yippee ....!

It wasn't even as much work 

as I thought it would be

.....

The walls were stitched "invisibly"

(with the wire integrated in the seam)

A safety pin to hold the sides together while stitching.

(first stitching in bright sunlight,

half an hour later all was gray with splashing rain)

When the three walls were stitched together

I could add the last separate leaves

to hide the wires.

And here it is :

the Caterpillar House

another wall

And when caterpillars eat lots and lots

(and drive so many a gardener crazy)

they become a beautiful

butterfly

I'm very happy with the result for Sara's House Challenge !

water soluble

The "House Challenge" 

is coming to an end.

Last Monday Sara sent the last pdf

with instruction and suggestions.

The houses of everybody are far from finished

but that is okay,

we will have many more weeks to continue.

On the 20th of March

random couples will be picked by Sara

and we'll make some small item

for the house of the other person of the couple :

a small fun swap,

just like at the end of the other challenges !

These are the three walls of my house.

I incorporated the roof :

the green walls end in green leaf-like points.

I also found my coloured wire,

thick and thin.

The wings of the butterfly

have very thin blue wire attached to the front side

and now she has long antennae 

(with a bead at the end)

These are the walls since yesterday.

There are some more inhabitants now :

... a (sleeping) cocoon and the known "doorman"

... two new baby caterpillars ...

Making the butterfly wings with

water soluble

was sooooo much fun

that I had to do some more with that funny stuff today.

I have two varieties of the water soluble "fabric"

One is kind of plastic-like,

the other one is thicker and looks more like interfacing

only DON'T touch it with wet hands, or sneeze :

it will shrivel away !!!

First I have a piece of  water soluble

(big enough to fit in a plastic embroidery hoop

that one is thin, so it will easily go under the presser foot of the machine )

then I use some tulle or polyester sheer

with lots of threads and snippets underneath.

Then comes the "free stitching" :

you have to be sure that all the snippets are connected by stitch.

When you are satisfied with your end product

you can pin your work on a thick cellular polystyrene

and rinse out the water soluble !

(using little water leaves a lot of "glue" in your work and makes it stiff, 

using a lot (and rub some) leaves your work a lot softer !)

 A new idea taking shape

Held up against the light

you better see the waste threads I used for this one

*

Just have to show this gorgeous Amaryllis  :

two stems with four flowers each !!!

And last week we had another mandala evening

(Isis & Osiris)

quiet sunday

Yesterday the Alpaca knitting group

came together in our house.

Not all of us were there, but it was a lovely morning

(sorry, no pictures : I totally forgot to take any)

This was followed by a lazy quiet Sunday !

For me, just a bit of knitting

and some stitching on the inhabitants

of my "challenge house"

Green faces on felted balls

Caterpillars !

(to be continued)

mending a hole

 

There was a hole in a brand new trouser

of little grandson

(someone probably snipped off a thread

and snipped into the fabric as well)

 

Although daughter is a good seamstress herself ...

these kind of things always end up on my plate

 

Then

I had an idea !

The little one likes books,

now he knows there is always someone who will read aloud, and

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

is his favorite of late :

he loves to poke his tiny fingers through all the holes

 

First some interface on the inside

 

my green embroidery floss and a cup of tea

and a sharp needle

.....

 

and this is what I ended up with !

 

(so sorry the little one can't see the caterpillar on his bum ...

or ... I might make the butterfly,

if he gets a hole on his knee)

?

 



Caterpillar versus Polygonatum

Today I can finally show the whole "Caterpillar"

The new owner (Rina) came this morning to collect it !

Caterpillar versus Polygonatum

The extra leaves stand out nicely, just as I intended to

and just like they do on the real Solomon's seal.

(These are the Solomon's seals last Sunday

in Arboretum Trompenburg.

They are much bigger than the wild ones I used to have

in my garden,

so two years ago I bought a few plants there)

The butterfly at the top is matching the quilt colour,

because I never really saw the butterflies that

come from those gray green caterpillars ...

And guess what : Rina loves gardening too !

So we had a lot more to talk about

ánd I could give her some of my plants she liked

Especially for Rina

this Iris, which was still closed in the morning 

but opened beautifully this afternoon

when the sun returned after a well recieved rainy night.

"Purple Haze"

(a name well chosen, I think !)