Gold for Textile Tuesday

This little "Bookmark-Tassel-Ornament" was fun to make. It was inspired by a little bookmark featured in "Stitch" magazine this month. The tassel is my addition, as I thought the gold thread would be perfect for it. And I really like it this way. Might do some more of these bookmarks, as they are fun and easy to make and make great little gifts.

Pain for TT

The burning flame inside of me. Looks way to realistic to me, but it felt good to do it. It felt as some of my anger about my situation was stitched into it and I feel a bit better now.
It is black velvet, that I first handstitched with variegated thread. Then I cut into the velvet and layered it onto yellow felt, which now is visible through the cuts. Then I stitched onto it with the machine. It is 18cm x 13cm.

My first time in Japan for TT

Not happy with this one, but I don´t think there is a way to improve it. So I´ll leave it at that and maybe try a new one later.
I printed some photos on cotton, cut out some of my treasured Washi paper from Japan (hand printed and soooooo beautiful in real) and layered them on another piece of Washi.
The image of Mount Fuji in the lower left is a little woodblock print (Ukiyo-E) I did in a course in Yokohama. The Buddha statue is the most beautiful Buddha I´ve ever seen. I think it is the largest sitting Buddha outdoors, but am not 100% sure. He is in a beautiful town at the seaside called Kamakura. Fortunately Kamakura isn´t too far from Yokohama (where we lived), so we´ve been there quite often and enjoyed the many historical sites there and the shrines and temples.

It was my first time living abroad and also the first time living in Asia. It was the most interesting, frightening and difficult time in my life. But it was very hard to leave. I hope that one day we will be able to return to this country, maybe only for a vacation, but maybe for a little longer. Who knows what the future brings?

TT Monet (finally)

This has been a WIP for way too long. I started out with the idea to do this painting on the embellisher. First try was a desaster. It looked more like a 3 year old had fun with a package of crayons *grin*
So I waited a while and today gave it a new try. And I have to admit, it is not that bad. I like the colours, as they are quite close to the original painting. I don´t like the somewhat "mashed" area in the upper right corner with the flowers. Don´t know what happened there, cause the lower part is much better. But it was a very good project to learn a bit more about my embellisher and I´m sure there will be some more "Monets", as he is my favourite painter and the colours are just too wonderful.
What I have to learn now is to take pictures of felted pieces. This photo is very bad, but the best I was able to achieve. Any suggestions? My digital camera refuses to focus on felted surfaces. Is it the camera or is it me?

2 in 1

So here is the second try on herringbone stitch for TAST challenge. I chose this sunset on water, so it is for the TT challenge, too.
The stitched area is postcard size and it is mounted on cotton batik.

Happy New Year

Wow, now it is 2007 and I have started out creative. Here is the bracelet I have been stitching over the last 2 weeks or so. I had to redo some of the elements as the first ones didn´t look like rectangles at all. Handling those tiny beads isn´t easy, but now I think I have the feel for it.
I will put it up for the Textile Tuesday challenge as a lot of memories came back while doing this bracelet. I did have a bracelet when I was a child that was sort of a treasure. It wasn´t fancy, but it had some charms on it, that had meaning and therefore it meant a lot to me. Unfortunately I don´t know when and where I lost it, but the memories are still there...
I still need some sort of closure, but the stitching part is finished now. It was a lot of fun to do these tiny pieces and it is perfect to work in front of the tv. So I´m sure I will try some more peyote pieces. The next one will be a necklace with some sort of design in it.

And I got me a little set for sketching and started right away. This is Joker, my Parson Russel Terrier, lying beside me on the couch with his head on my knee. He loves to sleep like this or often lies on my lap like a cat.


I also started my first sampler for the Take a stitch Tuesday challenge (TAST) .
Week 1 is about the Herringbone stitch.

TT November

Two posts on one day - this is a first I guess ;-)

I just finished the piece for Textile Tuesday "November".
This year we had a very unusual warm november. It felt more like spring and some flowers started to bloom again. Especially one meadow I often visit with the dogs was full of tiny yellow and violet dots. I had totally mixed feelings, cause it really looked nice, but knowing it was a sign of global warming, I also felt sad because we are slowly destroying this beautiful planet.

