A surprise in the mail

Look what the postman brought....Burmilana threads, all the way from Italy.

My dear friend Morena sent them to me.

There was also a lovely cart. Thank you Morena, for your friendship.

It is nearly Christmas and the holidays have started.

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2013.

Thank you for your support, all the lovely comments and your friendship.

November block: flower spray

Do you remember this tatted "hat"? I blogged about it here. The pattern is here.

It is perfect on the patterned orange.

The purple roses are ready made.

The branches are in alternating  barred chain stitch. Thank you Sharon, for introducing this stitch. It has become a favorite of mine.

More branches and flowers beads are added.

Scroll stitches are added with Kreinik #4. Scroll stitch can be found here.

TAST week 50: berry stitch

The TAST stitch of week 50 is the berry stitch.

I thought it could be used to create some foliage.

The berry stitch consists of two chain stitches. For the larger leaves however I stitched three.

On top of the foliage I sewed large plastic flower beads with tear drop beads in the centers.

October block CQJP: finished

The big orange pimple is replaced by a bee charm, it looks much better.

I also added two seam treatments: on the right a simple ric rac ribbon with sparkles; on the left bull's head stitch with Kreinik #4. How bull's head stitch is done, can you find here. 

I felt that the basket was floating and that it needed a sort of floor to sit on.

I'm not sure this is the solution.

Beautiful lace from my stash in the right color.

The upper right corner needed to be filled with something light.

Maidenhair stitch is perfect for that purpose. Some beads add just a little sparkle.

Here you can see how maidenhair stitch is done.

The finished October block.

I have added a lace flower and a flower bead to enhance the button spray.

The pencil painted lace needed a second layer of paint. This time I wetted the lace with a paintbrush before coloring them with my watercolor pencils.

I decided to remove the ribbons at the bottom underneath the basket.

Note.: all the blue on the photo is purple in reality.

Little woven basket: a tutorial

The idea for this basket came from the blogs of my friends Carin (the basket) and Susan (the tatted flowers).

I remembered somewhere on my PC were pictures of how to create a woven basket. 

First I drew the outline.

Next I created the skeleton by circling a perle cotton around the pins. At some points I pinned to fasten the thread.

Then I started weaving...

and weaving...

till the basket was filled. 

The "spokes" were too long in the middle. It was easy to pull them and divide the excess over the handle.

The handle has changed into a braid, created with the two threads that were already there and the weaving thread.

The basket is only attached to the block where I started making the skeleton.

To make the basket look more convex I added two pieces of felt for padding.

First layer: the smallest piece...

next the larger piece...

and the basket on top.

With my needle I adjusted some irregularities.

A nice convex empty basket. What will I plant?

Josephine Flowers. 

They are tatted with Josephine rings and chains. The thread is a variegated  DMC 80.

The finished basket. The flower clusters are sewed down at a few points.

The block as it looks now.

And yes, I have decided to remove the big orange pimple.

Lovely mail

Look what was in the mail today....

A lovely fabric envelope, embellished with lace, buttons and a cute little heart, ...

 a fabric postcard on the front ...

and one on the back.

Inside were four greeting cards.

My sweet friend Sherry sent me this wonderful surprise.

On the one with the spring flowers she wrote the most friendly loving wishes.

I was really touched by her kindness and friendship.

Thank you for your friendship Sherry!

Next block: October

The naked October block.

Every time I saw these transparent lilac buttons in my stash I wondered where I could use them.

I decided to sew them down to support the orange rose beads, they are really big and they wobble.

I also added purple flower beads. The orange rose beads match the orange fabric of the block above.

To hide the eyes of the transparent flower buttons I attached a little bunch of lilac seed beads.

Completed button cluster......or not?????

Then I read this great tutorial by Kathy.

All of a sudden my button cluster looked dull, the transparent buttons didn't look the way I wanted.

Lace...that's it! I am going to sew little pieces of lace behind the transparent buttons.

Problem is the color...how can I mix the perfect color?

Then I remembered I had watercolor pencils, they dissolve in water. Why not try them?

At least I know now for sure I'll  get the color of the pencil.

I soaked the lace in water and started coloring with my pencil. Coloring has to be done very strictly as every hidden spot has to be colored.

After it had dried I ironed it, cut it apart and sewed it on. It is darker than on the picture.

I have my doubts about the big orange button. DH said it looked like a big pimple.

Mmmm...maybe he's right.

August and September block CQJP: finished

The August block.

The finishing touches: 

- a lace butterfly in the top right corner, it is hardly visible because it sits on the intersection of four blocks

- a lace dragonfly

- in the lower left corner another leaf in Italian border stitch and a little lace flower, both overflow to the block beneath.

The September block.

To see the pictures larger, right click and choose open link in new window.