the piano is finished...

now to create a setting for it in my journal....
click on the images for a close-up view.

a stitching done based on an abstract drawing i did many years ago

 my bobbin lace pear with a weaving now has a place on another pouch.

stitched on brown velveteen

and a cotton lining

stitching on watercolor paper...

3 shades of pink floche thread

and a great find at the thrift store. it had several stains but i've been able to get all but one out. will have to work a bit harder on that last one. this will make a great light throw. it measures 52" x 64".

we've had some rain here for the past couple of days and spring is on its way. i'm anxious to plant some seeds and flowers.

choices...

i have so many projects in progress that it's sometimes hard to choose which one to work on. this week i decided i had to finish making the pouch with my bobbin lace piece. it's tall and slim so will be good for knitting projects.
click on the images for close ups.

lush purple velvet with a green upholstery lining

close up view

more journal work is happening every day. i need to start working on completing pages now as there are lots of bits and pieces of things all over the place.

working on thick acrylic paper

the old style telephone

and a wonderful surprise from Nat...some hand dyed thread and a beautiful bag embellished with indigo dyed color catcher sheets. check out her blog. it's always chock full of gorgeous and interesting info.

hand dyed bag and thread from Nat. even the wrapping paper is beautiful.

wishing you all a creative week.

all over the place...

i'm trying to spread myself all over the place and do a bit of everything. i stopped at the thrift store this week looking for something specific and found two things i couldn't pass up. they both will be used almost immediately for projects planned.
click on the images for close-ups.

both are runners...crochet lace and a thick cotton embroidered white on white

more journal work with free motion embroidery on paper and scrim.

free motion embroidery on paper and then hand embroidered. insert of grandma's picture.

a test sample piece of watercolor painted paper with scrim...free motion embroidery...and hand embroidery

i got close to the end of the wool unraveling that i've been posting about and it all started tangling. i have enough to start spinning and the rest will be untangled little by little.

and finally, i'm back to my bobbin lace that's been on the pillow for over a year. it's close to being finished and will become a pouch. it's stitched onto purple velvet and will have a green lining. it's a beautiful green, linen thread. could not capture the beautiful color with the camera.

bobbin lace stitched onto purple velvet. adding some beading to the fringe.

 February went by so quickly. i'm looking forward to March. the bulbs are starting to bloom and Spring is on its way. we've had a real mild winter here in Austin. some of the plants didn't freeze back at all this year. wishing you all a good week.

mostly journaling...

i did get a bit further in unraveling this raw wool mess. another week or two and it will be ready for spinning.
click on the images for a closer view.

more than double the size since last week.

while searching through old pics and documents for my family memories journal, i came across this abstract drawing of a piano i did about 5 or 6 years ago. i modified it some and transferred it to cotton cloth. after it's all stitched, it will become a journal page.

i'm having to do the satin stitching of the keys wearing a magnifier. the black keys are wrapped bars so they are raised up off of the cloth a bit. all the keys measure 4" x ½".

both sides of this journal page have been finished. the mandolin was my grandads. my dad played it quite a bit when i was growing up. he couldn't read music. he played the mandolin and the harmonica by ear.

the negatives are from pictures my dad took in the 1940s

the bars of the mandolin are wrapped threads on wire for a 3D effect.

i'm working on lots more journal pages...so more next time.

have a great week.

if only i knew...

i ordered this wool from ebay several years ago. had no idea what i was going to do with it but it was such a good buy for wool. well, when i received it, i realized that it had to be spun and plied before it could be used. i knew nothing about spinning back then. now that i am learning to spin with a drop spindle, i pulled it out of the closet. i quickly realized that this was going to be a difficult task, as you can see. i will wind a little bit each day and hopefully it will get done sometime soon so it can be used. it took me a while to figure out a way to manage winding 6 balls at once.
click on the images for close-ups.

why would they have wound it this way????

 i spend most of my time working on my Alchemy journal in Karen Ruane's class. here are a couple of pictures of what i worked on this week.

my dad played the mandolin. printed a picture of a mandolin and did some coloring with my inktense pencils. the strings are wire wrapped with floche thread. each string is 7" long. it took hours to do but i like the 3D effect.

i finished embellishing this lace frame with embroidery and it is stitched on to a journal page.

hope all of you who have been inundated with snow are staying safe and warm.

a new pin cushion

i saw a wonderful vintage pin cushion on facebook that inspired the start of a new pin cushion for me. it involves some wooden parts that i haven't managed to put together yet but this is the start...i made that little bear head many years ago and stitched it onto some of my grandmother's crochet. the ball measures about 3" in diameter. click on images for close-ups.

3" diameter ball made with kimono silk cloth. hand made bear head on grandma's crochet

in the last post, i showed you some fabric wrapped cording. the basket is now complete and this one will be mine. all the others were given as gifts.

fabric coiled basket made with cloth scraps

and still working on samples for my Alchemy class journal with Karen Ruane.

an old family photo...a map-like collage in cloth...some musical notes with names of operas. my mom loved to sing opera.

have another great week. i'll be back soon.

a little bit of everything...

i managed to put some more scraps together for another coil wrapped basket. hope to stitch it up today.
click on the images for close-ups.

a real variety of color

my focus has still been on the journaling  class with Karen Ruane. here's another glimpse of pages i'm working on.

that's mom and dad in 1939. i gathered bits and pieces of lace and put them between water soluble stabilizer and did some stitching to hold them together before washing out the stabilizer. and that's mom in the bottom picture. she loved to sing opera.

while looking for something yesterday, and being frustrated because i couldn't find it, i decided to clean out the closet. so lots of things for goodwill this week. and the thing i was looking for wound up being in another room, but it's got me started. today another room will be cleaned out and i know there will be lots more for goodwill.

filling up bags and boxes for goodwill

hope you've had a good weekend.

