Sewing group project -- Holiday!

These rectangles have been waiting for completion since mid-2013.  It's another project from my fabulous and crazy sewing group.  Many of us have chosen the holidays as the theme of one of our projects.  I decided to do trees.  It could have been a single branch or even just the top, but everyone chose to do a complete tree.  The background is hand-dyed (by me) wool.  The thin black is velvet ribbon and the wider black is black wool.

Here are some close-ups.  Mine is in the upper left.  I used some rug-hooking techniques and various shades of green wool.  The tree is proddy using small strips of the wool.  I cut the ends at a point to mimic pine needles on branches.  The bottom is some glitter-infused velvet that I cut using a wool cutter and hooked just as you would wool in a rug.  The strands of metallic pop out randomly -- a nice bonus I didn't expect.  As usual, mine is one of the heaviest pieces!  An occupational hazard of using wool as your medium, I guess.

Next across is Anne.  Anne of the amazing embroidery and strategic use of sequins.  This design has great swirls and crystal and sequin accents.  I'd know it was Anne's a mile away.  Each year at the stocking contest, Anne's stocking is silk with fantastic appliqué and embroidery.  When her oldest daughter was dancing ballet, Anne did headpieces for the Akron Ballet.  Her attention to detail is unmatched.  I've learned many things from her over the years.

Heinke's is next.  Heinke is the master of never settling for the same old techniques.  Over the years I've seen her try almost anything to get the result she wants.  This piece uses wash-away stabilizer as a backing.  She free stitched using various green and metallic threads, loosely in the shape of a tree.  Once the stabilizer is washed away, all you have is the thread.  Pretty cool.  The red background is hand-dyed wool and she used some metallic thread to do a running stitch frame on the blue background.

Katie is another artist whose work I can instantly recognize.  She is a master of collage using found objects, odd bits of sewing supplies, and vintage materials.  This piece is classic Katie.  I love feather trees and this is certainly a great example.  Each tier of branches has a slightly smaller size of ornaments as you move up the tree.  Katie owns a fantastic clothing store in Hudson.  I wonder how many of these little bits started out as trim on clothing that Katie kept for her personal use?  Her house is full of eye candy.  Mini collections of embroidery thread and religious icons;  small framed bits of art from friends, textile fabulousness.  

On to the bottom row!  This one is Barb's.  Barb and Anne are sisters and our sewing group meetings always have an interesting depth thanks to having sisters in the mix.  Watching the two of them makes me miss my own sister who lives much too far away.  Barb is also a master of embroidery.  Our first year as a group, Barb did squares of silk with the most beautiful bird on a branch.  Each one exactly the same and so precise it would make you cry.  My embroidery skills will never come close to Barb's.  Her tree is airy and light and lovely.  The tiny beads look just like lights and I love how the trunk curves.

Beth is next.  Beth and Heinke are the two in the group most likely to use fabric.  Beth quilts and does massive amounts of sewing for her daughter and son-in-law.  Mark Cesarik is a fabric designer with great talent and Beth definitely makes the most of his creativity with her creations.  But, this tree uses new and vintage Christmas fabrics, probably bark cloth.  Beth hoards bark cloth of all types.  One year we used her bark cloth in a project.  On this tree, I love the second tier up from the bottom.  The large ornaments add so much movement to the tree.  Oh, and Beth is Jewish!  Pretty great stuff from someone that doesn't even celebrate Christmas.

Two more!!  Next is Angela.  You'll have to look closely at this tree.  The tiers are made up of ribbon and on that ribbon is printed pictorial instructions for knitting!!  How perfect for me!  When she gave this to me, I immediately found out where to get that ribbon and I ordered some for myself.  The creamy white and the black printing are the perfect foil for the red stitching.  This also shows why I chose that muddy blue for the background.  Almost every color looks great against it.  It's neutral without being boring and I love it so.

Last but definitely not least is Kathy.  I will take a tiny bit of credit for Kathy using wool in many of her designs.  But, beyond encouraging wool as a material, I obviously cannot help Kathy with anything else.  She is a master needlewoman.  This piece is wool appliqué plus embroidery.  Look at the little bird hitching a ride on the tree as Santa drags it away.  Look at the laces on his shoes!  Seriously fun and fantastic.  I put this piece at the lower right so it would lead the eye off the work.  

