the last few days....

I am still experimenting with hand painting fabric art yarn and am really starting to feel like I am developing a style with it.  There are so many beautiful and unique fibers and yarns being made now by so many talented artisans. I wanted to develop something that is unique to me and my hand. Today I painted two lots. Both done on recycled white bed sheets that I first tea dyed, and then went to work with Jaquard fabric paints.

This was inspired by all the licorice at the Apple Barn this last weekend!

The inspiration for this came from freshly cut grass and dandelions! (WHICH I do not believe are weeds!!)

I keep a journal beside my bed.  In it, I try to write every night the things that I am grateful for. It's something I started to do years ago after an Oprah show!  That journal also serves as a place to scribble down my dreams.  I often struggle with sleep, waking up thinking about what I should do, what I should try. It helps to write it down and let it go until the daylight hours when I really can do something about it! (Although I have been known to get up in the middle of the night to paint!)

Recently I was lucky to come across a lot of vintage handkerchiefs and I had been looking at them trying to decide what to do with them. Well, last week I had a dream, woke up and wrote it down, and this morning I finally got around to trying it out!

I have played with weaving fabrics before, but this time I took two of the handkerchiefs and wove them together. Next step, I need to stitch it all down and embellish it with this, that or the other thing! 

Now I'm off to do just that!

Creative 365: Day 51 Too grey to plant outside, so....

..time to make flowers inside!

Creative 365: Day something or other...oh! I think Day 50!

I've a stack of vintage handkerchiefs that have been waiting patiently to be tended. This is what I started playing with this afternoon.

Some of the hankies I recently acquired do not have enough of their edges stable to make several blooms, so I tried making just one large one, and this is what I ended up with for my first attempt. The beads clustered in the center are pearls harvested from a broken necklace.

Now off for a couple hours of backstitching to finish up Bug Bungalow (which I have decided will be part of the Fernfolk Series of cross stitch patterns, a complimentary piece perhaps to Bug Herder!) and maybe even a little crochet yet tonight depending on how long my eyes cooperate!

Ulysses & Secret Garden

Had another finish today! Welcoming Ulysses of the Little Snowballz. As with all the of the Snowballz of this line, Ulysses uses only 8 DMC colors. I stitched my piece on 14ct. Blueberry Jobelan Aida from Wichelt Imports. He finishes at 72w x 84h.

 I have decided to start the first of a new garden-themed line called 'Secret Garden'. I am going to get back to including vintage embellishments with the chart packs. Each one will be slightly different than the next.  Buttons, some beads, and blooms created out of vintage handkerchiefs will be worked into this series.

Because each pattern will include something different, the thread choices are very simple as well so that they can be adapted to the colors of the handkerchief blooms.