Needled

Today was very stressful for awhile.  I had gone into the backyard to water the vegetables which are doing really well.  At this point it is better too soak the plants to reduce water on the leaves causing mildew.  So instead of going in and out of the house I decided to sit under the apple trees and work on a new project, a basket.  Recently I wanted to take advantage of the millions of pine needles that fall into the yard every year.  So I found a video on www.youtube.com .  Once I understood how pine needle baskets were made I started weaving a basket to use in the yard too collect all those veggies!  The only supplies needed were pine needles, raffia, and a strong needle.  So I got out an 6 inch doll needle!  Doll needles are large, sharp and strong so that they can be found easily when making a doll.  Not something to step on!  So when I placed the hose to trickle water around the watermelons and went back to my basket the needle was gone!  I panicked!!  I've been trying to be extra careful with needles and now I had lost one of the most dangerous in some dry grass.  I flashed back to my doctor wanting to give me a tetanus shot.  The needle had to be found!  So I calmed myself and looked at the surface I had put it on and imagined were it would have fallen.  Then I had to take the weight of the needle into consideration.  That gave me two small areas to search.  So I knelt at the first spot and worked through the dead grass in layers and still couldn't find it.  The dead grass was so shiny that I was fooled several times into thinking that I had found the needle.  So I went into the house for a magnet.  I would have done so earlier but I had lost my large magnet and only had magnetic scissors.  The needle was so heavy it would never be picked up by the scissors but I hoped I would see it move.  The scissors didn't find anything but now I felt sure it wasn't in that area.  The second area was in the shade and the needle would have hit a board that was against the surface it was put on.  So the needle would have bounced a little.  So I narrowed the area and finally found the needle!  I was so relieved!  By then I had flooded the garden a bit!  But I was happy and so were the vegetables!  So much for the haystack!

Here is my pine needle basket so far.

Pine needle baskets are very easy to make.  So far my problem is not tightening the raffia enough while winding the pine needles.  The technique is just like my fabric basket but instead of fabric strips wrapped around soft cotton cording, the raffia is wrapped pine needles.  Here is a link to  by fabric basket tutorial  http://ravingsofamadcrafter.blogspot.com/2012/06/making-rug-from-sheets.html  This will never be as pretty as the fabric basket but it does give be a project to work on in the yard!

Skiving Off Today

Actually I spent the morning weeding out the tomatoes and feeding them, then I planted some squash.  But the rest of the day I have been resting. 

Found this book on paperback swap and looked it up on Amazon.  Amazing book on embroidery.  One project looks like a bulletin board and has embroidered plants and flowers, seeds and fish and animals must make one of these.  This has a Look Inside feature if you are interested.  Would have bought it but is $55.95 used.  Wish listed it on paperback swap but 13 people are ahead of me.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Embroidered-Flora-Fauna-Three-Dimensional/book/184448341X/

Paper Folded Jewelry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568363680?SubscriptionId=0QCHRJVSKG6F3BRGBNG2&tag=pbs_00004-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1568363680


The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles.  Worth a look at her style of embroidery and stumpwork.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Annemieke-Mein-Wildlife-Textiles/dp/0855329777/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372957219&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Art+Of+Annemieke+Mein

The Needlework Garden, Inspiring Designs for Creative Embroidery

Today I got a really great book in the mail.  I've been having a wonderful time ordering from www.paperbackswap.com.  So much fun getting books and getting rid of books at the same time.  It also feels great when the person getting my books love them!  I've sent off 15 books this week to be adopted and I've selected some craftbooks for subjects I didn't have books on.  Today I got three books.  One book is called "Dolls & Toys of Native America".  The dolls are interesting and the book has great pictures.  I also got "Bargello Magic" by Fischer and Lasker.  Lots of great patterns to use as a source book.  Last I got The Needlework Garden and below is the review I wrote for it on Amazon and LibraryThing.  So now others don't have to buy it blindly.  It is currently offered on Amazon $4.39 used.

There was nothing about "The Needlework Garden" out on the Internet. So I took a chance and bought the book. It is a really lovely book with great flower designs. The designs are somewhat abstracted but very pretty. Most of the projects are household linens but the designs could be used anywhere. Projects include pillows, a bed cover with wildflower applique, vegtable sampler, sachets, cards, a cathedral window pillow with wildflowers and more.  This book doesn't have step by step pictures like newer books so may not be good for beginners. The book does have good instructions and pictures. Definately happy with the purchase and plan on using the flower designs a lot in future projects. Definitely found a new book to treasure!

There is a couple of projects in the book that I want to start tonight!  So that's it for blogging today!

