A Perfect Combination of Events

It's always interesting to look back at what might 

have influenced you in a certain direction

 when you're ready to start something new.

Here are 4 perfect events that influenced me.

1.  As a quilter and a X-stitcher, we have all been

saddened by the passing of Barb Adams, who was

part of Blackbird Designs along with Alma Allen. 

This lead me to revisit all of their wonderful books and patterns

I've collected over the years.  

So many wonderful ideas.

2.  I recently sorted through my wool fabrics and

decided to share pieces with friends.

I had a large piece of off white wool.  When I 

showed my friends they all said, "Kyle, put that back

in your stash.  You might need that!"

3.  Also in the past 2 months I have relocated

most of my fabric stash from one place to another.

The good part is that you familiarize yourself again

with what you have and the bad part is

you realize just what you have!

My flannel collection had not been reduced in quite awhile

and I thought maybe I should work on that.

4.  Ideas come and go like the ebbing of the tides, but one

that I always seem to come back is a log cabin design.

I had been thinking about making blocks with a larger

center square and using the center as a platform for an applique.

****

So where did all of that lead me?

The idea was sparked from a pattern found in a series of booklets

called Christmas Memories.

I pulled red and green flannels

and cut strips.  Then I subcut the strips 

into the correct lengths for the log cabin pieces.

I find if I take the time to do that,

my blocks stay square and all the same size,

especially if you use your walking foot on your machine

when you're working with flannels.

But before I sewed the blocks together, I 

fused off white wool snowflakes to the large center squares and

then whipped the edges with a DMC wool floss.

Once the blocks were sewn they lacked the luster

of new fallen snow.

It was then I decided to stitch crystal beads 

to the points of the 20 snowflakes.

I attached the 3 beads to each point as a separate unit.

Just in case a bead becomes loose, all of them won't fall off.

For quite awhile, I was in a spot waiting for inspiration

and not having anything in mind of what to work on next.

I do like where all of the different influences ended up leading me.

"Perfectly Imperfect"

57" x  69"

 I'm glad I was open to combining events and letting

my creative muse inspire my imagination.

I hope you are too.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Thank you, Sue Spargo. It's Just What I Needed!

I found I've been needing

a little change of pace.

I had been thinking about

finding an interesting wool project 

to work on.

A couple weeks ago

Sue Spargo started a free

project called the Tone - Down Sampler

on Instagram.

Sounded lovely.

I found the perfect soft pastel wools

in my wool bins, cut out 30- 1 3/4" circles

and whipped them onto a piece of neutral colored linen.

Sue's project has smaller circles placed 

on a wool background and she is

sharing 90 circle designs!

I knew my attention span and my skill level

would be challenged by that.

So I took the idea and made it fit me.

I ordered a few more of Sue's wonderful

Eleganza Perle Cotton thread from her shop.

Yes, they are shipping and 

I needed a treat in the mail.

Before we had more snow last week,

I sat outside and got organized.

Don't you love theses old lunch boxes!

Some of Sue's Eleganza Perle Cotton

in the #8, #5, and #3 weight

and some DMC Perle Cotton

in #8, and #5 weight

Who could resist

 a couple spools of Razzle and Dazzle 

threads to add just a bit

of sparkle and bling.

I could have ordered a lot more

and maybe, as I'm working on my circles 

I might just do that!

Because I'm working with fewer circles

in my sampler, I've been picking and choosing

which designs to do.

Sue' has daily videos that accompany

each new design and stitches.

They're wonderful,

 showing you exactly

how to do the new stitches for the day.

I've never been able to take a class from Sue,

but I can tell she has lots of patience.

She repeats and explains things clearly

in her soft soothing voice.

Some embroidery stitches are fairly easy

while others are more challenging.

Yet each gives me an opportunity

to be creative and

an opportunity to

 practice all those awesome stitches,

as well as to play with color and texture.

This project is

just what I needed to spice life up.

26 more circles to go.

****

Just a photo from the weekend.

Anyone else found this to be a very unusual Easter holiday?

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Embroidered Hearts

It was time to gaze into my crystal ball

to see if I was ever going to finish my

Sue Spargo Embroidered Heart to Heart bag.

The crystal ball revealed that

the embroidery had been done for awhile.

The individual wool hearts

were complicated and a delight to work on.

