Grow your blog party!

welcome to all those who enter here!

I am going to cheat a little
since i have in the past given little home mini tours I am going to give links to those previous tours here and here and here.

I know I'm supposed to give you all a little blah, blah about who I am and what I do, but those probably do it best.

as for what I am working on now well that's anyones guess! I have a boat-load of UFO's to catchup on, new projects, monthly doings i haven't even started on, a class to teach and 1/2 finished projects, that I'm feeling quite snowed under!

what was I thinking????


  anywhoo, welcome to

Uncle Monk's coat of arms

bird embroidered pin cushion

where I embroider,

Heritage CQ

  crazy quilt,

applique

 Appliqué,

Pineapple quilt

                                         sane quilt,

Oceans lady whole cloth quilt

 out of Whole cloth

Bead journal project

garden and bead myself into a fine frappachino

Skellie

much of this is just what comes to me at the time,






 some is sent on the wings of inspiration

Appleblossome Faerie

Violet faerie

  Some I find I've wanted to do for years

Therisa's grandma's grand green bug

and just thought now is the time to start



Still others are just appropriate to the spot

BJP   2013

   some projects come in a series

BJP 2013

BJP 2013

and some are all alone




but all are me in some way!

Monk Work DONE!

 Done! I'm done, done, done, done, de-done, done, done, done!

woo-Hoo!

 I finished the ribbon and added a little soi de perlie, in a darker color to outline it all and make it look neat.

*it was looking a little ragged without lipgloss*

I added gold around the maltese, for a little extra pop as it was looking a little cold and lonely, hanging there all by it's self. 

I finished adding the beads at the bottom and the fleur de lis in between each cross.
It was supposed to have 8 but I couldn't find anything smaller than those so I only had room to use 4.

And now the whole thing is done!

Now it is on it's way to Uncle Gregg who will finish it and send it to Uncle Carl.
I'm fishing for approbation here folks, don't let me down.

I put a lot into this because Daddy would have wanted me to and Unkie Greg asked me to because he couldn't. I get NOTHING and have gotten nothing from this side of the family  EVER, not even a lousy birthday card
(not you Brookie you've been great!).

I just want to know if it passes, even though I am a godless heathen and watched "dexter" the whole time to keep my balance. there I said it.

You can all go, back about your business, ignore the crazy pouting in the corner.
I just need to stuff her back in her box.......
Family does one in, even if you don't talk to any of them.  weird.
Be back to my usual healthy, normal, cheerful, self in a few days

monk work-update

lest you all think I'm sitting on my hands here I thought I'd give y'all an update on how it's going

SLOW!     that's how it's going! agghhh!

4 hours it took me to go from the "e" to the "t" FOUR......and another 4 to get to the "b" and the "o"

and I thought I was getting sick of all that blue...though the gold is nice isn't it?

 

monk work update

so far, so good.

the words look awesome, if I do say so myself.  

I need more gold trebizond

other than that I'm plugging away.

Monk work-update

 I have transferred the banner to the bottom of the piece and rehung it on the frame.

as you can see I have to work on it upside-down from now on.

I have so far finished the upper half or the the banner . I filled in the Hosanna on the one side and the LEX on the other

 the beads i think I explained before are from a rosary given by grandmother.
don't they look pretty ?

I was contemplating doing some stitching in-between but decided it needed "Mystery"

monk work update

Started work on the Maltese in gold work, that surrounds the shield also the rosary that encircles the whole thing.

the beads for the rosary come from an actual rosary my Grandmother, (Uncle carls mom) sent me when I was 14, it was blessed by pope paul and was her attempt at "saving" my soul from a godless existence.

I kept it because it was a gift from her and she cared enough to think I was worth saving.  Poor old thing has been through a lot, the cross not granny, Jesus fell off his cross, he now resides in a candle as decoration.
the cross itself is long gone, due to and unfortunate Madonna costume incident, at a club one night, in my misspent youth.
The chain broke so I re-purposed it as a scissor fob, but it is too heavy for the task and kept dragging my scissors to the floor.
Honestly I think Uncle will get more pleasure from it, knowing it was a gift from his mother.
I still keep a 10 bead strand on my scissors with the medallion of pope paul. It reminds me of granny who, in spite of my "godless" existence, loved me anyway

I don't mean to offend anyone out there who reads my blog but I really don't believe in religion as a valid way to live my life.
 I find it to be based in badly rewritten stolen myths, from other older cultures because that was the only way they could convert the masses.