A Very Easy Pattern

For those of you who haven't been watching this blog I am afraid of sewing machines.  After injuring someone with a flying bobbin I look on them as the enemy.  But I am determined to learn to use my sewing machine!  So I have been trying to make a skirt the last few months.  So far I have cut three skirts too small using either just measurements or purchased patterns.  One was being made of light weight white cotton and some lace curtain fabric.   The white fabric was perfect but I cut the curtain fabric too short.  So the skirt could still fit but wouldn't cover my knees.  So my skirt pile is getting very big.

Then the other day I decided that I would try and make another skirt.  I went to Beverly's and asked for help.  After looking at the patterns I chose a very simple pattern marked EASY.  So I still asked the opinion of one of the kind ladies there.  She looked at the pattern and pointed out the word EASY on it and said I would be fine.  The pattern called for light weight fabrics and in fact had an overskirt.  So I went looking for some fabric and could not find two fabrics that I liked together.  So I asked for help again.  My question was could I use a light weight cotton instead of two sheer fabrics.  She said yes, so I bought a beautiful cotton batik fabric.  So armed with an EASY $6.00 pattern and $13.50 worth of enough fabric to make two skirts (just in case), I had my project for the day!

After going home I started the project immediately.  I knew if I didn't start it that day it would end up in a pile!  So I opened the pattern and happily saw that there were only two pieces to the skirt.  My confidence rose.  The pieces were very large because they were cut out of a single layer of fabric.  That seemed strange but I put that out of my mind and shortened the pattern to my height.  I started to lay the first piece on the fabric when I realized the skirt was cut on the bias!  An EASY pattern should not be on the bias!  But I remembered my mom saying "Just take your time and measure carefully".  So I tried to lay the first piece when another problem came up.  The fabric wasn't wide enough for the pattern!  Looking at the pattern envelope it had a little note saying that the fabric would need to be pieced if it was under 60 inches wide.  How could they possibly call this an easy pattern?  So now I knew why the pattern didn't recommend cotton!  The bias cut wouldn't drape as much in cotton as in lighter weight sheers.  Then add to that the fabric piecing for the long skirt was outrageous!  Some EASY pattern!

The pattern was now getting the upper hand!  So I decided to make the shorter version skirt which just fit the batik fabric.  Carefully laying out the fabric and measuring a dozen times I laid out the pieces one at a time because the pattern was so large.  I cut the pattern pieces out and was appalled at how much fabric was wasted, but I did get a large triangle to make into a head scarf.

So finally I had all the cutting done so it was just sewing, which is the scary part!  Sewing took only three hours not counting hemming.  I've told this story to several people now and no one ever asked how I sewed a skirt and scarf without a properly working sewing machine.  The answer was by hand.  Yes I chickened out!  After all that work I couldn't get up the courage to use the machine.  Using a rocking needle technique I sewed the sides together putting a backstitch every 4th stitch.  I actually think that I made a stronger seam then the machine would have done.  After the sides the pattern had a turn down waist which was done with an almost invisible stitch.  The hardest part sewing was the measuring of the skirt hem.  Unfortunately I had to shorten the skirt more than I wanted but the hem was finally measured and I used a simple hemstitch.  The total time counting both the skirt and scarf was 5 hours.  Not bad at all and I got some good practice at hand stitching.  The period clothing I have planned will be hand stitched so I really needed the practice.  So if you have read through all of this here is a picture of the skirt and scarf.  Maybe next time I will get out the machine!

Hand sewn batik skirt.

Batik scarf.

Thrift Store Finds for Altrusa

Today was a very lucky day for finding pretty things at the thrift store!  It was like the stuff was waiting for us!  Two weeks ago we found a copy of a 18th century French woodcut of a Ball.  The store said they would get it down but still hadn't, they had no ladder.  Lee found two in the store and after a bit they finally brought it down.  Here are some pictures of it.  I didn't want to take the glass off so the pictures aren't great.  And it was only $5.00!

18th Century French Ball.

Close up of the party!

Close up of the other side of the party.

The frame was made of a plain thin wood.  So we went to another thrift shop and found an ornate frame and it was the right size!  The frame cost $7.00!

Here is a close up of the frame, the roses are so lovely!

I also found this lovely old frame.  It is the right size for a large hand mirror.  Just drop a mirror in and embroider the back!

Lovely old frame.

Then I found this old silver plate coffee carafe.  The ornamentation is amazing.

Coffee carafe.

Etching on the silver on the carafe.

Ornamental scroll work.

The carafe in action!

A wonderful day for the Marie Antoinette Tree!

Found Marie!

After going crazy looking for her I finally found Marie in the paper racks.  It was a very safe place because I didn't find the embroidery for several days.  So hopefully I will get back to her tomorrow.

