Cardinal Progress

It's been a busy week with non-art work but I'm trying to get on with the hand embroidery for  my beaded cardinal patchwork piece.  It's coming along!

He looks plain now!  So glad I didn't just  put this piece in a frame or add a facing or small border.  Plus,  this is a lot more fun!

The top embroidery may look crooked but I'm adding small branches off each curve on the top and bottom borders.

The side will just have a single embroidery branch.

One of my role model/mentors, Kay S. (Quilts+Color) suggested I add some beads to pull in the beaded  bird!  I didn't even think about adding beads but what a great suggestion!!!   I have some ideas on where I'll be adding them!  Thanks, Kay!!!

We are expected to have a severe ice/snow storm starting at 4 a.m. on Saturday...which is to last until Sunday along with winds, so they are predicting power outages!  Guess I forgot what a Michigan winter is like.  Keeping our fingers crossed it's not as bad as they are predicting.  But if they are, I have my coffee, wine and lots of hand work to keep me busy!

Blue Squirrel Progress

In between going to my grandson's Lacrosse game on Saturday, I've been hand stitching on Blue Squirrel's new home!

BTW....it rained the entire 2 1/2 hours I stood (no sitting!!!) watching Nick play 2 games!  But I did get to see him score a goal!  Woohoo!!



I decided I did like the pink embroidery thread for the leaf he is holding...so I started some embroidery.


I still have some areas to fill in with the pink feather stitch but I'm happy with the results so far.

Then I decided I wanted to add some French Knots in the grassy area.  Little did I remember it takes  A LOT of French Knots to fill in an area!  HA

So this will be my hand stitching for the next few days or weeks!  French Knots!!  I should be an expert when I finish this piece!

Stencil Time - Part 2

Well, I finished my stencil piece this past weekend.  I posted on Stencil Time last week (here) and showed several of the tree  pieces I had printed.  It was hard to tell but the fabric paint was a pale turquoise metallic fabric paint.  The picture makes it look silver but it's not.  With that said...here is the finished 12"x12" square.  Just playing.....and it really is square!  I laid it on the table to take a picture so.....but at least you don't see my feet!

I wanted to do quite a bit of hand stitching in this piece but didn't want to overwhelm it.  Here are some closeups.  I did machine stitch around most of the tree and its branches.  Who knows...I could always go back and add more hand work!

And I did some fee motion quilting as well as using an embroidery stitch on my machine.  And who can't NOT add beads on a piece!  ME!  I did hold off on the other two circles!  HA

I used a normal binding with black fabric but added a button hole stitch along the upper edge and side with DMC embroidery thread.  This was a silky embroidery thread!  Not sure when or why I bought it but the color was perfect..

And on one side at the bottom some more hand button hole stitch and hand stitching to hold the square in place..

The pink square with circle cut out is made of ultra suede.  I just happened to have some pink leftover from another project.  It's hard to see but if you  look close you'll see some black paint.  I stamped a strip of this suede with one of my hand cut stamps with black paint.

So that's one of the tree stencil squares.  Not sure what I'll do with the other  squares but they'll  get used somewhere!  You never know when they'll pop up!!