Game

 

A little back story:

I have belonged to Quilters’ Guild of Arlington (QGOA) since moving to Texas 15 years ago. QGOA is one of the founding guilds for North Texas Quilt Festival (NTQF). I've had quilts in all their shows. This year I was going to skip due to health issues, lack of mojo, etc. Nothing ready. But the plea for more quilts got to me at the last minute. I had one small, finished piece that just met the time restrictions. I had more UFOs (unfinished objects), so I considered those also. I entered the finished one and two UFOs. When you enter quilts, you give them a name and a little writeup about the quilt. For this UFO I wrote the title “What Is It?” and then the write up asked some questions like, is it a game? how do you play it? etc. I put myself in a box and then I had to figure out how to finish the quilt. I used ChatGPT to get some ideas, that's where using the yellow thread and identifying the rows and columns came from. While hand stitching, I thought about what type of game this could be. That’s where Creative Improv Collage came from. Here are the instructions and rules so far:

The host supplies materials for the collage. This could be paper, fabric, odds and ends, beads, buttons, recycling items, etc. Players could also add to the stash. All the items are grouped together as a Community Stash.

Each player is given a substrate for their collage. This could be a piece of felt, a canvas panel, or heavy paper suitable for collage work.

Each player will select a color for their Freeze and Claim tokens, these could be buttons or squares of paper, or plastic. Just small enough to fit on a space.

The spaces used could be 5 inches squared or something similar. If there are more than four players, they could work in teams.

A deck of cards containing:

 each column/row combination,

multiple cards for

Freeze or Pass

Skip,

          Claim or Pass,

Remove.

A Thaw Token – a clear button.

Whatever card is pulled from the deck will determine the move. If the card indicates a column/row the player will take an item from the stash and place it on that position. The skip card means player loses a turn. The freeze card means the player can place their token on a column/row spot and no one can add to it until the Thaw token is used. If the player does not wish to freeze any spot, then the next player has a turn. When a player freezes a spot they receive a Thaw token which they can then use to Unfreeze a spot in place of a draw turn.

The Claim card allows the player to take what is on a spot and add it to their personal collection. A claimed token is placed on that spot and that spot is out of the game. The next player has a turn.

The Remove card allows the player to take one item away from one spot and place it back in the community stash.

As the cards are played, they are placed in the Used spot. If more plays are necessary, the cards in the Used spot can be reshuffled and played again.

After all spots have been claimed the game is over and the players will now make a collage using their personal stash. It can be done at the same setting or due back at the next group meeting.

The community stash can be coordinated to emphasis color combinations, styles, art concepts, or any other ideas.

My next post will show the quilt and talk about some of the considerations behind it and some of the struggles.

Happy needle pulling thread!

Rose

And Then Winter

Stitch Meditation on Trees

 As I sit and look out my window,

Or stroll on my almost daily walk

Tall trees stand

Exposed, bare

No fancy dress of greens, pinks, oranges or reds

Just skin and bones

Skeletons really

Waiting.

Waiting for spring to come.

Waiting for a new day.

A day when the sun will again warm the earth.

Waiting for a new dawn.

When new growth will begin to stir

Nourished.

Exploding into riotous color.

Providing shade, shelter, food.

To a world that’s been waiting.

Resting.

Preparing for a new day.

 

Happy needle pulling thread!

Rose

Back to Stitch Meditations

 Stitch Meditations have always brought me pleasure and a sense of grounding. I suppose it’s partly because I started hand stitching at an early age. I can get lost in stitching and hours go by so fast. I stopped doing the little daily stitches this year and have missed them. I still get on Facebook and see what others are doing but I’ve made very few myself this year.

Recently I made one and discovered how sorely I had missed doing them daily. So, I’m trying to get back to a daily habit.

I stumbled upon some silver metallic looking fabric the other day and bought some to try on a woven wreath I was wanting to make. It came out great and so I made my way back to the store and bought some more of the fabric. If you are into fabrics you know if there is a fabric that speaks to you, you had better buy if while it’s available. Otherwise, when you go back to get more it’s gone!

