The planning for the suffragettes.....

This was the front of the cover for my old singer and you can see some of the print fabrics that I used along with lots of black fancies. Since I'm on the road a lot between the farm and mom's and the nursing home it's great having this project to tinker with in my brain... I love the planning and gathering for a new project...

Monday (1$ day) my very best friend and I are hitting the thrift stores... She ALWAYS drives and I always buy lunch.. We used to go every Monday but as we've aged and health and family issues have developed we only manage about once a month.. But we've done it so many years we shop "in sync"...even tho we split up while shopping we always manage to arrive at checkout at the same time.. We used to be able to hit about 6 stores but nowadays it is only 3 on a good day.. I'll be scouting out bargains for this new project.

I want to make cameos of some of the suffragettes similar to the cameo I put on the back of my singer cover... I used transparent water-slide decal paper to put an image on a blank plastic cabochon.. Even though the decal paper I had (left from a jewelry project) was for a laser printer, if I put on a couple coats of acrylic spray it works with my inkjet printer.

This has been an entire year of experimenting for me... I did Laurie's "out of your comfort zone" challenge, goldwork techniques on Leslie's block, a whole lot of stumpwork in a stumpwork RR and then the Art Nouveau and Art Deco in another RR plus the landscape block for the challenge...

Now I'm ready to plunge back into my comfort zone of lots and lots of lace and embellishing, embellishing, embellishing... It may be some while before I emerge again...if ever.... I should be finished, or about finished, with the challenge block and the "seams only" RR by the time I get the blocks made for the quilt... I plan on using some of Allie's piecing techniques.. Speaking of Allie she has a book coming out and I've already preordered it on Amazon... "Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting: Modern Piecing and Embellishment Techniques for Joyful Stitching" will be published by C & T Publishing in February 2011! I especially love the words "joyful stitching"

Morris the Mover

Morris spends a good part of his day wandering around the house collecting things he feels are misplaced and moving them to the living room.. He doesn't chew them or hurt them.... he simply piles them and looks for something else. By the end of the day there'll be a big pile that will include several shoes/slippers, a glove or two, toys, things he can snag from the laundry, always the dog bowls, etc. etc. It has to be the herding instinct.


Occasionally he decides to move the kitchen runner.. It is 8 ft long and as heavy as he is.. He tugs and pulls, huffs and puffs and grunts until he has it in the living room and then he collapses.. He not only has to pull it the length of the kitchen, he has to get it around a corner.. No small feat..


But the only problem is our Miss Molly is absolutely terrified of walking on linoleum and that rug is her lifeline to the front door. I know at that moment she's thinking "OMG! That little brat has done it again."

Hideko's Art Deco block finished

I just laid a black matte on it to set the block off. Everyone before me had layered seams, beads, hearts and lots of swirls..so I followed along... There were beads and glitz on every block, especially Leslie's so the large butterfly is embellished with crystals and silver beads although it doesn't show up that well in the photo.. Ritva had some unique fan lace which inspired my fan seam.

But the rose was directly from Hideko's prints she sent. I loved the little red patch and used the rose to bring the red into the block and the little heart "lanterns" brought it even further into the block.. I kept the other colors and all the swirly stitching subdued.

The stem of the rose curves into the butterflies and up around the large butterfly wings into the lanterns to form a frame around the center motif...

Then one last thing that tickled my fancy and proves that I really need to get a life... I was able to echo the pinstripes in the dark material with the chains on on the heart lanterns.. It's those kind of details that make my day..


Well I started out to make a CQ block for Hideko that was as simple and elegant as her lovely block......did I do it???

Finally......Courage in Corsets

A project that has long been on my list of things to do is a suffragette quilt but it never seemed to firm up in my mind... But recently I received this flyer announcing the opening of a 6-month exhibit at Spokane's museum celebrating the centennial of women's right to vote in Washington State..

What a stimulus it was... What I had always been leaning toward is a quilt showcasing various famous suffragettes whom I've studied and admired... But it was going to be a very big quilt and really just a lot of anonymous faces to most viewing the quilt unless I figured out ways to include their biographies... So instead of showcasing famous suffragettes I've now decided to make my quilt using a lot of anonymous faces celebrating the struggle, determination and celebration of the millions of women in this country and abroad...

I've collected dozens great photos over the years to choose from and am excited to get started...

Don't you just love this one?

And recently a lot of incredible photographs from this era were discovered in the Scotland Yard archives and released by BBC.

