June update along with other stuff..

I got some new charts I particularly love this line by Primrose Cottage.

I love lemons and this will be a cute pin keep.

More bees.

I also like crescent moons and rabbits.

One more.

My present piece I’m working on.

Random Threads by Erica Michaels.

This was to be a pillow but I decided to frame it.

I decided to finally stitch this needle roll I purchased many years ago.

It’s called the Roadrunner Needle Roll.  It’s still available but the roadrunner fabric is out of print.

The outside of mine.

Inside with a needle under each label.

And the left side of the roll.

The whole roll opened up.

All rolled up and ready for a new project.  Finished on June 30th!

A favourite bee stitched framed and just back from the framers on July 1st.

After taking a picture two weeks ago I went to start stitching on Halloween Eve and realized I was of by a stitch so some Euripides entailed and I’m back on track.

Not very much left before this piece will be heading to the framers.

I am so glad I didn’t do the suggested patchwork stitching and only used the outline and filling threads.

My walk along a very deserted Quay boardwalk this afternoon on the recognized statutory holiday for 

July 1st.  I was quite surprised how quiet it was.

 

Busy Creative Month.

May was a busy creative month for me.  Sue Spargo was celebrating her 20th anniversary of her shop and had a free stitch along for 20 days.  She suggested wool fabrics along with cottons for background along with various tools, threads beads and other fibres,

I chose to go with a piece of wool called Cloud and worked with what I had on hand.  Sue suggested a background layout and I did my own design.  Then she suggested flower designs one most days.  She produced videos available on her YouTube channel on how to stitch the flowers.  

I decided to add my own frog into the design.

After we stitched our flowers we added various stitched, couched and other fibres for stems. Sue showed how to make ladybugs which I added to my piece. Can you spot my caterpillar?

She also explained how to make different leaves.  Bees were also suggested for the design.

I’m going to get my piece quilted and then share the finished piece .

Richard Kennair of Global  https://globalartisans.shop/ asked if some members of our Facebook group Friends of Sue Spargo folk-art would be willing to do some sample stitching for him.  I volunteers and suggested 4 designs I’d be willing to stitch.  The ones he chose for me were English Garden Needle Roll and Tea Bird Needle Book.  He had the kits along with the required cotton threads and embellishing threads directly to me.

The kits included zippers buttons batting along with the patterns and instructions.

Fortunately I had just bought this limited edition Yazzii bag from Sue Spargo that nicely need all the threads both cotton, wool and specialty ones in it for the English Garden Needle Roll.

And another one for the Tea Bird kit. Cotton threads and the kit.

Specialty threads.

Finished Tea Bird Needle Book

Inside each wool page has labels for the commonly used needle for wool appliqué and specialty stitching.

The two stitched pieces together.

Teeny tiny button detail on the back cover.

Huge button used to close the roll.

Detail of some of the stitching of the flowers in the vase,

All these scissors and threads easily fit inside,  the tiop hexagon is a wool pincushion with smaller cotton appliqués. Then a four page wool needle book both are stitched onto the roll.

Pencil, marking pen, ruler and tweezers stored in the inside flap.

All rolled up to take for a sit and stitch.

An addition to my not so toned down 90 day circle sampler.  A water lily with two Lilly pads and a frog climbing up for a rest.

I love making these frogs. This one is a bit of a gymnast getting up onto the lily pad.

See you again.  Happy Father’s Day missing my Dad

 

Catching up.

This was my New Year’s start I finished in within a week.

A good place to work from.

Another bee project but his bum is giving me issues so he is in a time out right now.

So the long planned renovation to the building is under way.  Almost half of the building is behind blue construction curtains.  We will be getting a new roof. New windows, rebuilt decks and new windows.  The building is 35 years old.  It’s planned as an 18 month renovation.

A quick stitch that I realize I need to add a couple of bee trails and then add borders to probably make it into a little wall hanging or pillow.

Forget me note a sure sign of Spring on the west coast,

The long awaited arrival of tulips along the quay.  The city planted a lot more than in the recent years which is nice to see once more.

Sue Spargo is celebrating her 20th year in business with a Sew Along for 20 days.  First she gave us a suggested list of supplies and then a suggested layout.  I went a bit rogue.

 This is a bit out of order.  Laura Gates if Poppyseed Quilting did a lovely long arm quilting design on my 

Mary Lou Weidman Bird Swap quilt that I put together.  She used a lovely brass coloured thread to mimic the brass bird cage I designed.

Quilt designs along the side and border area.

More lovely quilting across the top.

Lots of feathers flying inside the bird cage.

The detail on the base of the cage is just lovely I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

This was my bird escaping thru the open door,

Again beautiful quilting on the top of the cage.

These were all in the Fraser Valley Quilters’ Guild quilt show held on the Friday and Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend. Santa Sampler designed by Cheri Payne.  Hand appliquéd cotton and hand quilted.

Let air Snow designed by Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin Designs.  Wool appliqué on cotton backgrounds.  Recycled and new wool hand stitched and hand quilted.

Midnight Escape cage concept designed by me Bird Swap blocks by friends of Mary Lou Weidman based on her hoody mama block designs.  I did a faced finish rather than traditional binding so to not lose the border details.

Little Wooly Baskets designed my Dawn Heese of Linen Closet Designs.  Recycled and new wool appliqué on cotton backgrounds.  Hand appliquéd and hand quilted.

Squash Squad designed by Sue Spargo, Sue Spargo kit, and threads.  Wool appliqué, cotton appliqué on wool backgrounds. Long arm machine quilted by Tess Strauss of Wildflower Quilting Studio. This was also done with a faced finish.  This piece was awarded a Vendor’s Choice award from Maureen Wood of Chilliwack who teaches Judy Neimeyer Paper Foundation Piecing and Laura Heine raw edge Collage methods.  Ironically she had just taken a four day Wool Appliqué class with Sue Spargo at Road to California in January.

This post is brought to you courtesy of my dear friend Brenda Treasure who now lives on Vancouver Island but came over for a visit with her husband and I bumped into them this morning at my favourite breakfast place Angelina’s Dutch Corner