Stitch and they shall find you!

Something like that anyway....  I have been searching for CQers in my area for 15 years and they have come knocking at my door... well emailing anyway....  Here at my table are Kathy (left) Sherri, and Kathy (right)  Kathy (right) and Sherrie were customers and frequent visitors to the garden when I had the rose nursery and just recently rediscovered me in a CQ-related internet post...  Sherrie has done some CQ and Kathy had done none but bought Pat's BoHo Bag book and is eager to make one... They don't even live in my town but in a nearby city and were willing to drive to me.  This is especially wonderful for someone like me who rarely (and I mean very rarely) drives.

The other Kathy (right) has been a friend for years and worked for me when I had the nursery..  She has seen all my projects and when I said I was going to be helping two others, she wanted to jump right in herself... Hooray!  They all had a blank block and after looking at some finished blocks and a tiny lecture. I turned them loose in my stash and they proceeded with the first steps of lace and trims...

They were here about 4 1/2 hours and went home with lots of stuff pinned and ready to secure... Next session will be seams.  An incredible lovely day!!!!!

February CQJP finished

My project will eventually be a CQ  book about my dog...my irrepressible rascal Morris. This "page" is  "Morris loves Bugs"  Indeed Morris is absolutely fascinated by anything that flies or is creepy crawly... so on this page I have managed to include 1 caterpillar, 1 dragonfly, 1 grasshopper, 1 spider, 6 butterflies, 4 ladybugs, 3 ants and 7 bees.. plus you must find him stalking bugs in the daisies

and when you lift the ladybug you see Morris peering back...

You Gotta Love them Needles!

 

I am so in love with Susan Elliott's little needle book and the whole concept of reverence for needles.. I couldn't sign up fast enough for her e-course.  I'll adapt mine a bit so I can take the broken needles with me rather than bury them here.  And the little poem on her blog is so precious you must see it.
I had read once how pioneer women guarded and protected needles as one of their most treasured possessions and it was indeed a hardship if one was broken as women might have to wait months for a traveling tinker to come by again to replace broken needles. 

I was six when I learned to embroider and it was a set of dishtowels with puppy dogs and the days of the week..  Occasionally I used to run across "Tuesday" so I know I still have it.. The next time I find it I will put it where it won't get mislaid again...

I know most of my readers also read Susan's blog but just in case there is someone who doesn't, check out Susan's e-course and we know anything Susan does is done WELL!!!  I'll share mine when it is finished...


  

Cording Problem and Word in from Susan

When I did this piece I couldn't remember having any problems with the cording shifting but as I go back and really look at it I see I either:
1. put the flat braid down first and braced the cording against that or...
2. I put multiple rows of cording together which were bracing each other..

If you look closely there are three layers of couched cording on the circle with the flat braid.  So when I design the work for Kerry's piece I will keep that these two things in mind....

Just as a point of interest here, the wings on the dragonfly are wired gold Christmas ribbon..

With the owl I wasn't using cording but I did use two adjacent rows of chain stitching and I believe using chain rows in conjunction with cording would also help...

I kept thinking it was the couching thread I needed to keep more taut but Susan said she thought that it was the cording that needed to be kept taut and sent the following suggestion:

"I put the thread that I am couching on a spool and make it taut.  Let's call that cording and the couching thread, couching thread.  In fact when you wrap your cording around your spool, you should hold the spool in your right hand with arm extended...and cording in left.  Stretch cording until taut between your two arms and wind the spool toward you, wrapping the cording around the spool as you go.  If you need to put a rubber band around it to hold the cord tight until you use it, so be it.

You don't need to keep the couching thread taut.  It's really easier to use this technique if your hands are both free...your right hand to hold your cording spool taut  and your other hand to couch the cord.  I'll be interested to know if it helps."

She also believed working on a hoop with material taut would help which I had also thought would help..... I might have to call in some extra hands or toes to do what she suggests but I sure going to try..  But with her advice and a better design to begin with, it should work better next time...  Stay tuned... 

Janet's Goldwork 1 block

Except for another row of cord around the bells and birds, Janet's block is done.  On the bells I used candle light thread and 2 kinds of Kreinik.  The biggest problem I've had is with the cording shifting after I have it couched in place..  I think there are two possible reasons... the bias of the patches and the Sulky thread. 

On the next block I will put an interfacing on the back first and try a different thread for couching...  I have found though that if I add a second row of cording I can ease the first row back into place...which will put the bells right again..  Right now it is being blocked and I'll let it stay there a few days before I do any more...

It has been great fun testing the different materials... Doing the bird on the heavy silk backed with fusible interfacing REALLY worked well and I am going to explore that more during this RR.  I did the bells on felt without a chain stitch... A chain stitch under the cording would have worked better... Live and learn....