Blue and Lavender circles

Blue and Lavender circles are completed.



The next circle made me feel like I was baking a cake...

I told you I would show you how I made the flowers so....  I used Japanese mokuba 1/4 inch picot edge ribbon (Shown above the ruler and the gathered piece) to make the flowers.   I usually cut 3 inch pieces but to make a tighter flatter flower I cut a 1 3/4 inch piece for each flower. 

This is probably something you already know how to do but....

1. Cut a 1 3/4 piece of ribbon for each flower you are making.

2. Carefully singe both ends to stop from raveling. (I cut all the pieces and turn on a burner on the electric stove and very very carefully ..  ever so slightly singe each end.

3. Sew the ends together, secure and run the thread through each picot to gather into the flower.

4. I cut a piece of a narrower mokuba lavender with a gold line through it about 1 inch long ... gathered it along one side and attached it in the center of the flower after it was sewn onto the fabric and put a 3mm crystal in the center. 

To make them a little more sparkly!!   

Before they are sewn onto the fabric

1. Add a size 15 czech bead between each picot on the ungathered side. 

2. Make a small circle of sequins to sit under the flower on the fabric you are attaching them to. Experiment

P.S.

On a sad note Mr Lesage passed away quite recently.   For more details see the write up below.

http://glimpsecreations.blogspot.com/2011/12/francois-lesage-1929-2011.html

Taking Stock

 I am taking stock of some of the circles I have already done that might fit into my new scheme.  Unfortunately I sometimes get sidetracked with and idea or subject matter I can not resist.  The following circle falls into this category.  It is a 4th-6th century Near Eastern senmury (dog bird).  I love him but he doesn't fit the scheme of this project.  I will save him for another day.

The next circles will be the repeats / motif of the quilt.

Most of the circles will inspired by early 20th century stamping patterns.

Both of the rose colored circles are the same color.  the light makes them look different.

The circle I am working on now is lavender.  A flower will go in each place there is a  black dot.  When it is completed I will give more details on how the flowers are made.

Rethinking my next project

 I have purchased three different fabrics for my new quilt background.  One was a piece of taffeta in a green gold color that is the same type and design fabric as my last project so its was hard to say no to it.  However... I have just decided that it is too green and I don't like it... I love the type fabric but the color is just not right.  So its back to the drawing board.  The background fabric is on the right.

The shiny fabrics are lame.  The gold mottled organza over the right side of the lame will be layered over each circle to mute the lame color but the shine will show through.  Of course I found the same lace for the frame of the quilt in ivory.  I also have 1000 12mm ivory AB dome sequins and a few 35mm huge marque shaped ivory AB sequins .. perhaps for the corners.

The flowers are made from the gold mottled organza.  When I went to NYC in October with Susan Elliot our first stop was at M.& S. Schmalberg.   I gave them about 1/2 yard of the gold mottled organza and chose a flower style.  Two days later I received 200 organza flowers in the mail.  They did a wonderful job.  

I also have some great gold 3mm beads thanks to Maureen Greeson and of course lots of gold matt sequins.

Now I have to draft a new design as the new background fabric is a smaller piece.  The clock begins... now I will remember when I started this quilt.

THE WINNER IS!!!

I announced in my last post that Jane was the winner of the give away.  She chose the chicken and said she might frame it.  As  I left very little room around it I mounted it on black fabric by putting a circle of tortise sequins around it.  I will mail it out tomorrow.  

Here is the Silent Auction  blackboard at the fair, Christmas on the Green in Longmeadow, Mass.  For me the fair is a wonderful experience.  It's sponsored by the Women's Benevolent Society, the oldest organization of its kind in the country!!  The fair is the primary fund rasing activity and all proceeds from the fair are donated to local charities.   September until the fair date (the first Saturday in December) is a flurry of activities.. organizing, baking, making etc. etc.   All items are either made or donated by church members.. no vendors....  

As you can see #7 is my purse.  There was not a lot of bidding in general... I think it is  a sign of the times.  However my entry got 5 bids ending with the winning bid of $100.00.    

P.S.  Last year we donated over $14,000 to local charities... Early reports are that we topped that number this year!!

Embroidered Evening Bag

Here is the final product.  I am really pleased at the end result.

Front

Back

The small bulls eye is the zipper pull.  The interior is salmon ultra suede. 

I printed out all the right answers and pulled Jane S. out of the hat.
So I will e-mail Jane and give her the choice of the two remaining designs.

P.S.
Some of you have asked questions but I have no way of answering you.  I would love to look at all your blogs but I need a link.  It might be right in front of me but I sometimes am a little slow so e-mail me!!

Happy Thanksgiving Give Away

It has been a while since I "blogged" ... the week without power burr (I never would have survived as a pioneer) ...the week cleaning up the yard ...the week plus baking eight 5lb tubs of cookie dough for my church fair  etc.   Somewhere in there I decided to attempt  making a small evening bag to auction off at the fair silent auction.  I came up with 3 different designs pictured below.  Each is in a circle of about 6 inch.  The 6 small circles will be cut out and stitched together.  One side is a design the other side is my "chop" (signature)

The bird is back and I like him much more this time!!

A few flowers with lots of chenille leaves.

This is a flower fashioned after one of my favorite Lesage pieces level 7 Ravel.