Woven Silver Wreath

Since I had this fabric I was thinking of other ways to use it. What about the background for a Christmas card? That would look good. But what theme to put on it. My mind wandered to a fabric artist that I am intrigued by who makes wonderful art pieces with just scraps of fabric. I remembered she had made some poinsettias. Maybe I could do something like that. I snipped some pieces of green and red fabrics and arranged them to resemble the poinsettia. Then I stitched them down. I decided to add a yellow button for the center using red thread in sort of a star pattern.

Poinsettia from fabric snippets

Then I thought I’d try a more detailed one by cutting the leaves and brackets out rather than just snipping little pieces of fabric. I cut out a leaf freehanded. I like it so that became my pattern for the leaves. For the red bracts I just cut pieces out from three different types of red fabric and laid them down. After using a little bit of glue to hold them in place I stitched them to the background fabric. For the center I decided to do French Knots in red, yellow, and white.

Poinsettia with French Knots

Happy with those two I thought what if I do a more minimal, modern, abstract one. Now minimal is difficult for me. My favorite art instructor was always suggesting I remove some element from my work. Guess her suggestion has stuck with me as I try sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successful.

For the centers I had been wanting to use a shiny yellow button I had but it was a shank type button and would not lay flat on the piece. I knew if I placed it in the opening of a fabric yoyo that would make it look a little better. I wanted to make a yoyo for the center of this one. I know maybe not so modern after all. For the yoyo I wanted a fabric that would resemble the center red, yellow, and white, I remembered I had some aloha fabric that was red, yellow, and white. I knew I had quite a bit of it but where was it in my stash. I looked in several places unsuccessfully. Frustrated I prayed “Lord help me find that fabric. I just need a little bit of it.” Then I remembered I had used some of it to make some flags to use as decorations for a party for my Hawaiian husband. I knew right where some leftover flags were stashed. And yes there were some from that fabric. I made my yoyo and put the button in the middle.

Modern Abstract Poinsettia

Happy with the outcome of all three. And I’m thinking of a fourth one from round circles.

Who knows maybe I’ll have a full quilt of little poinsettias for Christmas next year.

Or maybe they will just grace Christmas cards.

 

Happy needle pulling thread!

Rose

Till the Storm Passes By

 Storm started out easy. The word was given some time back as a 12X12 challenge at the EtCetera group I belong to. I had a lot of ideas to start out but I finally decided I wanted to do a stormy looking landscape, but it took a while for me to get started. I’m not sure why but it did.

Then I started.

Select fabrics from my stash.

Cut and fuse pieces to indicate stormy sky, hills, watery grassy foreground.

I stitched down all the pieces of fabric with my sewing machine.

Then it stalled.

I always like to hand stitch marks on my work; however, I was afraid to start hand stitching for fear of messing it up. Which really was too bad because I knew I could cover up any messes with more fabric.

Finally, I took a deep breath and started. 

I knew I wanted to add some birds to the scene on the bottom portion. I didn’t feel confident in stitching birds there by hand and I really didn’t want them to stand out from the piece.

And so I stalled again.

Then the light bulb came: what if I painted the birds on with black paint and then just highlighted them with a few stitches?

 I found a bird shape I liked, took it into photoshop and made an outline, resized it, copied it twice so I had 3 birds. Resized one so it was smaller and flipped another one so that it faced the other 2 birds. After printing it out and checking the size in relation to the full piece I was satisfied. I used an X-acto knife to cut and make a stencil of the birds. I was nervous about stenciling right onto the quilt. I used a scrap of the fabric to test the stencil. Then after using acrylic black paint to paint the birds, I placed a piece of felt on the back so I could test stitching some highlights on the birds.

Once I was done I held the scrap piece on the quilt. I liked the way it looked with the felt backing and how that popped out. I still wanted to do some hand stitching on the main piece.

Stalled again.

