Tiny Stitches and Paying in Foward

Look what came in the mail on Friday! I've been checking my mailbox with anticipation every day for more than a week. This gorgeous embroidery sampler was hand stitched by Maya the Embellisher. She hosted a giveaway in June and I was the very lucky winner. Maya's Blog is titled "Million Little Stitches" and this sampler lives up to her reputation. Oh my these are tiny stitches, smaller than the head of most pins. All done with a single strand of embroidery floss. I love how she inserted subtle changes of color in certain places. It just makes the embroidery shine.

My great, great Grandparents moved to the United States from Norway and Germany. Many of the motifs in Maya's work remind me of handwork and knitting that I have seen in my home since childhood. Her work will have a cherished place in my home. Thank you Maya for your generosity!

To pay my good fortune forward I am hosting a giveaway that ends this evening (Sunday) on my Dye Candy Blog. Click here to enter.

The Results

Here is the finished embroidered laundry bag (from my last post) in it's new home at Patsy's Homestead Cabin Retreat. I made it to fit in this old washtub which is now a display for my hand dyed fabrics.

Can you imaging having to wash your laundry by hand? I know some of my Amish neighbors still do. I wonder if they are lucky enough to have a "Speed Queen" washtub like Patsy. :)

Patsy has an incredible knack for finding and using found items. See this post and this post for a look at her creative mind. I love exploring the nooks and crannies of her retreat. There is always something new to find.

I have my list of items that are not stocked at our local quilt shops. I leave tomorrow for Paducah with my girlfriends. We are all so excited. I hope we sleep well tonight!

Talk to you when we return!

P.S. I just posted pictures of shibori dyed fabrics on my Dye Candy blog. I am taking a class from Marjie McWilliams through Quilt University. I am having so much fun playing and getting messy.

Playing with Pencils and Needles

I love my colored pencils. They are the beginning of so many of my creations. A little doodle..
becomes a design

Then a work in progress

And then

A finished piece.

Pardon the wrinkles. I used too much wash away blue ink and had to soak the fabric 3 times before all the ink disappeared. I wanted a bit of a rustic feeling to the embroidery. I used 3 strands of floss on the yellow flowers which gives them a rough finished look.

This embroidery design is on a laundry bag I made recently. It will be part of a display for my hand dyed fabrics at Patsy's Homestead Cabin quilt retreat.

My long awaited trip to Paducah starts on Wednesday at 5:00 am. I am looking forward to travel with wonderful quilting friends to the AQS quilt show. I hope to see you there. If you see me say hello.

A Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the crazy quilt block I just completed for the current president of the Friendship Quilt Guild. I was so pleased to have a chance to use my imagination. Each year we make a quilt for our current guild president as a thank you for their service. The theme is chosen by the president but she does not get to see the progress until May when the completed quilt is presented.

My apologies for the brief posts I've made lately. Something had to give way to make room for all the other things going on in my life. I have attended two weekend retreats this month. No, this in not normal for me but it sure was a great way to start the New Year.

I also taught a class about hand piecing quilt blocks at the Piecemakers Guild which meets at Patsy's Retreat once a month. This was the first time I taught the class so I had some work to do to get the samples in order for class.

Last weekend was our annual Sleep-In for the Friendship Quilt Guild. Our Art Quilt group met to share paints, markers and other messy embellishments. We also did a little color discharge from fabric. Lots of fun and a great chance to see which products worked well and which did not.

Here is another project we worked on at the overnight. Our group is sewing pillowcases for children with cancer. These pillowcases will go to the cancer ward at UW Hospital in Madison. We made 40 pillowcases on Saturday. I was able to finish 3 at the overnight and have 4 more to complete this weekend. Suzanne will continue to collect these into next month. See info on RC blog for details.

The biggest reason I have not been blogging as frequently is exercise. I used to read and write my blogs in the morning before work. I am now riding my exercise bike each morning. More about that soon.

I recently started using Google Reader to read posts and have sometimes waited so long that I have 200 posts to read before I can get caught up. Please know I am reading and enjoying what you write. I am not commenting as much as I used to because Google Reader does not have a option to comment (or am I missing something?). Also, please note I do not reply to comments on my own blog but will e-mail a reply to you if you enable the e-mail feature when you leave a comment. I welcome comments and e-mails.

Wishing you all lots of time to create and dream. - Chris

Inspiration Found Far and Wide

Last week I received a package in the mail that I had been waiting for not so patiently. It was a barrette purchased from Jackie of DogDaisyChains. I fell in love with her work the first time I saw it and had been waiting for just the right thing to come up for sale in her store. Two weeks ago she posted a picture of this barrette on her blog and I knew it was what I had been looking for. I contacted her and it was mine :)

Jackie is an extremely talented artist. She has superior hand and machine embroidery skills. She works with her own handmade silk paper and velvet which she hand dyes and embroiders. She is also a needle felter. Please take the time to visit her blog. She has links to her Etsy store and she also has links to her work on Flickr (a must see).

My new treasure inspired my recent dye lot. I wanted to dye a shirt that would match Jackie's work. I will give you a glimpse of the shirt in my next blog. I mixed up some lemon yellow dye and some sky blue dye so I could dye some yardage for my store. I planned for leftovers so I could dye the shirt. The fabric turned out beautifully! Hope you like it.

More Treasured Items

My hand embroidered velvet crazy patch purse was just featured in an Etsy treasury this week. Thanks Desiree for blogging about us too. Her theme was "Phenomenal Fuchsia" and I have to agree. Her choice are gorgeous. I started making these purses a few years ago after taking a class from my friend Marcia Wachuta a former school teacher that is now a long arm quilter. She does amazing free motion quilting work.

When Marcia was unable to teach a class at our local quilt guild, the Friendship Quilters, I was asked to take her place. I really had a lot of fun teaching this class and went on to teach at the other guild I belong to in Hillpoint, WI the Piecemakers Quilt Guild. Thank you Marcia for giving me the push to teach. I really enjoy it. I've since gone on to teach hand embroidery and hand applique classes and really feel confident in my skills.