FLEAMARKET FINDS

The white cloth I mentioned below is in this group.

MORE FLEA MARKET

Here are pics of more of the 3 bags from the flea market. I have spent all week washing all of this and am glad that it is all done. I don't think I even have pics of all of it. The white work cloth is a beauty and came out clean after soaking. I am envious of all the work on it. It is done on a fabric that is almost a fine weave mesh type cloth that I am unfamiliar with. The tablecloth is a beauty but has one or two very tiny holes in it. The white cloth I have showed the corner of and then the whole cloth laid out on the table is gorgeous. these pieces are almost too good to cut up but then what would I do with them. At least they are not rotting in an old bin anymore. They are being lovingly handled.

FLEA MARKET FINDS

Saturday I went to Renningers flea market and hit the mother lode of bargains. When I first arrived I walked down one of the rows and they were selling all kinds of stuff but not my kind and then I looked down and there was this huge container full of linens, fabrics, etc. It said $20.00 Lot. I started to look thru it and started to think this is going to be great. I casually asked her if she would take $15.00 and she said sure right off. I asked her to hold it for me and I would come back.
Well I went on looking and then saw a Lloyd Flanders indoor/outdoor white wicker chair. I stopped and looked and thought that is LF and I think matches my 2 rocking chairs which I paid a horrible price for but 12 years or so later they still look great. The man said I think she wants to get rid of it and only wants 10-20$. Well "she" came out of the van and said 10.00. I grabbed it and took it right back to my van. Sunday I took a spray bottle of 2/3 water and 1/3 bleach and took it outside and sprayed it. The dirt just rolled off and then I hosed it down. Today Harv gave the legs a coat of paint and it looks like new. It is part of the same set my rockers came from.

Back to the bin - when it was time to leave I went to where I thought I had bought the stuff and couldn't find it. I was in a panic and then thought just go aisle by aisle until you see something familiar. Well I did recognize another large bin like the other with padlocks on the end and asked the older man if I had left something there with a lady. He yelled down to Deborah a couple of tents down and she said yes it is here. I told her I did not want the bin and she said well you don't get that anyway. She had stuffed it all into 3 large white plastic bags. I went home, made lunch then took over the table in the sunroom. I started pulling stuff out and laying it in piles, lace doiles, scarves, fabric (3 yards of gold dupioni) and a wedding dress. It as very pale yellow (not yellowed) and covered in a gorgeous lace over the skirt and front and back. 50 covered buttons going down the back of the dress. It was the fabric, and interlining and lining. I could not believe this.

Since Sat. I have been washing, bleaching, bizing, ironing, etc and picking lace from the dress. It looked easy until I started and then I found it had been machined on all over the top of the lace pieces so it is slow going. Will show you the lace when I get it all off. Also all the other stuff in the next post.

WEEK TWO AND A HALF

I have never enjoyed anything as much as I am now enjoying Karen Ruane's class on contemporary embroidery. Her videos are very good and directions very clear plus you get the delightful English accent that reminds me of growing up in Toronto with all my English relatives - Mom included.

I have worked on it a little more and after tonight I am going to damp stretch it as Karen advises. I have to buy a small cork board. She uses a cork bathmat but WalMart did not have any either did Bed, B & B. A small cork board will do the trick I think.

Just a few pictures so you can see the progress. I did decide to not go all white but to add cream, blue and possibly pink to my squares. I have so much antique stuff I would be crazy not to include it. See what you think up to now. I am so happy to be using my hankie collection. I should have added that both the hankie and the tatting circle are just sitting on there. I had not sewn down the tatting and the hankieI will sew down as the very last thing done on here to keep it looking nice and crisp.

I had a really big day at the flea market yesterday and will post pics in the next couple of days.

CONTEMPORARY EMBROIDERY WEEK ONE AND A HALF

I started in to this class one week late but have managed to get caught up to a point where I can relax and just enjoy.

I put together my first piece from old hankies, old linens, pieces of fabric, etc. I made it 10 x 12 so would have enought space to practice all the first lessons on it. My plan is to make a journal when I am finished so this is a good size folded in half for that. We were to make prairie points and rouleau tubes and incorporate them into our piece. The points were easy and the rouleau were also once you got that end tucked in and started coming through. Bit of cursing going on there.