So while waiting on my mom at the nursing home I began making notes... My initial thoughts had been all black and black lace but I've abandoned that idea and will use materials similar to those I used on my singer cover (on the dark side and vintage prints) ...and lots of vintage lace. Maybe I could figure a way to use some famous suffragettes in very small cameo-like images...just a thought... I want to include various slogans but especially love "Courage in Corsets" which will be the name of the quilt... It's exciting to have this long nebulous idea finally taking shape..

Several years back just before I stopped doing dolls I became interested in doing suffragettes and did several ... The only one I kept and my favorite was one of Emmeline Pankhurst... I became totally obsessed with it and spent months working on it... I will take some pictures to post of it and the details.

Update on lace cottage block

I wanted a smaller "cottage" pocket on the other side of my UFO cottage tote... . I had started by sketching a cottage scene on a piece of fairly heavy white silk.

So the next thing I did was color it lightly with alcohol inks.... It was a big decision for the lace for the cottage walls and I went through my whole stash... The one perfect piece was really too small but it was a tiny remnant of very old lace which was gifted to me by Cathy Kizerian during my visit last winter... Because it was the perfect weight and texture AND a gift from a friend I was determined to make it work...

It took some creative piecing and may need a vine to cover a spot or two. The lace for the thatch (roof) was easier. This was all in July and the decisions I made doing everything and why are in this post if you are interested...http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

Now that it's this far along I'm thinking the old lace may be a bit fragile for a tote so it's future is undecided...probably the center for a piece of CQ. This has been my tote along needlework because I can easily stop and start and since it is almost all french knots it's mindless... And mindless is what I'm needing... My mother's longtime boyfriend, housemate, caregiver, and designated driver had a stroke and went to a rehab center after he was out of the hospital last week.. She is 91 and he is 90... She needs a walker and really couldn't be alone so I was staying there.. Then she had an "episode" with her heart and had to go in for a pacemaker on Thursday...

We're trying to get them into an assisted living facility because living independently is not an option any more... She came home today so until she can be moved (she's first on the waiting list) I'll be filling the roll of caregiver etc.... During that time I expect to get a LOT of stitching done... and everything else goes on hold...

Design Transfer by Cutaway

It's nice if you want to transfer an image and you can tape it to a window or light box and trace it...or if it is an iron-on image... And I know some stitchers put their images on plastic or tissue paper and stitch through it. Others put pinholes in the image and mark through the holes. I find these methods awkward at best.

This is a rose image I wanted to transfer to very dark (almost black) fabric on Hideko's block. I could have use a transfer paper similar to carbon paper but it smears and disappears as you work. But if you are putting your image on dark fabric or like I often do, felt, there is a technique I use and call cutaway transfer...

I did not use a white or colored pencil of any sort.. I used a black 000 permanent marker (albeit very carefully) The black showed up very well on the dark fabric and was going to be stitched over anyway.. (I'm doing this on white paper because it shows up better.)


Step one: Cut out the image and trace around it...

Step 2: Cut out the next biggest piece of the image and lay it in like a puzzle piece and trace around it.

Step 3: Again cut out the next biggest piece and put it in place and trace around it.

You end up with an image like the last one and it's easy to connect the few missing lines.. So in three easy tracing steps I easily replicated a rather intricate rose design.

It's not perfect but close enough once stitched. You can do this with most any image in 3-5 steps.



I use this technique a LOT with all kinds of images... the most recent was the Art Nouveau background for this owl on dark fabric.. It was irregular and had to be symmetrical. I drew it on card stock, cut it out, traced it, and began cutting away sections and tracing until I had the design on the fabric. Again I used a black 000 pen. I use it with birds a lot to get the right positioning on wings etc. I love this technique and use it again and again... it's quick and quite accurate. (and a life saver for those who say they can't draw...)

Butterfly decision - Hideko's block

Just a quick post this morning on butterflies... I wanted to use lace butterflies and dyed several. I didn't have that many but first tried three small butterflies on the left... too much the same and no variety... Then tried the large butterfly on the right...way too large and overwhelmed my rose...

Finally decided on this butterfly... color a bit off because it's still a little damp. It's small enough I can maneuver it around a bit but large enough it balances the rose and different from the other butterflies. ALL these butterflies will be heavily beaded..

I did the rose last night and am very happy with the effect of the red on black. Went through all my floss until I found an intense red that matched the patch on the right... I'm having second thoughts about bullion roses as it may make the block to "polka dotty" ...may just be pale, pale pink buds I'm thinking.. I keep repeating "encrusted but simple and elegant." Yeah, how easy can that be? You'll be the judge if I meet that goal...