Leave a comment guessing which of the three designs I decided to put on the front of the evening bag. 

The winner will be selected at random from the correct choice of design.

The winner gets to choose between the two designs I did not use on the bag.  (the design only)  

I will announce the winner Monday morning along with  pictures of  the completed evening bag.

P.S.  After all that has happened I am grateful that the storm was not much worse. 

Wishing all of you a very grateful and happy Thanksgiving Day!!

Church Fair 2011

Every year at this time I like to make something for the church Christmas Fair.  The "Fair"is a big deal in my church as the event is totally run, and all items are donated or made by members of the church.  The proceeds are donated to local charities.  So.....I decided to attempt a small purse with a design on the front.  The design I have been working on is a small chicken standing on a branch with a big flower over his head. 

In my last post I talked about "pailettes a l'ecaille" and I did it with a needle instead of the "hook"  While I have been practicing and this time I was able to use the hook to apply the sequins in this design so I do not consider this a total failure. 

Unfortunately I have abandoned my chicken.  I was not happy with the background, the vine was bad and the poor chick was too short!!!  SO back to the drawing board.

I have not been idle however.  At the last fair meeting I was given a piece of old CQ someone thought would (and of course I was elected) make a nice pillow for the fair silent auction.  I spent last week repairing a few really bad spots.  Then I took the easy way out by sashing it to fit a ready made frame from Michaels.  It probably won't make the silent auction but it will go nicely in the picture gallery.

Vacation is over!!

 I really have not been vacationing but have been stitching and experimenting.  I have my next circle quilt drafted.  I am using a gold spotted organza layered over various colors (10 different shades) of lame.  The organza mutes the loud colors of the lame and makes the organza change color and shine.  I have purchased several background fabrics and am not sure yet which one I will use...  Actually I am still looking

 The above sequins are "pailettes a l'ecaille" . I have been discussing this stitch with another Lesage grad and blogger Jess .  She gave me some tips but I have not been very successful pulling this off using the Hook so I used a needle and applied them one at a time.  I am happy with the "scaly" results.

The circles measure 5 to 8 inches each and  I am doing most individually.  Two groups overlap so I will do those as a unit.

 This is a repeat of the repeating motif I will do in light medium and dark shades.

 I have a paper pattern of the layout of the quilt and this circle is laying on the pattern in its place.

 Finally--
I had the raffia flowers I did for my friends birthday framed in plain black as she wanted.  My chop is surrounded by forget-me-nots her favorite..

Back to my circles..........

Another Quilt in my HEAD!!

I have ideas and fabric for a couple more Quilt projects and have been thinking about it for a while.  I have drafted the layout  and am working on the motif for my next "quilt".  Last year I found some modeled gold silk organza that changes colors when layered over other fabric and looks great over shiny things like lame.  These circles are layered over silvery white lame. 

The sequins I bought in Paris and have lots of them so I have been saving them for a large project.

The difference in color is because I used a flash in the following one to pick up the sparkles.

The smaller flowers will be cut out and placed in the center of the larger circles.   

I wasn't going to post this for a while but I saw Susan Elliott's post today and felt like I was keeping up with the fashion.      

I am awaiting samples in the mail of a variety shades of  Lame and background fabric.         

RAFFIA

Many of you wondered about raffia and using it in embroidery.  This is the first time I was introduced to its use at Lesage.  The purple and shiny pink are raffia.

Lesage Level l

Lesage Level l

This Lesage piece in progress also has raffia.  The shinny gold is raffia.

 

Lesage Level III

This is one of the flowers on my new quilt.  The pattern is from the Lesage book  Le Langage Des Fleurs.   The blue in the center is ribbon the outside is raffia.                                             

 Here are the flowers on the new piece I am working on also raffia.  I must add the effect is just dumb luck.  I had tried so many different ways to stitch the flowers.  If the raffia didn't work the piece was headed to the dead pile. 

 I also was asked how I did the leaves around the bud.   I outlined the shape of the leave with green sulky rayon thread using the tambour hook.  Then using green ribbon floss I ran enough strips (laying each flat) to conform to and cover the lenght of the leaf shape.  I then wove the ribbon floss across the width.

This is the raffia I bought on the internet.  The raffia at Lesage comes in about 1/2 widths.  I tried to dupliciate the materials provided for the student at Lesage ... raffia ... sequin ... beads ... chenille unsuccessfully.   One day I woke up and decided I would use what I can get!!   This raffia is about 1 1/2 inches wide so I spread it out, tape it to my cutting board in 18 inch lengths, and cut it in 1/2 inch widths with my rotary cutter. 

Catching up

I promised a very old and dear friend a piece of art work for her bedroom wall.  Now that my quilt is done I have been dabbling.  The design is inspired by an embroidery in an old French newspaper.  The colors of the flowers are raspberry as requested.  I tried many different medium to stitch the flowers in --- DMC floss Au Ver A Soie silk threads --- silk ribbon --- beads --- sequins  --- and finally when nothing else worked I found a role of raffia marked raspberry!!!                                                  

Love the way the flowers look like you could fall into them.

P.S.

I have a name for my quilt and am waiting for some good pictures to be taken.  Some of you suggested I enter it in a quilt show.  I checked some out and thought about it but at this point I can't imagine getting accepted and having to mail it somewhere.....