Fat-Quarter

Nine-patch mugrug

2012-01-30T15:49:00.001+01:00

Today there was anotherbirthday girl in my quilting group and I made this mugrug for her. I bought acute birthday mug and used matching fabrics for the mugrug.

Cretan stitch

2012-01-29T15:57:00.003+01:00

My second experiment withCretan stitch. I used 4 different threads and added beads and French knots.

There’s a bigger photo atmy Flickr-page.

Green collage

2012-01-28T17:36:00.001+01:00

Another collage in mystudio journal. I only used the green parts from photo’s.
I just select a partand glue it at the first spot it fits. No thinking, just enjoying!

This collage is part of a series. So far I made onein red, purple and blue.

Zentangled mosaic inchies

2012-01-26T17:19:00.001+01:00

This is a zentangle tile for one of my last swapsfrom last year. I cut inchies and ATCbackgrounds from different sheets of resist experiments (I wrote about themhere and here). Then I glued 9 inchies on a 3.5 inch tile and added thetangles.

Joan made this pretty tile for me.

Cretan border

2012-01-25T18:10:00.001+01:00

The next TAST stitch is Cretan stitch. I startedwith a Cretan border with some variations. The threads are DMC broder specialand Rainbow Gallery Treasure Braid.

I made a selection of older experiments with Cretanstitch. This first one is part of my border sampler. I used the Cretan stitchto couch the organza ribbon.

This is a detail of an ATC. Stacked Cretan stitches andFrench knots with
2 threads of stranded floss.

Another detail of an ATC. Here I stitched the Cretanstitch on top of the rickrack and decorated it with beads.

This is a detail of my ornament Flip Flop. Istitched the Cretan stitch with 2 threads of stranded floss and added somebeads.

When I was looking at my photo’s, I discovered I don’tuse the Cretan stitch very often. Time to change that and experiment a little more.To be continued.

Lace in my garden

2012-01-24T20:03:00.000+01:00

Mother nature made herown lace.

This is a photo of thesame Hydrangea last summer.

Log cabin mugrug

2012-01-23T16:33:00.000+01:00

I made a second mugrug on my sewing machine for anotherbirthday girl in my quilting group. She’s working on a project with black andwhite fabric and I know she has a log cabin UFO. Just teasing her!

Feather stitch again

2012-01-22T16:50:00.000+01:00

Today I made the last feather stitches on my Aida. Ichoose this fabric to focus on my experiments with rows of feather stitches. Ididn’t want to spend too much time selecting my embroidery threads, so I used acolour palette in my studio journal. My first experiment is stitched inpurple perle 12 and yellow perle 8. I decorated the stacked rows with bugglebeads.

From top to bottom: Stef Francis spun silk withflames, 2 threads of stranded DMC and perle 8. In the last row I alternatedsmall and wide stitches.

An experiment with 2 threads of stranded DMC. Thearms of the yellow feather stitches are different; the left side is half thesize of the right size. Then I added the buttonhole stitches.

This is the same row after adding the buttonhole stitchesat the other side.

A few days ago I showed the floral spray in my altered book. Yarngoddess asked me what I’m going to do with the back of thepage. This is how it looks now. I secured the threads with tape, so there areno knots.

I’m not sure I want to hide this when I glue thepages together, maybe I do something special with it so I can still see partsof it.

Old feather stitches

2012-01-21T16:11:00.000+01:00

I’m still working on my feather stitch sampler andhope to finish it tomorrow. In the meantime I have a few older samples toshare. The first one is a detail of my ornament Reply to Good Morning. I usedperle 8 for the feather stitch and the twisted rope.

The second one is part of my border sampler. Tworows of straight single upright feather stitches in perle 5. The slippeddetached chain stitches are stitched in perle 8.

A feather stitch with 2 threads of stranded DMC andFrench knots on this Crazy Monday block.

Imade this feather stitch in perle 5 on my first block for Sharon’s Encrusted class.It's decorated with cast on stitches in perle 12.

Mugrug

2012-01-19T16:41:00.000+01:00

I made a mugrug on my sewing machine for a birthday girl in my quilting group. She likes Japanese fabrics and sashiko. I bought a 'sashiko' mug and used some Japanese fabrics from my stash.

Floral spray with feather stitch

2012-01-17T17:57:00.000+01:00

It was still Monday in my part of the world when Sharon posted the third stitch for TAST 2012, the feather stitch. This morning I knew I wanted to make a floral spray in my altered book. I flipped through the pages to see which one had a matching background. This blue and green page got the same treatment as the last sample I showed in yesterdays post. Without the gesso it was easy to stitch on it with an old embroidery needle. I used stranded floss and a shiny thread that feels like plastic. The flower in the center is origami made of teabags, I made it many years ago.I used fly stitches, buttonhole stitches and straight stitches for the flowers.

There's a better photo of this embroidery at my Flickr-page.

Acrylic paint

2012-01-16T17:25:00.000+01:00

I'm still working on the backgrounds of the pages in my altered book Een stem van papier. Some time ago Sharon mentioned Caatjes easy peasy journal tutorials. I wanted to try acrylic paint for some time and this tutorial was just the push I needed to get me starting! I started with the second technique, the open and close technique halfway in the first tutorial. I used blue on the left page and red on the right. I just followed the easy instructions and this was the pretty result. Then it was time to try the first technique too, painting with an old card. I used an old phone card. After a few pages I wanted to try something different and used blue and yellow on the same page and spread them with my card. Part of the paint mixed in green, I like the effect of this. The right page is watercolour paint were I didn't use gesso to prepare the page.