Finally, I picked up needle and thread, took a deep breath and started.

The stitching is done, the binding applied, and the bird piece glued on. But was it finished?

The binding had been pieced below the hills with fabric that matched the bottom third of the quilt. I was bothered by the light marks on the right-hand lower side. A little dark paint covered up the lower two light spots and now I’m satisfied.

Another one checked off my FoF (Focus on Five) list!

Happy needle pulling thread!

Rose

Stitching Circles and Other Things

Buttons, yo-yos (the fabric kind), circles, rings, ovals, and round are a few of the things and shapes that I love. Needle pulling thread is a process that I can get lost in for hours!

I follow a few online groups that focus on taking small pieces of fabric and bits of threads and practice slow stitching or stitch meditation. One group focuses on stitching circles on their pieces, often adding a button or some other object in the center of their stitching. I love all the work shown and decided to use this technique on one of the patches in “Nine Patches, Five Threads Red”. I wanted to keep the button in the center. I could have sewed the button on first, but it would then be in the way of the stitching thread. So I gave it some thought, considered marking around the button, but I didn’t want to deal with making the mark disappear.

Small Patch with Circular Stitching

Then I remembered I had some round stickers about the size of the button. I placed the sticker on my patch where I wanted the button to be and stitched around it. Once I was done stitching I removed the sticker and sewed the button on. That was a good, easy solution.

Recently someone on the group asked how people get their circles so seemingly perfect. I almost responded with my sticker idea but then decided to write a little blog post instead.

Expanding on the sticker idea I purchased some larger size round stickers. You could print different size circles on a full page label, but then you would have to cut them out. Or if you are fortunate to own or have access to a cutter machine that can cut multiple circles you could probably use that. I don’t have this option, so I settled for what I had.

The stickers I bought were labeled “permanent”, so I was a little nervous about using them. The good news is the fabric has enough lint (small fibers) that the labels don’t stick permanently as soon as they are applied. If you are using a specialty fabric such as a smooth satin or silkie that may differ you could place the sticker on a fabric that is linty just to pick up some surface tension and then place it on the fabric you want to stitch.

I would caution about leaving the stickers on for a long time especially if they will be stored in a way that pressure is applied to the sticker.

Here are a few samples of using stickers as guides for stitching.

Stitching around some circle labels 

You could also cut out shapes – leaves, flowers, vines, etc. to use as a guide for stitching. Rectangular labels work great as guides also.

Leaves, button flower,  and a moon

Now about perfect stitches. I don’t aspire to making perfect even stitches on my art pieces. I like the look of a natural organic stitch. Outside of practice, practice, practice if I for some reason want perfect circles and stitches I would probably resort to an embroidery machine.

Happy sewing in circles!

Rose

Color Escapes Black and White

 

Escape is now finished and off my FoF (Focus On Five) list. That’s the word prompt given by one of my art quilt groups. The size was to be 12X14 inches. I had another small quilt I made for another group’s challenge and I thought I could use it for this challenge, but it was larger. So back to the drawing board. I’d been playing with an idea for yo-yo’s and decided to develop it for Escape.

After The Rain a bias tape challenge

In the process of making this quilt without much forethought or planning I ran into a few rough spots. The rough spots have informed me and made me think of and realize better ways to work when I start a larger similar quilt and another improv quilt inspired by this small one. I’m not sure when they will be started (they have to wait for their turn on my FoF list). But I will be making some notes now, so I don’t forget when I do start them.

Escape 

Sewing through all the tightly stacked black and white yoyos plus the background fabric, batting, and backing fabric was a little difficult. I changed to a different needle and increased the stitch length, but it still was hard. I had originally tried to stitch them down by hand but quickly converted to machine sewing. Next time I think I will try and make the yoyo’s into fabric by themselves without the background fabric and batting.

