Fairy Garden number Four

Here is Fairy garden number four. I want to Goodwill and got the wire container for $3. A trip next door to big lots for the coco liner for $2.50 came next. My friend Tammy had suggested that I try breaking a tile for the walkway as an alternative to the pebbles, so while at Goodwill I found a set of four white tiles for $2. I then went to Kelli Greens nursery. I spoke the wonderful gardener who works there and she told me bout some Elfin Thyme that she had growing in the back. I bought three of them for $3.75 each. It is on the left. I also used what I had left of the Irish moss. green's also sold the little fairy and the mushroom for $4.99 each. I added the small sand dollar and the small geode as well.

Bonsai miniature with elf

Today I took the spruce that I had started pruning the other day and did a little more. I also started wiring one of the branches. I haven't decided on its final shape yet, so I wasn't too aggressive with the pruning. Next I did a bit of the roots. I couldn't find the right size container, so I uses one that was a bit big. This is probably just temporary until it finds it's way into a larger garden scene, but it is cute now. I added a farmer elf that I found in an antique store last weekend in Ellijay. It was a set for $6 and these are only a few of the pieces.

Second Fairy Garden

So I stopped by Pike's on the way home from work to fill in plants for the first garden and they had smaller fairy garden kits ($33), and I couldn't resist. I also checked out other plants that I thought might be appropriate and came up with a few. The two big splurges was for a golden carpet juniper which I can start training as a bonsai and another angel vine which was already trained into a circle. I finished it off with more Irish moss, some moss from my front yard, and Georgia blue speedwell (the pretty little flower in front). I almost forgot the Powys castle artemisia. I pruned it to be tree like and it turned out really cute. I am addicted. I have more stuff now to make another. I just need containers.

Miniature Fairy Garden

I was visiting Blue Ridge this weekend with my sister. We passes a cute little garden/floral store called Penelope's. Besides having a collection of breathtaking orchids, they also sold miniature fairy gardens. I had never seen them before and fell in love. They are so precious. The one they had set up was over $200 so I bought the kit and decided to make it myself. I bought the lavender tree from them as I wanted the scale. I also bought the Irish moss there. I also bought the angel vine from them to wrap around the arbor. I bought more Irish moss from Pike's (same price double the plant).

Decolourant is fun!

I went to the Original Sewing Expo with my BFF Rebecca on Friday. We had so much fun looking at new products and watching them demoed by experts (most of the time). One of my favorite new purchases was deColourant and DeColourant plus. It is a discharge paste. I previously played with discharge paste which you have to mix up your self. It is safer and less toxic than bleach discharge. With traditional discharge paste you can add vat dyes (if I remember correctly) to discharge and add color back in one step. It was quite a process with mixing and a mess. What I loved about this is it was so easy to use. Since going back to work, my art time is precious and saving hours in mixing chemicals and clean up is important.
Here is my first try with it, I bought a purple batik fat quarter from Karen's shop, in Jasper, Quilting on Main. Using a stencil, I applied the decolourant. I now need to let it dry then heat it to remove the color. I will post the results.

Japanese Bead Embroidery, progress

I am still working on my phase four still. I have a month and a half to finish it. I still think it possible, but aim going to need to work a lot more than I did in February.

Japanese Bead Embroidery, Phase Four, Day Four

This is what I accomplished on Day three, our final day of class.  This is less than 1/4 complete as there is a lot more fabric to the left.  Luckily, this is a holiday weekend and I have two more complete days to work on it.  I have until mid-April to finish, so I am a little more comfortable that I will be able to do it.  Sitting next to me in class was Cindy who had driven up from Mississippi.  She was also working on Phase Four, but she was doing the Floral Melody Purse.  I have to admit that I had project envy - it was so beautiful. 

