The last two Blocks

 We are in the home stretch on this part of the project

The last two blocks are done

Bead Spider and web sewn with fine silver thread surrounded by greenery as is very common around here 

At this time of the year they are huge and covered with dew so at least you can see them before you walk through them.

The satin stitched Octopus was sewn over an outline and some padding of chain stitch, the coral rocks are an old piece of tatting from my mother-in-laws stash and some small charms and beads

And the last Block which is not yet done 

I have 2 sre folded flowers and leafy DMC branches in the white

A DMC embroidered vase with water streaming out is done but the seam treatments around it are not

and I have an idea for the dark panel but haven't gotten much farther than that

Thanksgiving was lovely but I still need to clean up a bit from the chaos of the run-up to the day and the day itself.

There is also all the stuff I need to do in the studio, customer quilts to be finished and projects to be started. There never seems to be enough time in the day to start, let alone finish, but it all seems to get done eventually, so I won't sweat it here.

More Tumbling around

More Tumbling Blocks are afoot
I am even sewing them all together

Here we have a sword pierced sacred bleeding heart picked out in satin stitch and goldwork, a basket of SRE flowers and a nosegay of blue SRE posies

Turkey-work moth, an Antique Tatted purple glove surrounded by SRE flowers and a Bullion Bee, Lacy Bead Owls ,seam treatments with more beads

Phases- Goldwork in couched Silver passing thread and couched braided silver flat cord, Glass Bead Pineapple,
Stumpwork Swan and lily pad

All seeing Eye made with Beads, Fairy in satin stitch with goldwork wings,

Satin stitch mouse climbing down a branch

Satin stitch cat, split stitch fox, Yellow SRE flowers and a woven wing butterfly.

 

I am so tired of this BullShit

 My Mother is a hippy so when I say "I have been protesting since birth" it is not hyperbole.

I have protested the Vietnam war, Nixon, birth control, women's rights, nukes, the gulf war, the Afghanistan war, LGBTQIA+ rights, abortion rights, women's rights again, Abortion rights again, no kings, worn pussy hats, carried signs, written letters called congress critters and seen some shit.

Because a bicycle ride through Lincoln park was our mode of transport back in the day, I was in the Chicago Riots at 4 years old. I have smelled the sting of pepper spray and felt the ring of the billy club against the metal frame of a purple schwinn.

And still, and still I have never feared the government......until now.

What will it take for america to wake up to this insanity? To the atrocities being done with their tax dollars, in their name, with a secret police reminiscent of the brown shirts of nazi fame?

It preens on a stage in front of men who should know better, about how strong they are

I have never before seen such an embarrassing display of weakness and incompetence

It rhymes already, it quacks, it beats unarmed protesters in the streets

It rappels onto the roof of apartments and arrests american citizens at 2 in the morning, with flash-bangs tear gas and tactical gear.

It Zip-ties babies in their underwear on a cold night at 2 in the morning

It crows about how it's making it safer and better, but I don't feel safer or better

It shoots protesters running away from them.

it is not out of the realm of possibility they will kill someone, soon.

In Memoriam

 It is my sad duty to relay that after a long illness my mother in Law Robin Paula Bernstein has passed.

She was feisty and jocular until the end. Her body failed her in the wee hours of Wednesday morning,

Passing peacefully at 2:34 am. She was attended by her son Adam and myself until the end.

We will Miss her gentile council, feisty nature, calming presents and sardonic matter of fact out look.

Everywhere she went she made friends, with neighbors delivery people, stray cats and humming birds

To the wonderful staff at Evergreen Memorial Hospital. We thank them for their reassurance and gentile Professional care.

"Weep You No More, Sad Fountains"

By John Dowland

Weep you no more, sad fountains;

What need you flow so fast?

Look how the snowy mountains

Heaven’s sun doth gently waste.

But my sun’s heavenly eyes

View not your weeping,

That now lie sleeping

Softly, now softly lies

Sleeping.

Sleep is a reconciling,

A rest that peace begets.

Doth not the sun rise smiling

When fair at even he sets?

Rest you then, rest, sad eyes,

Melt not in weeping

While she lies sleeping

Softly, now softly lies

Beginning the blocks

Here they all are so far sewn into blocks

And arranged on the floor

This is about 1/3rd of them, 

I haven't finished the rest yet.

So you will be seeing more as I get around to them 

but unless they are stunning 

I don't know that I will be showing the individual diamonds 

as much as I have been 


Below are the individual tumbling blocks if you care to peruse them

I wish I could bunch them up a little more 

but Bloggers, gonna Blogger

 

some new diamond blocks

It's just a photo-dump of completed blocks from last month

It's hot out and I am not motivated to be chatty

I am a delicate flower, stay frosty

Enjoy the eye-candy

 

Fixing the original tumbling block, plus 3 finished blocks

This poor wobbly block was my first draft

I was testing out my color choices and wether I could take a step out 

by sewing the 3 diamonds together as a piece.

I decided I didn't like the look of it this way as it was too easy, for me,

to "scribble over the lines" and loose the definition of the three separate blocks which was the look I liked in the first place

                                        bUt

why waste a perfectly good block?  I tried to fix it.  AAAnd I still didn't like it, so I set it aside. 

For about a year (2 actually) and went ahead on other projects and Since I already had the studio to build, I did that instead.

When I had the mojo back for this project, I started again

It's much better now.

Here are 2 other blocks put together, in what I think is, the proper way

They don't look any different you say?

Well good! I did a good job of it then.

Stay tuned for more blocks of diamonds you've already seen.

They are working well together though, I had this fear they would look weird, but I always have that fear. Just because I can name it, doesn't mean it goes away.

I want to finish with the embroidery / embellishment on the rest

 of the diamonds before I put more of the blocks together

Because as you can see by these three I already have a little problem

That is 2 are dark on one side whilst the top one is dark on the other

Sounds like an old Star Treak episode doesn't it......

It was then that our heroine discovered all her dark and medium blocks were not all going the same way

Well Foo!

This means some rows will be dark/light and some rows will be light/dark

Why does this matter? Well I'm not sure just yet

And this is why I need to finish the embroidery first.

I'm fairly certain no one will notice any of this but me.