All that's Glitter is not gold! But WOW!

I ran away from home today but didn't go farther than the dining table... I did NO housework, didn't even answer the phone...  just stitched. And it was Janet's goldwork block I was working on.

Unfortunately it's hard to capture with the camera how opulent the gold is.  I have 6 different trims framing the silkie and they will be further embellished with beading..
It is so beautiful...and the stitching is great fun.

I am using all my inexpensive trims and sulky gold thread for couching.  The more colors of gold I use, the richer it looks..

The biggest part of my stitching day was couching the outline of her Christmas cardinal... I did a lot of experimenting and redoing but I'm happy with him now and will start filling in with satin stitch now.. The color of the thread is just about the color of the silk...

Biggest lesson today was "not easy" to turn sharp corner like the beak.  Much better to stop and start at that point...

Although I am doing him in satin stitch, it would be great filled in with beads also... I will try the finest edmar I have that is the right color because I would like it glossy but it may not be fine enough.. more trial and error...

February CQJP and GW1

I put the image on my CQJP for February... and the theme is Morris loves Bugs....which he does..  When he sees an ant or spider crawling along he gets his nose down right behind it and follows it along for some distance and then eats it... In the late spring he is jumping all about trying to catch the little butterflies hatching in the vetch and  in late summer he is doing the same with grasshoppers...  Occasionally he does catch a grasshopper but they must not taste good as he spits it right out.  I've some fun things planned for this block..

Also sketched the Christmas cardinal for Janet and will start couching the gold today... I may be redoing this.  Instead of doing this on felt as I usually do I am doing it on a very heavy silk backed with interfacing from a jacket.  It is beautiful stuff and hope it works.  I will be filling in with maroon red satin satin stitch....I'm also doing fairly small so it may need to be larger...and since it is small I will be using a single fine thread... This what I love about RRs.....they make me work outside the box..............way outside....in fact sometimes I have to build a new box....

Okay I need help here!

What does it mean when you go back into your blog archives and where there should be a photo there is this icon?

Rickrack lace information

Apparently combining rickrack (sometimes  referred to as wavy trim) with crocheting and tatting was all the rage around the turn of the century.  I found some pictures of this book and you can read about it at
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Needle-Arts-Vintage/Rick-Rack-

This site http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa082600.htm  actually has pictures and on a linked page directions to making this lace.  It also has a great deal of history and trivia about this kind of lace making... I am so delighted to have a piece of this history of lacemaking..

Goldwork One

Janet's goldwork blocks arrived early and although I couldn't start on it until next week, I couldn't resist picking my block......  She had 3angels on cream blocks with lace and 3 father Christmas on black...  I quickly chose a black background because I think the gold will be spectacular on it...

I have commitments for the next 4 days so it will have to wait...

But then I couldn't resist sketching a few ideas...  I had hoped to do a goldwork bird (or 2) and Janet is going to get one.... a Christmas cardinal ...   I had to make a copy of her block and then sketch with a white pencil.... You can see the cardinal, holly  lots of bells,  (large on the side and small across the top) and swirly stuff...  I will probably do the large bells and the cardinal off the block and the swirly stuff I will trace on the back and then baste the pattern to the front...

I sent my blocks out to Maire since she is leaving soon for Florida.... Mine are cream colored and do not have images on them and I am asking everyone to do one fanciful Jacobean flower on each block...