Japanese bead Embroidery, Phase Four, Day 2

This is what I accomplished after day two of my Phase Four bead embroidery at the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta. This is the Peacock Mat. For phase four there were two choices, this one and the floral melody purse. Both are amazing but I decided that I could get more use out of the mat. Now, I want to do the floral melody purse also. Phase four is a pre-requisite for Phase five, which is the highest level in Japanese bead embroidery. This is so much fun, but my back is screaming.

Bead Embroidery

Happy new year! I am really committing to not allow my job stop me from making art regularly. This is a piece that I actually finished this past summer but really wanted to share. It was a kit from Ann Benson's website. I really wanted to see if there were any cool techniques. The bead embroidery was not anything new, but she has you work on paper that is fused to the stabilizer. The pattern is printed on the paper. This, I thought, was a cool idea. It also has the directions to add the clasp type handle which I wanted to learn.

Beaded necklace

My sister started beading this year and loves it. She came up to the mountains with me in October and we had a beading marathon. One of the things we did was each buy the same kit and make it. We decided on this one from Melanie Potter called Marsha.

French knots

Here is a sample of French knots only. It was fun and easy, but net time I want to do it with a plan or design in mind from the beginning.

Couched stitch sample

I am trying to create multiple sample pieces that explore a single stitch. This one only uses crouching, during the coming year I hope to do a few a month. Sharon boggin's Take a Stitch Tuesday's is a great source for inspiration. Many of the threads used in this piece were hand dyed in New Mexico.

Fiber forum piece, contemporary embroidery

Last April I attended the fiber forum retreat in Santa Fe. I was juried into the group the year before and have been very excited about attending. Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn led the workshop. This piece was created on a piece of fabric that I made from small scraps of sheers that are pieced together with an embellished. For more information about Fiber Forum, check out The Embroidery Guild of America.

Japanese bead embroidery, phase one

This is phase one of the Japanese bead embroidery. It turns in to glass case. The piece is pretty basic, but turns out nice. The point is to learn the structure of Jen and how it differs from other forms of bead embroidery.

Japanese Bead Embroidery, phase three

I haven't posted in almost a year. I mentioned to someone at work that I had a blog, so I decided that I had better get back to it. I am going to try and post some of the work from the last year. This is my phase three certification project for Japanese Bead embroidery. I plan on staring on phase four in January. This pieces had tons of couched lines (which needed to be straight), but the really fun part of this was the three dimensional aspect of the poppies.

Complex Stitched Design Four, Chapter Eight

Complex Stitched Design Three, Chapter Eight

Layer one: sheer machine stitched down

Layer two: painted wonder under

Layer three: machine stitched grid on Water Soluble

Padded layer of yellow (don't have a clue how it became so lopsided)!!!

Last, I hand stitched to bring out the yellow and to integrate the design. I also have been having computer trouble and no longer have my Photoshop! It was old anyway and needed to be upgraded, but in the meantime, it is hard for me to crop!

Complex Stitched Design Two, Chapter Eight

OKAY! I really tried to go complex on this one! I used kunin felt as the base with another layer of kunin felt pressed together using an embellisher. I then "created" a square of fabric with ribbon yarn using water soluble and machine stitching. This was then treated as a layer which is machine stitched down. The yellow layer is then padded with batting. The yellow felt triangles where added last.

Complex Stitched Design One, Chapter Eight

I really wanted to start simple with this chapter's assignments. My base layer is only machine stitching. I bourt a new computerized machine the year before and really haven't used the some of the special stitches "muscle" yet. I programmed a stitch size that I thought would be appropriate for the size and density. For the top layer, I purposely choose a computerized stitch what would work with instead of fight the satin fabric's tendency to fray.

Stitch Design Six, Chapter Seven

I really wanted to add a fourth layer to one of these samples; however, when it came time to add a top layer, I decided against it.

I used Kunin felt as a base and then my hand dyed purple burlap. The burlap really turned out wonderful and added great texture to the piece. I then added a piece of my stamped fabric on top. I really liked this sample.