My last experiment was on a page that wasn't prepared with gesso. I just added green and red acrylic paint . . .

. . . and spread them with my card. It mixed in brown, just what I needed to match the right page. I wrote about that page here.

It's almost time to decorate my pages, only a few more pages need a background.

Buttonhole stitch

2012-01-15T16:20:00.000+01:00

Today I made some time to work on the buttonhole stitch. I used a blue fabric I rust dyed last year and 3 different embroidery threads: blue stranded floss, brown broder special and light blue Caron Wildflowers.

It was fun to watch the fabric change while I was stitching. The marks inside the brown buttonhole stitches are from a screw.

This is one of the 12 samplers I prepared for TAST 2012, they are 15 x 15 cm or 6 x 6 inch. I'm just stitching on the sampler that matches the stitch for me. For the buttonhole stitch I worked on 2 different samplers. I wrote about my buttonhole border here.

Undine

2012-01-11T15:30:00.000+01:00

Zentangle challenge 53 at I am the diva is to use Undine, Laura's new tangle pattern. My string is part of a series of designs for my embroidery Relief. I used Undine, Shatttuck and Wigwam for this tangled version. Yesterday I made an embroidery inspired by Undine. I wrote about it here.

Buttonhole border

2012-01-10T17:43:00.001+01:00

Today I couldn't decide if I should do some embroidery for TAST 2012 or draw a zentangle for the challenge at I am the diva. I ended up stitching a border inspired by Undine, Laura's new tangle pattern. My border is made of 2 mirrored rows of buttonhole stitches with cross stitches between them. I like the little bowties! I made a selection of older experiments with buttonhole stitch. The first one is a CQ seam on block 10 of my Crazy Monday quilt. It's made of 2 mirrored rows of buttonhole stitches, needlewoven with a golden thread.

Another CQ seam, this one is on block 13 of my Crazy Monday quilt. I couched some organza ribbon with a buttonhole stitch and decorated it with French knots.

This is a detail of my stitchery Hoera Quiltweer, designed by Anke. Here the buttonhole stitch is used to edge the clouds.

My last example is an ATC I made for a black and white swap. I used the buttonhole stitch to alter the fabric.

I wrote about my buttonhole sampler for TAST 2007 here. My buttonhole stitch file sampler is here.

Blue room

2012-01-09T18:24:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since I showed one of my studio journal pages. This page was the result of cutting blue things from magazines. Then I randomly glued them to the page. I didn't see what it was going to be until it was finished. These exercises are so much fun!

Fly stitch again

2012-01-08T16:14:00.003+01:00

This morning I drew some fly stitch experiments on paper. One of them was a filling pattern with a pistil stitch for the second part of the fly stitch. I stitched it on a black linen with white perle 8 and 12. I like the rhythm of this pattern.

My first post about the fly stitch is here.

Zentangled ATC alphabet

2012-01-07T12:00:00.004+01:00

My zentangled ATC alphabet is complete! I enjoyed this series very much. If you want to see the ATC's I made, just follow this link.

Orts 2011

2012-01-06T17:00:00.000+01:00

At the end of 2011 my orts jar was only filled half. I started it with the orts of the picot chain, the last orts were from my herringbone sampler.

I'm using the same jar again and stored the orts in a plastic bag, just like the orts from 2010.

I already used some of my 2010 orts in the cover of my first fabric book. My 2009 orts are in an Easter egg.

Fly stitch

2012-01-04T16:44:00.007+01:00

Fly stitch is the first stitch for TAST 2012. I still have to prepare the fabric for my samplers, so I started with a small sampler for my stitch files. I made the same row of stitches with different threads. From top to bottom: perle 12, perle 8, Caron Watercolours, perle 5 and 3 threads of stranded floss. I've used this stitch many times and I share a few of them. The first one is a row of fly stitches on block 2 of my Crazy Monday quilt.

This is a row of flipped fly stitches with bullion knots on block 5 of my Crazy Monday quilt.

Stacked fly stitches in different sizes and threads on my ATC Contrast.

I wrote about my TAST 2007 fly stitch sampler here. To be continued!

TAST 2010 fabric book

2012-01-03T20:00:00.000+01:00

I finished my TAST 2010 fabric book just before Christmas. After sewing the pages to the cover I added the buttons.

On the inside of the cover I sewed the CQ block I made after the first 4 stitches. I don't like the block anymore, but I do like the stitches on it.

It was very difficult to take good photo's, so yesterday I made a video while I was flipping through the pages. You can read more about these samplers in my TAST 2010 posts.

Herringbone sampler

2012-01-02T22:10:00.000+01:00

I finished my herringbone sampler yesterday, just in time for the start of TAST 2012. I started this sampler last month and already wrote about the first rows here. These 4 rows are an experiment with overdyed Sulky cotton 30. Obviously this thread is too thin for my 28 count linen, but I like the pattern of the stitches.

Here I made a border with a herringbone corner with perle 5. The brown triangle is a closed herringbone with perle 8. If you click the photo you can see how I changed the size of the stitches.