Gathering...

i'm still going through my accumulation of things through the years...and there are dolls...so far these...

all made at different times for different reasons

i must decide what to do with them. i'm determined to do something or they will have to go to someone who will... i'm sure there are more around that have not yet been unearthed.

haven't done much this week other than work on my journal in Karen Ruane's Alchemy class. each one of us has chosen a different theme so i'm learning so much as each person gathers and posts info that will find a place in their journal. my theme is Family so i've been going through old albums and letters and papers that i've accumulated through the years. here's just a clipped view of what i've been working on so far.

my dad and my grandmother have been the focus so far

wishing you all a good week. stay warm and stay safe.

having fun...

the days seem to be flying by at record speed these days. funny how time flows in accord with our state of mind. doing lots of experimenting...as usual.

i'm playing with some spun silk hankies. they are so delicate and fragile. i needle felted a couple to a piece of felt, layered it with bits and pieces of lace, embroidery, etc. and did some free motion stitching. now for some hand embellishing...

click on the images for a close-up view.

delicate spun silk hanky

layering, stitching and then some hand embellishment

Jude talked about fringe---one of my favorite topics---over in Diaries so i did some experimenting with my drop spindle. i could become addicted to creating fringe.

the cloth was ripped so it has created lots of texture (more fringe) on the edges

and Karen Ruane's Alchemy class started on Monday so there's lots of gathering and collecting of materials and ideas to include in my journal. we were to select a theme and mine is 'family' so i've been going through old pictures, handwork, etc. i'm finding things i forgot that i had and am enjoying the process. here are just a couple of pics showing some of my gatherings...

family photos and an old pattern book

looking through old family handmade items for design motifs to paint, sketch, stitch. and found this photo that i had forgotten all about. my dad took the picture in 1947 and wrote a letter on the front and back to his sister who was living in Israel. hard to believe how much info he included there...lots of family gossip. it measures about 2 1/2" square. my aunt gave it to me when she visited in the 1980s.

hope you're all having a good weekend.

moment to moment...

2 days ago, my design wall just fell straight down to the floor. it's been hanging on the wall with the heavy sticky back tape for many years. i think i just had too many things pinned to it and it gave way. so now i'm trying to remove all the cloth pieces and find a place for them before i attempt to hang it back up on the wall. one of the heaviest pieces was my magic diaries cloth that i haven't worked on in a long time. i'm thinking that the back of this old chair might be a good place for it when it's finished with some solid colored pillows in front.

click on the images for close-ups.

magic diaries cloth not yet complete

i've also been emptying one of my scrap baskets just to see what is there. once it's half filled, i lose sight of what's on the bottom.

most of what was in the basket is now somewhat organized into color categories

still more scraps to play with

there were lots of good sized strips that i've started sewing together. i guess another coiled basket will be made with these.

some of you are already into the new year and some of us are just a few hours away......

my goal will be to continue trying to live in the moment

what i've been working on...

my posts are getting farther and farther apart...aren't they. i am working on things but quietly and with much thought about lots of things. a few more baskets have been completed with what was left of the clothesline. this will be it for awhile. some have been gifted and were well received. the ones here were done with a zig-zag stitch on the machine.

click on the images for a close-up view.

made with whtite dotted swiss organdy fabric and a bit of lace

cotton fabric and both are about 5½" in diameter. the covers are attached to the base.

 i'm also taking a self-study watercolor class by Carla Sonheim. you can read about it here. the watercolor is done on t-shirt iron-on transfer paper and then manipulated and ironed onto paper or fabric. here are a couple of things i've done so far.

watercolors, ball point pen, water soluble markers ironed onto watercolor paper

painted t-shirt transfer cut up and parts ironed onto watercolor paper...the beginnings of a face

and a few posts back i showed how i was enlarging blouses that were a bit too small by adding fabric to the sides from the wrist edge to the hem bottom. well i have this very old sweater that i cannot part with. it was a bit too small after washing it in the machine so i'm knitting sections and adding them to the sides. i couldn't match the ecru color so i'm using a lace weight variegated yarn that matches the embroidered flowers. i tried it on last night and it will fit perfectly when finished. still have a bit to go and it needs blocking. the added pieces really don't show much at all when it's on the body.

knitted additions from the wrist to the hem bottom. still needs blocking.

Revise and Renew...

a white eyelet jacket has been hanging in my closet for a few years. i got it at a thrift store and it was just too white. i wrapped it around a tin can with some leaves and dropped it in the dye pot. the color is much better now. a couple of pockets and a bit more stitching and it will be wearable.

Click on the pics for a close-up view.

still working on fabric coiled baskets...this time with covers. pics on the next post.

have a great week.