Spring is Here!

Progress on Greenman #2 embroidery

Greenman #2

The Greenman #2 hand embroidery piece just off the lightbox and waiting for stitching, the Celtic knots on each corner

Celtic Knot 

I decided to crayon tint the piece to add some interest to the stitching, I've added some darker greens around the mouth when I noticed how yellow it appeared in the photo.

crayon tint

The first stitches have been added and I am rethinking the entire piece

Stitching begins

The outline stitches of the piece are done now to tackle each leaf and the acorns which resemble pinecones, the lines were added before I decided to crayon tint to make them stand out among the leaves.

Greenman #2 in progress

For me the Greenman represents Spring, gardening and life in general, whenever I see a Greenman whether as a piece of jewelry or a garden ornament, a printed tee shirt or a quilt I just think Spring.

My favorite Greenman pendant from 1992, this embroidery may have been inspired by the pendant

Back in 1999 I was taking a pottery class at the local adult education center where my love with clay first emerged along with hand built pottery.
My first greenman piece was very flat but to me still held a certain charm and became a test piece with glaze, firing and making pottery in general.

Test piece

A few weeks later I my first Greenman piece emerged from the kiln after the last firing and I was overjoyed.

Greenman One

I would go on to create and sell several more of these pottery pieces, none of them were as special as this first piece I made in 2000 just in time for Spring.  I have an itch to get my hands back into some pottery clay again and you can be sure there will be a greenman in a kiln once again.

The Greenman in stitches

The month of February has been moving along rapidly, we are having more days of sunshine finally after the month of gray rainy skies in January, the drops below 30 degrees may actually be a positive thing for my daffodil bulbs I planted a few years ago, the first blooms on my Rhododendron are a sure sign Spring is on her way.

Here is a peek at some stitchery projects I have been working on this month, the quilt class is not meeting again this week from the last class I attended below are the nine-patch variation blocks.

I will be cutting the strips for the log cabin blocks from the class I missed on the 6th due to illness, I was going to stitch them at home but the piecing method used isn't one I am familiar with and I don't want to mess up the blocks I have trouble enough using the rotary cutter to get the strips I need for each block. This pile of scraps is from trying to get a straight edge on the fabric.

Here is the Greenman #1 hand embroidery piece with the stitching complete, I like the overall look using the subtle green print fabric.

Here is Greenman #2 traced onto fabric and waiting for the stitching to begin, I am considering using crayon tint on this piece.

The Celtic knot are going to be in each corner of the greenman #2 piece which is on an eighteen inch piece of fabric.

Currently on the light box are a few Goddesses I have wanted to make for some time now and I finally managed to make the time to trace them onto fabric.

I am feeling bright colors and beads for the Goddesses though those plans can change in a blink of an eye.
Here are a few of this month's embroidery stitches on my crazy quilt block, thanks to the Joyuful Embllishments group my hand emboidery is improving.

For February the stitches are variations of the Herringbone stitch, I like how the stitch looks over the seam.

While my pistil stitch needs work my knots are forming very nicely and no longer resemble mini cauliflower heads.
For the Witches & Witchcraft reading challenge I am reading this wonderful series by

Dolores Stewart Riccio, If you are trying to find a good Wiccan fiction with strong likeable characters, without the silliness of a romance novel or the usual paranoral page turner this series may be for you.

The first book, Circle of Five in the series by Dolores Stewart Riccio introduce five women of varied backgrounds who have formed a friendship. This friendship moves beyond the typical coffee klatches and lunch dates. These women experience a spiritual awakening and form a circle to explore Wicca and all the varied magickal practices that each woman has a particular talent for.

As Tarot, herb magick, candle magick, psychic skills develop so do the characters. The group of women are real, warm, funny, serious, spanning the ages of a young mother with children, accomplished business women, and a delightful lady of a certain age who has the gift of glamour.

