Goldwork on damask

 I have embarked on this goldwork adventure

the way I embark on most of my adventures

by doing the research, buying a bunch of books,

These are two of my favorites

 

watching a bunch of videos and pictures, 

inhaling the the knowledge within, 

And then trying out the techniques, 

through small projects and kits 

that is to say 

enthusiastically jumping in with both feet

SO far, so good

Gerry's Block

It was past time for my own project

So I took an old Embroidery Idea I used for the 

False gold Round Robin with Crazy Quilting International

In which we used all the cheep left over christmas ribbon, 

gold lame and what-not we could find. 

This was the block I did for Gerry Kruger,^  somewhere around 2012

re translated that block for this project and

Working from the goldwork masterclass book

Using actual tools and techniques this time

I am coming up with much better results

outlined in gold passing thread the pomegranate and leaf 

looks much better It's such a tiny detail but it adds so much

Mr.Snail got his Shell using 1 strand of  a 3 strand 

silk wool, I don't know which brand 

this is a remnant that has been kicking around 

for a decade or more.

I needle wove it separately with a simple stumpwork Detached Buttonhole  stitch

Then tacked it down around the batting shape and stuffed it a little more

12 Point Star

Here she is!

The star quilt is done.

She is 98"x 96" Squarish

In spite of the tension snafu at the beginning that had to be picked out 

and the timing going wonky on the last yard of quilting, 

Necessitating the need for an emergency visit to the vac&sew

with a 4 day wait whilst the machine got fixed 

My Husband started to call it the Quilt of the damned as 

Every damned thing kept happening with it!

In spite of part of the back looking quite awful from the picking 

and some truly terrible decisions in design at the beginning 

It looks quite nice on the bed.

 

A Goldwork start

Today I start a goldwork journey

We will be following some of the instructions in

"A Gold work master class" by Alison Cole

Starting with the basics, stretching your base layer of muslin fabric on a frame.

then pinning and stretching your main fabric over that, baste it to the muslin.

Marking the back and basting stitch the outline through the layers.

add your underlayment of padding,many different types!

Here I have flat padding, board padding, layered padding, 

lofted padding, sculptured padding and stuffed padding

Each will have a different technique

Here we have started with a couched flat gold filament

Here's what it looks like on the back so far

 Ladybug is in a colored hollow wire and beads

So that happened

Life sucks when the tension is wrong

*Sigh*

This is going to suuuUUuuuck

 

On the bright side I now have a new pet!

What should I call them?

Fribbls maybe, feeling a little like Rimmer right now

They really need a set of googly eyes

the 12 point star

At the beginning of august

 I experimented with a paper piecing block

And took the seminar my quilt guild recommended

Don't one and one make two?

Apparently not.

The stars are all the most flashy fabrics I could find

The centers were the last of the orangy yellow from my daughters quilt

And the between points is all low definition ecru

The only thing I had to buy was the buff color 

That held the whole together, I ran out at our quilt retreat

And forgot to bring it with me

I used  a lot of my scraps and as is usual, barely made a dent

But we keep trying right?

I made enough of them to make a  vEry large quilt

30 whole 12 point stars, and 17 - 4 point stars for the edges 

Now I need to find a back for the quilting

RSC Orange

 goodness I all the kerfuffle with the trees I completely forgot about my RSC! 

I did it but never posted Oopsie-Poopsie.

Here is the Orange for last month

Dark neutrals are on for this month and 

Light  neutrals are for next month

So if your black and brown bins are overflowing these are your months to use them up!

More Paper piecing and a rant about trees

So the paper piecing started with this star

The method is a 'new to me' no waste system

Where you fold your sections and  sew along the fold and not through the paper.

I like this much better as it eliminates the annoying, to me, bits of Paper piecing

The paper waste the ripping and the picking.

I can reuse the initial paper pattern over and over 

instead of spending hours picking whats left out of the back and distorting my stitches

The pattern maybe broken up into more pieces 

but the process, I feel, is more streamlined and easier for me to wrap my brain around.

