January to April 2023

This season was mostly crafting. 

I've got a cute decoupage jar done with tissue paper (I was going for a sunrise vibe). It will be a bright spot on my desk for pens and pencils.

A simple necklace. I had a necklace years ago similar to this one that was given to me, but I left it in a hotel room and it was never found.

A Valentine's Day frame with a picture of two of my favourite people, my parents. This was done with watercolour paints on an unfinished wooden frame, creating an ombre effect with the colour changes. There is a small wooden post the fits into a slot on the back to make the frame stand up.

A fairy house that can be put outside. I've always thought these were cute, so putting one together was fun. I used bought elements from Michaels including the premade osier/moss orb, as well as adding more moss in a lighter colour, and some pastel pebbles for a path.

A sign for Black History Month. I used acrylic paints that I already owned on a canvas panel. The wording was traced. I particularly like the African continent used in place of the o in Month. 

Paint Pouring was something I tried last year during Pride month. This is a spring version of the technique, less structured. 

For St. Patrick's Day, I did a painted rock with a four-leaf clover on one side, and a pot of gold on the other. Simple and cute.

Coming up to Easter, I did a couple of crafts. First was a bunny made with multicoloured pompoms of various sizes and googly eyes. The bunny was done on a simple background that gave a feeling of a spring meadow.

Second was a chick made with handmade pompoms, chenille stem legs, pompom eyes, and a felt beak

Spring is coming and I painted a terracotta pot with inspirational flowers

Exploring pointillism, I did an outdoor scene with a picnic blanket and basket in the foreground. I'd definitely try this again.

September through December 2022

These months I framed some previously finished needlework pieces. 

This is Scarlet Letters by Tempting Tangles

This is Turkish Delight by Ink Circles. I think the pale frame and rich blue mat really brought it to life.

I also finished one of Amy Mittens' Excursions, #22: Spain and framed it. The double mat and the scrollwork frame complemented it nicely.

I finished my Little Pin for Winter by Lynn Payette and found the perfect fabric for the back. I also decided not to put ribbon around the sides as I like it as is. 

 

I did some more art projects, some of which I kept a record of. 

This is a simple painted clay pot, done as a candy corn for Halloween

This is my first attempt at doing impasto. As a non-painter I struggled a bit with the technique and it didn't come out as I liked, but we still used it. 

This was a Christmas plaque, which started as an unpainted wood piece with some layers. I used both paint and modelling paste to bring it to life. 

Also on a Christmas theme, I tried my hand at a ribbon tree. I used a Christmas themed snowflake earring as the topper. It turned out pretty good. 

I did a few other crafts, but didn't keep them, and forgot to take pictures. 

I also have several other needlecraft pieces on the go, but will wait until they are further along, or finished to document them here. 

Happy crafting!

Catching Up: from July and August 2021 to July and August 2022

I spent a lot of time reading and being outside near the end of the summer of 2021, despite more rain than usual, but also spent time with family. I started quite a few pieces that are in progress and will finish them at some point, but here are my finished items.

First, I got my Sedona Soleil piece back from the framers and couldn't be happier with it. They did a lovely job.

I also finished Scarlet Letters, by Tempting Tangles, a piece I began pre-pandemic. I had to do a little adjusting because it bothered me that one of the words wasn't in alphabetical order. I charted out just switching the order of the words to fix it, but had some letters running into ones from the line below when I did that, so I ended up choosing a different, and I think a better word to substitute. I used a similar font, borrowing elements from other letters in similar fonts elsewhere in the piece to make it, and am happy with the results. 

 

This is a Mill Hill kit for a small piece that you could make into a brooch, a magnet, or another small item. I thought it was a really fun piece. 

I also started working part-time at a crafting shop in the fall of 2021, and am involved in some of their crafting workshops, camps, and classes. Since I had to do a sample for many of these, I am including a few of the ones I rather liked here. 

These ones are from the Kids Summer Camp. My favourite is the solar system necklace. 

   

   

May and June 2021 Creations

This has been a couple of very productive months on the creative front

Exploring Texture and Pattern

I continued my Exploring Texture and Pattern course, first completing 2.3 the exercise in mock herringbone. I could only find one piece of striped fabric in the house and the stripes were wider than I would have liked, but I made it work. The four examples were supposed to relate to each other, so I used similar shades of pink. The first example was one strand of embroidery cotton. The second was three strands of embroidery cotton and I played with spacing a bit. The third was Retors a Broder cotton in a five ply and I used the whole thread. In the fourth example, I repeated each of these three, playing with a second colour in between the threads of each. For the Retors a Broder, I used three strands of black floss. For the three strand column I used two rows of three strands of a pale yellow. And for the single strand column I used a single strand of a blue.

