag: embroidery

Slow Stitching, knee update, 4-12-22

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Slow stitching is adding fabric, felt, embroidery, buttons, lace…..anything that you can come up with along with various backgrounds. I follow House Wren Studio and watching her do all kinds of great things with just stuff we have at home gave me the itch to do this. I have made many quilts, and my mother was a quilter also and thus I have quite a fabric stash along with buttons and lace and you name it. Since my love of painting has taken over I haven’t been able to scratch the quilting itch. When I discovered slow stitching it has helped me scratch a bit. I just put together a 5 X 7 picture and matt it and then frame it.
I was selling these in my booth at The Shoppes at the Sanctuary in Columbia City. I closed it out because I just could not fill it like I wanted or like the owners wanted either. I think they were glad I chose to close it. Some things work and some don’t, you have to try. It is still a great place to go and shop and find wonderful things.
I am showing this for the framed slow stitching, but aren’t those bears cute too?
I also have old quilt blocks that I slow stitch on and bind them like a quilt. I love figuring out which embroidery stitch to use and what to make out of that piece of an old block.
I have quite a few of the geometrical blocks on the right, they have different fabrics and I just didn’t think they were pretty at all. But taking a piece of it and adding the embroidery just makes it come to life.

Last summer, House Wren Studio was giving an online workshop called My Indigo Kitchen. She put together a wonderful kit that include indigo dye and various beautiful fabrics and lace. I have not done any dying before and watched the videos and will be opening it up soon. With art shows and my knee replacements I wasn’t able to put my kit together, but it is on my list now.

My knees are good, I can bend them well and I am glad I had it done. My biggest problem is that due to sleeping on a chair for two months my lower back has inflamed nerves that go all the way down my left leg. I have gotten one cortisone shot and was due to get another, but the pain management company messed up many of my appointments. When I got the shot, it was wonderful!!! I will not tell who they are, but I would not recommend them if you ask me in person. A very poorly run business that did not manage my pain well. I am starting over with a new company which I will be seeing April 26th. I started addressing this pain in January. It is not easy getting into these appointments, a lot of people need pain help. I am looking forward to that appointment for sure, and will let you know how it took and if I am sleeping and walking normally again. .

Mittens, a quilt and art

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I was going through my studio closet today and found this little quilt top that I had made three years ago. I have it all marked to quilt. It has a little bit of everything on it. Embroidery, applique and piecing. I doubt if I get to it this year as I will be working hard to get a new inventory ready for the 2018 art shows. I had forgotten how cute it was. I had no pattern for this, it was all trial and error. The words around the edge are: Be Happy, Follow your Heart, Show Kindness, Find Bliss, Love Yourself, Take Care of the Earth, Hugs are Good, Stop and Smell the Flowers, Dance.

My friend, Karla from Kansas City Mo, was making mittens to sell at craft fairs for Christmas. I asked her if she would make me a pair also, and they are so beautiful. The yarn is so soft and the embroidery is fantastic. What a work of art!

I follow an artist who has named her business Soul Whisper Arts, she was offering a bundle of items so I treated myself to them. This is one of her prints that was included. It is precious and is called “up, up and away”.

This painting I finished right before I did the Louisville show in October. I did not have time to scan it and add it to my Etsy shop. Today I did that. It takes a bit of time to do one that is this big. The size is 20 X 40 and it doesn’t fit on my scanner. It has to be scanned in pieces and then the computer magically puts it all together. I wanted to depict Kentucky with the horse farm and the white fences and the tree lined driveway. I also added a Ford Super Duty truck because they would need that to pull the horse trailers and also there were two Ford Factories in Louisville. The title of this painting is “Home” and the quote that I have used is by Laura Ingalls Wilder…HOME is the nicest word there is.  This painting is for sale and also prints can be purchased in my Etsy shop. If you are interested send a message to me.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work

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I am sure you have done this also and had a vision of making something great and unique and it flops, which is life. This is what happened with this card. What I am most disappointed with is that I sewed on the little embroidered piece and it was crooked when I got done. My sticky didn’t stay. It really bugs me. I loved the embroidery. I like the watercolor at the top, I feel it is pretty cute. But all together I am sad about this. My idea did not turn out as I had envisioned it. I may send this to someone….maybe. Just maybe the crooked fabric will bother them too, which I wouldn’t want. Just have to move on. Thanks for stopping and listening to me whine a little bit.

Farmers Market Plus

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This last Saturday I went to market again. This booth had huge red tomatoes. It was one of the most humid days we have had, where the sweat starts dripping down your back with a minimum of movement.

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They also had buckets of sunflowers that caught my eye as I turned the corner. 75 cents a piece or 3 for 2.00. They drive a hard bargain.

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Since it was a very warm and humid day I decided to try out an all natural artisan popsicle. As you can see there were many flavors to choose from and I stepped into the lengthy line for a mango pop. It was cold and very frozen and also not too sweet. They should have had a very profitable day.

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I couldn’t pass up the corn on the cob, it’s a family favorite. Since my arms were burdened down with bags and flowers the man kindly picked and bagged the corn for me. I felt grateful for that.

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My ultimate goal was to choose fresh flowers. This fresh flower and produce booth had many bucketful in the early part of the day but when I got there I had to be really choosy. She gave me a very generous deal on what I chose and then gladly stood so I could take her picture.

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That was Saturday and now moving forward to Tuesday a front had moved through and the day was fabulous! Warm in the sun, nice breeze in the shade. Fluffy clouds resulting in a perfect summer day. Even my front porch flowers were loving it. They looked particularly pretty today with their peach sherbet colored flowers.

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I set up outside on the porch so I could take in the day and still be productive. Here I was with my afternoon coffee, water, Ipad and working on my little quilt. All the while I was able to look out at the green field (we have had A LOT of rain), the blue water of the pond and listening to all the sounds. Birds singing, airplanes flying over, cars driving down the road, I could even at times feel the light spray from the fountain.

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Another angle of my sight. It was very blissful and serene.

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Marked for embroidery with the Mark-B-Gone water soluble ink pen.

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The marks around the sun are for quilting. The inside of the sun is finished. I find that I put many sun images in my work. I must relate it to happiness and that goes along with sunflowers. I hope where you live that you had an equally as nice day. Thanks for stopping!