stitch and ..... ?

 

Sometimes all the other plans are going on hold

when something else jumps to my mind :

I thought ...

I needed to make something special

for a special friend.

 

Though I had serious felting plans for today,

this project came up

and got priority.

 

 

 A tiny sketch is most of the time enough for me

 

After that I made a new stash

of "wonder-undered" polyester velvet.
 

(first time round I didn't heat up the iron enough

or didn't stay on the stuff long enough to make

the wonder-under (vliesofix) stick ...

btw : always use baking paper to avoid

nasty things happening to your iron !) 

 

 

After all the preparatory steps

 

the stitching is the really fun part !

 

 

This is the back side

 

 

 

The stitching is done

and you know what ?

 

I really don't know yet if I will burn this one too

.......

 

(and no overall view,

this will be in the mail soon

and when it arrived safely

you'll see)

 

 

And now I'm off to my mandala evening

 

;-)

 

 



playing with leftovers

 

We had a lovely party last Saturday

and brother-in-law liked

his stitch-and-burn piece.

 

(the "60" wasn't too obvious :

I had to point it out to him)

 

After the burning I'd cut the work out of the bigger piece of lutradur.

So I had some leftovers to play with

 

the polyester velvet snippets and the painted "wonder under" (vliesofix)

 

all ironed in place with some sheer on top

 

Then I did the machine stitching and sewed on a button

 

I didn't burn this time :

the edges of the burning are rather sharp !

 

a finished hand cuff

 

;-)

 

 

Furthermore I enjoyed another sunny day in the garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



brother in law

 

My brother in law

(husband's youngest brother)

became sixty last Tuesday

and we celebrate that fact with a party tomorrow.

 

For a little present I made all the preparations

for another "stitch-and-burn" piece

 

by painting the "lutradur" (kind of thick polyester interface)

the "vliesofix" (wonder under) and ironing 

unpainted vliesofix onto the polyester velvet.

 

 

Cut, ironed

and topped up with polyester sheer pieces

 

 

The fun part is the stitching

with  COTTON (!)  thread

...

but

 

DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE PRESSER FOOT DOWN !

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

otherwise, you'll end up with this nasty mess of loops

at the backside

which you have to undo

and start anew

(do you see the amount of thread, I did it móre than once ...)

This happens  because, with this "quilting" presser foot,

I have to put the foot down in some semi down position ...

which I sometimes forget !

 

I did the burning today outside in the sunshine

(it stinks ! thought I didn't burn out a lot,

I did it outside anyway)

 

You can see the "60" here in the design

though it isn't too obvious in the whole piece

 

(I think ...)

 

 

In this picture against the bright sunlight

 

you can clearly see I used the leftover cut out shapes 

of the circles to complement the square design

...

no initial plan, that just happened

*

 

And in that sunny garden

 

 

BLUE  ! 

 

and a bit of brown



last minute things !

That's what I'm busy doing right now !!

Stitching beads (and safety pins) on flowers.

Sewing on buttons.

Stitching book covers.

Finishing bags :

I thought I'll use a simple method,

but in the end it turns out to be not simple at all  !

(I don't think I will stitch felted bags together ever again)

Stuffing fishes.

("gefillte Fisch")

Man decided to make stained-glass stars.

Though it was extra workload for me, 

I stitched them this time on the machine

and Man burned them,

outside :

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR !

I had to make another "beast"

though nót from the sea this time :

Iiiiieeeeeee .... I like him 

And today on tóp of all the other things 

(I really couldn't help myself)

I made a little (very rare)

"Rainbow bird"

for my lottery at the Christmas Fair

this Friday and Saturday !

;-)

Little grandson had some fun too

(I still need that one from time to time)

contagious ?

All people are creative,

some a bit more than others 

and some need a little push to get started

...

When I did that first "stained-glass" technique in polyester textile

many weeks ago, Man was very interested.

Years and years back 

he joined me in making enamaled copper juwelry and wall decorations

Much much later he followed me in making his own 

mandala drawings.

So when he saw the beatiful coloured piece with the burned out fragments

his imagination started buzzing !

And when I say buzzing, it means buzzing 

For the very first try, he asked me, 

after all the steps of the process were completed,

to do the stitching on the machine,

which I did of course.

But he had to wait till I had time to do it,

then he did the burning,

Not so this time !!!

He made his designs, did all the steps by himself,

then daughter braught her sewing machine

(mine is a bit more complicated)

and then :

in hot weather, in not so hot weather :

slowly

stitch after stitch

his artworks grew 

A beautiful mandala

(ha, the best part was probably : nót having to wait for me to do the stitching !)

Yes !
I think being around art is contagious !!!

test drive ..... and go !

Yesterday I put my own stitching on the SUN aside

and put the Man's stitch-and-burn under the machine

for the last part that had to be done

with the black cotton thread.

Then, this morning, the sun was out !

Beautiful weather to do some burning outside !!!

First Man did a "test drive"

with paper and scissors

The next step was to put all the needed stuff outside

and start burning 

It took quite some time, but at the end of the day : 

... finished !!!!!

There is a lovely choice of tiny pieces cut out

ánd tiny pieces left in place.

The photo I took when the piece was lying on the couch

is the best !

It's so much fun to see how the original colours changed

by the randomly placed dyed "wonder under"

and the pieces of polyester chiffon.

I myself was sitting in the garden with a wooden tray

stitching the bits and pieces of the SUN together

... with every now and then 

some visitors on the water

another bit of synthetic

I like the transparent bit 

of the new stitch-and-burn technique.

(though I have to try to make it even móre tranparent)

The fun part is, that mostly, 

you don't end up with 

what you initially thought it would look like :

a lot of random result

Colours change dramatically with all the added layers

ánd the stitching

Man has been busy too.

... choosing colours

...  tracing the outlines

A clever thing I learned from Jude :

make a copy 

and try out some things with pen on paper !!!

I did already sóme of the stitching ...

Sometimes you get so shaky 

running over the same lines twice

it's best to stop for a while

;-)

(to be continued)

making someone happy

It was Stitch'nBitch day again in Rotterdam.

It was supposed to be sunny today, so I dressed that way ...

SÓ happy I was I had a rain poncho (just in case) in my cycle bag :

it rained cats and dogs,

when I got off the boat.

Hmmmmmm ... happy knitting, after I was dry again.

Because knitting does give me so much pleasure, I thought I show you this :

daughter drew my attention 

on some surprise flash mob on You Tube.

It's about a lady, Loes Veenstra  from Rotterdam,

who knitted over 500 sweaters all her life

and stored them ... untill :

this moment ...

when some people gave her some very happy moments, I think 

Go, and see for yourself 

and enjoy !

*

 At the moment I'm knitting socks for my grandson

in his favourite colour

green !

(one was already finished, but I frogged it 

because it was a bit too tight, the right one, since I have to wait 

and see if it fits this time, I started with number two)

*

Remember the stained glass technique 

I did two weeks ago ?

Man liked it very much and said he wants to try it too !

He will make a mandala !

Well, the machine stitching will be for me,

but the rest ..... 

(keep you posted)

;-)