The next exercise, 2.4, was couching and this was fun. First I did a three ply tapestry yarn in a light yellow, winding it back and forth in tight rows. I couched it down with a single strand of yellow embroidery cotton. For the second example I used three strands of a warm brown embroidery floss running it in a grid, first horizontally and then vertically. I then couched it down with a crossstitch using two strands of matte gold embroidery floss where the vertical and horizontal grid met. This is called Jacobian Couching. My third example was back to a tapestry yarn, an orange colour this time, in  circular pattern starting from the center. I couched it down with a complementary colour, blue, using two strands of embroidery cotton in a ray pattern from the center. The fourth example was a piece of Christmas ribbon I bought at the dollar store, laid in a wandering pattern, including one crossing, couched down with a single thread of green embroidery floss. I really enjoyed this exercise. and am thinking about how to use couching in my own designs.

I then moved on to the third module and it started with exercise 3.1 strip weaving. The warp and weft strips were sewn onto a base fabric. For my first sample I used a linen as the base fabric and used a pale patterned cotton, a purple cotton with a simple pattern, a green plaid pattern cotton, a green mottled pattern cotton and a teal mottled pattern cotton. I kept the pale strips to the top and the left, with the darker fabrics to the bottom and right.

For my second sample, I used a diaphanous sparkly pinkish fabric as the base and used cotton fabrics again for the strips. A pale one with a subtle pattern of clouds at the top, a paler pink floral, and three darker patterns with small florals, but all in analogous colours.

 

For exercise 3.2, we were to take these strip weaving pieces and stitch on them. For the first one, I used tissue paper to transfer a design of irises with backstitch on to the fabric and used watercolour pencil to add colour to the lighter fabric areas. I then did backstitch lettering on the right side and added random running stitch in brown at the bottom. I hemmed back most of the strips and backing except for the teal strip at the bottom. I quite like the result.

Kiwi Crafts

For Kiwi crafts, I did a stamped pattern on a stock canvas backpack. This involved cutting my own stamps from rubber blanks provided and using them and acrylic paint to stamp the backpack. Edges of the stamp sometimes picked up a bit of paint and show, but this is a pretty casual project, so that look doesn't bother me. I was anticipating summer outings and went with a beach theme, creating three stamps: a wave pattern, a starfish pattern, and a shell pattern. For the wave pattern, I used blue and white paint, trying to have white show at the top of the waves. For the shell pattern, I used a wine and a lavender paint, and for the starfish I used a mustardy yellow paint.

I am happy with the result.

EAC/ACB Seminar 2021

I also participated in two Embroidery Association of Canada Seminar classes and am partway through several original pieces for those. 

Here are some teasers from my canvaswork design class with Carolyn Mitchell

This is an Alberta Rose design I'm working on.

And the design below is inspired by microscopic images of beetle feet. 

Natalie Dupois Ode to the Palette

I took this course over six weeks, but mostly did colour theory and analysis, little stitching yet. 

We had to choose a painting to analyze the colours of, and then use the colours in a stitched piece. I chose Elyse Dodge's piece Elfin Lake, as I loved the colours, the subject, and the feel of it.

Here is my colour breakdown in square tiles. 

I decided to work with overdyed silk threads for this and here are the threads that I chose. I also looked at the threads in black and white to see the range of tones.

 

I will be using silver passing as the base for a couched open center circle using the proportions of the threads as used in the painting. 

March and April creations

I finished a few more pieces in this time period. 

I finished an needlework piece for a wooden box top to hold buttons. The box was unfinished, so I painted it with acrylic paint in a coordinating colour and then added the stitched panel to the top after lacing it to a thin but stiff piece of cardboard. It took me a while to find the right edging to finish it off, but I was going through my stash and found this purple mini bobble edging that was a dark purple, so sewed it on using a blanket stitch. This piece is by Noteworthy Needle and is called Button Box.

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It also took me a while to find the right item to place in the center of the small circle on this canvaswork piece. The designer was unable to supply the original crystal she used as it went out of production, so I ordered a few different cabochons trying to find the right fit. And one order took two months to arrive, so that really slowed me down. This piece is designed by Lorene Salt and called Sedona Soleil. I'm taking it and dropping it off to be framed in early May.

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I continued by Exploring Texture and Pattern course with 2.2, drawing with back stitch using a picture of my house for the subject. I did it really quickly, so the lines aren't all nice and straight, but it was fun and my husband liked it. 

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I did the stitching from beginning to end for this fun cross stitch piece. I loved the fabric which is called Boleyn from Primitive Hare. The pattern The Raven is also from them.

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January and February 2021 Creations

This first finish of the year was a knitted toque that I created using a Kiwi Maker Crate. I've never knitted something before. I'd started a couple of projects on knitting needles, but found it a bit confusing as I am left-handed and it didn't feel natural to me. 

KiwiCo provided a circular loom to use, and I created a toque for my brother who lives in Edmonton. The colours reminded me of the Edmonton Oiler colours and I thought it would be a fun choice. I knitted the hat, with a band of orange ribbing and a knitted body. I also made an orange pompom for the top. It turned out pretty good, but next time I will make the ribbing higher so it can be folded over. 

I did the finished touches on a corner bookmark. It slides over the corner of a page to mark your spot. The design only called for one finished side, but I decided it would be better to finish both sides. It uses a lovely variegated thread. The design is from Milady's Needle and is called Elegant Corner Bookmarks. There is a second design with a different variegated thread that I still have to do.

I worked on several other things, but didn't finish them up yet.