I love working with Raffia and when I came across these large 25mm cabochon stones at Beads East I loved them and saw flower centers!!  They were expensive ..... happily for me they were on sale, but sadly for me Beads East is going wholesale and will not be open to the public after June 1.  

Anyway I worked up some wacky flowers and now have to mount and frame them.

This is also Brimfield week!!
Had a great time ... starting on Monday with the textile show at the Host Hotel in Sturbridge MA and then onto Brimfield Antique and Flea Mkt. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and only part of Friday as we wimped out with the rain!!  Lots of nail-heads, sequins, buttons and just plain weird stuff!!
The top left is a $2 feathered hat that would make the beginnings of  a fabulous birds nest.  I love looking at the nests that Vicki of two bags full  makes and dream that some day I may make one ... or not....  anyway I have the beginnings of one so some day I may!!

This 3 yard piece of Edwardian trim doesn't look like much and was not in the best shape but it has the sweetest oval nail-heads ranging in size from 3mm to 6mm.

To close just wanted to show you the "selfi" my dauther took of us on Sunday.  Faces and shoes!!  She posted it on Facebook with a lovely note.
Love you Sabrina you touched my heart!!!

Progress on my new project!!
 I am calling it "My Ravel".  When I first applied to Ecole Lesage I want to do a piece called Ravel.  It is fashioned after French 18th century textile prints inspired by Persian design.  That's when I discovered the Level thing at Lesage. The Ravel piece is Level 7 and I had to start at 1!!  I will never get to 7 so I am doing my own Ravel inspired wall hanging.  It will be about 36" wide and 45" or so Long.  There will be 3 panels one lace over turquoise Lamé, one over purple Lamé, and one over fuchsia Lamé.  Here is the turquoise panel.

The motif will be repeated in each panel in a different size and in
 the panel color.

Stitched the design with beads, black metallic thread, and 

some turquoise organza fringed and placed around the middle square.

Stitched the design with beads and black metallic thread.

I took fuchsia Lamé and stitched the design on it in black metallic thread.  Next I covered it with sheared tulle then copied the design on top of the tulle with thread and put the black flowers in the centers.  The tulle is too thick to see the shadow of the design under it.  Next I will have a lighter hand.

This is just a piece of weird ribbon trim tacked over Lamé.
























and finally the panel layout.  I am not sure if I like it this way... Too ordered??    Nothing is sewed on yet so I will start the next panel and see what happens!!

Happy Thanks Turkey day!!

My Ravel

I have been working on my new project.  A smaller wall hanging about 36" wide by 45 or so long.  Tentatively there will be 3 staggered rectangles of lace over lame... one turquoise, one fuchsia, and one purple on a cream embossed satin.  Circles of varying sizes will be cut out of the lace and embroidered ones inserted.  

















The motif will be the following design (not quite done).
It will appearing in each rectangle and be in 3 different colors and sizes .

The circles will be flower designs from French 18th century
 textiles.


















The first circle I completed is about 7 inches in diameter.
I used raffia and silk ribbon which I ruffled.  I used small green and yellow marquise shaped sew-ons.   I got the sew-ons last year at Tinsel Trader in NYC and have been dying to use them.  I sewed them on with tiny (size 18) beads. 

I used the Tambour hook to apply all the beads, sequins, and the green metallic thread.  I also use it to attach the pinkish  size 15 beads and 3mm sequins vermichelli fashion on the right hand flower.  The stem is chenille.


I was also busy trying to prepair for the big storm... if that is even possible.  
Last year at this time we were without power for 7 days.  No heat, electricity, no stitching and I was whining loudly. 
The destruction that struck the NY, NJ, CT and on into PA and W. Virginia is just astoundingly horrible.  My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost so much and will be suffering for months and years to come.  I count my blessings.

Forget-Me-Not Pillow

I have finished 3/4 of the background for my Lame Psychedelic Circle quilt and have one more circle to complete.  For some reason I am dragging my feet and choosing to work on other things....

This is one of the projects that I promised to my friend Cheryl.
Last year for her birthday/house warming present I made the picture below.  This is it before it was finished.  I found I did not take a picture of the completed project.  The tissue paper circle in the lower left is a circle of forget-me-nots around my chop (initials).

The flowers are raffia with beads in the center.  The leaves are floss and sequins and some are woven ribbon floss.  It did get completed and is framed and on her wall.   

This year I promised a pillow for her bed to coordinate with the above picture.  

She loves forget-me-nots so I used my Arlene Baker flower mold and Dye Candy blue velvet to make my own version of forget-me-knots.
The poem is from a vintage "motto picture" and it is unattributed. 

The writing is done with the "tambour hook" using YLI metallic cranberry thread and beads.   

close-up of flowers 

Now the fun begins... I have a pillow form 20" by 16" , the black duponi and all I have to do is sew it into a pillow covering..............

I think I will work on my the last part of my Lame Psychedelic Circle quilt ................................

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..........

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.....

Lesage Level III

When I went to Lesage in April of 2010 I arranged to do the level II piece in the previous post. Unfortunately for Iceland but fortunately for me there was a volcanic eruption and I was stranded in Paris. My planned return flight was rescheduled and I was left with a week with nothing to do. It was a stressful situation especially with CNN continually spewing doom and gloom. Frantic e-mails to my husband got a response I didn't expect "take another class". As there were openings in the class room I was able to sign up for Level III.

The piece is called Les Coeurs and measures 13" by 16" framed. The heart shape is 5"high and 6" wide. The design is worked on silk organza.

All the beads and sequins are applied with a tambour hook.
The dark brown soutache around the outline, the raffia and the padded areas covered with pearl cotton is sewn on with a needle.







When all the work is done wonder under (or the French equivalent) is ironed onto the back of the organza and each shape is cut out leaving about 1/4 inch of organza/wonder under. The curves are snipped and the edge is turned under using a hot iron.

The very thought of this really scared me, but surprisingly it was very easy.

Once cut out the pieces were meant to be sewn onto a pocket, lapel or perhaps a purse. I chose to sew them onto a piece of silk net and have it framed.

The week before I left for Paris in April I learned about tambour classes being given in Lexington Kentucky. Susan Elliott http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com has a post about it.

To see a demo of the tambour technique by Robert Havens go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctalL88NMqM

Or you can go to Robert Havens website

http://web.me.com/rwhaven/Professional_/Welcome.html