Clara - Finished!

I popped over to Art of Fabric in Pickering last weekend to look for the thread I needed to finish Clara's ears.  It wasn't in my stash, but judging from the other colours I did have, I thought it was probably DMC 841 that I needed.  Wrong!  It was a good thing I brought everything along with me to the store.  It turned out to be DMC 3864.

The new thread looked ever so slightly darker.  I used one old thread and one new thread together in the needle to blend out the transition, and I don't think you can see it at all on the finished piece.

I gave you a bit of a close up in the photo above so you can see the Algerian eyelets in the waistband, and the great shading you get from the Sampler Threads in the blouse.  The light blue squares are Morning Glory, the green ones are Evergreen, the purple is Hyacinth, and the pink is Victorian Pink.  The dark indigo of the apron is Midnight, and the lighter indigo of the skirt is Blue Jay.  The inside of the ears and the hearts on the apron are Cameo Pink.

Because I decided not to use any of the charms in the kit, I added another heart to the band on the apron (see below), and just used French knots for the buttons on both Clara and Henry.

Once they were both done, I saw that Henry was actually a little taller than Clara:

The plan is to set them both into pillow covers.  Given the great faded indigo look of the Sampler Threads, I think I will sacrifice some old jeans and make the covers out of denim.  I am glad the flood uncovered them. Clara was a fun and easy project, and I think they make a nice couple!

Fall Colours

In Japan they have started their Koyo reports, so I thought it would be fun to do the same for around here.  It is still a little early for fall colours in Southern Ontario, but I did get some nice shots.  Last weekend my mom and I drove up Lakeridge Road, past Hy-Hope Farm, around to Uxbridge, and then back home.

Some of my favourite shots are always of the ditches beside the road:

In the foreground are the purple fall asters, with goldenrod and sumac bushes further back.  I always think these would be a great colourway for a Fair Isle sweater in the style of Alice Starmore!

The sumac puts on a consistent show every year...

...and the purple asters and goldenrod are a nice contrast on their own too:

Even the new invasive grasses have their charm:

It was difficult to find more than a single tree here and there that had changed colour.  This hillside by Dagmar ski resort looked great in the sun:

I must admit that the above photo has been enhanced somewhat to get the colours to pop, because by the time I got the car stopped and the camera out, the sky was doing this:

Hy-Hope Farm on Lakeridge Road was busy.

Out front were many photogenic bushels of produce from the fall harvest:

Inside we bought a couple of butter tarts and some apple pie for later.  Their pie has always been good, but this time the crust was particularly nice, crisp and flaky.

Then we continued around up to Uxbridge.  I've been nostalgic recently for some small town Ontario scenery after watching The Cry of the Owl on tv, which was filmed nearby in Port Perry.  Uxbridge is very typical too:

You can click any of the photos to see them larger.  Uxbridge supports both a good knitting shop, On the Lamb on the main road, and a great quilting shop, the Quilters Cupboard, on the edge of town.  It was my first time at the Quilters Cupboard, and I was very impressed with the selection, especially of small prints and Civil War reproductions, which I have been hankering for recently.  I have been realizing that my stash has too many large prints!  Unfortunately there was a shop hop going on when we were there, so the place was packed.  But it will definitely be worth the drive to go back.

It will still be a couple of weeks before our own maples change colour, so it was nice to get a preview.  A great day!

Clara - So Close!

This is how far I've come on Clara:

But I only have one length of the tan thread left!  I need two or three to finish the design.  Doesn't that just stink?!

The really annoying thing is that I made the same mistake twice on the left ear, which wasted exactly the two lengths of thread that I could have used to finish it!

The tan thread is a substitution from the original design, and I also foolishly did not write down the DMC number.  So I will be taking my last threads either down to my stash (fingers crossed) or out to the store to match them.  Wish me luck!

Inspirations 75

I have a serious backlog of reviews that I'd like to do for Friday Book Review Days. My review of Inspirations 73 has proven to be one of my most popular posts, so here is the latest - Inspirations 75. Trust me, the photos alone will be worth it!

Inspirations magazine is published quarterly by Country Bumpkin in Australia.  The production values are consistently high.  I have to admit that I have not made many of the projects - Cottage Garden will be the first one (although I do have more kits in my stash).  But there is so much to learn in these magazines, from the history of embroidery, to various unusual embroidery stitches, through colour and design, that it is always worth the long wait between issues!

I particularly love the photo styling that Stylist Fiona Fagan has done for this issue. Since I started this blog I have become much more attuned to how photos are styled! Nikki Delport-Wepener's stumpwork cover project Bauhinia was beautiful to start with, and the mix of real flowers, beads and skeins of silk threads that Fiona has added to the photo raise it to a whole new level.  Don't the skeins of thread in the artist's palette look great?