Lee took me out to buy some needlepoint wool at Betty's.  I got 51 colors to add to the 8 colors I had already.  So now I just have to decide on a pattern for a pillow.  I've been looking at some patterns in "Needleplay " and "More NeedlePlay" by Erica Wilson.  There are a few cute ideas.  But I would really like to come up with my own designs.  Certainly I have enough colors to make something quite colorful.  Afterwards we went to a thrift store and tried to buy a litho of a ballroom dance set in the 1780's.  The picture was screwed to the wall so they will call me when they can get it down!  This will be great for the Altrusa tree!  Then we bough some blackboard paint for some cabinets and came home.

Yesterday I started another needle painting.  This is of a yellow poppy and it is going quite well.  The next needle painting will be an iris.  I found a nice outline drawing of an iris and this time I will pick the colors, shading and determine the stitch angle all on my own.  Sounds like a fun challenge!

Back to Embroidering Pansies

Yesterday I went out to shop at Michael's.  This was a bad idea for several reasons.  The heat yesterday was hot for us and being out 2 hours was hard.  The coupon was for 40% off the entire purchase starting at 4:00 PM.  So I went a bit early and there were only 6 people shopping.  So I managed to get through the crowd of shoppers!  I was able to find some lovely white flowers for a bridal head wreath.  The plan is to finish the wreath in the next couple of days.  Then I went to the frame section and was a bit disappointed that they didn't have many old style frames.  I finally decided on this fake Marcasite frame with fleur de lys at the corners.  The frame is 5 x 7 inches and that turns out to be as small as shows all of Marie.  It also cuts out a lot of background that I would have had to embroider.  So I am rather happy with the frame.  While at Michael's I also bought some embroidery floss for me.

Frame for embroidery.

It was exhausting to go shopping but I have enough supplies for now.  To give my sore fingers a break I worked on the wild pansy some more.  The colors are different from the lesson because I hated the colors the author chose.  The original was in Anchor threads so the DMC equivalents may have just been off.  So this is my first try at picking out colors.  Not quite right but pretty enough.  When this is finished it will be the first quilt square for the embroidered yoyo quilt!

Needle painted wild pansy lesson number 10.

A Secret Garden

The last few days Lee and I have been working on a beautiful shade garden.  Lee has done 90% of the work and I have been doing the easy stuff like starting seeds and planting.  Yesterday I planted a lot of violets, spearmint and apple mint.  Now that the area has been mulched I've been thinking about growing mint as a ground cover and naturalizing some bulbs for next spring.  There are a lot of paperwhites and narcissus to replant from the Spring.  The amaryllis has baby bulbs to replant too.  I would appreciate any suggestions.

The victory garden is really doing well, the weather has been so lovely and the tomato plants are getting full of fruit.  Usually we don't get tomatoes this early because there are so few bees.  But this year with have both honey bees and bumble bees.  They are still enjoying the lavender plant I planted 12 years ago.  It has grown into a beautiful plant but it needs to have the old flowers removed so it will bloom again.  Once I cut back the lavender the bees should be more interested in the vegetable.  The green beans are finally coming up and should take off in the beautiful Summer we are having.  A new section of the yard is almost finished it has taken me a long time to get it ready.  Lee worked over the soil but I want to make sure the weeds are out of the soil before I start planting more seeds.

The wild pansy embroidery is slowly taking shape.  The leaves are almost finished.  Getting the right angle of the stitches has been difficult and it seems to be an important factor in needle painting.  Tomorrow I hope to have some pictures.

Goliath the Hummingbird

The last three years we have had a huge hummingbird I named Goliath.  I find it hard to believe it is the same Anna hummingbird but not many get that big.  Today I was outside and saw two huge hummingbirds!  The best part is that they were doing a mating dance in the air.  If you've never seen the mating dance of hummingbird all I can say is that it is pretty strange.  So maybe by the end of summer we will have lots of baby hummingbirds on the four o'clocks!

Yesterday we went to the gym and I walked 30 minutes in the pool.  Then went to JCPenny and bought two blouses.  There were hardly any people in the store and they were having a four hour sale!  They say that the company is having trouble with the way the prices were setup but I liked it.  It is so nice to see the exact price and not  wonder how much something really costs with a discount.  My opinion of why people weren't in the store was ugly clothes.  But I did find a 3/4 sleeve white blouse and a fuchsia pink long sleeve silk blouse.  But no cute skirts were to be found and Capris were everywhere!