I think this row is my favourite. First I stitched the big herringbones with yellow perle 5. Then I made the brown rows with DMC broder special to tie the big herringbones.

This is a great filling or border pattern. I stitched it with 2 threads of stranded floss.

On this sampler I only wanted to use herringbone stitches, because I'm going to attach it to the stitch file worksheet. Then it's easy to see how I made the stitches later. But it would be fun to add beads or other stitches in the open spaces.

Welcome 2012

2012-01-01T18:00:00.008+01:00

It's time to look back on the 3 creative goals I set last year. It worked very well for me and I'll do the same this year. My first goal was to finish the last TAST 2010 stitches before the start of Sharon's journal class. I managed that and over the year I turned my samplers into fabric book pages. Last week I finished my TAST 2010 fabric book, but I still have to take some photo's and maybe another video. The detail on the photo is part of the CQ block on the inside of my cover. Of course the replacement of this goal is TAST 2012! My second goal is an ongoing one. I have several quilt tops I still have to quilt. I finished a few small ones last year and wrote about it in my WISP-posts. The last one I showed was a cat quilt, it's quilted and I'm working on the binding. I wrote about a double wedding ring quilt I was planning to quilt next, but I removed the border and I'm going to add a straight border. There's no matching fabric in my stash, so I have to go shopping first. In the meantime I'm going to quilt another small quilt, maybe this little baroque lady. She also needs some embroidery, so that doubles the fun! She's only 8 inch and I made her many years ago. It's an old mystery pattern designed by Ula Lenz.

My last goal was to finish the Gorse Fairies. I finished it in November and it still needs to be framed. The replacement for this goal is working on Sharon's stitch files. I finished my third sampler today; the herringbone stitch.

I'll show you some details of this sampler tomorrow.

Star ornament

2011-12-23T14:46:00.003+01:00

My last Christmas stitching is done, a small CD-ornament with an embroidered star. The size is 3,25 inch or 8,5 cm. It's stitched with Caron Wildflowers in Portuguese stemstitch and backstitch. At the edge I couched some knitting yarn. I want to thank you all for visiting my blog this year. Hope to see you again in 2012.

Another knitted Christmas ball

2011-12-22T12:45:00.000+01:00

It took me some time to find the right yarn for my Christmas balls. I cannot use wool because of my allergy, so I had to find a nice acrylic yarn. There was not much time to knit, so my tree only has one knitted ball this year. It's pattern 15 from the book 'Kerstballen breien' by Arne & Carlos. Remember my first Christmas ball? It was just a plain one to practise knitting with 5 needles. Now I crocheted this pineapple angel . . .

. . . and appliqued it on the ball.

This one is not for my tree, I'm going to give it to a dear friend.

Crazy X-mas

2011-12-21T16:48:00.004+01:00

My last ATC's for this year. I made them for a swap with an open theme and decided to use some of my Christmas scraps. The fabric in the centre is the same for both, it's fun to see how different they are!

Surprise in my mailbox

2011-12-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

I received a Christmas card from Jeannette with a lovely crocheted star inside. It's hanging in our Christmas tree at eye-level. Thanks Jeanette!

TAST 2007 fabric book

2011-12-19T19:50:00.006+01:00

I finally made a fabric book of the samplers I made for TAST 2007! It was a great way to learn how to use my new sewing machine. The pages are made of black denim, the samplers are stitched on muslin. I started stitching them in 2008 and finished the last one just before the start of TAST 2010. Only 49 stitches, I skipped the cross stitch, satin stitch and the long and short stitch. The cover of my fabric book. It closes with some ribbon and a button.

Page 1: herringbone stitch, buttonhole stitch, detached chain stitch, berry stitch and Cretan stitch.

Page 2: Chevron stitch, Algerian eyes, feather stitch and fly stitch.

Page 3: barred chain stitch, up and down buttonhole stitch, couching and knotted Cretan stitch.

Page 4: bonnet stitch, oyster stitch, Palestrina stitch and running stitch.

Page 5: woven and whipped wheels, Basque stitch, butterfly chain stitch and crossed buttonhole stitch.

Page 6: wheatear stitch, French knots, half chevron stitch, bullion knots and sheaf stitch.

Page 7: arrowhead stitch, buttonhole wheels, cast on stitch, crested chain stitch and scroll stitch.

Page 8: Portuguese stemstitch, shisha stitch, cable chain stitch, knotted buttonhole band and reversed buttonhole bar.

Page 9: rice stitch, square boss stitch, linked double chain stitch, lace border stitch, twisted satin stitch, drizzle stitch, zigzag Spanish knotted stitch, Pekinese stitch, knotted cable chain, chain braid stitch, chained bar stitch and Spanish feather stitch.

Page 10: zigzag Spanish knotted stitch, Pekinese stitch, thorn stitch and pistil stitch.

It was very difficult to take good photo's, so I made a video while I was flipping through the pages.

There's another TAST challenge next year. Read more about it at Pintangle.

Inchie Sunday 23

2011-12-18T08:00:00.002+01:00

This inchie is made from the same resist experiment as my inchies Waves and Paradox.

Ohio Rose

2011-12-15T16:00:00.004+01:00

I finished a second 12 x 12 inch block for my applique quilt. It's another rose design by Leta Brazell. I wrote about my first block here. I started a third block, but finish it next year. There's some Christmas stitching to do!