After the first few yoyos I realized that I really wanted them to be as flat as possible but not as flat as I would get from a plain circle of fabric. Normally when I want a flat yoyo I will get it wet and then squeeze as much water out as possible and flatten it with my hand and then let it dry. This time I had so many to do that I decided to lay them on my ironing surface and then lay a wet pressing cloth over them. After that I could use my iron to flatten them. That worked great. Problem though was I had forgotten that some of the circles had been marked along the cutting/stitching line with a blue washout pen. Since I didn’t wet them and squeeze out the water then let them dry the blue marking became permanent and it you look close at some of the yoyos you can see the faint blue marks. I rarely mark the stitching line now as I’ve made so many of them my hand is trained to turn under the ¼ inch without needing a line. But I still have some older yoyos made when I used the marking, so I need to keep that in mind before using the iron to flatten them.

I was delighted when I found some fabric in my stash that was designed in such a way that I could cut out some circles for my yoyos that would give me ones that were half colorful and half black and white. These would work for the ones just beginning to escape.

My next challenge was encasing the black and white yoyos while letting the color ones go free. I wanted to do a facing finish on the color/white section and a black and white binding on the black/white side. I added the binding to the right edge and then wondered how I could do a combination facing and binding on the rest. My solution was to face the rest of the piece including where the black and white yoyos were at the top and bottom. I then did a faux binding over the black and white portion.

Back of Escape

Still working on the official title for this piece. It will be along the lines of thoughts escaping a black and white world.

Keep stitching and adding color to our world!

Rose

 

 

Another Monday Night Tip

Well It’s past time for another Monday night tip. This one may appeal to anyone who uses a printed pattern for sewing or quilting. I discovered it when I was working on a common sewing task nowadays – mask making. This is good for anytime you are going to be using the same pattern for multiple applications or if you want to be able to see what you are doing when you fussy cut a design from your fabric.

After being a little frustrated with patterns on regular printer paper I thought what if I printed on something that was a little more durable. I had been tracing around the pattern onto some sew-in interfacing because it was a little more durable that the paper but sometimes tracing leads to slight inaccuracies. I thought what if I could print on the interfacing. 

I cut a piece of interfacing to paper size (8 ½ by 11 inches) and placed it in the paper tray of my printer. I left the regular paper in and just laid the interfacing on top. I was careful to be sure it was in straight and smooth. Then I hit the print button. It worked like a charm! I tried again with a piece that was 8 ½ by 14 because I had a pattern that was longer than 11 inches. Perfect! I printed a few more patterns without any problem.

The best thing is it saves time, they can be used over and over again, and they are slightly see through so I can fussy cut if I want.

Pattern piece printed with Sew-In interfacing

What you will need is some sew-in interfacing (not fusible!) that is slightly translucent so you can see through it. I used Pellon 910 Sew-In Featherweight Interfacing. That’s what I had on hand.

Carefully trim it to the size paper your printer can handle. Place it in the tray making sure the top edges is flush with the top of the paper tray.

If you have several pieces of pattern you would like to print you could set them up on a single sheet using any program that will allow you to add multiple images. I generally use Photoshop but you could use other graphic programs or even word. You just need to be able to add multiple images and size them correctly.

Hope this makes printing and using pattern pieces a little easier for you.

Be sure to test your printer capabilities to handle different types of paper. I use an HP Officejet Pro 6978.

I haven’t researched to see if anyone else has come up with this idea but it would not surprise me to find out that they have.

 

Happy sewing!

Rose

Starting VS Finishing

 

I’m pretty good about getting ideas and starting them. However, I’m not so good about finishing them. I’ve tried various methods to try and overcome this, but I just tend to chase squirrels and go down rabbit holes.

Three of the art quilting groups I belong to issue challenges and I always plan to participate. I get my idea for the challenge and get started. Then for one reason or another I’m starting another one before any get finished.

A few months ago, I decided enough. ENOUGH. Focus. Focus on Finishing.

I selected five quilts to focus on. I could not add to the list of five until one was finished. I keep it at five at a time. I select one on the list to be my main focus until it is finished. The other four are for backup in case the main focus needs to simmer for awhile or I need to get some supply to finish it. I have backups I can work on in the meantime. This is my Focus on Five (FoF) method.