I have never truly believed and even when I thought I was doing the best thing for my children by sending them to a Lutheran school, I let them decide whether or not it was what they wanted to believe or not. I am proud to announce they all chose science as a better answer.

 I have much more to say on this but will leave it at that as to not offend those who do believe. Just because I don't, doesn't mean I believe you shouldn't.
I will fight to the death for your right to believe anything you like, as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

As for offending people, well I find I offend people weather or not I agree with them. At some point you realize you can't please everyone and either learn to live with it or tie yourself in knots trying.
I deal with enough knots in my work...

monk from uncle update

I have finally finished with all that blue!

here is the detail on the gold work outlining the water at the bottom, I think I will not outline the lily with gold as well. it stands out well all on its own merits.

 while i love how it turned out, split stitching the whole thing was a trial

I'm still not sure I like how the satin stitch came out on the cross run at the top I may have to pull some of that and do it differently.

If anyone has any suggestions there I would appreciate it!

 

although the crosses themselves came out nice, the Franciscan, the notre dame and the "law" cross

I also found some excellent braid to outline the whole blazon with.

once I put that on the whole thing started looking more "official"

And so it's christmas

hello all! and a happy holidays to you all!

I have decided this year, as I do almost every year, to forgo the mall crawl mind numbing sameness of the "traditional" shopping season and stay home making Christmas presents from parts bought at local businesses.

I hate this time of year, not for the reasons you think ( though there are those too!).

the rampant commercialism and ruining of this years thanksgiving peace, was the last straw in a growing list of grievances with the walmarts and targets of the world.

at this point I'd rather pay and extra dollar at my local store than go to any one of them for anything.




anyway, I put the tirade at the end of the post, for those who simply wish to enjoy the eyecandy without the vitriol.

 I have been working on these little beauties for a month now and have gotten it down to a science!

I can do 2 1/2 in a day if I put the radio on.

so far I have made 20 phew!

 obviously not all of them are here some have been sent off to their new homes.

I have also been working on and off on Uncle the Monks coat of arms. I am in, various shades of blue split-stitch hell, right now and will get pictures when there are any new developments because it looks the same as last time just more blue.

 the other projects I am currently ignoring in favor of the holidays are Skellie, my faerie project and the lace and pearls rr which we all decided to ignore for the holidays.

so you understand why I have been inordinately silent, there will be big news (for me anyway) in the new year, which I am currently obsessing over and will let you in on when it's all done.


and yes, here is the end of my aforementioned soapbox tirade.  I felt the need to unburden.


I'm not going to go on about corporate greed and their willing minions in congress, form the gist of this post I think you already know where I'm going and either agree or don't so I won't bore you here.

Except to say, I vehemently disagree with the way the season is being used, by all parties to fleece on of the hard earned and paltry scheckles we have left at the end of the year.
This includes the church, who lost my interest, with their treatment of the abused children and their adamant refusal to do the right thing in dealing with the priests.
then there's  congress who can't seem to get out of their own way to get anything done.
I didn't agree with the GOP before but at least they could get their jobs done.
Now it seems they revel in the fact that they don't do anything and are being paid quite well for it thankyou.
PTHHHH! if there is any justice in the Universe they will all be out on their collective hinies  in 2014 and 2016.

WTF??!    If any of us behaved that way at work we'd be fired tomorrow. why can't we apply the same metric to them? I could go on and have at length I will stop now.
grumble, grumble, fuss, fuss, fuss..............

the munk from uncle part deux

These are the colors of trebizond silk I chose for uncle Carl's coat of arms.

I haven't decided yet to do the outer rim in goldwork or not, would it be too much or just enough?
would it clash or diminish the big maltese  or enhance it?

decisions, decisions.....

 to help the silk lay flat you need to give it an under layer of thread or felt, depending on the loft you want to give it.

I chose to give the blue waves minimal loft and used a neutral DMC floss for the under layer

 the stem and leaf of the lily came next

I used a cross over leaf stitch for the leaves as it looks stunning in the finished  product









and here are the lilies finished in satin stitch and french knots

I have started the underlay for the crosses and the arms that go with the first cross.
though I need the anchors for the second cross before I start that part of the project.


I have started the background of the shield in a lighter blue I am variegating it because I haven't decided if I want to add a slight gradation of darker blues going up to the top. this was depicted in the initial picture but I'm not sure I want to do this.

I also need to add another layer to the book on the right side I want it to look like an open book before I set the lettering 

also just received the flur de lis
for the corners  when I get to that part they will look lovely!