wordless Wednesday

Last Pink Ribbon : day 31

This is the last day of my Pink Ribbon challenge,

31 days 

one felted, and most of the time also embroidered, jewel.

Every few days I had to do some felting

to keep the flow of jewels going.

I remember only one day

I nearly had nothing to post,

but then I found something hidden under my threadnest

and saved the day !

I remember from last year

that the flow must really be constant.

It definitely asks some discipline.

Otherwise

you'll find yourself without anything

when something unexpected turns up

(like going somewhere for a whole day or

having a cold ...)

It took more time to embroider then expected

(and make the matching cord)

but here is my last felted jewel !

Pink Ribbon  felted jewel  31 :

A fish pendant, embroidered on both sides

with different beads and shiny rayon thread.

It hangs on a matching cord from its top fin.

Fish  ;  9 x 9 cm  (3.5 x 3.5")

cord  :  110 cm  (43")

 goldfish 

SOLD !

But : if you really really want some special felted jewel :
please let me know !
I have a few more to make on commission
so a few extra isn't such a problem
;-)

For a donation of 

€ 10, - 

to the Pink Ribbon fund

this golden jewel comes swimming all the way to you 

wherever yiu may live.

It might be for yourself, or it might be a gift

to some "golden" person.

All you need to do

is send me an e-mail at

[email protected]

or leave a comment at the end of this post.

All the money will go (yes you know by now) to Pink Ribbon

for the research into new treatments and aftercare

of breast cancer patients

At five o'clock when I was only halfway finished

I made this picture with the last leaves of the ginkgo tree

and one more close-up

(ehhhhh .... don't think I will be here tomorrow   ;-) ...

though I have some more felted jewels on commission to make ! )

See you later and

THANK  YOU  SO  MUCH

for visiting here this month

and all these wonderful people who bought

a PINK RIBBON felted jewel

:-) 

in time !!! happy birthday J !

Just an hour ago, after lunch,

I made the last stitch

on "Mandala"

Later this afternoon we will visit the birthdaygirl

who reaches the wonderful age of

70

( our mandala teacher/friend ) 

She will nót be behind her computer at this moment

so I can reveal now the quiltlet I made for her  

(I'm a bit surprised myself that I did finish it in such a short time)

a piece of a flower became a butterfly

......

J had two cats (brothers)

but sadly enough one of them died some months ago 

......

and the Polygonatum (Solomon's seal)

 moved from one garden to another

and the next

...

I hope we have many more years of friendship and drawing together !

a finished project

The autumn colours in the garden

are fading away all to quickly.

But even on the ground the display is still beautiful

almost magical ...

magical ???

The one Dahlia I had this year, I planted in a pot,

to prevent an early death by slugs and snails.

But probably the spot wasn't sunny enough,

ánd ...

I pinched out the top to make it grow a bit broader.

Thát it didn't like :

it didn't want to grow at all

in the beginning.

But now, finally :

one gorgeous flower

worthwhile waiting for !

( a promess for next year : and no pinching thén ! )

( in fact she's even darker than here on the photo )

*

Last year on the Handwerkbeurs ( crafts fair )

daughter saw someone in one of the yarn stalls wearing a lovely vest

She complimented the lady and had a good look at it ... 

and started after she found the right sort of yarn.

Well, sometimes things take a bit longer

than you think they will

especially when there's no pattern at all, just that memory

of something beautiful .....

There was a lot of discussion, and making those horrible

( but necessary ) gauge samples,

a lot of doing and on-doing

( like cutting a part of the bottom of the too long sleeves )

.....

But finally today

the whole project was finished  !

Crochet and knitting, and crochet again ...

the front

and the back

( the true colours lie somewhere in between because of the flash light )

A very proud and happy daughter !

another August project finished

When I was in the felting mood

I tried another plan that I had for some time

but didn't get to.

I wanted to make a shawl with holes

or rather a collar.

I layed out the wool rovings on the paper pattern

that I made in the right (bigger) size

It was not very easy because I didn't want the fibres

to go in only one direction

well I finally managed to get it to my liking

and started felting

... keeping an eye on the size ...

So far it looked alright

but the largest hole in the middle was kind of sagging,

and I was not pleased with that.

Some holes had turned out too big and had a wrong shape.