 

Most of my WIPs/UFOs are small; a few are medium (over 36”) and a few are large (50+”). I have one large, one medium, and three small ones on the list.

I will allow myself one plus if there is an upcoming deadline for something not on the list that I really want to do. This is FoF+.

This process is going to take some time.

Recently in one of my groups there was a contest to see who has the most unfinished projects. I had 36 that have been started; some more in the designing/planning stages, and a few more “want to dos”. Yesterday I remembered one more started but not finished project so now I’m up to 37. And there may be a few more in hiding!

So how am I doing with my FoF? Well one has ben completed and replaced. One will be completed today. And I haven’t started any new projects at all!

So it’s working thus far!

 

My list of five:

Escape

Storm

Winter

Clown

Red

 

Red is finished!

 Nine Patches, Five Threads, in Red

Happy stitching!

 

Rose

She Colored Everything Yellow

I really want to get back into blogging on a regular basis. I do enjoy it. I thought I had submitted something on this quilt but I guess not so here goes!

She Colored Everything Yellow Art Quilt

This is the first finished entry in my “She  colored everything yellow” series based on a memory from the past. This art quilt was started in a workshop given by Deborah Boschert in 2016 and finished in 2017.

As an adult I realized that I had a serious problem with the way other people reacted to me. Everything, from not taking me serious, to making fun of what I was saying or of my ideas, to criticizing me or my work. At times it could cause me to start crying my eyes out (in private of course). I have always been a very shy, quiet, and even at times timid person. Sometime in my late fifties I decided enough. I prayed and asked the Lord to show me why I was so sensitive to the words of others. Then a memory surfaced from my childhood. One that I had not remembered or acknowledged since the day it happened.

I was in first grade. The class was a combination class of first and second graders. The teacher wanted to work with the second graders so she instructed the first graders to color a page in our workbooks. I raised my hand and the teacher told me to be quiet and do as I was told. So I did.

As she was teaching she walked around the room, when she came to my desk she took my workbook and held it up to the class. “Look what Rose did” she exclaimed to the class. “She colored everything yellow.” The entire class – first and second graders started laughing. I was embarrassed and ashamed.

What I had tried to tell the teacher was that I only had one color crayon, the color yellow.

That was the beginning of a seed sown in my heart that kept on growing and causing me to be super sensitive to words spoken by others about and to me. Sometimes the weeds would be pulled out but the root remained and continued to grow until I allowed Jesus to exposed the root and remove it from my heart.

Now I love the color yellow. It reminds me of what He has done for me and gives me hope, love and courage!

Small Communities

A while back I had the idea to put together some small kits for fabric collage work. 

The stARTer Collage Kit

I finally got around to doing this and used a few to test out my instructions with a small group of friends. They were my "alpha testers". They enjoyed the process and we had a pleasant afternoon working on them. My directions were not finished but we did our best. Here's a photo of the results. 

The work of the first testers

One member enjoyed it so much that she has continued the process at home. Here's a photo of her work.

Donna Atkins addition work

This Thursday I spent an evening with one of my small communities. Our main emphasis is art. We do a variety of handwork and machine work from painting to weaving, knitting to crocheting, embroidery to quilting, etc. You get the picture – that’s why our group name is EtCetera. So for this session I had agreed to do little stitch meditations using my art collage kits. I had plenty for them to choose from and each kit contained 4-5 small pieces of fabric along with 3-5 colors of perle cotton thread, a felt backing and some needles. A rough draft of my instructions was also included.

The hope was they would be my beta testers and give me some useful feedback on the kits. That hope was definitely realized.

Collages from the EtCetera Group

Even though I was exhausted from working late the night before and from early in the morning preparing the kits I left with a feeling of satisfaction and well-being. Was that from the success of the kits? No.