After shopping I went to Beverly's and got some green fat quarters.  The pattern on the green fabric is the same as on the purple yoyos.  Then I also purchased Clover's small 5 petal flower tool.  The idea was to use the 5 petal flower yoyo instead of a tradition one.  Then to make green large pointed flower petals into leaves.  The flowers and leaves would then be sewn around the outside of the embroidered panels.  I've looked on the internet and have not seen anything like this which makes me think it can't be done.  So far I've tried making the small flower but it seems a little to small for the size of the panels.  The large pointed petal doesn't make the best leaves, I can make better ones without the tool.  So I guess we will see what happens!

A new year and the last one of the decade. I thought I would try and keep a journal, inspired by my sister Patty who is blogging a year of crafting. My ability to craft lately has been difficult and I thought why not share crafting ideas with others who can craft. Maybe someone will find inspiration to make something wonderful!


January 2, I met with friends to craft and talk and laugh. We have a little crafting group called The Santa Maria Valley Crafters and we meet every Saturday to enjoy each others company and of course craft. On Friday evenings we meet to do embroidery.


I worked on a accordian fold journal. The theme is going to be Victorian roses. For the covers I used the flat 6 x 8 painting canvas. It makes a nice heavy cover which is important for this kind of book. I love that I don't have to cut bookboard! I covered the canvas with a piece of handmade paper I bought in a deep red. The rest of the time I spent cutting a rose from a print by Pierre Joseph Redoubte. A lot of intricate cutting that just takes time. While at Beverly's I found some card stock, ink pad and rub on roses that matched the prints colors perfectly! Unfortunately the paper I chose did not match so I have to rethink that part. Perhaps an offwhite paper and then use the ink pad around the edges to soften and blend, then rub on the roses randomly. We will see how it comes out.

This week I worked on cutting out fleece and felt hearts with a Cuttlebug using a diecut. Also tried embossing the hearts but they would not keep the impression. Using simple stitches like buttonhole and straight stitch I layered the hearts and even stuffed the centers. The project was to be several hearts sewn together and then attached to a pinback. I don't know if it will be a class or not at Beverly's but I hope so.

Very little got accomplished this week, I go to the doctors again soon and hopefully they will get me up and doing things again soon. In the mean time I keep working on small projects so it feels like I'm accomplishing something. Next week back to working on the journals so they can be Valentines gifts.

Posting again

I haven't been posting because of the lack of anything interesting to say. So I am trying to change that! Recently we have been looking for ways to cut back just like everyone else. We have decided to try not having cable service.

There seems to be so little of interest to watch on television. Now that so many networks are doing a lot of reality shows, there is even less to watch. So this week I'm pretending that we have no television. I didn't realize how much I actually watched. It was usually in the background being partially ignored anyway. The house is much quieter without it.

Now that it is easy to watch favorite shows through websites and services like netflix, cable really seems an unneccesary expense.

The only thing I will miss is the news. Though CNN is mostly commentary anyway. I don't need them to tell me what to think. So I am looking for other news sources such as online newspapers and radio stations.

This should give me more time for writing my thoughts and doing more crafting which I love so much.

So the great experiment starts and we will see how important TV really is in my life.

A day off

I've been having a wonderful day off from work playing in the garden and planting. Today I planted astillbe, bleeding hearts, cala lilies and hanging pots of herbs. Last year I hung several pots of herbs under the almond trees in the back yard and they were incredibly beautiful and tasty.

The backyard is full of fruiting trees, we have three apples, peach, nectarine, lime, cherry, two almonds and an apricot. In the front is a huge olive, guava and pecan. This spring has been beautiful with all the blossoms. A pair of birds having nested in the olive tree and chipped at me the whole time I was planting in front. The olive tree has created an opportunity to have a shade garden. I have planted ferns, maidenhair and china doll, The china doll is huge! Also there are several orchid plants, cymbidiums, Phalaenopsis, Cattleya and Laelia. They love this area of california and can live outdoors with protection. Only the cymidiums are blooming right now and they are beautiful shade of pink. I smile everytime I see them.

As usual I have to many crafting projects to count. Currently I'm working on a ribbon embroidery project. It will be a scrapbook cover for her forthcoming baby so it has to be perfect. I've been practising my stitches because it has to be perfect! I've also been decorating a silk ribbon box. It is traditional to have a beautiful box for storing silk ribbons and supplies. It is a paper-mache hatbox I got at Beverly's Craft store. I painted it turquoise and then sponged it with silver ink. Today I printed out scans of japanese prints to decorate the sides of the box. I think it will be pretty. The original prints were purchased in Japan when my SO's father lived there before WWII. They are so lovely and this is a way they can be enjoyed and the originals safe.

Tonight I am going to read a book from the library "Romantic Silk Ribbon Keepsakes" by Mary Jo Hiney. It has some flower techniques I haven't seen in other books and I'm excited to start reading it. Tomorrow I start seriously stitching the baby album cover.