So far I have 6 full stars and one half star

only 20 more to go!

And it fulfills my RSC Quota (Self inflicted, of course) with the center star! 

I still haven't decided if I want it dens-packed with stars or 

hexie rows with diamonds in between.

I have drafted and cut a pattern for the diamonds bUUT.....We'll see

*Rant incoming*

Poplar #2 and hubs taking photos for the neighbors who weren't home

In other news I have been dealing with another power outage due to tree
fall and trying, yet again, to get the city to take down the danger trees. No one was hurt by this one either, thank goodness, just 'inconvenienced' for a few days by power and cable/internet outage issues, and the neighbor across the street now has to have the roof redone because the tree hit the ridge line, which left trunk limbs on the roof and dropped the tippy top in the backyard. Oy.

and half of it still stands!

We have finally gotten to what, we think, is the correct department to do that. But it was so obscurely hidden in the Snohomish county web page it took ages to find! and it's not like the will just give you the phone number when and if you
get a human being on the phone either. the appropriately named department "Vegetation Management" was hidden at the very bottom of the Street maintenance under several sudinonomous tabs. it's like a state secret or something they don't want you to know!

They usually have a driveway and a bush on either side

Very annoying! But finally, hopefully, taken care of. Though a week after the tree-fall and initial surveyor, we have been informed we are on the "list" for tree removal. Great you got a time line on that? there is this other 80' ft tall poplar that is just as punky (I can stick my finger through the bark!) as the other two that came down, in what I can only describe as "barely enough wind to blow out a birthday candle". Waiting for the #3 to come down on it's own, is not an option. t's bigger than the other two and the only reason they haven't managed to kill someone yet, is by providence alone! 

You know the law of threes.

The power pole down the street about 800 feet

 and oopsie-poosie, does not cut it this time!  Whew!

Anyway I am going to make of myself a pest, until this is resolved, if I have to stay on hold till the next ice age or whatever it takes to get it done!

There rant over, thank you for letting me vent.

Explorations in paper piecing

 This was an experiment in paper piecing

That i liked so much I am contemplating a whole quilt

We will see how well that goes

right now i have cut the pieces for star center 

the triangles and  strips for the rest.

I am still deciding on all hexies 

or hexies with diamond corners 

and should those be solid or pieced. 

Lets see how extra I feel like being

The star Tarot

 Here we go again with another Tarot card

This is the Star, She'snot finished yet but I thought I would post her so far anyway.

She is a more personal card to me My Aunt Rainey gave me this card when I was 7 or 8.

She is the one who taught me to love the cards and gave me my first set.

She sAys she was taught by gypsies, which knowing her just might be true. 

She lived in the same big "C" shaped apartment building, 

3 doors down from Wrigley field, that we did when I was little.

We on the 3rd floor and she on the 2nd. 

I could get to her house by running down the porch stairs and banging on the door.   

when she was home she would let me in and we could talk,

She taught me to make cookies, and it was OK to speak your mind and to be different from everyone else.

She would say "If everyone was the same life would be boring."

The card depicts the north star, sailors and travelers guide in the night sky, in the middle of the 7 sisters constellation. 

A woman on a field of grass and flowers, Pouring water from 2 jugs onto the earth and into a body of water,

She stands on the water and kneels on the land.

She is a calm guide to that balance within oneself, that nourishes the soul. 

She sees both sides and nourishes them both without judgement.

All sewn in DMC 3 strands over satin fabric in satin stitch and rice stitch.

The stars are with 3 strand DMC burnished silver thread.

Any time you use a metallic thread you must be gentile and patient with it or it will turn into the most unmanageable nest of vipers you've ever seen!

I use short lengths, no longer than a foot and a very wide eye needle, this helps to keep knots in the thread and damage to your fabric to a minimum because Metallic threads will shred a fragile fabric.

Make sure you go to the back of your work and bury and wrap the ends otherwise they will wriggle loose.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge time! Blue

June was blue 

Lots of blue-ishness going on here!