It was from a sense of community. As the group of about 15 ladies sat around the table working out their designs and stitches, they carried on with conversations about life. Not politics, not religion, just life in general. One person shared a bit of joy that had happened in her life, we thought about our “leader” who was unable to attend due to her husband recently having surgery. But mostly the conversation dwelt around animals, both wild and domestic and their antics and interactions with each other and with humans.

It was a very enjoyable and relaxing evening. I think we, as humans living in a very busy, sometimes disjointed age, need to have more of these small community gatherings where we just work with our hands and engage in chit-chat.

More collages from the EtCetera Group

I meet with a number of small groups loosely formed around the bigger world of quilting however it wasn’t until this meeting that I used the words “small community” to describe these gatherings. That to me is what we are – small communities doing life together.

One of the participants said “the group wound up chatting like magpies, telling stories, and laughing while we stitched. I really didn’t want to leave”.

More collages from the EtCetera Group

The youngest member of the group came up to me at our guild meeting to show me her finished piece although she said it wasn’t finished she wanted to put a backing and binding on it to turn it into a coaster. Her mom said she had already taken over her piece to “fix” it for her and that the daughter was planning on doing even more to use as practice pieces to improve her stitching. I was thrilled because that is my strongest wish to encourage and give young people the thrill of hand stitching.

Keep on stitching and sharing!
Rose

Winging It Creatively

This goes out to all my friends who sometimes (or maybe always) wing it when working on a creative piece. I’m not one of those people who plan everything out in detail before starting. I tend to dive in and go for it. Of course I do have a habit of thinking and thinking and thinking about something before I actually start doing it but once I start anything can happen.

I’ve been working on a couple of small art quilts using my Stitch Meditations. The meditations were started with no thought of how they might be used, they were just quick (well maybe not so quick) stitching using scraps of fabric and threads. As they progressed though they started presenting themselves as something more and I just had to go with it. Even to the point of not doing stitch meditations on a daily basis. I will get back to that though because I really enjoy it and they seem to spark more ideas.

So I just started seeing how I could put some of these little pieces together. For one I knew I wanted a “white-whitish” background using strips of different white and white-on-white fabrics in varying widths. I wanted to quilt the background using straight – well sort of straight – lines. I originally thought I would do lines very close together but when I just did lines ¼ to ½ inches apart I decided that was the look I had in mind. See less is more as one of my art teachers always told me. I had a tendency to throw everything but the “kitchen sink” into my work. So she always encouraged me to remove something. Nowadays I’m trying to use that principle more and more.

Okay the background is done, now to attach the stitch meditations. Once I had arranged them the way I wanted I noticed the ones in the four corners had a little curve to them and if I arranged them just right it gave a hint of a circle to the piece.

After looking at it on my design wall for some time I thought I wanted to add some stitching on the background to add to the circle effect. After talking with some friends and getting their opinions (some saw what I was getting at, others had other ideas I could try) I went with my original idea and finally dove in and started stitching.

I wasn’t too pleased with the way it was looking but since I had put in the beginning stitches I had to commit to them (I was afraid if I pulled them out I would have big pukas (holes in Hawaiian) that would be difficult to hide. The thread I was using was DMC Pearl cotton size 8 and the needle was fairly thick.

After I started and did the bottom section and part of one side I put it up on the design wall. I liked it but the stitching was a little wonkier than I wanted. I wanted a very organic circle not a perfect circle.

Light bulb moment: I really should have put it up on the wall and then determined where my stitching would be placed. It would have been easier to see where the line should be rather than looking at it flat on the table. I could have used a string or tracing paper to get it placed better. With the tracing paper I penciled in the lines on the paper and then made a few marks for guides and then cut out the tracing paper.

Now it was time to mark the background. Remember the background is white. I did not want my markings to show. I did not want to use an erasure or water to remove the marks. Then I remembered my Hera tool. That will make a small crease in the fabric that will stay there until I have finished stitching. Perfect.

I’m done stitching and I’m not sure it had the effect I was hoping for but it’s done.