And what more can you say about this one?:

The actual project in this photo is the cauliflower pincushion in the upper left hand corner.  I love the small scale corn cobs and tomatoes that Fiona has found to go with it.

As for the actual content of the magazine, there is a really excellent article by Anna Maria Salehar about her approach to thread painting portraits.  It is great to get a glimpse into her creative process.  I was struck by how much the work feels like an intricate and compelling puzzle that Anna Maria slowly pieces together. I think the hallmark of a good artist is the way they are able to transcend their chosen medium. Anna Maria certainly shows us the way!


I don't usually like to choose a favourite, but this time I do have to say that I am quite enamoured of Jenny McWhinney's "Early Bird" redwork peg bag:

I always love the combination of red and white, or red and natural.  These birds are so cute, and I like Jenny's new approach to redwork.  Instead of a solid line, she uses a sketchy, broken line that makes the work feel more like an etching. My only quarrel with the design is that she uses three shades of red, which I think is unnecessary and distracting, given all the careful line shading in the design. But that is easily corrected. Washing lines are against the by-laws in my neighbourhood (I know, it's not green), but this would also make a great framed piece for the laundry room.

Right inside the front cover is an ad for an upcoming Country Bumpkin book of embroidered blankets and quilts.  The large embroidered heart immediately caught my eye, so I was pleased to see several more in the "Hearts and Roses" drawstring bag by Lesley McConnell.

The hearts in the drawstring bag are quite small, but the patterns could easily be enlarged.  I would like to use them on quilt squares, maybe nine all together.   The combination of polychrome embroidery and patchwork is something I see in the Australian quilting magazines a lot, and I'd like to make one myself.  After my redwork quilt!

So once again, there was plenty of inspiration here.  Highly recommended!


Related Post:

Inspirations 73

The Red Centre - Month 9

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks! My apologies, but I think you'll find the wait was worth it today. Here are the latest photos of Valerie Giles' Australian Aboriginal version of Sedona Star. Valerie has approached the applique months in a completely different way:

Wombat

I love that background fabric! I asked Valerie how she made these. She tells me that she started with a chalk outline on black fabric, and then fused the patches of Aboriginal fabrics onto that. Isn't it great the way she maintained the continuity of the fabric pattern across the different patches? On the wombat the fused patches were finished with a hand blanket stitch, but on some of the others she did a machine satin stitch with variegated thread:

Koala

Then the black background was embellished by hand with running stitch, back stitch and "many, many French knots" in No. 5 perle cotton. The whole applique was then stitched to the background with a machine satin stitch in black thread.

I really love these, and I think it would be fairly easy to apply this technique to other shapes. Some of the animals are adapted from a book by Julie McKenzie, and some are Valerie's own design.

So here's the whole quilt all the way through Month 9:

The Red Centre

It's looking great. Thanks so much, Valerie, for sharing your work!


Related Posts:

Click here to read last February's post about Valerie's inspiration for her version of Sedona Star

And click here to read about the original Sedona Star designer Sarah Vedeler's inspiration!

Juin - Almost Finished!

It is hard to believe that my last post on this project was in February, but I finally have just a few more odds and ends to finish up on my "Juin" (June) sampler from Bonheur des Dames. It has been a long time coming, given that I started it in 2004! It was packed away for many years, but I took it out again in early 2011 as part of a big push to clear up some UFOs. So it has still been over a year of on-and-off work.

Yesterday I finished up the leaves and stems on the middle cherry motif:

They still need a bit of backstitching around the cherries. And today I did the "Juin" lettering in petit point:

The close up photo is a little misleading - this is 32-count linen.  It was fun though!  No colour changes, it used one strand each of medium and dark green blended in the needle.

So, I have one and a half cherry motifs to go, and a fair bit still of backstitching over one around the figures in the middle row (which is a little tricky), and that'll be it!  Now that I've written this post, I really will have to finish it soon.  ;)

Paisley Sweater Update

I am close to the end on the Debbie Bliss Paisley Sweater.  The front and back are both done, and look the same:

I was sad, actually, to finish the last paisley motif on the second piece.  They were fun to knit, and there aren't any on the sleeves:

The design of these sweaters is actually very thoughtful.  Look at how the zig-zag motif lines up perfectly with the decreases on the raglan edge, on both the sleeves and on the front and back:

I can't imagine how much planning went into that!

After I finish the second sleeve, I will still have four cable inserts to do for the raglan seams.  Then I sew it all together and knit the rolled collar on a circular needle.  Won't be long!  I may have to start thinking about the next knitting project...