The entire piece hangs above the French doors in my house.  I normally hang my sheep there but now I will switch out the sheep in December in favor of my fabulous Christmas tree hanging.

Sheep! Another project from the sewing group.

I've written about our sewing group before.  We've been together for almost 10 years sharing our love of handcraft.  You can find several posts about them by searching for "sewing group."  One big project I did can be found here.  Every year, we give each other a new creative challenge.  One year it might be color, another year it's a theme.  These squares are from my 2012 challenge -- SHEEP!!  I collect sheep in all forms and I knew my very creative friends would have a great time with this one.

The background wool is hand-dyed using the Cushing color "Bittersweet."  I knew I would use a blue as a background color.  My instructions to the group were to do sheep of any kind -- a grouping, a single sheep, just a face, etc.  The fabric was square so I didn't have to worry about portrait or landscape orientation.  Everyone was also given a bit of a paint chip showing a deep, Colonial blue.  They were asked to incorporate that blue in their design.

I just finished putting the pieces together and creating a wall hanging for one of our rooms.  There are very high ceilings in this room so above some French doors seemed like a great place.  Here's the finished piece hung in place.

 This one is mine.  Obviously.  I used some Merino wool yarn and did a hooked rug design.  The face is a flat appliqué of black wool as are the legs.  The bird is blanket-stitched to the background.  I would say that mine ended up being a little heavy!  It takes a surprising amount of yarn to hook a sheep in this way.  But, I love the texture and the way the sheep looks like it is VERY ready for a haircut.

 Here we have Beth and Barb.  Beth is primarily a quilter and Barb does a little of everything but is super talented at embroidery.  Two funny stories about these pieces.  Beth lost her paint chip and didn't even realize I had a color preference!  But, she still used the blue!  Barb accidentally cut the legs off one of the sheep and had to re-appliqué.  Hilarious.

Here's Kathy and Katie.  I feel compelled to tell you that I taught Kathy about needle-felting.  And, she produces something like this!  The student becomes the master, I think!  I love the expression on the sheep's face.  Kathy and Katie both used the required blue in the form of a ball of yarn.  Fabulous.  Katie's has my shop name embroidered on the bottom which makes it a favorite as well.

Angela is here on the left.  Another master embroiderer in the group.  The circles of stitching are so perfect!  And to the right is Anne.  Again with the embroidery!  Ann always does amazing detail work on all her pieces.  She humbles me.  I had to buy a book on embroidery stitches to keep up with this group.


Finally, here is Heinke's.  I love this one.  A little flock of sheep with vintage doily collars.  How clever.  I also love that there are three little sheep just as I have three boys.  I wonder which of mine is the black sheep?!  I suppose it changes daily.


I hope you love the look as I do.  I'm so proud to be in such a creative group.  My next set to put together is a Christmas-themed set on beautiful blue wool.  Everyone was to do a Christmas tree -- a portion, a branch, or a whole tree.  They are amazing.  Another post for another day.

Valence for my office -- sewing group project

It all starts with Grandma's beads.  My grandma was precious to me.  She died 2 years ago at age 103 so I was fortunate to have had plenty of adulthood to grow my appreciation for her.  She taught me to knit;  this passion of mine that has never ceased to provide interest and challenge even after 25 years.  She was a fabulous cook, gardener, craftswoman, etc.  She took me to my first Broadway show (A Chorus Line in its original run) and went with me to look at wedding reception spots since my wedding was in her town and my mom lived across the country.  I miss her every day.  But, I have some things that remind me.  Like her beads.

These are true cinnabar beads.  Thick with color and beautifully carved.  I'm sure they came from Asian during one of her many travels with my Grandfather in his consulting days.  This red is my favorite shade.  When Grandma gave me a strand of these beads, I was thrilled.  But, I don't wear necklaces too much so I re-strung some of the beads into a bracelet.  The others were left in the drawer for several years.  Then, I made them the centerpiece of one of my sewing group projects.  For those new to my blog, my sewing group is an eclectic mix of craftswomen from every corner of the fiber world:  embroidery, sewing, quilting, knitting, felting, etc.  We do it all.  We've been together for years and work on projects for each other through the year. 