Next time I think I would test it out on a small sample first. And of course I have the tips for marking now that I can use at the beginning of the project rather than in the middle!

I’m thinking I may like it better if I added another circle inside the circle and another one inside that. But for now it’s done.

I can always come back and add more circles if I want to because:

Less is more but sometimes, just sometimes, more is better!

Enjoy stitching!

Rose

Then This Happened

So this happened. 

At the beginning of 2019 I was going through my writings/notes and journalings for the past years and I recognized a theme. I procrastinate a lot and as a consequence I don’t do well at starting and finishing projects/ideas/tasks. I have a lot of ideas, projects, and tasks and I spend a lot of time thinking- just sitting and thinking about them. Even this post has been on my mind since the start of the new year.

I realize once I do get started it either gets finished or gets advanced to a point where I need to consider my next step. I rarely have a beginning to end plan and when I do things tend to change along the way. However that puts me back into the sitting and thinking about it mode. Which is okay, except when I’ve come up with the next step I tend to just keep thinking about it rather than start doing it.

Then this happened.

I went into Facebook and Facebook popped up a memory for me:

    

On 1/18/2011 I wrote a note “So instead of sitting and thinking of what to do I’m gonna adopt Nike’s slogan and get up and “Just Do It”!”

Wow that was in 2011! Guess I didn’t do what I said that time.

Then this happened.

A few weeks later I was on my way to church and thinking about my starting/finishing situation. I pulled up at a stoplight. The car in front of me had a bumper sticker that said “Just Do It”. Yup that’s right. Another prompt.

Then this happened.

A few weeks later I was leafing through some old magazines and the Summer 2009 Art Quilting Studio magazine had this The Last Page article “Go Do” by Cynthia Shaffer:

Photo of magazine article

One line she wrote struck me “Go Do is also followed by “you can’t finish until you start”. Uh-huh another prompt.

So I am attempting to encourage myself to get up and get started.

Towards the end of 2018 I was trying to get myself out of a somewhat depressed/overwhelmed state that had stalled my creative self. I came across a group on Facebook called Stitch Meditations. I wrote about it here. It helped me recoup a lot. So I was determined to do one a day for 365 days – a whole year. I fell behind a few days but did 2+ a day to catch up. But then I reached #64 and stopped – well not completely. I was still creating working on a small wall hanging quilt. I just wasn’t doing a completed daily Stitch Meditation.

Then my daughter started encouraging me to join in the 100day project. I had done a similar challenge back in 2015 to do some art every day. I made it to day 51. So I’m thinking 50-60 days is about my limit.

I went to Instagram to look at one post my daughter thought I would like.

And then this happened.

I started scrolling through the #100dayproject and sure enough another prompt. Andrea Scher posted her first day one:

Instagram photo by Andrea Scher

So I’ve decided to join in. I plan to do some form of random slow stitching every day for 100 days. It may be on a Stitch Meditation, or a small collage or an art quilt, or even an original embroidery design or scribble. It may only take an hour to finish or it may take several days.

But every day I will pick up needle and thread and slow stitch something.

My day one entry:

Photo of my day one 100dayproject

Just start!

Rose

Sunday Thoughts - Blue, Red, Yellow

Stitch Meditations Done in Blue, Red, and Yellow

I am still working on my Stitch Meditations. I occasionally get behind but then I catch up only to get behind again.

I worked a series of red and white for valentines and then worked a series of white, cream, and beige. Then I went back to color.

I did an all blue one. Then I decided to do an all yellow one. Since those are primary colors I decided to do another red one. And then the thought came to me: isn’t it amazing that God took just three colors and from them created all the other colors we so enjoy today. That just blew my mind. And then I thought wow – Blue for heaven where God’s throne is, Red for His blood that was shed for our redemption, and Yellow for His Spirit, the light of the world. And really that’s all the color we need.

That’s my Sunday thought for this week.

Enjoy living in such a colorful world!

Rose

I did it! 30 Daily Stitch Meditations!