TT Egypt and Red

Long time no posting due to some health problems. Back is hurting like mad and I am not able to stitch more than an hour or so a day. So I only finished two small pieces for Textile Tuesday.

First one is a small pyramid. I wanted to create something 3D so cut out 4 triangles from Pelmet Vilene and painted them with Lumiere. Then I layered them all on a piece of "Stitch and tear" to stabilize them and machine stitched with variagated thread and metallic thread. Then I folded all 4 triangles and handstitched the open part together.

13cm x 13cm x 10cm

Next is a small neckband made from yarn I found in my "leftover" bag. It is free form crochet and is done in one piece. Not sure if I am ever going to wear it, but it was real fun to create and easy to do, too.

TT Woman

"Woman"
yarn, organza, machine quilting 17cm x 13cm

I liked the "fabric" I created last week for the brain piece. It is very easy and in real looks quite interesting. This time I didn´t use a water solvy but a piece of orange organza. Then I did some free machine quilting and tucked the outer areas under, so it looks now like an oval. I think I will mount it somehow later on.
I tried to add some beads and knots, but I used a batik as base fabric and now it is so tight, I am not able to get the needle through. Maybe I´ll try adding some beads or sequins with the machine, but I never did that before, so am not sure yet.

Today we got a new diagnosis for Daisy. One part in me is relieved, cause we finally know what is going on, the other part is all down, cause now she needs tons of medication. The doc explained it to me but with all those latin phrases I got lost. All I remember is that there are 2 different bacteria in her intestines and to get rid of them we need penicillin and some other pills. Good thing is, the chance the medicine will cure them is quite high, bad thing is that Daisy´s liver might not be able to cope with all this chemistry. So worst case would be that her liver fails to work one day soon.
So I still feel lost and helpless and all I can do now is hope Daisy is strong enough to make it. She seems to be feeling so good these days, that it is hard to believe that she is that sick. But that´s always been this way with her. That is one of her "problems". She has absolutely no feeling for her own body. She got stung by a bee once and didn´t react to it at all. When Joker got stung he whined and jammered all day. Right now I think it might be a good thing, she feels this way. So she is able to be active and happy. But the risk that I won´t notice soon enough when a new problem arises is very high. But I´ll try to be positive and maybe this will help a bit.

Oh, and maybe you noticed, I changed to beta blogger now. I "lost" the title pic and don´t remember how I did it, but it´s OK this way right now. The other features are great and finally I am able to use tags on all posts.

TT - Daisy´s Brain in Chaos

"Daisy´s brain in chaos"

For last weeks challenge on TT I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to show how Daisy´s brain looks like when chaos is taking over.

We often say that there is a thunderstorm in her head when she acts like she is completely out of this world. It isn´t happening too often lately, but eg years ago she might start running around in the house looking for something or somebody, we never knew. Then after a few minutes she would go to her place as if everything was fine. Things like these often happened in the past and we learned to just shrug our shoulders and wait til she was back to normal again.
So I thought her brain might be a bit more chaotic than the everage dog brain and this is how it might look. Well, I hope it´s not that hairy ...
We´ll go see another vet (the third) today. I really hope he will be able to find a diagnosis, cause those ups and downs without the slightest idea of what is going on drive me nuts.

TT-Lucky

Wasn´t easy for me this time to do the Textile Tuesday Challenge, as I am not feeling lucky at all right now. When I gave the theme I thought our dog Daisy was much better and we had a very good chance that she might get off the cortisone sooner or later. Then, on wednesday, she had a very bad relapse and now I am all down. I contacted another vet who is a dog therapist, too, and hope she will be able to help us to get the dosage down. It is quite complicated cause her behavioural problems cause a lot of stress and as cortisone is a stress hormone it is more than difficult to find the right dosage for her. The vet at the clinic doesn´t understand at all that Daisy isn´t just a body filled with organs but a living creature with a lot of stress and problems due to her former life.
It is so hard for me right now, cause Daisy and I fought so many battles together. She is such a brave girl and now those damn allergies and the stress might be her end.
So, I didn´t feel lucky at all while I was stitching, but as always it helped to get my mind off the problems for a short while.

