Borders & Corners....

I love stitching borders and corners....it's like magic!

Biscornu Two...

Mardi Gras....definitely not boring!  Just a glimpse of what I'm coming up with in the way of stitches.  

Ta Da!!

April 16th I posted a teaser...."wait until you see what I turn this into".  So, here you have it, a Biscornu...a tuffit...an ornament or what you will.  The name is derived from a French adjective, meaning skewed, quirky or irregular.  Right up my alley!  I've always wanted to design and make a Biscornu.  And Voila! I have, actually, I've designed seven as an exclusive for The Needle Works in Austin.  They'll be run as a club starting in January 2013!  Each hand painted design will come with a complete stitch guide by moi as well as thread kit & fabric for finishing.  Fabric also designed by me to match the stitched design.  Watch for future updates as I stitch my way through each design.

Contact The Needle Works at THENEEDLEWORKS.com for more information about signing up for this exclusive club.

Todays lesson....

Kumihimo
braided cord

When I'm not 'working' I relax with a piece of stitching that is entirely Basketweave.  I love it, no thinking, just stitching.  The above piece is a Kelly Clark design I picked up recently...changing the colors up to suit my personality.  I'm anxious to have it finished into a purse and realized I would need a proper strap. 
So today my wonderful friend Corliss sat me down on her beautiful porch and taught me this technique.  Which I proceeded to screw up several times.  This is something you can't talk and do when first learning.  The above being my first try, it may be too thin ... so I may have to make two and twist them. 

Wait until you see....

...what I turn this into!

Can't let you see all of it yet!


 

Adventures in Travel...

This past weekend I went to visit my daughter and son-in-law in Colorado.  It was an amazing trip.  I hit the ground running!  We went right from the airport to the Denver Museum of Art...and if I could upload the shots from my phone....well...I can't...yet.  Take my word for it, very cool.  The following day an amazing tea room, and the next day Pearl Street in Boulder where I explored several galleries.  Oh, and a tour of Celestial Seasonings Tea factory....so I like tea.  You can see some shots on my daughters wonderful blog... A Broad Abroad , great sense of humor she has.    

Upon arrival back in Austin, I came home to a pup plagued with oak pollen allergies.  So this a.m. we were at the vets.  Poor guy but look how good he is sitting there waiting for the doc.  

Updates next week on my latest adventure in embroidery...it's almost finished!  

still enamored ...

with this free form, out of the box embroidery....this weeks progress

I'm loving this diversion...

I know...I'm 'supposed' to be stitching on 'Kimberly's' sock but right now, this has my attention.  Plus half a dozen other projects I can't write about 'yet'!

step by step...

I'm often asked how these pieces of mine come about.  So, here we go, this is the beginning of a new sock....my sock!  Pictured here are the beginnings, a line drawing on a painted surface of green.

A bit hard to see here but all will become clear and much more colorful in future blogs.  Below is a portion of my new best friends sock....it's a little of this...a little of that...if you'd like to learn more??  There are plans being made for moi to teach this sock to you in September at The Needle Works here in Austin.  Of course, yours can have your best friends name or your own.  There is a lot of room for personalization in this design.  

freedom....

I decided to go 'off road' last week...and I had a blast.  But..of course, my off road compared to someone else's is a little different.  I stitched...off canvas!  I found this little book of 100 embroidery stitches in my stash.  I remember buying it at the five & dime in maybe middle school.  It was a big deal to embroidery ones jeans back then.  

There are a lot of young women popping into the shop to buy crewel wool to embroidery of late.  Each visit brings back a flood of sweet memories.  So...I pulled out some of my line drawings and found a sweet one that would work on an old cotton cardigan of mine.  And like magic, I have a whole new sweater and have opened Pandora's box of threads, embroidery hoops [I had to go buy one!] and a million ideas.  

Thankfully, these excursions are quickly executed as I have several projects in the works that require deadlines!  More on those to come in future blogs.  So....stay tuned!

Monday.....

Monday.....which is what I titled this piece originally.  On a recent road trip I needed a 'car piece', I love basket weave...so I took inspiration from my own work and Voila!  Some how though...I managed to flip the design, still makes me happy and the colors are really fun.  The finished piece fits perfectly into my Lee weekender bag. 

Step one....

pick up that happy combination of threads and DO something with it Kimberly!  The shop where I work received 'new' colors from Wiltex Threads, Inc in the Vineyard Classic and Merino lines.  They spoke loudly enough that I fell victim to taking them home to play with.  Below is what happened over the next two evenings.  I call it Texture & Shine....a tale of two threads.  Soon to be taught as a Thursday night class at The Needle Works in Austin.  The color is called Calypso Orange, the classic is 100% silk with a beautiful sheen, the Merino....all wool...not so shiney but lovely to work with!  The play of light on the thread is perfect!

a gift...

A sweet friend that pops into the shop where I work regularly surprised me with a gift.  Actually, I surprised myself when I saw 'one' of her tiny trees finished and framed...my exclamation of 'oh my, I love it, make me one!!' I never do that, couldn't believe I asked her that.... And then... she handed it to me!!  My angel pictured above lost her magic wand ages ago...Christina's beautiful little tree was the perfect replacement.
She loves to work up these beautiful little designs in very fine threads...this one uses one ply of a hand painted wool.  Just precious.  What a special gift.  Thank you Christina.

Happy New Year!

My blog has become sadly neglected this year.  Can you have too much yoga in your life?  No way!  Yesterday I was a part of the '108' celebration to bring in the new year.  I'm not sure how many yogi/yoginnis were packed into the studio at Yoga Yoga here in Austin but it was mat to mat.  Listening to that many people breath as one was amazing.  I didn't let myself think about what part of my body was going to hurt today, I just kept going and Ommm! I did all 108....have to be totally honest here...there was a very quick bathroom break where I missed three but...

I did make them up!  

So to all of you, here's to a healthy 2012