How it's going

 Sometimes one needs to revise their design

I just hope you do it before the project is finished

Part of my boggle was that there were still some pieces that were wobbly and the  whole piece buckled in places and that is just not right. Not when I have already put so much work into it, It should at least sit flat.

And whilst I had it apart I decided to make it one row bigger up and across  

So here we are again

I am just now adjusting and resewing things back together Making sure to get it FLAT this time.

Well that was fun

 So new update

it's not almost done

Something was not working out for me so 

I tore it apart.

very carefully

on the good side I was gifted a lovely Burgundy velvet skirt that just looks luscious as a border so 

I finished hand sewing on the corners before I tore it apart

of course because, reasons.

I'll get back to you on that when I have it figured out.

The plan is make it wider?

fix the blocks that bug me.

I want to embroider silk ribbon vines in the velvet borders

hopefully actually finish it and not take a year doing so.

And here is what would have been the last block

Had I not decided to shred that idea.

Embroidered water vase, Brass instruments, silk ribbon Flowers.

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

 

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.

CQ Tumbling Blocks so far so good!

So here we are again in update land I am trying to get at least 2 of these blocks done a week

I have finished making and binding all my diamond blocks so after they have all been embellished I can just sew the blocks together

I'm now in the process of adding lace, ribbon and what-not to each piece 

before starting to embroider and embellish the individual pieces that will make up each 3 piece block

I Embroidered two Bullion Birds and a bird bath 

with some fancy ferns made from curl of stem stitch

 and lazy daisy stitches  followed by

a seam made from 2 Cretin stitch and beads

This one is a bit plain (For me) >

 I added a line (Lump?) of daisy chain stitches

to continue into the block, then added the spray over each bead cluster

I embroidered a feather stitch along the seam and layered the metal flower onto a lace flower and the fern is from a bigger piece of lace

Placed a bit of ribbon to the seam and a seam treatment of chevron stitch over that with lazy daisy and beads

On this piece I used a satin stitched Bird, was started on felt cut out and tacked onto an embroidered branch

with french knot hydrangeas which were embroidered separately on muslin 

cut out turned under and tacked on. The leaves are silk ribbon and I'll finish the seam treatments with beads later

The Feather was embroidered with variegated silk thread in steam stitch I placed a bead at the top

The seam treatment above it is picked out in alternating button hole with lazy daisy and red glue on beads that I drilled a hole in and sewed on (After all I'm not a heathen!)

The feather stitch is laddered down the yellow seam and there is another bit of slanted button hoe below it I'll embellish those a bit more later

On this piece I ran out of thread for that alternating button hole stitch one or 2 stitches from the end and covered it up wit a bit of daisy lace there are rice shaped plastic pearl beads and yellow glass beads for embellishment

I completely covered the cretin stitch seam treatment with silk ribbon rosebuds and leaves and some glass flower beads

The other corner is a bit of lace and a piece of sequin embellished ribbon lace

 the wings of the dragonfly were done separate on a bit of gauze with gold thread, they are my first attempt at stumpwork wings and not great but good enough for a first attempt I think. the rest of it are a real pearl and a glass button followed by fake plastic pearls.

 I just didn't have the spoons for this last one, I threw a bunch of loose odds-n-ends at it, tacked it on and called it good enough.  

 And thats ok. 

I figure I have 75 diamonds, making up 25 blocks. 

I can fudge a few here and there, and not feel bad about it.                  Right?

I'm still working on that last bit.

It's all about giving yourself a little grace.

Diamonds Forever Tumbling Update

I have also spent the entirety of last weekend piecing 64 more tumbling blocks so I have them to hand, when inspiration strikes

 

The bluebird is sewn in dmc floss

I intend to add som beads but we're not there yet

Dandelion Phouf Dmc and Glass beads

The all seeing Eye in Glass beads on felt sew on with more glass beads

And vines in DMC cotton floss with rayon floss for the white cast-on stitch and french knots, glass beads and "silk flowers" 

CQJP 2024 Le Colibri

So here's where I start                                                                                                                                                                                             Make or find a sketch in a sketchbook, online,or other reference

Make little blue sketch on my target piece

And fill it in with stitches

I did underlay the dark teal wing part with a chain stitch 

initially to give it some definition and lift

To differentiate it from the rest of the wing

The dark color alone would do that but I wanted a little more

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Then I use 3-4 different colors of a graduated buttery yellow DMC                                                                                                                                                                                                     for the the wings, tail and body                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                And then magic!

The rest just follows                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Hello, my pretty, pretty!

CQJP 2024 Ellie Project

OK, SO.

I have sewn together the sides and top of my Ellie so when I get to the vines along the big seams I can just go do it and not worry where I'm going to connect them later.

I whent ahead and added my spiderweb roses

To the monogram

in a couple of places

all the way down

That blue stuff is the Water Soluble pen I use for marking 

It will come off with a quick spritz or two of water and maybe a bit of a rub

I have used these pens for close to 30 years now and 

have come to rely upon them, with out really ever worrying weather or not they have changed the formula or something, 

For me they just work.

I am sharing a bunch of my sketchbook pages today

I use my sketch books to keep track of my ideas and keep a record of my projects as I do them 

I want to show you all how I use them If blogger will cooperate with me today I might even manage to make it coherent!

CQJP Paris

I have colored somethings in when the mood moves me 

and darkened other bits with pen so I can trace them if I need to

These pages are from a prior CQJP For which I used Paris for my jumping off point and 

CQJP Paris

the colors pulled from the focus fabric I used that year were a magenta, pink, green, bright blue, yellow and purple

CQJP Fairy

I have many more ideas and inspiration pages scattered around the house and interwebs for perusing to catch an idea

I have a lot of books for reference and also for learning a new technique or just for the pictures

These pages are some of my oldest and 

I use the basic shapes from them all over the place

CQJP 2024 AKA Mara's Ellie project

Miss Mouse has gotten her tail and a fine tail it is!

Next up is what to do with all the space around her?

The Darling Daughter who requested this Ellie, 

wants lots of flowers so lets do the foundations of that,

as a chain stitch vine meandering all over the side 

and part of the top.

And to do that I needed to sew the top and other side together.

This makes it a little harder to maneuver around and sew 

through but makes for  a more cohesive design.

And on the other foot, I have stitched a bird shape to make

A cardinal as requested

Most of the thread I will be using throughout will be DMC

so in this project expect that from here on 

unless otherwise noted

I will be using several shades of red for the body of the cardinal 

I'm going for a fade to dark

using a staggered satin stitch the whole way through

And here she is!

And since there has been some discussion on the CQI Divas 

page about working from sketches 

Here's the page of my sketchbook where this one came from

I have used her in the past many times 

for anyone who notices that's the sketch for the gardens 

round robin from 2014

Here'show I transfer some of my ideas

The paper is from the tail ends of clothing patterns

In some commercial clothing patterns you can get quite a 

large swath of blank paper that is ideal for embroidery transfer

I like using this as transfer because I can see through it

it doesn't distort my stitches, when I go to pull it out from 

under my stitching, if it hasn't already shredded from handling

And if you sew it into the piece you will never see it again

because it is such a light paper it will disappear or disintegrate