Decisions Decisions

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Cynthia

I have embellished the sun motifs with the little green french knots and now need to decide if I’m going to add the “snowflakes” to the diagonal areas in the lower half. I’m thinking yes at this point. I can’t help but feel there is too much white space. This piece is like those Persian carpets where you and your friends, after a few glasses of wine, tried to find the mistakes that were intentionally in there so that the Gods wouldn’t be angered. Except I didn’t do mine on purpose. 😉 I’m very pleased for the most part and the second sleeve is going to be a breeze since the bulk of the decisions are made. I also think I need something extra at the bottom and I’m considering a second tulip motif like the one in the middle. I really don’t understand, design wise, the squiggly lines there and at the bottom. I’m sure there’s a good magical reason for it (Sarah? Any thoughts) but my sensibilities don’t like it.

If the Scarlet Pimpernel and The Small Faces Got Married…

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Cynthia

… their children would wear my newest creation. It’s still a secret, I have details to complete before I can post this and I need a good photographer to help me.

Here is a taste of the goodness that is coming. It is velvet. And this photo doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Speaking of Friends

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Cynthia

and once again being a few days ahead of my horoscope…

Is it true what they say — that you can never have too many friends? If you don’t think so, it’s a good time to re-evaluate your position. And if you do agree, then you should go out and get busy. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’re likely to be extra lucky in attracting new connections and deepening existing alliances in the coming weeks. The friendships you strike up are likely to be unusually stimulating and especially productive. To take maximum advantage of the favorable cosmic rhythms, do whatever you can to spruce up your inner beauty.

I’m working on this quite a bit actually. I’m going to different meetings, I’m taking a new sober woman to a meeting every week, I have a new weekly Greenlake walking partner, and I’m connecting with an old friend I haven’t seen in a couple years for coffee tomorrow morning. I’m trying to set up a date with this guy but he’s busy and elusive and has his head down. But I’m working on it and we chat a lot, have much in common, trying not to put any pressure (I get the sense that this time I need to move very slowly, more will be revealed). I’m getting out there and yet still doing the other stuff, sorting boxes, looking for work, doing work for that unemployment benefit to get here very soon, starting to run low on funds. The new friends are definitely coming into my life and filling the void left from last year. It feels really good. And these friends, while there is no pressure to be anything truly connected as those connections can take time, it feels nice to be having conversations with kindred spirits and interesting people.

I’m reading a lot. I ran out of Charmed so haven’t been stitching. The final season has a waiting list at the library unlike the previous seasons. You didn’t think I actually spent MONEY on this stuff did you? I was very curious. I don’t have TV as some of you might remember and I wanted to see what that show was all about. I can’t dis something I’ve never actually watched now can I? I don’t recommend it myself. I’d rather know what Im talking about and besides I *love* candy. Can’t help it. The glossy pouty lips really got on my nerves, I mean REALLY. But I do like to have a long stretch of fairly mindless video for stitching. Xena is a favorite. It occurred to me last night that perhaps I should try some stitching without video and see what comes from that. My reading is everything from total juvenile witch candy to a Christian journalist’s year of interviewing Wiccans (I’ll let you know how this goes) to inspiration books on handwork and on handwork and magic. Slowly continuing to work on my Book of Shadows illustrations. Doing a lot of work in pencil right now eventually to be colored.

A lot of thinking about how to use my Book of Shadows. I’ve never been one for writing in journals. Turns out I’ve not been writing down any of the magical work in my book. Not that he told me or anything. But we were talking about magical work and keeping a BoS and I said well I just don’t do much except my daily devotions. He went around my new place (this was last week) and touched all kinds of things I have made and said, these need to be written about in your book. You need to note in your BoS all the illustrations you’re doing too. Date it. Ah. Okay then. All of this is magical work. I knew that, really I did, but it never occurred to me that it went in the BoS. Truth is, I’ve been a very lax BoS person in general. I’ve not kept much record of what I’ve done except here. Time to turn over a new leaf. Get it? New leaf? New page? Start. Just start.

The spring rains have been here and the sun has been hiding a lot lately. To cheer us up, the pink dogwood is in bloom and it’s just gorgeous. I think that the Pink Flowering Dogwood is my favorite spring tree. Right after the Lilac.

Roumanian Blouse Update

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Cynthia

I’m making some progress on the Roumanian peasant blouse. I’ve had my evenings free for about a week now and I’ve been stitching while finishing up seasons 5&6 of Charmed. I know I just lost a bunch of readers by that admission but I’ve never watched that show. I’ve needed mindless mindcandy of late and at least it’s in the right topic, witches. Thought it would be interesting to see what it has to say on the Craft. I did get a little tired of uber glossy pouty lips and cropped tops and amped nipples but it’s been entertaining. The writing, well, whatever.

Back to the peasant blouse. I’ve been busy. I hope that I don’t get tired of the embroidery but counted cross stitch has never been my favorite. The other counted work is a bit better and I’ve feeling optimistic. All the pattern pieces are hemmed in preparation for the construction using faggot stitch. So for now it’s all embroidery.

You can see here several things. You can see the waste canvas that I’m using to help me have somewhat even work. The linen count is teeny and I need some assistance to get it even-ish so I don’t ruin my eyes. Trying to count the linen without the canvas help was a problem in my test sample.

I got impatient and wanted to see how things look after removing some of the waste canvas. A little uneven but it does have it’s handmade charm. I decided to use a second color as suggested in the options (Folkwear pattern #103). You can see my little test in the bottom right of the blocked area where I’ve used little green french knots. I think I might add these to the other similar motifs. I’ve also decided to remove the red cross stitches for the leaves in the tulip area and go back and make them green. It’s a process and it illustrates that I don’t always come to my final piece in an easy manner. There is ripping out and rethinking as I work to find exactly what I like once I move from my mind’s eye to reality.

Here is a close up of the stitches to show how the waste canvas works especially. You can see where I’ve cut it away and started to pull threads. I just had to see how things were shaping up without the stiffness and weight of the waste canvas. The linen is still pretty drapey even with the embroidery and I’m pleased. The colors also look a bit better without the canvas in the way visually. The blue threads are every 5th for ease in certain types of counted work. I also see now that if I pulled my tension just a tidge tighter I might get a more even line in places.

I’ve been very careful not to catch the waste canvas with my needle and so far haven’t had any trouble whatsoever pulling it out from the stitches. That is a nightmare I understand. Catch those waste canvas threads and get them caught in your embroidery stitches and getting them out can ruin your work if you’re not careful. I’m very proud of myself. I also know that folks will not be nearly as harsh in judging the evenness of my work as I am.

Castles and Noble Thoughts

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Cynthia

My nephew turns 8 this month. The secret treasure box was such a hit that I decided to do more word burning. I found the cutest little castle birdhouse at Michaels and knew that was it.

Because of the fire cleanup and restoration and moving etc I had the energy to get out and buy the piece but not actually work on it. I’m glad I waited because yesterday I had the idea to put French bon mot around the crenellated balcony.

I used the SAMAN stains that Sarah of Forest Grove recommended and I’m just tickled. It was worth every penny. I am extremely pleased with the results. Not only was it a dream to work with at full strength but also diluted at 50%. It did what they said it would do, it didn’t streak, clean up was a breeze and there was very little bleeding when I put the first coat of mod podge varnish on it. I finally got some linseed oil to mix with my beeswax, also recommended by Sarah, so that I won’t have to use the chemical varnishes. Since this is non magical work and a toy for an 8 year old boy I’m not going to sweat the small stuff. Thank you Sarah for being such an inspiration.