Molecule

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

. . . 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!