Halloween ATC

2011-12-14T20:51:00.004+01:00

I made this ATC for the October swap at Stitchin Fingers. It needed almost 2 months to travel from The Netherlands to South Africa! The word Halloween with the spider came from a cross stitch pattern at Frimousse. There's a larger photo of this ATC at my Flickr-page.

Zentangled D

2011-12-13T17:46:00.004+01:00

The last missing letter of my zentangled ATC alphabet arrived! This is the D that I made for my swap partner . . . . . . and this is the D Amanda made for me.

I'm going to take a photo of my complete ATC alphabet for the last post of this series.

Amsterdam 1

2011-12-12T18:30:00.000+01:00

I took some photo's in Amsterdam and thought it would be fun to write a few posts about them. Every time we visit our daughter we pass by this empty building. With all the glass windows it's easy to take funny photo's.

I like the patterns of lines and dots.

The backside of the building.

Next time I show you some other buildings in the same area.

Inchie Sunday 22

2011-12-11T08:00:00.001+01:00

This X-mas tree is tangled with the pattern 'Nzeppel and decorated with a gold Sakura gelly roll pen. The stars are very tiny sequins.

Herringbone stitch

2011-12-08T16:33:00.004+01:00

I'm trying to stitch a few more stitch file samplers before TAST 2012 starts in January. Today I started with the herringbone stitch. It's a grey and rainy day, so I had to use the flash to take my photo's. My first row is stitched with 2 threads of stranded DMC. I turned part of that row into a double herringbone with some orange.

Some mirrored rows with Caron Wildflowers.

Stacked rows with Stef Francis perle 5. Every next row starts halfway the previous one. I like the braided effect of this, it looks very complicated, but it's very simple to stitch.

Stacked rows with DMC broder special.

Closed herringbone stitch with Caron Watercolours.

There's more space left on my sampler, so I can experiment some more.

Biggify

2011-12-06T15:31:00.004+01:00

Last week's zentangle challenge at I am the diva was to push your comfort zone and biggify your tangles. The background of my tile is painted with watercolour paint. Lacy is the tangle I biggified for this challenge. Below is a photo of this tile on my tangle Relax. There I used Lacy in a 'normal' size.

Inchie Sunday 21

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

The tatting on this inchie is the small one in the post My first tatting. I stitched it on a piece of marbled cardstock with French knots in a golden thread.

TAST 2012 logo

2011-12-01T20:30:00.006+01:00

There were many visitors, new followers and comments on my embroidery for the TAST 2012 logo at Pintangle. As a thank you I want to share the making of the embroidery on the cover for my TAST fabric book. The border is one of Sharon's Friday freebies. First I ironed a piece of freezer paper to the back of my fabric. After centring the border pattern upside down on the freezer paper, I secured it with masking tape. The freezer paper makes it easier to draw on the fabric. I didn't took a photo of this part, but I made a photo of it when I was working on my embroidery Touch (currently my blog header).

After tracing the design on the fabric with a water soluble pen I removed the pattern and did the same with the letters TAST. I used a light box for the tracing, but a window works fine too. I stitched the border pattern in Caron Wildflowers in stem stitch, open chain stitch and raised close herringbone. I stitched the letters TAST in backstitch with 4 threads of silk floss.

I figured some of you might want to stitch 2012, so I made a pattern for that too. The font is called Colonna MT.

Read all about TAST 2012 at Pintangle.

Climbing Rose

2011-11-29T16:39:00.003+01:00

I wanted to do some applique, but didn't want to start a new project. Then I remembered a 12 inch block I made many years ago. It's called Climbing Rose and it was part of a series of rose patterns by Leta Brazell. At the time I needed to practice some applique leaves for another project and this was the perfect block for it. Now I printed the other patterns too, so I can make a quilt with 4-6 blocks.

Elephant

2011-11-28T17:04:00.004+01:00

Last week I finished this cute little elephant. It's a pattern from the book Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli. I knitted a long shawl for him.

Inchie Sunday 20

2011-11-27T08:00:00.002+01:00

The whipped wheel and French knots are embroidered with Stef Francis perle 5. The backstitch border is stitched with 2 threads of stranded DMC. I added the embroidery to the cardstock with double sided sticky tape, but made a mistake when I cut it!

Strawberry cupcake

2011-11-26T16:14:00.004+01:00

For this ATC I made a combination of trapunto and embroidery. Instead of quilting the cupcake, I embroidered it in Portuguese stemstitch. Then I stuffed it from the back and added the French knots and leaves in woven picot. The stem is a padded satin stitch. There's a bigger photo of this ATC at my Flickr-page. This is the second ATC I made for Janet for the July swap at Stitchin Fingers. Unfortunately it's gone astray again!!!

Red thread challenge

2011-11-25T15:11:00.004+01:00

This week's zentangle challenge at I am the diva is a guest post by Chris from Tangled Up in Art. The challenge was to create a traditional black and white tangle tile with a single red "thread" running through it. When I read the word "thread", I immediately thought embroidery and that's what I did. After tangling my tile I embroidered the string in Portuguese stemstitch with red DMC 80.