Lots of time, 

a wide variety of thread sizes and colors

and lots of different stitches.

What small woolly wonders.

But that was all in the past.

So what did the future show.

It showed the part 

that always seems to trip me up,

making it into a bag with a zipper.

I needed to adapt the pattern 

because the wool I used for the bag

was a bit heavy.

It would be too thick to stitch

the zipper the traditional way.

Because the wool felted so nicely,

I stitched the raw edge right up next to the zip.

Adapted the lining too and 

Wow!  The future was actually looking good.

The bag was finished.

It stitched up fairly easily.
It stitched almost perfectly.

Could my future hold more bags?
Not anytime too soon.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Wascally Wabbits

I seem to have 

an abundance of rabbits in my yard.

 Every time my little granddaughter

comes over,

we immediately begin to search for 

the Hoppies that live at Nana's house.

Sometimes we're lucky and see one,

but most of the time we don't.

We have very sneaky bunnies.

I thought of the two of us

on our wabbit walks

while I stitched

this delightful prim wool table mat.

"Wabbits"

2014

21" x 28"

****

This is a pattern designed by 

Lynda Hall and her granddaughters

and was in the 2012 Spring edition of 

Primitive Quilts and Projects.

****

I had cut the pieces awhile ago

 

dipping into my wool stash.

The large background piece 

was a wool skirt

 seams and all.

I lighted  up the piece

 using springtime colors.

I used a simple primitive whip stitch

around the shapes,

  either with wool embroidery thread

or perel cotton.

Now that it's spring,

those wascally wabbits might be multiplying.

I'm sure 

on our next wabbit walk

we'll be finding

Hoppies around every corner.

Until Next Time-

I'm Still Transitioning

Back in February when I started

working on the wool project

"Folk Art Album"
by Primitive Gatherings

it was suppose to be a quick transition project 

from winter to spring.

But I had forgotten several things.

1.  cutting and fusing small pieces of wool can take

a lot of time.

2. I'm a fast  button holer and even with 

my secret elf's help, all those small
pieces have taken a lot of time to stitch around.

3.  Then the blocks needed to be sewn together

 with the pieced lattice.

4.  When the borders are intricate wool applique pieces,

they take as much time as the blocks.


The only saving grace is that
winter has clung on here in Colorado.
Last weeks snow accomulation was
over 15 inches.

Our elusive spring has thankfully given me more
transition time.
So I'll keep on stitching.

Until Next Time-
Kyle

An Elf?

 Do you remember the story of the 

Elves and the Shoemaker?

At night the shoemaker would leave pieces of leather

on his workbench and in the

morning he'd find  a new pair of shoes
 magically stitched together.

The poor shoemaker was thankful to receive this

 help from his mysterious helpers.

The same thing has been happening to me.

I had started one of my wool blocks, but
hadn't had time to finish it.

But look what I found!

The block was finished with

beautiful buttonhold stitching 

around every wool piece.

In the fairy tale

the shoemaker eventually discovered

who was helping him.

I think I've discovered my 

secret helper too.

Thanks, Elizabeth!

  Until Next time-

A Transition

I may be wishing for spring,

but it is still winter here.

So until the tulips are in bloom,

 my next project 

from my 11 PPP list, 

or my 11 project progress plan,

is a combo of wool and spring flowers.

I'm calling it my transition project.

It's Lisa Bongean's Folk Art Album pattern.

I've had it prepped for quite awhile,

wool, flannel, and the perfect perel cottons threads

all collected together.

It's interesting to think about
 the different factors that can 

cause me to get distracted and abandon
a project I love and move on to something else.

It can be as simple, as seeing what someone else is working on,

or it can be the complications of life.

It can be a mistake that I've made that can halt me right
in my tracks especially if it seems too big of a huddle
at the time,

or if I don't have all of the supplies handy it can
cause me to look for fun somewhere else.

The reason I stopped on this particular project
was not having all the right colors of perel cottons threads.
 It meant remembering to bring
the color numbers that I
needed when I went to the only shop
in the area that carries the Valdani brand.

Not a big deal, but by then I had moved on.


But over the course of a year,
 I have collected what I needed and

I'm ready to tackle this sweet wool applique project again.

It will be the perfect transition into spring,
some wool for the cold days left
and the flowers designs for the anticipation of warm days to come.

Until Next Time-