Diamonds

Last weekend I started a new embroidery with this design. I'm going to embroider it in needlepoint and started with diamonds. I'm working on a 25 count linen with perle 5. This is the part of the pattern I've already finished. It's the upper left corner.

The complete embroidery will be 3,5 inch or 9 cm.

Couldn't resist again

Last week I wrote about a resist experiment in my studio journal. This weekend I tried the first part of the same video. Saturday I made a red page. I used 4 different red colours and made the drippings from right to left. In this detail you can see the vertical brushsstrokes of the gesso.

I liked the result of this experiment so much . . .

. . . that I made a blue page on Sunday. This time I made the drippings from the bottom to the top.

Some details of water drops.

I like this little detail, there's a bird in the sky.

This won't be the last time I try this technique, I already have an idea for a variation.

TAST fabric book page 4

These are the stitches for weeks 13-16 of the TAST 2010 challenge. It took me some time to make, because I had to buy new ironed fusing to stiffen the backside fabric. I prepared the backsides for all remaining pages, so I can go on. There are photo's of each stitch in my TAST album at Flickr.

String Theory

This week's zentangle challenge is a variation of last week. Laura gave us a string to use, she wants to see everyone's interpretation of the same string. I used my sketchbook and that gave me some space to draw outside the box. This string was so much fun, I didn't have to think what to do next, I just tangled. I used 2 new patterns and a few old favourites:

• Stick Weave



• Lupe



• Ixorus



• Flukes



• Elegance



• FEDR



• Printemps

Now I'm going to have a look at what you all did with this string.

Buttonhole stitch

My second sampler for the stitch files is the buttonhole stitch. I use a big piece of 28 count linen and when it's filled with samplers, I'm going to attach them to the worksheets. This time I used stranded floss (Venus) and perle 5, 8 and 12. The size is 2 1/2 x 4 inch. Two opposite rows of Stef Francis perle 5 and a green row with perle 12.

Stacked rows with perle 8 and 12.

Two opposite rows with 2 threads of stranded floss (Venus). I shifted the second row to make a zigzag pattern.

Vaas

There's a series of designs in my studio journal with wavy lines. I use this simple design to try different techniques for another bigger piece. The size of this little quilt is only 7 1/2 inch or 19 cm and it's completely done by hand. The shapes are appliqued to the background fabric, I used freezer paper templates for that. Last weekend I used those templates in my studio journal for a resist experiment. I wrote about that yesterday. There's a bigger photo of my quiltie here.

Couldn't resist

. . . to try this technique after watching the video in this tutorial. For now I only tried the second part with freezer paper. Some of you might recognize this design from my studio journal. I used the freezer paper templates from my quilt and the label to make a mirror image in my studio journal. Then I drew some tulips with a white crayon. I used an umber watercolour paint and removed the freezer paper while the paint was still wet. This is a detail of the tulips. It was fun to watch the crayon resist the watercolour paint. I like the effect of this technique.

Next time I'll write about the quilt I made with this design.

Etui

Last week we had a workshop at our quiltbee, I finished my etui today.

On the inside I attached this hairpin lace circle.

Now I know where to find for my coloured pens.

Bird's Nest

I finished this ATC for the May swap at Stitchin Fingers before I knew Emily would be my swap-partner. It's funny, because I use a biscornu in these colours designed by her! The fabric I used for this ATC is a scrap from my quilt Easter. First I embroidered the outlines of the flowers in stem stitches and added the chain stitches for the flower hearts. Then I put a piece of cotton batting behind the fabric and stitched the straight stitches in a rayon thread. At the edge I couched some cotton knitting yarn.

There's a bigger photo of this ATC at my Flickr-page.

Rust dyeing

Rust dyeing is something I wanted to do for a long time, but there was noting rusty to find. I asked my husband to save his rusty bits and last week he gave me 2 rusty screws. Now I could do my first experiment! I used a scrap of embroidery linen, soaked it in a mix of water and vinegar and wrapped it around the screws. After 2 days I rinsed it in water and washed it. Next time I need to secure the edge first!

In the meantime my collection of rusty bits is growing, so I can do another experiment soon.

Zentangle challenge #22

Last tuesday I asked my oldest daughter to draw a string for this week's zentangle challenge. This is what I made of it. I used 2 of my patterns (Bloem and Wigwam), 2 new ones (OOF and FEDR) and some patterns from my books and printouts.