Een stem van papier

2011-11-23T20:15:00.003+01:00

. . . is the Dutch title of the old library book I'm altering. In English the title would be 'A paper voice'. I already wrote about the altered page with Punzel here. On these 2 pages I made rubbings with crayons and some gesso pages from my studio journal. Then I ironed them with a piece of baking paper to set the colours.

This is a little detail of the right page.

Here I ironed some fusible webbing to the pages. Then I added blue and yellow watercolour paint.

This page is my interpretation of Suz's experiment with leaves and watercolour paint. My red/orange background was completely dry when I added the leaves. I just closed the book and put some rubber bands around it to keep the leaves on the page while the green watercolour paint was drying. The next day I painted the edges of the leaves in black watercolour paint and removed them.

I'm going to add more other things to these pages when I finished the backgrounds of the remaining pages.

TAST fabric book cover

2011-11-22T17:21:00.003+01:00

This is the front side of my cover. The pattern is one of Sharon's Friday freebies. I used backstitch, stemstitch, open chain stitch and raised close herringbone. Now I have to sew all pages to the cover to finish my fabric book.

If you missed the first TAST challenges, there's a new one next year. You can join here.

Autumn ATC's again

2011-11-21T17:00:00.000+01:00

Last week I recieved these pretty ATC's for an Autumn ATC swap.

I wrote about the ATC's I made for this swap here.

Inchie Sunday 19

2011-11-20T08:00:00.005+01:00

The snowflake is a pattern from my book 'Kerstkaarten borduren op papier' by Erica Fortgens. The thread is a Madeira metallic.

Music tape doily

2011-11-19T15:52:00.005+01:00

It was fun to crochet with an old music tape again. I already wrote about my music tape basket here. This time I made a small doily, it's about 15 cm or 6 inch.

Open chain stitch

2011-11-18T16:30:00.000+01:00

I finally decided which fabric to use for the cover of my TAST fabric book. On the front I'm stitching one of Sharon's Friday Freebies. First I wanted to use the stitches of this challenge for the cover too, but it didn't work. So I tried another stitch that was new to me, the open chain stitch also known as square chain stitch. The other line is a stem stitch. Sharon is thinking about a rerun of the TAST challenge, read all about it on her blog.

Zentangle Mosaic Inchies ATC

2011-11-17T20:37:00.004+01:00

This was a fun ATC swap. First I had to cut a few inchies from a watercolour experiment and glue 6 of them on an ATC. Then it was time to draw some tangles on it. I used the inchies from my crayon experiment. It was the same sheet as I used for my inchies Resist & Waves and Resist & Paradox. On this ATC I used Mooka. Here's the pretty ATC Joan made for me.

Surprise in my mailbox

2011-11-16T17:15:00.003+01:00

There was a link party on Deze is ook leuk! to celebrate the 1000th post. I thought it was fun to share the link to my music tape basket. Last Friday I saw I was the lucky winner of Hermine's package! Yesterday it arrived in my mailbox. Inside there were some cute stamps . . .

. . . and some pretty ribbon. I think I'm going to use the blue one in my next CQ project.

There were some nice paper flowers,

a small piece of canvas, some pretty clips . . .

. . . and paper buttons.

Hermine made this lovely needle felted heart . . .

. . . and a gorgeous needle felted postcard!

Thanks, Hermine!

Inchie Sunday 18

2011-11-13T08:00:00.004+01:00

This inchie was a scrap of a glue and watercolour experiment. I cut some flowers with a paper punch and glued some eyes on it.

Zentangled J

2011-11-11T19:37:00.004+01:00

This week another missing letter for my zentangled ATC alphabet arrived. This is the J that I made for Kathy . . . . . . and this is the J Caiti made for me.

My alphabet is nearly complete, only one more letter!

Gorse Fairies finished!

2011-11-09T16:32:00.000+01:00

Today I made the last stitches on my Gorse Fairies! It's finally finished after almost 30 years. I introduced this embroidery on my blog in January 2010. It was also the last goal for this year, so I can start thinking about a new project . . . or finally finish my TAST fabric book!

Knitted Christmas ball

2011-11-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

I knitted my first Christmas ball designed by Arne & Carlos. I used the pattern in the latest issue of 'Handwerken Zonder Grenzen' and knitting yarn from my stash. It's slightly bigger than a tennis ball. It's knitted on 5 needles. It was the first time I tried this and I didn't knit the snowflake pattern. I'll try that next time.

Punzel

2011-11-07T16:51:00.003+01:00

I was finally brave enough to try the new zentangle Punzel for challenge 45 at I am the diva. The last few weeks I've been painting backgrounds with watercolour paint in an old book. I used one of them as the background for Punzel. This was my first attempt at this zentangle, I need to practice a little more!

I hope to share a few more pages of my altered book soon.

Inchie Sunday 17

2011-11-06T16:37:00.004+01:00

Last Friday I saw this stitch here and thought it would be great to use on an inchie. I found the instructions for it in "The Embroidery Stitch Bible". I used DMC broder special for the Norwich stitch and DMC Jewell effects for the running stitches.

Autumn ATC's

2011-11-05T15:53:00.004+01:00

These are the ATC's I made for an autumn ATC swap. First I made the background on a piece of watercolour paper. I drew some leaves and other lines with glue and let it dry. Then I added some watercolour paint. The idea for this technique came from Suz.

Then I cut the background in ATC size and had some partly leaves on 3 of them.