Will put up a mini tut on how I transferred the rose to the black... Hope to do seams tonight.

REALLY fun bead assortments....

First I adore glass beads and second I have absolutely NO affiliation with this company except as a customer having discovered their bead assortments several years ago.... http://tinyurl.com/2ebltsg For a ridiculously low price you get a kilo of mixed beads. This is a large commercial baking tray that this kilo is on and I ordered

3 other kilos besides this one. The only catch is they are only available sporadically and if you miss them it might be 6 months before they are offered again... Obviously they are sweepings from a bead factory but in all colors, shapes, and sizes and even occasional lampwork beads...

I did so because I ordered 4 kilos several years ago and once separated I had trays of beads of every color of the rainbow. and enough to last for all I wanted to do and to share with friends... I was getting low and I missed them when they were available in the spring and had to wait until now.

I particularly like making jewelry with mismatched beads such as these necklaces.. so they are perfect for me but if you know of anyone working with youth groups and any craft group they would be a joyful activities for Christmas bazaars. They would make great needle fobs, key holders, and bookmarks.. In fact if I were still teaching kindergarten I would put them out for the children to sort, string, and learn their colors... They won't be available long but you can get on their list and they notify you when they will be offered ... They also sell other odd assortments of spacers and gemstones....but I love the glass.

And now Hideko's block

I've been pondering this block for several days now.. The colors are subdued and the image is very delicate.. It has a very winter look and feel to me.. very simple and elegant...

Hideko included about 6 pages full of lots of images from one of her favorite artists... There were recurrent themes.... hearts, swirls, roses, birds, candles and one butterfly..

I laid out all the blocks on the tables and tried to find what I wanted to do to my block that was different from the previous stitchers but still in harmony with the other stitchers.. All had included some heart imagery and all had lots of swirls and vines... All had used beads and some used lace.. Cathy's was my favorite with the bird in the cage...

I had wanted to use a bird to finish this RR but it wasn't going to work... although a gray heron on the gray velvet would have been spectacular.... but a bird of any size would compete with the rose which going to be the focal point of my block.. Also there is a very intense red patch and the background of the image is a rosy pink and there is a delicate pink in some of the fabric. I did dye some lace and to match the background it was 3 parts watermelon to 1 part pebble.... I just LOVE the names of the Adirondack inks...

I finally decided to work from this image of a rose and a butterfly... (see upper left on above page) My second choice would have been the vase of flowers on the lower right. I will still also include swirls, hearts and maybe some lace... I reversed the image so it will frame the young woman. Instead of one butterfly below the rose I'm thinking I will use 2 or 3 smaller ones and a larger butterfly on the gray velvet.... At this point I'm thinking of lots of bullion roses on climbing vines.

As usual things will change as I go along but at least I have a direction... I'm going in to stay with my mom tonite and not sure when or how often I will be home for a while....no computer... but don't that stop you from leaving comments... we all love comments...

Ritva's seam garden finished......

This is where I stopped a couple days ago...trying to decide how to finish the lace on the lower right plus a few more little seams to do...

This is where I ended today... I ran into a little problem today.... that little brown patch kept whispering to me that it really needed a spider web. I finally wrote Ritva and asked her if it was OK since technically it wasn't a seam. I experimented with the directions for a web in the newest issue of "Inspirations." I need to find a finer gold thread.. I had originally wanted to used the yellow as an "eye mover" and finally settled on blue... Even though I have an initial vision for a block everything continually changes and evolves.. I did manage though to get flowers on every seam for Ritva's seam garden... Now I can get it off to Helina in Finland a bit early....

Challenge 2010 progress and Hideko's block....

First you can see that the lace clouds and the fan in the sky have disappeared. Some sort of embossed velvet moon will eventually be there.... The other just never met up with my vision... Fans were one of the monthly challenges and even though I eliminated the one in the sky there is the fan bridge, fan seams, and I have two more beaded fans waiting to go on with the peacocks...

I added more fabric to shape the pond... embroidered the rocks on felt and appliqued them to the block... Also added the lace bridge which sorta looks like the tree is growing out of it. If I had added the lace bridge first I could have moved the tree over.... too late now..but after I get more shrubbery (white Xs) it should help that problem... I have started to add greenery above the rocks... Left to do before I can start on peacocks... more blossoms on cherry tree, more greenery behind the pond and on the rocks (green Xs), koi and waterlilies in pond and some surface stitching on the pond... THEN I get to do the peacocks and foreground which I have been wanting to do since the beginning...