This project is from about 3 years ago. I wanted to make a mantle scarf for the fireplace in our living room. We have some early American stenciling on the walls in there. I wanted the feel of the stenciling (primitive, botanical, folk art) and wanted at least one of these beads included in the design. I received 6 fabulous squares. That year we only had 7 of us in the group and I never did one of these for myself. The background is ivory silk. Once they were all done, I carefully packed them away until I had a chance to use them. 

Life ensued.  Now the living room has become my husband's study and, frankly, he has little or no appreciation for my sewing group.  He tolerates it and often asks, "What on earth are you making now?" but doesn't really get it.  So, why waste this fabulous workmanship on him?!  I have a new desk in my "study" which is just a pass-through room just off the kitchen.  I took down the homespun plaid curtains because I don't find them very interesting.  But, what to do for a window treatment?!  Aha!!  The squares!!  A valence would be the perfect thing!

Now they grace this window where I can look out on the backyard while I type blog posts.  On the sill is my little heart collection.  Not a passion, just something I pick up when I find one I like.  Or, if I'm lucky, my boys make one for me.

The valence is actually a Rumpelstiltskin project, too!  I knew I wanted red for the borders of the valence and was prepared to go to the fabric store to buy some.  But, I remembered my vegetables that the sewing group had done years earlier.  I used a fab red silk for some of those.  Dig, dig, dig in the bin in the cedar closet and Voila!  Enough silk for the entire valence.  I had lining, matching thread, everything!  I didn't spend a dime.



My sewing group is probably my single favorite activity.  I love the creative challenge.  I love having a smallish project on which to try new techniques.  I especially love the Show & Tell at the beginning of our get-togethers where we share our latest creations, either for the group or for personal use.  Many of these women are in no other part of my life -- I only see them at sewing.  But, I look forward to our monthly gatherings in a way that is hard to explain.

S is for Sunflower -- and screening

I think I've spoken of my sewing group before.  There are 8 of us and we do creative projects for each other during the year.  We've been together for 7 or 8 years and the things we have done are spectacular.  For the first few years, we had specific guidelines that everyone followed.  One year was color, one year was theme, etc.  The color year I chose blue and brown and asked for 6-inch squares in those colors.  The techniques range from quilting to embroidery to knitting to everything in between.  I think I'll do some blog posts in the next few weeks about past creations.

This year my personal theme is Sheep and I gave everyone a 9-inch square of hand-dyed wool with the instruction to do a sheep.  I've received 4 so far and they are great.

This sunflower mat is for my friend, Kathy.  Her theme this year is for all of us to use leftover screening from her porch repair and to use the screening as the base fabric for our creation.  The only other stipulation was that we incorporate the letter "S" in the design.

The minute I saw it, I immediately thought of rug hooking.  I tried out a few strips to see what would work and settled on a #6 cut.  Because the holes are so small, I had to use a small hook that I picked up at a garage sale one time.  Not my beautiful hook that I use most of the time.  And, once I tried out the hooking, I realized that this was not going to be as pleasant and relaxing as hooking on linen.

Screening is hard plastic and has zero give.  Even if I wiggled the hook around, I couldn't get the little hole to be very big.  I was also using a fairly loose weave plaid for the main color of the mat and the loose weave did NOT want to be cut in a narrow #6 cut.  The green fabric was great -- tightly woven and a bit felted but still very flexible. 

The screening scratched my hands and, because I had to use a hoop instead of a traditional frame, my pulling action was very awkward.  I did not enjoy.  I felt like it took twice as long because I had to grip the frame while I pulled each loop through.  The screening was also difficult because it's black.  So, I had to use some special transfer paper to trace out the "S" so it would look right.

The smartest thing I did, though was to hook a small circle at the top of the stem as a placeholder for the proddy technique I used to make the petals of the sunflower.  This worked perfectly and as I prodded the petals, I gradually removed the small circle. 

All in all, I like how it came out, but it was a pain.  However, below is the project Kathy did for me a few years back when I had everyone do a vegetable.  The 8 vegetables hang in my kitchen at our lake house and they are all fabulous.  Kathy did squash and I know this type of work takes hours and hours.  So, as I scratched my way through I remembered the incredibly beautiful work Kathy has done for me year after year.  She's worth the effort.