I added some stamped leaves . . .

. . . and some ink to the edges.

With a scrap from the background I made this apple inchie.

Pocketz!

2011-11-04T16:47:00.003+01:00

Until this week I kept my zentangle tiles in an old diskette box.

I was the lucky winner of the Pocketz pages of zentangle challenge 44 at I am the diva, so my tiles moved from the box to my new pages.

They look much better this way!

Music tape basket

2011-11-01T17:11:00.003+01:00

I experimented with an old music tape and a crochet hook. The result is a pretty small basket.

Molecule

2011-10-31T17:17:00.004+01:00

My first try at challenge 44 at I am the diva was a string with Molecule. I messed it up and made a second one for the challenge. This weekend there was some time to have another look at it. It wasn't as bad as it was in my memory, so I just finished it. I'm looking forward playing with Punzel for challenge 45.

Inchie Sunday 16

2011-10-30T16:26:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about a resist inchie with Paradox. This inchie came from the same sheet of watercolour paper. I tangled Waves on it.

Zentangled I

2011-10-26T17:36:00.004+02:00

Another missing letter in my zentangled ATC alphabet. This is the I made by me . . . . . . and the I that was in my mailbox today.

Work In Slow Progress 22

2011-10-25T13:36:00.003+02:00

I finally ironed my double wedding ring quilt. It's not big, only 87 x 87 cm or 34 x 34 inch. I made the quilt in 2002 and added the Celtic knots in 2003 after taking a workshop at a quilt show. I think I'll remove the border and sew it again, it's a bit wonky.

And these are the first quilt stitches on my cat quilt. It's the bottom right corner.

Inchie Sunday 15

2011-10-23T12:18:00.002+02:00

I made more watercolour backgrounds for ATC's and used the scraps to make a few inchies. I cut the apple with a paper punch. My punch survived, but didn't like the watercolour paper. I don't try this again!

Molecule & Waves

2011-10-22T17:30:00.004+02:00

This week's zentangle challenge was to use a tangle as a string and fill it with other tangles. My first try was Molecule, but I really messed it up. I didn't throw it away, because there are no mistakes in zentangles. I'm planning to finish it later. For now I only show you the Molecule string. My next try was Waves. I made a big one in my A5 sketchbook with bold lines.

I didn't plan it, but just filled it with more Waves. I like it!

Halloween ATC

2011-10-21T19:46:00.004+02:00

Kim was my swap partner again on Stitchin Fingers, this time for the Halloween swap. Today her package arrived with this great ATC. It's on a display on my desk until the end of the month.

Work In Slow Progress 21

2011-10-19T20:11:00.006+02:00

To keep myself stitching on my Gorse Fairies, I just have to blog about it! I stitch on it every Wednesday for at least one hour. Afterwards I take a photo to see the progress. This is how my embroidery looks after today's stitches. This is the last part of the pattern.

In 3 Wednesdays I stitched half of the last part of the girl's wing. I think I need 3 more Wednesdays for the remaining cross stitches and one or two for the backstitches. Still in time for the last goal of this year!

Pink fabric beads

2011-10-18T16:21:00.005+02:00

There was another birthday girl in our quilting group. I made her some pink fabric beads, because she's working on her first quilt with pink and purple fabric. I wrapped this fabric bead with knitting ribbon and added some pink beads.

I sewed some polka dots ribbon and beads on this flat fabric bead.

This one is wrapped with a fluffy knitting yarn. I added some purple beads.

I used the same tutorial as I used for my other fabric beads.

Inchie Sunday 14

2011-10-16T17:09:00.003+02:00

There was some fabric paper left from these ATC's and I cut them in squares to make some inchies. I attached a needle tatted wreath with beads to this first inchie. At the edge I couched some floss and pulled it tight to make rounded corners.

Safari

2011-10-15T17:05:00.004+02:00

Another WISP finished! It's not a very big quilt (29 x 43 cm or 11.5 x 17 inch), but it's bigger than the cat I'm quilting now. I stitched the label in Portuguese stem stitch and backstitch. When the cat is done, I'm going to finish my double wedding ring quilt. I try to take a photo of it this week, it needs some ironing first!

Sunflower Fun

2011-10-13T16:38:00.004+02:00

. . . is this week's zentangle challenge. Of course I had to tangle a sunflower, it's my favourite flower! I used Barberpole for the stem, Wigwam for the leaves, Printemps for the heart and a Barberpole tangleation for the petals. I found the outline of my sunflower here.

Work In Slow Progress 20

2011-10-10T16:27:00.004+02:00

Last Saturday I showed you my almost finished quilt Safari. In the meantime I finished sewing the binding and started stitching my label. I also ironed the top of the next quilt I'm going to finish. It's only 20 x 27 cm or about 8 x 11 inch. I found the pattern online somewhere, but couldn't find my recourse again. It was part of a series of cat patterns after the manner of different painters. This one is after the manner of Paul Klee. I made it in May 2006!

If you know who designed this pattern, please leave a comment.

Inchie Sunday 13

2011-10-09T16:44:00.004+02:00

I've been experimenting with resist again. First I drew some swirly lines with a white crayon on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I added some watercolor paint. I forgot to take a photo before I cut it into ATC backgrounds. There were some nice scraps left, so I turned them into inchies. This is the first one and I tangled Paradox on it. The crayon resisted my Sakura pen too, but I like the effect.

