Cy - Crazy Quilting at last

Phew! Finally I have some stitching to show you. 

We've been so busy here on the farm lately that I've not had much time left over for sewing.

The grass is almost ready for cutting and bailing again and that will be another busy time here at 'Lewis Acres'.

But for now, here is what I've been up to.

Crazy Quilting with 'Kathy Shaw' inspired seams plus a few 'personal flourishes' of my own.

Plenty of room left on these seams for the addition of beads and SRE.

I'm just waiting for the postman to bring my new supply of Silk Ribbons.

I had to order more because my original stash is packed away in sealed boxes in the shipping container, and no way am I going in there to start opening up already packed boxes, lol, assuming, of course, that I can find the 'correct' box.

And just in case you are wondering about the background fabric.... it is all my own hand dyed neutrals.

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Cy ~ Heart Quilt ~ Fun Time

Some stitching fun was had this week

The 'sun' puff started life as another project last year, but it was not suitable for that in the end, so it has ended up on this patch with embellishment.

Velvet heart

And a flower

I make no excuses for putting bullion stitches in the middle instead of French knots. I had my fill of FK's last week.

Cy ~ Crazy Quilt week 4

 Straight From The Heart 

 Crazy Quilt Week 4 

A 'broken' heart gets mended.

 Crochet flowers with bullion knots and French knots.

Buttonhole wheels with whipped chain stitch.

Detail pics are on my blog here.

Auditions for the backing fabric for this project are taking place.

Barbara's Catching Up

I'm catching up with the CQJP, stitching my May block with the TAST stitches from last month.  There on the bottom you can see that I did a half chevron stitch seam embellished with buttons.  The little yellow bird is being auditioned for that spot.  It's the bird or a red poppy, I haven't decided yet.

I used bullion stitch to add fanciful flowers to a branch that frames the white crane.  I like bullion stitch, it has a nice rhythm to it once you get going.  I added glass leaf-shaped beads instead of embroidering them.

The basic design for the branch comes from this 1970s-era crewel embroidery book.  I've added this to my collection in the past few years, but I know we also had one of these at home when I was growing up.

I stitched this vine motif when I was a teenager.  This piece of crewel embroidery was turned into a pillow and then had an unfortunate run through the laundry, but I still have it.

 It was an important learning piece.  Instead of the original poem I substituted a stanza (it continues on the back) of W.B. Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."  Here's the whole poem:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

You can hear a recording of Yeats reading the poem here on poets.org.  His lovely

recitation sounds like singing.

Judy~Not Much to Show but Bullions

Precious little sewing happened here this week as we're getting ready to head to the Midwest for a mini-reunion. Here's a peek at my next SBS block where I fiddled around with some more bullion knots. The little bunny is from the book and the flower petal is an adaption of a suggested flower. The bullion knots have 24 wraps and are couched...crookedly. Maybe I'll improve with more petals as practice. Don't know how much you'll hear from me till later in the month. Happy Stitching!

Judy~Butterfly Chain Stitch and Other Bugs, TAST

This stitch landed on the yoke of Sue's dress. It's probably easier to do with thicker thread? After last week's post, I had fun trying a couple of ideas from my A-Z of Bullions book. Can you find them? Finally got around to stitching Sue's backrest as well as the leaves. The latter was a rather feeble attempt at the raised  fishbone stitch. At this point, I'm hoping that the next stitch will be useful for the tulips.....time will tell! Today is our grandson's third birthday. In case you'd like to see what he's getting from us, check my blog. If you also look on the sidebar, there's a choir link to a video of our presentation of Gjielo's Sunrise Mass; it's a wonderful piece of music.

Cy - TAST Bullion Knot - CQJP May WIP

I was dreading the appearance of this stitch in TAST. I have never managed to get it anything near right in the past. I just had too many fingers and thumbs getting in the way of my wraps, and no amount of adjusting would get the knot to stay in place without unraveling itself.

So, good old Percy (perseverance) stepped in to help me overcome my fear of this stitch.