The first 30 Stitch Meditations for 2019

Here’s a look at all of them. I’m going to explore with you some of hat them in more depth as we go along. Some I like more than others; some have taught me valuable lessons about myself and my style. But the first ones I’m going to cover are these.

Recently a friend was giving away strips of fabric she wanted to get rid of. They had been decorated by students at a workshop she taught. I took 3 of her strips but had no idea why.

Then I started researching an idea I had to see if anyone else was doing it. Well you know what happens online in places like google; Pinterest; Flickr and the likes. Rabbit holes are all over the place! I stumbled on this technique and realized that was what was going on with those fabric strips.

About the same time I came across the Stitch Meditation group on Facebook. I joined in and started creating little mini fabric collages which became a perfect place to use pieces of the strips. I’ve indicated where the strip was used on each piece.

First up are the “whole cloth” ones, only stitches were added to these and sometimes some buttons and lace. 

One took on the appearance of a fan.

Fan shape with lace trim

Another one had faces looking out at me. 

Faces one side view one straight on

One spoke to me of a summer cloudburst. 

Summer cloudburst over the hills

And then there was just stitches wandering around buttons and space.

Stitches and buttons wandering around

Placed with other fabric they blended in sometimes just a square in the middle,

Square in the middle

sometimes most of the middle,

Most of the middle section

or on the left side.

On the left side

One even joined with a piece of felt leftover from a stitching project my 4 year old granddaughter and I made.

A piece of felt and lots of stitching

Now back to the rabbit hole:

The process is simply using pre-washed fabric, rubbing alcohol and Sharpie pens. You can do it flat or place the fabric over a jar or some type of container and then use rubber bands to hold the fabric in place.

You color the fabric with two or three markers and then spritz it with a little rubbing alcohol or use an eye dropper to drop the rubbing alcohol onto the colored area. Then be patient and watch the magic happen. The color will start to spread. You can add more rubbing alcohol if desired or wait for the fabric to dry (takes just minutes) and then add more color and/or rubbing alcohol.

Some Sharpies will not work; like the ones made for fabric or the fast drying ones.

This process requires experimentation, patience, and imagination. The fabric should be heat set with an iron for 5 minutes (keep moving the iron to keep from scorching the fabric and use a press cloth), or it can be placed in a dryer.

It is best to use this fabric where it will not require washing.

Enjoy!

Rose

Too Practical? Maybe

Okay so now here’s an idea for those of you who use a sewing machine. Remember I warned you that some of my tips may be out there. This one may be going a little too practical.

You know it’s recommended that when you go to change your thread that you snip the thread up by the spool and then pull the loose thread out through the needle. If you pull the thread back through the machine thread lint gets into the machine. Not good. Now if you rarely change your thread like only when the spool is empty or nearly so – no problem. But if you change colors a lot like I was doing recently it seems like a waste of thread to do it the correct way. Do I just throw it away? Chop it up for the birds? Wad it up and store it somewhere – say in a baggie – until an art piece comes along where I can use it? All good ideas but then another one hit me.

I make a lot of yoyo’s, sew on buttons, and hand stitch stuffed things closed, etc. I looked at the length of thread snipped off when changing threads and realized that it’s about the length I use for hand sewing. What if I kept a few empty hand sewing needles near my machine? I could thread them with my snipped off thread and I would be ready to go next time I needed to do some hand sewing.

Thread Saver and Needle Safe

I double the thread and knot it with a single knot at the very end. If I want to sew with a single thread I just cut off the knot and re-knot one end.

Storage for me wasn’t a problem as I keep a needle safe loaded and ready for yoyo making. But I didn’t want to clutter up my sewing area any more than it already is, so I added a piece of felt around an empty spool and stuck my needles there. When I get several threaded I’ll add them to the needle safe and reload my felt with empty needles.

You could also put the felt around an empty medicine container and that way the inside of the container could hold broken, damaged, used needles and pins.

Felt and Empty Medicine Container with Needles

Enjoy stitching!

Rose