Work In Slow Progress 19

2011-10-08T19:41:00.004+02:00

Before I start a new quilt, I wanted to finish another WISP. I finished the quilting on Safari (28 x 40 cm or 11 x 16 inch) and added the binding. I still have to sew 3 corners and sew the binding to the back of my quilt. I hope to stitch a label and attach a hanging sleeve next week. I already found an almost forgotten little quilt I want to finish next. It needs a little ironing before I can take a decent photo.

Sneak peek: Rope

2011-10-06T16:40:00.002+02:00

A few days ago I started the fun part of the embroidery I'm working on. I finally added some colour to the black and white background stitches. Hope to finish it soon! I already wrote about the background parts here and here. I also made a small sampler to try some chicken scratch variations for the background (which I didn't use!).

Work In Slow Progress 18

2011-10-05T20:15:00.000+02:00

It's time to show the progress on my Gorse Fairies again. All backstitches on the flowers and the girl's skirt are done. It took a lot of time (and some frogging!), but it brings my embroidery to life.

I also started the first cross stitches to complete the last wing of the girl. This is the last part of my embroidery, so I start to think I'm going to finish it before my birthday as I promised myself!

Having Nothing To Stitch Is Scary

2011-10-04T17:40:00.005+02:00

I finished Janet's Halloween design today. It was the perfect size to stretch over an old CD with some batting. I used stranded DMC, 2 threads for the backstitches and the French knots, 1 thread for the knotted loop stitch. At the edge I couched some knitting yarn.

Crazy Monday

2011-10-03T17:08:00.003+02:00

Last weekend I finally finished my first crazy quilt, it only needed a label and a hanging sleeve since I added the binding a year ago! The 6 inch blocks are made between June and September 2009. The details of this quilt refer to my quilting friends, so it's very special to me. You can read about the making of this quilt here.

There's a bigger photo of this quilt on my Flickr page.

Inchie Sunday 12

2011-10-02T17:30:00.003+02:00

This inchie was part of the same doodle cloth as last weeks inchie. I tried the Torocko stitch for the Stitch Explorer challenge laidwork foundation, I wrote about it here.

Gesso & bubble plastic

2011-10-01T20:54:00.004+02:00

A few months ago, Suz experimented with gesso and plastic. I thought it would be fun to give it a try, but she warned me not to leave the plastic on too long. Instead of normal plastic I used bubble plastic. I set a timer at 30 minutes to be sure I wouldn't forget to remove it from my gesso. I started at the right edge and slowly removed the bubble plastic. It left some great marks, which reminded me of peacock feathers. So I gave it a purple and blue watercolour wash and lifted the left side to make some drippings. When it was dry, I took some detail photo's to play with on my computer. I'm sharing a few of them here. This first one looks like gesso argyles. I like the patterns in the blue parts.

So I played with more blue parts and was pleasant surprised by this result.

At first I didn't know what to think of this last one, until I spotted the spiders. It's fun, you can only see them when you focus on the blue parts!

Scary

2011-09-29T16:01:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I saw Janet's first Halloween design and hoped I could resist it. Today I found a matching Halloween fabric and made the first stitches.

Zentangled G

2011-09-28T18:16:00.004+02:00

This was one of the missing letters in my zentangled ATC alphabet. I made a G for Deeno . . . . . . and Debra made this G for me. I like the devils tail!

Groninger blanket finished!

2011-09-26T16:30:00.000+02:00

It took me almost 3 years, but I finally finished my Groninger blanket. The border is 6 rounds of single crochet. My blanket has 8 rows of 5 knitted blocks in different patterns, which are crocheted together. The size is 120 x 200 cm (about 47 x 79 inch). All posts about this blanket are labelled knitalong. Just click on the photo to see it bigger.

Inchie Sunday 11

2011-09-25T17:23:00.003+02:00

Last week I made a few new inchies. I have some doodle cloths to try new stitches, but sometimes I use them to make ATC's too. Some of the remains were just big enough for inchies. This first inchie is made of a sample I made for the Stitch Explorer challenge laidwork foundation, I wrote about it here.

Couched ATC edge

2011-09-23T16:45:00.000+02:00

From time to time people ask me how I finish the edges of my ATC's. When I was working on my Homemade cupcakes, I took some photo's of the steps for this tutorial. I finish my edges by hand and mostly use a simple whipping stitch to attach some knitting yarn. For the back of my ATC's I use a piece of cardstock. I make holes with a perforating Pergamano pen at 1/8 inch from the edge, 1/8 inch apart. The first time I did this I made a template and I'm still using it. Put a pin in each corner to keep the template from shifting while you're making the holes.

I use double sided sticky tape at the wrong side of the cardstock. It will keep the fabric in place when you work on the edge. Here I used a wide tape, but 2 strips of smaller tape works fine. Make sure there's about half an inch left between the tape and the edge of the ATC.

Mark the size of the ATC with a pencil on the backside of the embroidery. On this ATC I used a piece of batting. I attached it with the beads, after finishing the embroidery.

Attach front and back together with the help of the drawn lines and cut the extra fabric. Here I made my ATC sandwich and cut the bottom and the right side.

Then it's time to decide which knitting yarn to use. You need about 15 inch.