The light brown thread of the bullion knots in this 1st pic was a very stupid choice for me to trial the stitch.

Not only is it one of the thinnest threads I've got, making it very difficult to hold and wrap etc., it is also the wrong colour to show up on that seam, and it has ended up being rather insignificant.

After all the struggle and effort of learning the bullion I wanted it to have a bit more 'oomph' than that. It is so tiny even the camera had trouble finding it.

After that mis-adventure I picked up cotton floss and used all 6 strands to make a repeating pattern. It could be clamshells, bow-tie or duck feet (haha) take your pick.

I'm still not happy with the evenness of the knots, but hey, at least it's not unwrapping now.

And just when I thought I was done with the bullion knot stitch, up pops a thought that I could add big textured flowers to the bright cushion I'm making for my mum.

Now this is more like it. It's a lot easier with wool.

Two and a half big pink bullion knot flowers.

So it looks like I might have finally managed a half-decent bullion knot at last.

CQJP May WIP

This is the naked block I have made for my May block, and I have started stitching with the bullion knot (above) on it this week.

Happy Stitching

Carol - TAST, Bullion Knot

A few of us in Stitch Twelve had copies of "Threadworks" by Effie Mitrofanis - silks, stitches, beads and cords.   When Sarah said she would like to visit India I knew this afforded me the opportunity to dip into Effie's book and when I asked Sharon if we could please have Bullions this month, she again obliged (Effie does like her bullions). 

I attached rolled silk sari ribbon with invisible thread and then stitched bullions, 18/20 wraps using perle 8 and then added strings of beads.

My second effort involved linked bullion stitches, 20/24 wraps using perle 8, with a raised chain band worked on the links using Kreinik metallic thread.

With considerable help, guidance and encouragement from Debra I dusted off my Embrodiery Module (got it out from its original wrapping), downloaded an image, loaded this onto my machine, pressed "go", sat back and hey presto I now have the Taj Mahal for my facing page (it really was a little more complicated than that).   Wished I had trimmed that rh side, but was anxious to get it stitched. 

Angela~ Bullion Knot

 I had never worked bullion knot before and had some difficulty with it.  The video was a great help as I am a visual learner.  Most of this journal page is worked in stem stitch with some straight stitching.

The gold metallic 'lights' around the sign are bullion knots.  I started beside the W and worked my way around the bottom and to the right and you can see my work got better as I went.  I actually did very well with the first practice stitches I did in cotton thread.  The metallic thread took more practice.  I decided to leave the not so great knots there as a lesson to myself.

Las Vegas was founded on May 15, 1905 and I chose the subject because when I was 20 we took a family vacation there and there were a lot of firsts for me.  My first airplane trip, my first taxi ride, my first experience of room service at the hotel and my first experience of casinos.  I wasn't quite old enough for gambling yet, but no one asked and I only played the slot machines.

Susan: TAST 19 CQJP

Here's the progress. There will be more done on that bouquet, but not with bullion stitches.



Not sure why I did the stitching around the butterfly except it seemed the right thing to do. =)

Judy~ Bullion Knot, TAST

Poor ol' Sue is still collapsed against that stump. She must need some vitamins, since the few flowers I managed to stitch this week didn't cut it apparently. I finished the flowers on her hat and dress and used the bullion knot, lots of them, to make the daisy petals. A milliner's needle really helps!If you like this stitch, the A-Z of Bullions is a great little resource for creative ways to use this stitch.

This weekend is a crazy choir one for us with a morning rehearsal today and 2 services tomorrow as well as a memorial service in the afternoon, so I won't get to reading your posts or commenting till Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!  Gotta go review my Latin.

Debra: TAST-Bullion Knot --Shisha

Undorned Shisha button



Bullion Knot Whatevers!

I know, too impressive for words!  *wink*

TAST:Week 20- Bullion Knot

The TAST Stitch for the Week of May 14 is the Bullion Knot.
For more information and examples, check here on Sharon B's blog.

Sharon has some additional information about stitching the Bullion Knot that may be helpful for you.

Photo Courtesy of Pin Tangle