ONWARD INTO THE NEW YEAR

As long as I'm on a roll with my blog posts, it would probably be a good idea to keep up the momentum and bring everything up to date on my thread and needle journeys in a timely manner.  2015 ended with my thoughts on delving into some felting and working with shibori ribbon.  

FELTING

So, a friend and I went on a thrift store shopping spree in February to find wool clothing I could use for felting practice.  I found several sweaters in different colors and wools.  What an experience!!  Most of the websites I visited for simple felting instructions said to wash the items to be felted in with regular wash.  Well, I did the washing several weeks ago and my husband is still picking up lint balls around the house and out of his dark clothes!   Not good.  Most of the items felted nicely after two washings, but the ones that shed the most lint still need a couple more washings.....not with my husband's clothes this time.  Then, I found a wool supplier that sold inexpensive grab bags of wool roving, so now I also have bits of color to work with on the needle felting.  My progress, so far into felting.  

SHIBORI RIBBON

I've made more progress using the shibori ribbon.  I found a wonderful shop on Etsy, Shibori Girl, and purchased one of her grab bags. Nice lengths of ribbon and a beautiful color selection. 

                 

          

 So, here is my first finished project using a short length of ribbon.

A little shibori butterfly heart sachet enhanced with beading, an applique heart, a little hand embroidery and beads.

A little closer look

I am working another little shibori heart piece.  This one I would like to include more hand embroidery and better coordinated use of the beads.  At least in my head the design is pretty.  

QUILTING

In March my quilting friend and I will be making another trip to Asilomar, CA for a quilting class put on by Empty Spools Seminars.  This year I am taking  RaNae Merrill's class on creating Spiral Mandala quilts. 

This is the book we will be using.  I think I will be using one of her templates instead of creating my own design as this is only a 5 day class. 

On that same quilting thought.......last year I started an heirloom quilt, but set it aside as I was not satisfied with the quality of the stitching.  I thought I would try making the quilt based on the book, How To Create An Heirloom Quilt, by Pauline Ineson.  All the techniques used in the book can be accomplished using the decorative stitches on a basic sewing machine.  The author uses several different colors silk fabric.  The center medallion fabric pieces are quite small and I was having problems making nice corners.  Good thing I started with some sample muslin instead of the silk.   So, I am thinking this year I will try to do the embroidery using hand embroidery stitches.  There are many nice stitches used in crazy quilting that would be perfect.  

This is the book I am using and can be found on Amazon

So, in addition to these projects, I am still making a few items to sell in the local gallery and also accepting commission pieces.  My embroidery machine is sitting idle for most of this year again. 

Hopefully, there will be no catastrophes in 2016 to inhibit progress on my endeavors.  But, then one can never predict the future.  Our Super El Nino that was talked about all last summer is turning out to be a Super Dry Winter carrying over into another drought year.  And, my friends, that may translate into another horrendous fire season and less water for our farmers. 

Bright and sunny days to all,

Jan

2015 A RECAP

Well now, moving right along into 2016 after 2015 just rolled right through.  Didn't get much accomplished last year.  Too many distractions and disasters.  Seems life has to throw some challenges in the pathways.  Our major construction projects are almost finished since we moved to our country home.  One carryover into 2016 is to have our contractor finish the generator and propane tank housing unit.  Long story on that one.

After my last post in May 2015, we spent the month of June purchasing a rental home in a nearby community.

In July we enjoyed a family vacation on the California coast near Fort Bragg.  The grandchildren and big children thoroughly enjoyed playing around glass beach, outrigger canoeing on the Big River and taking advantage of the rental house amenities.
 

Treasures found on Glass Beach

More Treasures found on Glass Beach

 

Fun canoeing on the Big River

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

 August I was finally able to start and finish some knit and crochet shawls and scarves to put up for sale in the local gallery.

I've been working with hand dyed yarns and fibers from Drop Spindle Yarns.  This is the Eyelash Cat's Meow colorway in a knit scarf.  Very soft yarn.

This yarn from Drop Spindle is a neutral color in the Zena category.  The pattern is a beautiful knit bobble pattern.  Another soft yarn. 

Just a fun little crochet scarf.

I just love the colors in this lacy knit shawl.  The yarn is a Patons fingering,  

This is a soft acrylic Boucle yarn done up in a Kris Basta design.  

This is another one of Kris Basta's designs, The Jefferson.

Front of the above shawl from Kris Basta designs.

Another lace shawl I knit with fingering yarn. 

Crochet Shawl.  The colors in this one are simply luscious. 

In September we were hit with disaster.  The four year California drought took its toll on our lovely foothill communities with a devastating wild fire.  Fire is one of the major risks we face living in the parched dry California foothills during the summer.  Within a few days of the start of the fire we were evacuated and endured uncertainty for a week.  Although our little community was spared, many others were not.  Many properties destroyed and lives were lost.  Here are some images I found on the Internet.  I don't think any captions are needed. 

Our home is near West Point

Our return home after the evacuation left us with clean-up duties.  Ash covered our concrete patios and yard area, the personal items we took with us had to be put away, the house thoroughly cleaned and a very smelly refrigerator sanitized, although we did manage to take most of the freezer food out and store it in our daughter's freezer.  After the cleaning we took a mini-vacation trip to Bodie, California and enjoyed strolling through the ghost town.

October, November and December I spent resurrecting some old, unfinished cross stitch designs.

Fly Me To The Moon, art by Josephine Wall.  I started this Heaven and Earth Design in 2011.  I am diligently working on this piece every night and should have it completed this year, hopefully. All that remains to be cross stitched is the lower right corner, which is most of the colorful dress underneath the moth's wing (if you can figure that out).  

I think I started this Mystic Stitch Fractal pattern around 2008 and worked on it, off and on, for a couple years.  Then it was stored for a few years and resurrected last year to finish.  The colors are off in the picture. Must have been the lighting.

Here is the finished product made into a 16 inch pillow cover.  Since these cross stitch projects take several years to complete, they are mine.  It would be cost prohibitive to try to sell such an item, unless I did this on commission.

This is a hand embroidered sewing set I made as a thank you gift for a dear friend.  I set aside the machine embroidery in 2015 in order to do more hand embroidery.  This is my foray into some Brazillian type embroidery bullion stitches. 

I just love this dainty little pincushion.  She finished beautifully, in my opinion and also the recipient's.

The set would not be complete without a scissor fob and scissor case.  The photo also showcases the front of the needle book. 

Here is another pillow cover with some simple hand embroidery.  This was another thank you gift to friends who had gifted me with a lot of fabric that was added to my stash.  The fabric I used came from that stash. 

A little better close-up of the embroidery. 

Closing out 2015 I decided I wanted to try doing some felt work and I also discovered shibori ribbon.   More on that for 2016 posts.

Bye for now.
Jan