Raindrops

Sometimes I only have to step into the garden to find some inspiration. There was some rain a few days ago and afterwards the sun was shining. I took lots of photo's from different plants and flowers. But this first photo is a spider web between some stones. This is part of a flower bud, it's an Oriental Poppy. We planted it last week and I'm looking forward seeing it bloom.

We also planted some daisies. I like the raindrops on the petals.

When I was taking photo's of my pansies, I saw this bee. This was a lucky shot, you can see its tongue. These pansies didn't stop flowering since we planted them in October!

These photo's already inspired me to some tangling for this week's zentangle challenge. My daughter drew a complex string for me, it's not finished yet.

More fabric beads

When a quilting friend has its birthday, I make some fabric beads for them. I used this tutorial. For this first bead I used buttons on both ends. Here I used a shiny fabric and a fluffy thread.

Another one with a shiny fabric and a boucle thread.

The photo's of the finished pieces were very bad, but you can see the first one I made here.

Work In Slow Progress 15

I've made some progress since the last time I wrote about my Gorse Fairies. The skirt of the girl is nearly finished and I stitched the last green stitches of the pattern. I still have a lot of backstitches to add, but I'll wait until I finished the flowers.

TAST fabric book page 3

This is the third page with the stitches for weeks 9-12. The bullion buttonhole and the Sorbello stitch made the page wonky again, but I learned from my last page how to fix it. The owl is a part of Spinjenny's pattern. There are photo's of each stitch in my TAST album at Flickr.

In the garden

Yesterday we worked in the garden. We bought some new plants and I almost forgot to take a few photo's. This is our new Spirea. Blogger had some troubles and temporarily removed yesterdays post Wigwam. They are in the progress of restoring, so I hope it's back soon.

Wigwam

A few weeks ago I wrote about the leaves in my studio journal. I have played with the last two photo's of this post, which I thought would be a nice embroidery pattern. But it wanted to be a zentangle! It's a nice border or filling pattern. In one sample I just stacked the rows, in the other I flipped one row.

Switching needles

My Hitchhiker shawl is growing fast. I had more than 100 stitches on my knitting needle, so it was time to switch to a circular needle. When I wanted to take a photo, Luna came to see what I was doing.

Dragonfly in my mailbox

Today this lovely dragonfly ATC arrived. It's made by Winsome for the February swap at Stitchin Fingers. It needed 6 weeks to travel from the UK to The Netherlands!

Backstitch

After all those finished projects lately, it was time to start something new! The only embroidery I'm working on right now is my Gorse Fairies, a very old cross stitch kit. This was the perfect time to finally start working on my samplers for Sharon's stitch files. I use a big piece of 28 count linen and when it's filled with samplers, I'm going to attach them to the worksheets. That allows me to stitch the samplers close together. I started with the backstitch in stranded DMC, a variegated silk thread and perle 5, 8 and 12. The size is 2 1/2 x 4 inch. Here I used the backstitch as a filling stitch in different ways and threads.

Some blackwork designs.

The quilt block cardtrick in backstitches. The squares of the blackwork design reminded me of it. It's special to me, because I used this block for the label of my first quilt.

I also remembered the Holbein motif I stitched on my chicken scratch sampler. Here I stitched it in backstitches, the purple row is a variegated thread.

Casalguidi ornament

A few weeks ago I saw Janet's Casalguidi. It reminded me of the first raised stem stitch band I made for the Stitch Explorer challenge. It was time to finish it and try a few new stitches from Sharon's stitch files. I started with 2 new pulled thread stitches: waffle stitch and diagonal cross filling. Then I added 2 stitches from Sharon's stitch files: square eyelets and whipped spokes. At the bottom I attached a blue wooden bead with needle weaving in a rayon thread.

The rest of the stitches are all French knots in different threads, except for a few cream drizzle stitches in the centre. The border is just 2 rows of Portuguese stem stitches. I stretched a piece of shiny cream fabric over a small CD with a piece of batting and then I stretched my embroidery over it. I used the same fabric for the back. Then I attached an organza hanging loop and stitched both pieces together. I hided those wonky stitches with whipped spokes to make a nice edge. The size of this ornament is 3 1/4 inch or 8 1/2 cm.

There's a bigger photo of this ornament at my Flickr-page.