faces (2) and community stitching

After a quiet birthday,
with some very sweet presents,
there was time for more faces for Emma Cassi 's workshop.
Sometimes things go smoothly "with no effort at all"
sometimes you struggle with even the smallest decisions.

My third "mask/face" brooch was the latter.
Up until I found the translucent shell shape sequins
in a very cheap box in my stash . . .
after that it all went well, so funny !

I called it a "Fire Keeper"

(though many SC-members said it reminded them of a fish !!)
Hmmmm at least a fish with an attitude
that's for sure !

And because they are rather small
(and I had more choice in beads and sequins)
there even came a fourth one.

This one I called "Gilgamesh"
Though he wasn't a very nice person to start with,
I was very fond of the illustrations of Ludmila Zeman
(Czech by birth, now living in Canada)

*

This whole month I have also been busy in ROTTERDAM with a BIG
community stitching project
it is called :

DRADEN  VAN  ONS  NEDERLANDSE  SLAVERNIJVERLEDEN

(I put in the link for our province Zuid-Holland
you can also find the dates and address we are working there !!!)

Other cities where they are working on this HUGE wall hanging are
Delft, Dordrecht, The Hague, Leiden and Gouda.

This is the part for Dordrecht and Rotterdam.

There were other participants, but we could always use more "hands"

for stitching, felting and embroidery, not difficult work but very rewarding !
Together with Gerine I supervise the work there, also with the 
all-over coordinator Caroline Grootenboer
The 7 meters long part for us, has been stretched on a big frame.

The work to cut out a part of the big pattern
and filling it with pieces of fabric, felt of making embroidery stitches
had to be for us to try (and experience difficulties) too !

So : homework !

I think it is very special being able to participate in this project !

wordless Wednesday

Thanks Jude !

Today I finished stitching on my big piece

"Sun and Moons"

103 x 49 cm

(40.5" x 19.3")

The SUN and thirteen MOONS

(and a soft blue velvet earth)

(still need to fasten the sleeve

for the aluminum strip to hang it on the wall)

The face of the sun

(with lots of sun spots)

Sun and six moons

One (grumpy) lunar moth and three more moons

A blue velvet (Jude) earth and yawning moon

(a silk, and a "magic" Jude-feather)

And finally Mrs and Mr Moon.

again : up close

"us",  soft velvet !

(with aurora borealis)

It's hard to believe now, that I started in June 2013

NO ... I really didn't work on it all this time :

it was lying dormant for quite some time !

An on-line class "sun, moon, stars" of Jude Hill

was the starting point of it all

Jude is a great textile artist

(though she doesn't call herself that)

and my all-time favorite teacher,

who, unintentionally,

gathered a worldwide stitching community around her

of people who have come to love "slow stitch"

This was the humble beginning !!!

On a background of some hand dyed open-weave cotton

came that sun and dark indigo strips of Jude on the edges.

The "double woven" piece the border strips from,

came to me through Eva

(who didn't quite know what to do with it ...)

I unpicked the it, after talking to Jude of course,

and used it as the border for this piece.

Other "in between" layers were used too.

Also little pieces of thin eco-dyed silk of Heike

There were woven strips of my own fabrics too,

pieces that are dear to me.

Slowly slowly the concept and the piece grew ...

(click on "sun and moons" in the sidebar for the history)

After the first year it was mostly "a holidays piece"

(hmmm will have to find something for next year   ;-) ...)

A LOT of time went into the stitching (kantha) of the background

so the piece is now strong and has a lovely stitched feel everywhere !

We will enjoy it many more years

on the wall.

wordless Wednesday

:-)

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)

it's not easy being green

It's only logical :

when you like it when you do something

you do it again.

After the mermaid was finished
(I did sew on some more sequins and beads)

I started on a new doll right away !

I had some more ideas in my mind after I had noticed 

that other mermaid on the pinterest board ...

a green man or woman !

You could say, this one is not green of envy, but green of ivy

(that's because I came across this dried ivy leaf in a book ...)

Then I thought about that wonderful BBC programme

"It's not easy being green"

where Dick Strawbridge is focusing on how to live

an environmental friendly, low impact life !

And of course there were the faces ...

the ones I did during Jude Hill's Patchwork Beasts Class

Faces for beasts, for who or whatever ...

never used, untill now.

The leaf, the head and the face

but .... I wasn't happy with the way the leaf veins turned out ...

so I pulled out the light green merino !

(a lot to choose from)

This is more like the original colour.

She got arms and legs, I made a template for a backside

of brown wool, then stitched the two sides together

and filled it loosely up with more wool.

Mrs. Green 

Well isn't it a coincidence that I made this green lady

at this moment ?

Today and tomorrow are special "SAVE OUR SOILS" days !

or here

(hmmmm ... they say : coincidence does not exist)

an eye

on progress !

This is "Eye" moon.

It is one of the three moons dyed by Jude

that were in a package of goodies she once sent me.

In fact there are a LOT more blue coloured strips of fabric

(all around the piece)

that were once a double woven piece by Jude.

The three moons are looking through a hole 

she had cut in one of the strips.

(ha, I told here I was taking it apart

and using it in a different way :

she laughed and told me it was fine) 

So, this Eye moon is now keeping an eye

on the slow but steady progress

on my Sun & Moons piece.

(my thread nest, thimble and pliers right next to me)

Two corner, where I extended the pattern

of the black and blue fabric onto the blue border strip.

sunshine, moonshine

Summer has really arrived,

so stitching (or reading) in the garden

is the best way to spend my day.

sunshine

I think the sun's face is done,

the rays will have to wait till later.

moonshine

As far as I know I have my thirteen moons

though a lot are still only pinned in position.

A blue velvet (Jude's) earth is waiting too.

It's good I'm not doing anything hasty :

I like to think things over, reposition pieces or even take them away

moon faces in the summer garden

I'm planning to make a lot of moons 

in my SUN piece. 

For the faces I use the old "Jude-method"

the way she showed us in the 

Patchwork Beasts class in 2010

Faces are drawn on the very thin base cloth with a fine pen 

("sharpie" or whatever, as long as it doesn't bleed too much on the fabric)

one done, one in the making, and two waiting

(the base fabric is an unsuccessful eco-dye on IKEA curtain)

The fun is, to stitch whatever I like

Mmmmmm the weather was SO good today!

So I was stitching in the garden.

Every now and then, a blackbird just brushed past my head :

they have their nest in the Wisteria against the house

Here are two chicks (two eyes) of three,

it's rather overcrowded 

and one is already flapping his/her wings !

The three little swans that frequently sitting opposite our garden

are growing nicely

... and grooming just like mom ...

The little feathers floating around :

just like little swans themselves 

And later in the day : FUN

playing with water !!!