But for now I will stop and finish Ritva's "seams only" block so I can get that mailed out early. Hideko's block came in yesterday's mail... I had known for months what I wanted to do on this block but now that it's here I can see that it won't work.... I've decided by the piecing that she must be going to assemble these "on point" I am last and all before me have beautifully coordinated with images provided by Hideko of work from one of her favorite artists... So I have pinned it to a bulletin board and will think on it a couple days and should have something worked out by the time I finish Ritva's block....

Not your usual kitchen appliance.....

....not in this country anyway.... Polenta was not one of my favorite dishes until I had it at the home of some Italian friends... Try as I might I could never make it as good... Cristina insisted I needed an Italian electric polenta maker like hers... Not only did she offer to bring me one on her next trip to Italy.. she hand carried it back on the plane... What a friend.... Like risotto, polenta improves with slow cooking and long stirring.....This paddle on the motor fits the shape of the copper pan and moves ever so slowly...

So this morning I made a big batch of polenta and I put it in a spring form pan so I could cut it up when chilled and saute it in olive oil... I also loaded a big batch of lamb ragu (fancy name for stew) into the slow cooker to serve on top of the polenta.... We only have enough lamb for 2 more dinners so it is good that November is coming up soon. I love having meat that we have grown and fed.





Remember the lovely basket of garden goodies my neighbor brought the other day? Well on Tuesday I used the tiny yellow zucchinis and the rest of the Swiss chard to make this quiche... Added a little bacon to it and topped with tomatoes... We had it for dinner and then the leftovers for breakfast the next day...

Now I'm rockin'......

I know. I know... I'm repeating myself but if I don't someone will ask... I'm starting the rocks on felt just like I would a bird......outlined with a very tight chain stitch... but with the rocks I outlined every rock to have neat edges to catch threads into... The nice thing about having 50 years of good old cotton DMC thread is that you acquire a huge variety of colors.. I must have 20 shades of gray in my cotton thread stash..

I also got an email from Susie W. offering advice on using Edmar thread... I'm going to try it and am passing it along to you...

Susie W: "I got a beginning BE book published by Edmar. As I was reading I noted they say after you cut a length of thread you should 'twist' the ends. One end will ravel much more easily and further up the length of thread. This is the end you should knot ..... putting the other end through the needle eye. I did this (correctly once) and my stitching went great. Did it again (incorrectly) and had an awful time - the thread twisted funny and made knots - in fact I then stopped .... knotted the other end ..... and was a happy stitcher again. Don't know if this will help you, but may be worth a try." Thanks Susie I will try it as I do love the glossy look of the threads...

Challenge Block 2010 - recap - update

My absolute favorite activity on CQI are the monthly challenges which were an inspiration by Cathy K. In years past I have kept up with them monthly...and getting behind has left me disconnected from the group... I love being challenged continually so I want to get back on track.

To recap I used the colors in these fabric swatches as my focal colors and the blues and aquas are so far out of my comfort range that I did not have a single one in my stash... Every fabric in my block came from a gift package from Nicki Lee... Thank you Nicki.


I'm not all that far behind... I have touched on Curved piecing and fans (Jan), Birds (March), 5-layer stitches (April), Dimensional Embroidery (May), Frames (June) Landscape (July)...August ( Glitz), and December (gold work). Now I just need to experiment more with all of them and add the months I missed...



I framed the silkie with my gold braid and the cherry blossom branches and embroidered the peacock bodies and wings on felt... I had originally wanted one peacock near the silkie but decided to add another in a different pose in the foreground... They will be added at the very last because they would be impossible to stitch around and you'll just have to wait to see them... Their tail feathers will be very, very art deco and beaded heavily and outlined in gold...



Last night I pinned the block to a cork board and thought about it as I went to sleep...this morning I set it in the kitchen and pondered while I cleaned up from the dinner yesterday and then thought all about it while Morris and I walked in the forest... And here are some of my conclusions...


I had originally envisioned a stream in the garden but I've decided to turn the stream in a lily pond so I can add water lilies and koi. I always wanted a bridge and decided I will try to dye some lace to make the bridge and trim it in gold...

And I want rocks rocks and more rocks along the edge of the pond. I will do them all on felt as it would be too hard to embroider them on the block over seams... Some I will do singly and some in groups. I also need two boulder types... one by the bridge and one in the forefront. Some will be overlapped and some will be padded for dimension.