 This months color is Orange. 

I chose this color because I am sick of blue and dark grey skies.

The official RSC runner may choose something different, I need something bright right now.

For anyone interested in Following along.

I will shout out the color at the beginning of the month,

To follow along, You pick a pattern And how many blocks you want to make.

Here are some block ideas, with instructions. I use dice to choose.

Block                                             Google Doc                    PDF

Postage Stamp -Block 1                   Postage Stamp                Postage Stamp

Double Bowties -Block 2                 Double Bowties                Double Bowties

Rail Fence -Block 3                         Rail Fence                        Rail Fence

Shoofly -Block 4                             Shoofly                             Shoofly

Big O -Block 5                                Big O                                Big O

Bright Hopes -Block 6                     Bright Hopes                    Bright Hopes

Antique Tile - Block 7                      Antique Tile                      Antique Tile

Chubby Plus - Block 8                      Chubby Plus                     Chubby Plus

 Friendship Star - Block 9                 Friendship Star                 Friendship Star                    

Bears Paw - Block 10                       Bears Paw                         Bears Paw

Jacob's Ladder - Block 11                 Jacob's Ladder                  Jacob's Ladder 

Prairie Queen -Block 12                   Prairie Queen                    Prairie Queen

Opposing Corners- Block 13            Opposing Corners             Opposing Corners

Petals - Block 14                               Petals                                 Petals

Old Maid's Puzzle - Block 15            Old Maid's Puzzle            Old Maid's Puzzle

Spiral Stairs - Block 16                      Spiral Stairs                      Spiral Stairs

D4P - Block 17                                   D4P                                  D4P

Broken Sugar Bowl - Block 18         Broken Sugar Bowl           Broken Sugar Bowl

Pennsylvania - Block 19                   Pennsylvania                      Pennsylvania 

Churn Dash - Block 20                      Churn Dash                        Churn Dash

Spools - Block 21                              Spools                                  Spools

Grecian Block - Block 22                Grecian Block                        Grecian Block

Rolling Stone - Block 23                  Rolling Stone                        Rolling Stone

Friendship Star - Block 24               Friendship Star                      Friendship Star

Here is another idea for you, and the blog I got it from below,

Do a round robin quilt! you start with a 12" block for the middle, could be a panel or an old UFO

And follow along row by row, building up one border at a time.

https://kathleenmcmusing.com/2024/02/sahrr-2024-round-6/

If you want more information

this is the "owner" of the (RSC)challenge and her info

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/p/rsc-2023.html

Oh, scrap! linky party with even more eye candy

https://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/

CQJP Elli Phant is finished!

 Lest you thought, I have fallen off the face of the earth,

Fear not! I'm here.

It's gardening season so when it's not raining, 

i'm outside playing at muddy mudskipper.

And I have finished the Ellie!

Yay.

Here's her left side front

                    with ears

and her left side back

I even remembered the tail this time!

 the right side front

And finally right side back

Now to get it to my kiddo and hope she likes it.

now back outside

Mara's Ellie CQJP 2024

We continued the flower spread\

over the head and down the other side

Here is the start

And here is the end

Now for that big yellow patch

I wanted to fill it but not overwhelm it

I think this circle of branches in steam stitch

and a big blue and pink Butterfly

Cover the branches with Leaves and Roses

 

More on the right side of Ellie

Starting on the left leg I will be stitching 

a brace of pomegranate 

flowers leaves and stems

So first the sketch

Then the stems and pomegranates

Sewn in 3 strands of DMC floss

in a nice red and green satin stitch

The bumble is sew in bullion's

ow to just fill in the leaves with a bicolor 

light on lone side dark on the other

that's going to take a minute

I got distracted with making a spiderweb on the other side 

in that blank space that was teasing me

Where to put the spider?

A spring assortment in a cozy corner

I think I have enough room to add a dragonfly

I also added some daisies 

at the base of Ellie's trunk on the other side

Little bits at a time will eventually get filled in

And I still have the ears to do