Work your edge counter-clockwise. Fold the knitting yarn in half and start with the loop 6 holes from the corner. Start with a knot in your sewing thread between the front and the back of your ATC and make 2 whipped stitches in every hole, starting in the 4th hole from the corner.

Make 3 stitches in the corners, 2 on one side and 1 on the next side. Hold the yarn in place with your thumb.

Continue until you've stitched the first 4 holes at the last side.

Cut one of the threads halfway between the remaining space . . .

. . . and put the other thread through the beginning loop from the back to the front.

Pull the thread through and bring it to the right. Hold it tight with your tumb. Make sure the thread you've cut halfway is inside the big loop you just made.

Make the remaining stitches and cut the last piece of knitting yarn.

To secure your thread nearly invisible, put your needle under a whipping stitch and wrap the thread around the needle a few times. Pull the thread through while you hold the wrapping in place with your thumb.

Put the needle next to the securing stitch between the back and the front of the ATC and come up about an inch from the edge.

Pull the thread tight and cut it very close to the fabric, the remaining thread will disapear between the front and the back of your ATC.

This technique is also useful for other edges. I used it on my doorknob hanger and one of my embroidered ornaments.

Pinwheel

2011-09-22T16:53:00.004+02:00

This week's zentangle challenge at I am the diva is called String Theory v. VI: Pinwheels for Peace. I printed Laura's pinwheel string slightly bigger and drew it in an angle in my sketchbook. Of course I had to use Pinwheels (from Suzanne McNeill's Zentangle 3) for the background.

Work In Slow Progress 17

2011-09-21T15:33:00.001+02:00

This week I stitched 2 hours on my Gorse Fairies instead of one. I made a lot of progress, the flowers are finished! Next time I'm going to add the backstitches. Then I only have to finish the second wing of the girl in the upper left corner.

Zentangled E

2011-09-20T17:12:00.003+02:00

This was one of the missing letters in my zentangled ATC alphabet. I made an E for Brian . . . . . . and Heather Jo made this pretty E for me.

White chicken scratch

2011-09-19T17:02:00.003+02:00

It is so much fun to see the fabric change when I'm adding the lacing in the chicken scratch. The top part only has cross stitches and running stitches. This is my finished square. It's the opposite of my black chicken scratch square and only slightly smaller, because I stitched the cross stitches on the white parts this time.

And a little detail. The thread is white DMC 80.

Inchie Sunday 10

2011-09-18T17:08:00.003+02:00

On this inchie I made rice stitches and French knots with stranded floss. At the edge I couched a dark green knitting yarn.

Chicken scratch sampler

2011-09-17T17:39:00.004+02:00

Last Sunday I started a new embroidery. I already wrote about the first chicken scratch square here. It's a great excuse to stitch a few samplers and experiment! On this sampler I only changed the color of the threads for the 3 parts of chicken scratch and stitched every possible combination in black and white. The size is about 4 x 4.5 inch or 10 x 12 cm. I used DMC 80 in black and white.

There's a bigger photo of my sampler here.

Sagittarius

2011-09-16T16:35:00.000+02:00

This week I swapped my last Bubble and squeak ATC with Yomeow. She has so many great ATC's for trade, but I fell for this lovely Sagittarius (it's my zodiac sign).

Love is all you Need

2011-09-15T17:07:00.004+02:00

. . . is zentangle challenge #39 at I am the diva. I wanted to do something different for this special challenge and remembered I had some hearts left from my crayon experiments. Just glued them on the page and tangled around them. Of course I had to use Huggins!

Work In Slow Progress 16

2011-09-14T20:35:00.003+02:00

It's been 4 months since I stitched on this embroidery. I promised myself to finish it before my birthday, so that gives me less than 3 months! To speed up the progress I'm returning to my weekly hour stitching on it. I don't think that's enough, I have to cram in a few extra hours every now and then.

Basket of Bloom 2

2011-09-13T17:37:00.004+02:00

Almost 2 months ago I wrote about this quilt when I was halfway. In the meantime I sewed all 1.5 inch squares together by hand. I also added the green border at the bottom and now I only have to sew the other 3 borders. I hope to find a matching fabric for the second border in my stash.

Black chicken scratch

2011-09-12T16:30:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I started a new embroidery. I want to build on the things I learned in Sharon's sumptuous surface class and see if I could mix it with the things I already tried. The first thing I stitched was a square in chicken scratch (2 x 2 inch or 5 x 5 cm). I used DMC antique effects for the cross stitches and DMC 80 for the running stitches and the lacing.

Black is difficult to photograph on a rainy day, it looks better in reality.

Inchie Sunday 9

2011-09-11T17:20:00.002+02:00

Relief

2011-09-10T17:10:00.000+02:00

I finished my second design for Sharon's class sumptuous surface embroidery. The size is 4 x 6 inch. There's a bigger photo of this embroidery at my Flickr-page.

Rust dyeing again

2011-09-09T19:58:00.004+02:00

I was so pleased with the result of my second rust dyeing experiment that I wanted to use the tin box again. This time I used a blue fabric that I could use for an embroidery. I used the same fabric for a little fish, so I know it works nicely. I gave it the same treatment as I described here and this is the result. A detail of a part that I wrapped around a screw.

This detail looks like a little bird.

Of course I kept the tin box, maybe I can use it again.