Since it's spring because the cherry trees are in blossom, there needs to be some smaller flowering shrubs as well.. I still have mixed feelings about the lace clouds but will see as the rest develops. I'm thinking at this point I may paint them with alcohol dyes... no decision yet tho.. And I'm not happy with silk on the mountain because it is so transparent and will probably redo that in velvet... But after all this pondering I feel really energized about getting this project going again..... and the rocks on felt should be reaaaaaaaallly cool....

Finally just in case you read one of my original posts about this challeng on 12/12/2010 http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2009/12/misc-thoughts-on-2010-challenge-block.html I did say I was going to just use Edmar threads... but I just hate Edmar rayon threads and I bought soooooooooo many last year in CO... They just lay in the drawer and taunt me.... I'm still waiting for the miracle that will make me love them...

Morris has a comfort zone...

Morris definitely has his comfort zone clearly defined and it must include pillows... He will spend a great deal of time arranging and rearranging the couch pillows to his satisfaction...

But sometimes a guy just has to make do...

And more flower seams for Ritva

I'm far enough along on this block now that I can take a breather and do some work on my cottage motif and finally get back to my CQI Challenge block which I have missed dearly and am sooooooooooo far behind.. It will take days to get back into the groove on that one... When something sits for months I lose my whole train of thought...

As I continually add more of my focal colors - green, pink and cream - the colors themselves begin to form a pattern on the block... It will be bits of blue which will move your eye around... I'm waiting for an inspiration on how I want to embellish the lace - lower right.....

Ritva send me a picture of a lovely old yellow church in her town.. I always think of that church when working on Ritva's blocks.

And if you make a motif long and skinny enough, can you call it a seam treatment??? LOL

Nothing like fresh from the garden......

My neighbor Liz stopped by late afternoon with this beautifully arranged basket of late harvest from her garden... She knew I was having a dinner party tomorrow and what goodies she brought! Besides the large bunches of basil and rosemary there is Swiss chard, purple potatoes, fingerling potatoes, about 20 baby squashes of different varieties, same with the tomatoes and some Italian onions..(They look like giant purple green onions..) Last but not least she added a bunch of nasturtiums and violets I can add to the salad... I'll serve it with the halibut my son sent from Alaska...

She had been there earlier in the afternoon as I was stitching away and offered to untangle two balls of perle that Morris has demolished... When she finished she asked if I had anything else she could sort while we visited.... SILLY QUESTION! I immediately started pulling drawers of lace.... It's only October and if she stops often enough this winter she can sort all my stash and then I'll teach her to crazy quilt...

A day later........

I spend last evening on just two seams... I had put a pink bead in the middle of the scallops of the lace yesterday but it wasn't bold or "dotty" enough to balance the pink dots in the white ribbon... Then I found these pink shell rounds in my bead stuff that were perfect...next I beaded around the scallops and added ribbon buds...

I used one of Carole's templates to make the scalloped green line below and then proceeded to pretty much bury it in leaves and yellow buds...

I'm wanting each seam to be a part of a flower garden for Ritva... I can tell that seam making is going to be a compromise for me no matter what my intentions... I always aspired to do lovely abstract seams like Jo Newsham but it's not likely to happen...

Today's tip: I always check out the "junky" jewelry at the thrift store and often find necklaces and bracelets made with dyed shell rounds...very crudely made. Both the color and texture are very irregular but I love using them... They are perfect for CQ... And if I find white ones I can dye them myself... They are always cheap, cheap, cheap... This is something very useful that might be easily overlooked..

Update on "Seams Only" block

My first step was to start working lightly around the block with the colors I chose as focal colors.... green, pink and ivory...trying to keep it balanced. Now I will really get serious about the seams now. The oval pink beaded centers in the lace are repeated with the white hyacinths upper right..

Some design elements that you might want to note....... I do want to bring tiny bits of the blue around the blocks. But I did not want to bring the orange into the block so I overwhelmed it with the lacy daisies seam.. I love the little pink dots on the ribbon and will probably echo that somewhere else...

I always try to pick up elements from the blocks before me in a DYB and Cathy had a lot of lovely floral seams in the block she did so I will carry on with that now....

I only had two dark MOP buttons and painted haunted houses on them. One is 1 1/4" and the other is 1 1/2". Unfortunately I just couldn't capture the dark iridescence color with camera...but they are cool believe me! I added them to my etsy shop.. I have some new 18/0 brushes by Loew Cornell and I love them... The handles are very fat and easy to hold. An 18/0 makes a 10/0 brush look so big....