Playing with Dolls

I wanted to post some photos of a super fun little project I completed earlier this year.

Each January our EGA chapter hosts a workshop that does something requiring a needle and thread. . . but usually a little outside of traditional embroidery.

This year our guest teacher was beading instructor Cathy Helmers, who taught a 3-dimensional beading class.  You can see some of Cathy's work here.  We could choose either a little fantasy animal (called a snootie) or an art doll.

The stuffed fabric doll and snootie forms were premade (complete with the cabochon doll face), and we were each allowed to select from a great selection of fun beads.

I chose the doll was thrilled that I completed her over the winter.  Here she is in all her glory:

Back view (love the wild and crazy hair!):

And here's a super close up that shows the underlying fabric.  Deciding what to do was a challenge for me (at heart I'm a counted thread embroiderer).  But I'm really happy with the large diagonal motif across the front and back.  I think the brown textured beads were the key here.  They provided EXACTLY the right amount of color and texture contrast.  And I went all out and added the tiny pearls all over where there were little white dots on the underlying fabric.

Taking Stock

After getting the stitching on the ground fabric completed, the next steps involve attaching various detached elements to create the final picture.  I'd long since forgotten exactly how much had been done on these small elements before the project went into the great big WIP pile.

I was happily surprised to find that most of the nine required pink petals and over half of the woven detached sepals were complete and ready to go.  Over the past several days, I've made the rest of those elements. . . most of which you can see on my little embroidery hoop below.  The petals are made of wire couched and then bottonhole stitched to a ground, then outlined with split stitch, followed by two layers of satin stitch.  The final touch is the five straight stitches in light pink.  I will cut the individual petals out as I need them to avoid the danger of them getting lost.  The sepals are just wire wrapped with silk thread. . . over / under / over / under until the required length is reached.

I've started the attaching process, and two additional buds are almost complete.  Completing each bud involves working two woven sepals on the ground fabric, then inserting three detached sepals. . . covering the bud with light green satin stitch, then finally working three wrapped lines over each buds.  The remaining three buds / flowers are flowers beginning to emerge from their buds, so in addition to the green sepals, they will have one or more of the little pink petals.

Next goal:  Complete the plant and get ready to move on to the butterfly and bugs.

A Week of Leaves and Stems

I'm trying hard to climb out of my stitching rut!  Step one was finding something ready to go. . . all in one place . . . and near the top of the WIP pile.

I'm really happy with my choice -- a Jane Nicholas piece that was taught at our EGA chapter as part of the fall 2013 International Teachers Tour.

During class we worked through different techniques. . . but not many parts of the design were actually completed.  Starting back up, I wanted to follow the correct order of stitching.  And that meant jumping right in to working the background leaves and stems.

Day 1 - This photo is pretty much as the piece stood at the end of class.  On Day 1, I did complete the leaf of the bottom right and added the central stem.  The bud you see on the left was a sample of about a half dozen techniques that will be copied in 5 more buds and flowers, and the little blue blob is made up of blue and black detached elements that have been attached to the ground fabric and will eventually be a little lady bug.

Day 2 - More leaves and stems are in progress.  Each leaf consists of three steps:  a split stitch outline, which is then filled in with satin stitch padding stitches, and finally covered with satin stitch. All three steps are evident in this photo which shows where I stopped on Day 2.

Day 3 - It took 3 days of work, but the leaves and stems are now complete!

Day 4 - Moving forward, it's time to start work on the bases of the buds and flowers.  The one bud on the lower left was mostly done in class, but now looks MUCH better with its top layer of light green satin stitch.  I had also traced the padding layers for the other buds in class, so stitching those in place was also fairly quick.  Yea!

Going forward, there's one more bud to pad, and then I need to take inventory on how many little pieces are actually complete and ready to go. . . and how many still need to be made.   But I do have a nice glow of accomplishment for the week!

A rut? A ditch? Maybe a chasm. . . ?

OK, OK. . . I have not posted in so very long.   A friend has opined that my "rut" has long since become a ditch. . . but perhaps it's worse than that.  A trench?  A chasm?  A canyon?

Well, I'm making an effort here.  Let's see if it takes this time.

One reason I have not posted is that I have not stitched much.  Don't know why.

But I have not been totally idle.  Here is a (not so wonderful) picture of a little jacket I crocheted last summer for a friend's first grand child.

It's called a hexagon sweater, and you can find the free directions on-line here:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hexagon-jacket.html

Its made of two identical hexagon shapes, which are folded over and joined at the back into a jacket shape.  I LOVE the pale blue yarn (for a little boy, naturally), and I was super tickled when I found the blue buttons that just set it off perfectly.