Abstracts

Finished two small pieces today. First one is for the abstract challenge group and the theme is "Fractures". I started with the idea of a broken wall, but then it went a different way and here is what I ended up with. Need a title.....

It´s felt and FME. Size is 17cm x 23cm

The other piece is for the Textile Tuesday challenge and the theme is "Abstract". I always wanted to do an abstract version of a painting by van Gogh or Monet. So I decided on the "Irises" by van Gogh. Won´t post the painting but here is a photo of it: IRISES
"Irises"
fabric scraps cut raw edge, quilting, 18cm x 13cm

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Been busy with internet stuff the last few days cause I (together with 2 other ladies) started a yahoo group for all interested in textile courses offered by City and Guilds. I enrolled for the Stitched Textiles Course a few months ago but just didn´t get a starting point. First I got sick, then my dog got sick and as the theme I have to work on "Stars/Crosses" isn´t at all up my alley, I always found something else that needed to be done. I think this is called procrastinating, right? Well, I´m guilty, but decided to change this NOW. The group is for all who are interested in those textile courses and we hope that we can find help and support with each other, so we can all finish our courses in a given time. We will set monthly goals and talk about our work. I´m sure that will make working on a distance learning course a lot easier. And it is a lot of fun to meet artists with the same interests. If you are interested please feel free to join our little group.

Black Bowl for TT

For the challenge on TT I needed a bit of time to find out what I wanted to do. Funny thing is, that I had at least 3 ideas but couldn´t decide on which to chose. Then I sorted through my scraps and off it went, a piece with scraps with black on each one. I put them all on a piece of black poly-felt and put a layer of black tulle on top. Then I sewed them down with a black grid. Next was to add lots of different design-stitches with the machine (all with black thread). I followed some of the ideas of the book by Valerie Campbell-Harding "Machine Embroidery". I started this part of the bowl after I read about her death. I still can´t believe she died and the world will have to go on without this wonderful artist.

After the machine stitching I layered the piece on some new sort of felt I bought some weeks ago. It is a poly-felt of some sort that can be shaped when wet. When dry it will stay in the form and so I formed a bowl. It isn´t dry completely yet, but almost stable, so I was able to take a picture. No need to say, that taking a picture of all this black wasn´t easy, but I hope you can see at least some of the stitching.

Textile Tuesday

"Citylights"
felt, chiffon, tulle, hand and machine stitched 17cm x 19cm

This is my piece for textile tuesday. The theme is City.
It´s not exactly what I intended but I like it the way it looks now. Even DH said he likes it! Doesn´t happen that often.
It isn´t finished as I don´t know how to frame it. I think I will try to make a wooden frame of some sort but never did before, so might need a bit of time.

I am more than happy with the first 2 weeks of Textile Tuesday. Take a look at the blog --->>>
Textile Tuesday
Really interesting work there and I hope some more will join the challenge in the future.

Textile Tuesday Family

"Family"
fractal printed on cotton, beaded 16cm x 11cm

Today I finished my piece for the Textile Tuesday challenge. Theme is "Family" and this is a fractal I turned into a "cushion". When I found this fractal some days ago I knew it was my family piece. It looks different now, printed on fabric and beaded, but I still think it was a good choice. My first idea was that this fractal looks like some sort of net or web. To me family should be a "safety net", but most of the time is more like a "spiders web". If it becomes a spiders web, you might have to cut yourself lose to survive.

This has been the second time I printed on fabric and I still have to learn a lot. The black of the fractals background turned out a dark grey. Not sure if it is possible at all to get a real black when printing on fabric, but I am sure it can be better than this. Maybe I have to change the settings for the "paper". Also I learned that a needle hole turns into a white hole, when you remove the stitch. So when stitching on a dark area of a printed fabric, it seems like you have to be very careful. Maybe this is not a problem as soon as I found the perfect setting for the printer, but I will try to keep this in mind in the future.