I should have said that we hand basted all our seams and the outside edge before we started. Next was to embellish our seams and I have only one done so far. I used a large cross stitch around the old linen piece and over the points.

We also made puffs to embellish on our squares. They are fun. I am having a very good time with this course and am so glad that I joined in.

WEEK TWO

I am re-posting here what I have just put on Deb Spincic's blog.

"have not gotten very far in my first couple of weeks. I did put 2 squares together and last night started stitching on one of them. I did not take a picture of the stitching because I was not too happy with it. I will probably take it out. I find that with cq I have to be in the mood in order for the ideas to flow. I think it is in my head that I have to work to a schedule that is stopping me. There are times in the past when I have put my work away for a month or more then take another look at it and something will come to me and off I go. Also I will put one square away and start another which will probably happen this time also.

I have 10 more blocks to make up and that will probably not happen for a few weeks but I do have 2 to work on. I am not sure if I am going too light in the colors but I did not want this one to be too dark but at the same time I did not want the pink & turquoise like I used in my pink fan based one.

I hate the way the blocks look when I photo them. They always look lopsided. I cut a pice of hard plastic 10" square then cut out a frame inside of it 8" that I can lay over any block and just make sure I am on track and not too close to the edges with embellishment. I also always sew around the edges and have not done that yet. I did baste around the 8" block edges so I can see that also.
I threw in the centre with the queens so you could compare for colors. Too light?
Let me know what you think."

This past week I signed up for an online class with Karen Ruane of Contemporary Embroidery in England. If you are a fan of Karens you will know about her gorgeous whitework. She is offering a 6 week class and it is very different from our regular cq. The piecing is simpler with more emphasis on using lace edged hankies, old pieces of linen, etc. and very simply pieced. I had brought down my bag of lace hankies that I had washed and prepared last summer not even knowing if I would be using them. This is a perfect class for them. She does not make her blocks even sizes. You would really have to go to her blog and look at her work to understand how she does it and how incredibly beautiful it is. She is a very talented lady plus has had many wonderful classes they have in embroidery in England. Her blog is: http;//www.karenruane.blogspot.com or www.contemporary embroidery.com. See for yourself. I will post pics once I get a couple of squares pieced and do some actual work on one. Marianne R. of Magpies Mumblings.com is also doing this class. She has all 8 blocks pieced already.

WEEK TWO

CQP2012

I decided I would join the CQP2012 challenge and also joined in a small group of 15 women set up by Debra Spincic. We are posting our work weekly and have assigned hours on Sat. & sun. when we each post our work in pogress. I will also post with the challenge group at the end of each month. For anyone reading this who does not know about it we are to make 12 blocks at least measuring 6x6". what you do with the individual blocks is up to you. A quilt, wallhanging, journal, etc. From what I have read there are a lot of people doing all kinds of projects.One block hopefully finished each month until the end of the year.

I am going to make a wallhanging and am posting below what I posted on Sun.

"Miss Undecided has finally decided. I am going to make a wall hanging trying to use
up my collection of cigarette silks. I am doing a centre of various queens of the world to be surrounded by cq squares. The centre will be 16" square and it will be 12 - 8" squares around. It should finish approx 35-36" square with sashing. Similar to what I did on my silk tie quilt. I have quite a few flower and butterfly ones that will be used in the squares.

I went through my doilies and found 5 the same and I am going to mount a queen on each one and use a different one for the centre which is Queen Victoria. The pic I am showing just has them laid down. Nothing sewn yet as I am still deciding on the background color. There are 2 or 3 I like but want to keep this hanging to light colors only. There will be no cq on the centre. Just embroidering the silks to the doilies. I hope this makes sense.

I haven't sewn the blocks yet. I normally only do one at a time as I work and so may stick to that except for having to haul the fabric out every month so may do more at a time. Will see. Working to a schedule like this will all be new for me as it probably is for the rest of you.'

Hopefully I will post more often now I will have something to show. I cut up the muslin today and drew out 4 squares which I hope to piece in the next couple of days.
I will post them when I am done.