( so I did some other things, as I mostly do in a situation like this,

before I decided what to do next )

I had to close some of these holes,

so up with the machine and some fabric

Then again some waiting and musing ...

there the internet is sometimes helpful with ideas

Cécile makes wonderful embroidery on felt

and the little bag of Corinna with hér embroidery on it

were just the little push I needed

So yesterday I started with swirls and spirals

( since long my personal  favourites )

on the collar

and finished it today

The other holes will stay open to be able to tie up the cords

( in fact the colour is more purple than in this photo )

*

btw .... another feather

the circle of water

Sometimes it's not easy

to start with what you want to do :

yesterday evening I wanted to go on with "Water"

but our house guests for the weekend

were desperate in need of some T L C !

( that's what they wanted to show me I think ... )

Well, after a while I was able to do some stitching.

Today I put the backing on,

and because the actual quilting was already done,

I did so with the tiniest stitches up front, small ones on the back

and the rest went in between the layers

( like Jude taught us )

And now "The Circle of Water" is finished !

( a bit skew, but I think that's more the photo ... )

Some of the details

You might notice I didn't forget my magic thread around the sun part

and the magnificent "megamendung" cloud I got from Jude.

I like how this un-planned piece evolved

into what it is now.

*

Yesterday I also sent my feathers in the mail to Jude

for her Magic Feather Project.
It's worth while to go over there and find out all about it !!!

( others and daughters feather may follow )

oooh ... the blues

Well,

noooo ... 

nót what you might think 

not thát blues,

I am very happy at the moment.

thése blues

my "holy" blues !

I've finished my ultramarine blue bag !!!

Yesterday I felted the "failure" inside pocket and

today I cut it to the right size and stitched it (yes, sorry ...) in the bag,

the felt is really dense and thick so that was not a problem.

Now all is finished

( and I will be totally blue when I go out )

finally !

Just one week ago that I had my first day (of two)

of Pam's workshop at Dorie's place.

Dorie doesn't live close by

so I was very pleased that I could stay for two nights 

with my long-time friend Anita, and having time to chat too.

( her house is only a five-minute-drive away from Nes a/d Amstel,

so I didn't have to get up really early! )

It was so nice, gathering up with a bunch of creative women

and a lovely teacher in a place where there was

room enough to hold a big party !

Unfortunately the weather was very bad on both days

but inside there was fun !

I'm new to eco-dyeing so I didn't know exactly what plants to bring

but others had enough and would give me some

so there was no problem.

It was kind of magic !!!

but I must say my results could have been better ...

although on the silk they were fine

We all worked very hard and made a lot of bundles :

... a tent full of them !

The next day we had to decide what pattern to use

and to start stitching all the bits and pieces together :

that had to be finished by lunchtime ...

( .... nobody actually was .... )

After lunch some of us started felting.

And now I must confess : I was faaaaar too hasty

and didn't do a very good job.

That's why I wasn't very pleased with the

first fiiting session with Pam ...

... but she gave me a lot of good advice and on I went !

There was a dye pot ready for a final dye of the garment ...

but no one was ready for thát

.....

so Dorie cut up some pieces of her own silk and needle felt

and made good use of it !!!

*

I must say that it took me some time after I got back home

to view the results of this workshop.

And, when I'm completely honest, I had hoped for a bit more colour

that I actually had got ...

( there wasn't very much "rainbow" there !!!) 

Btw, I got some lovely advice from Kaite, for the néxt dyeing session !

( Thanks Kaite !!! )

So after a LOT of hesitating and thinking

I finally finished the little vest today !

yeaaaaaah !

I roughed up the already half felted (!) parts with a woolcomb

( especially the edges that had to be folded over )

and put an extra layer ón or únder them

of the coloured needle felt I still had left.

... it worked quite well I'm glad to say !

Then I did some serious felting

( this time without haste ! )

and finally :

I could try it on !!!

( I don't have a tailor's dummy so I had to be the dummy myself,

wich was nót too nice because it was still quite damp

and although the sun was shining it was quite clammy and cold after a while ....

but now it's drying on the table ...! )

THANKS  PAM

for being such a wonderful teacher !

square moon

Here she finally is :

my

Square Moon

on the border is written 

"what if    ...    the moon    ...    was a sqaure ?"

The idea came up during Jude's

Whispering Sun, moon, stars  series

She had asked herself some time before : what-if the sun was a sqaure ?

so I asked myself what if the moon was square ...

(because I had some lovely off-white nine patches with which

I made some "biscornu's")

(the inchies came from the chequer board plan that didn't work out as such, 

the biscornu was one that was blue on both sides)

This is what the nine patch moon looks like now :

the square moon

*

(on to the next wip)