So far I have read the first five in the series and have just ordered six throughhere is a link if you are interested in the reading challenge for 2015.
http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

Have a warm and happy Imbolc and Blessed Brigid's Day

A few things coming off the embroidery needle, and the beginning quilt class I am taking is proving to be a good idea for me.  I have always pieced my quilts by hand which is a long process of tracing the template pieces, adding a 1/4" stitch line, then the tediuos often days long adventure of cutting the pieces with scissors.  The class eliminates all that, with the precise cutting of strips and squares with a rotary cutter and a grid type ruler or two the pieces come together in a flash.

week one

homework week one

I was sick last week so it wasn't until mid-week when I began to feel better that I did the 3 blocks above, and not without incident, midway through the sewing my bobbin jammed and over and over again for an hour. I was clear headed though very tired on Friday afternoon but I did make it to class and stitched a the next set of blocks

week two

While stitching along the first 4 blocks no problem then the machine bobbin jammed, thankful it didn't take an hour to get back to stithing.  This baffles  me because the machine is only two years old, and I just started to use it on a regular basis in October, for another class I was taking. I will give it another go, I have to redo a few pieces and put together our homework blocks, if the machine keeps jamming I may just buy a new machine or pull out the beast, my 43 year old Kenmore.

wonky pieces to redo

I don't mind having to redo the above pieces while taking the photos I decided I don't like the color choices for the block.
I mentioned above I have other items off the embroidery needle, here is a few stitches made during the Joyful Embellishments stitch along I did this week on my crazy quilt block

Since I don't work with ribbon embroidery yet I made lazy daisy with a french knot stitch, here I like

the tree like look of the feather stitch and here we stacked the feather stitches, I will use this stacked look again, maybe make a seascape block.

Crazy Quilt block and new quilt class

I have completed the piecing of my crazy quilt block started at the Workshop I attended on January 3.

Overall I am happy with the results despite the haphazard way it was pieced, I have read a few books and received some great tips from members of a facebook group I joined and they all suggest adding the center piece and working in a clockwise direction when adding the other pieces, so my next block I will give it a try. I did begin adding some embroidery which I will post soon.

The beginning quilt class began last Friday and we are piecing fence rail or rail fence blocks as the first blocks for the sampler quilt we will be making.

The photo above shows the two methods we used to piece the blocks, I am enjoying the class so far and have learned a few nifty tricks using the rotary cutter and cutting strips, amazing how quick the pieces pile up and my hands didn't ache one bit.

The last blocks were homework I pieced them together yesterday finally feeling better after being down with a head cold all week and just miserable. Of course while sewing I hit a snag and my bobbin jammed, I was baffled as I stitched 6 pieces without incident and then grrrr jam, I fiddle around undid the jam and made a test line of stitches with no problem started to sew the last pieces to the block and you guessed it jam, this went on for an hour and after re-threading the sewing machine, tweaking tensions and bobbin, I was able to get the last pieces added, no more jams.

I have to press the blocks and later this evening I will do another test stitching and again tomorrow morning before I leave for class, I was just about ready to buy a new machine yesterday. This is the sampler quilt we are making in class

Oh new stamps for the first letters I will be mailing out in February's A Month of Letters Challenge.

I just love the simplicity of the design, they would look nice on a pretty little Valentine, don't you think?
Not sure what the letter challenge is, if you like to write letters, if you want to make a new pen pal or two, you can click this link here http://lettermo.com/  and see what its all about.

Here is the progress of my Greenman hand embroidery piece I am working on

A Crazy start to the New Year

So here we are nine days into 2015 and things are moving along nicely, weather wise here in Florida we are having a cold snap with temps dropping into the low 30's. brrrr! Anyway let me move onto more interesting topics.

I may have mentioned in an earlier post my plans to make 2015 a more creative year for myself with plans to kick off the New Year attending a day long Crazy Quilt workshop,  I had a wonderful day, the other 10 women attending the group created some beautiful blocks. I am only sorry I forgot to pack my camera it would've been nice to show off their blocks too.

Celeste Viale, our instructor was encouraging and shared her knowledge with the group, as well as her love of quilt making.  As the day wore on and stitching got under way I could feel the stress and tension of December melt away, this in part to the crazy quilt making and the idyllic setting at the Crones' Cradle Conserve.

Fabrics, trims, buttons, threads and floss were plentiful and shared among the group, tips, ideas and many questions along with some laughter soon gave way to the silence of nearly a dozen women heads bent reverently stitching their crazy quilt block.

Here is the start of my first hand pieced Crazy Quilt block, I will be adding more pieces if I can decide on the fabric placement, I changed my mind 5 times yesterday.  In the meantime there are other projects waiting like the Greenman I drew onto fabric waiting now patiently to be stitched, I am planning to use it in a greenman crazy quilt block.

I began reading Spell Booked by Joyce and Jim Lavene for the 2015 Witches and Witchcraft reading challenge.

If you are interested the challenge info can be found here:http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

Happy New Year!