bumpy things......

 Another section for toe wrap two and more bumpy bits. These are quite a bit bigger than the last ones and I have added hand embroidery to some areas. It is very restful to pick this up of an evening and sit stitching in front of the t.v. .....a quick damp stretch before I go to bed, (the embroidery, not me!!) and it's all dried out and beautiful by the time I've had my beauty sleep.

It's been hectic this morning, won't go into details but I think it's build up of stuff to do, lists to tick before I go away next week. I tick from the top and things get added to the bottom???? Will it ever end...well yes I suppose it will when I actually leave the house and lock the door.

One of the things on my list was to put something out there in the hope that one of you knows the answer. I have had  little help from some of you already and now I would like to know if anyone out there knows of a place in Las Vegas where I am likely to get vintage linen, hankies, runners, napkins, tablecloths..that kind of stuff. I wait with pen and map in hand! It can't all be bright lights and poker surely?

in my hoop and on my table...

I am still contemplating but productively. Whilst the brain is ticking the fingers are working on toe wrap two...making progress on this. I am realising how delightful it can be to have colour and brightness in your work after weeks of white. That isn't intended as a negative towards white, merely a recognition of the benefits of colour. I think I may just concentrate on this for now, no new major projects yet. I am going away on holiday in early November and may plan something new and large whilst I am away. 

For now, this will be enough...along with my mini class.

titivations....

Unfortunately these aren't edible and as I have a very poor relationship with any kind of cooking implement I am not inspired to take them forward into sweet little edible delicacies, sorry about that. They are merely a toy, a plaything, a kind of worry bead for me to fiddle with once toe wrap two is finished and adorning my cold feet. Prairie points, Rouleau Loops and funky puffs...what more does a cold foot need.

I have also assembled the first of two pieces I need to complete the surface. When this one is embellished and the second one too I will be able to back it...can't wait!!

Right, can't hang about today I'm afraid. My son returned from the USA this morning and I am about to be buried under an avalanche of dirty washing!!

dots, knots and prairie points

Well technically they are not dots, they're little squares when you look closely but overall the impression is of dots wouldn't you say? This is another section of toe wrap two finished.....amazing. I seem to be making really quick progress with this one. The part of this you can't see is the section where I used cutwork on the red stripe with lace behind. I felt the need to have a stripe-less post today so that's why I have cropped that part out of the picture. I have to say that I always love the seams that are embellished with french knots. They kind of look like a 'proper' trim (as in shop bought) as they are so substantial and textured.

This will have to be put away for a while now though. No more toe wrap for at least 2 or 3 days. My wedding piece is ready to be damp stretched, mounted on a board and posted off to it's owner. I have had a request for more wedding favours too, ten this time so you will be seeing those shortly. Also there are my little books of embroidery, or sketchbooks. I am quite anxious to get those finished and as I only have six of the thirty pieces of embroidery that I need I think I should get a shake on!! So saturday night, party night. My place will be rocking to the sound of a hand embroidery needle...and the kettle, What about yours???

ignore the raggy edges and loose threads...

My absence yesterday was due to me having a few ''raggy'' edges of my own...I thought relaxing and taking it easy, embroidering and handling cloth would make me feel better...nope, I feel worse if anything so why stay away again..this may make me feel better., Anyway, back to the real raggy edges and loose threads...I played with my so far embellished sections of toe wrap 2, seeing how they look together, rearranging a little. Tell you what, I was pleasantly suprised. It all fits better than I thought in terms of fabrics, colours etc. I do think I need to add a little more of the red stripe for balance but in order to avoid the panic of running colour I have since washed that cloth and hopefully the running won't happen again.

Friday,  after page cutting and book wrapping I embroidered a section of the piece with the prairie points. Little heart cutouts with fine cotton lawn showing through. For the next stage of this I think I will add some applique with the red stripe, that's for later. My inbox is crammed with unanswered stuff. I am going to try and get started on that soon, be patient though...please.

Yesterday as I sat all forlorn and feeling sorry for myself I made amazing progress with my wedding piece, that's almost finished I think. Not ready for stretching yet and I will need a good weather day to get images but suffice to say I am more than happy with the result so far.

damp stretched...

That's more like it, flowers finished and damp stretched...I am happy now. The prairie points are also ''in situ'', under a lacy band that absoluety killed my fingers to stitch on it is so thick. I reckon I was stitching through the equivalent of five layers of fabric putting that on. It was worth it though, the texture of the piece is gorgeous when you actually handle it. I don't want these pictures to mislead you so to clarify, the flower section finshed section three of toe wrap 2. The prairie points are on section four which still needs lots of work.

This is section three, a view of the full, finished piece. When I sprayed this for damp stretching last night the red didn't run again which was a relief. My heart was in my mouth for a while. I am not 100% sure that I will be happy with how the three finished pieces look together. I may play with that a bit later, take some time just to look and arrange, maybe even decide somthing else is needed to draw it all together.

Today has been really busy and I'm feeling a bit ''under the weather'', aching and hot. I have had a bit of a run on my books and I ran out of ink. Anyway it arrived yesterday so I have been cutting pages, wrapping and posting all morning. It's always a relief when they actually go in the bag at the post office, job done so to speak. The rest of the day I'm going to take it easy, no more cutting, printing, wrapping in fact nothing that requires standing or bending or exertion of any kind....what a tragedy, looks like I will have to sit and embroider...

it's that fine cotton lawn again...

Told you I loved it, love it. love it, love it...I have used it to finish the first piece of number two...only another (don't know how many) to go! You may have noticed an absence of rouleau loops in this one. That's because the fabrics I am using for this are all smallish pieces, not enough to allow me to cut bias strips. I am going to have to do something about that...thinking cap on..never fear, they will appear in some form when I join the pieces together. In the meantime there are always prairie points...they don't eat up as much cloth so they are on the list to do next.

Thanks for all the reaction to yesterdays post. I have to say that my toes were very toasty this morning whilst I was having my first coffee of the day...last night too as I was stitching. There it was, laid across my feet on the sofa. I always sit with my feet up at the side of me, plays havoc with the knees but hey, it's worth it for the adornment.

blame the weather....

Sorry!! honestly I really am...it's the rain, the wind, the cloud. It is far too gloomy to unveil my toe wrap. The weatherman tells me tomorrow may?? be better, let's hope so. It is ready, it is finished, I had the pleasure of it warming my toes this very morning, wonderful!!! I love it so much. To keep you going I will show you progress on toe wrap two instead...there are three pieces of this tacked together, some embellished areas, some as yet untouched. The top picture shows the ''newest'' embroidery done last night until the early hours. That's my lovely bird fabric cut up and appliqued.

This isn't necessarily how it will look, where the pieces will be placed when it's finished. There are a lot of sections yet to be made. This picture just illustrates how they all go together at the moment. and I'm still not sure about that red....

there's a new page at the top......do you like?