SICKY

Sorry I have been so long since posting but have been suffering with either sinus/allergy condition that has been giving me super headaches and that means I can't do much sewing on my class. I have been fiddling with handwork rather then the machine work we are doing now. Went to the Drs. and of course no meds until they decide what it is. Neck and head xrays on Fri. and blood tests today to determine what exactly I am allergic to. Something new to me is they can tell from a blood test and you don't have to have the needle pricks to see what you are allergic to. what a wonderful world - what next.

I did just finish one little doily piece. It was an oval doily and we smocked it and then decorated it with all different stitches. This actually was from the first class but I just finished it. We are now working on straw silk paper and scrim to attach to our projects or to be put in a book project which is what I would like to do with just the samples. I could be working on this for months. Finding the paper is not easy but did manage to find 8 x 11 pieces in the scrapbooking section of JoAnnes. The larger pieces would be better because you have to hoop them and do free machine embroidery on them and larger pieces mean a larger hoop and more freedom. I found a place on line but a 14.00 order was 12.00 to ship. Outrageous.
I decided I would wait until I get to Chicago and look around there for some.

The picture of the lace hankie has freeform flowers machined on the silk paper and then cut out around them. They are just laid on the hankie for the effect. We were doing the same type of embr. on the scrim and there is a pic of that also. Also we were making our own lace pieces on scrim by removing threads and zigzaging over the remaining threads. It looks funny in the pic but when you see what some of the gals have done with it it is just great. Some of the ladies in this class are so talented.

I have never enjoyed a class as much as I have enjoyed these 2. I hope Karen Ruane keeps thinking of new things for us or I will be in withdrawal when this ends.

4th CLOTH

This is the 4th. cloth I am doing from the first class with Karen. It is going to be the bottom of either a 3 or 4 long piece depending on how much room I have to hang it in a bedroom when I get home. I have decided to make a book with all the samples from the Extending Embellishing class I am doing now plus some small pieces from the first one.

It is put together and some pieces just sitting there not attached. Actually last night I sat and basted all the areas down to the under cloth which is the top of the lace piece. It must have been a runner as both ends were in the bag of linens I bought recently. This end had a good 12 inches of nice linen attached so was perfect for the last cloth.

In the first pic I had laid a doily down but after looking at the pics I did not like it so took it off and found a smaller one that I soaked in Oxy and it is nice and white this morning. I think the smaller white one will be better.

CORONATION CORD

About a month or so ago Mary Corbet had a wonderful article on coronation cord and how it was disappearing from use and could hardly be found anywhere. She did say that Lacis in Calif. had some and that was about the only place she had found it.
I thought I would order some to try it but just never got around to it being busy with my contemporary embroidery classes.
Last week I was lucky enough to pick up a few linens at our usual thurs. morning market. What intrigued me so much is that the doiley had been crocheted around coronation cord and a second piece had used the cord as a design along with embroidery.

Friday morning I read Mary's newsletter she posts daily and again she is talking about the cord. She had ordered some from Lacis called white but when received it it had beige threads around the tops. I was very glad I had not wasted my money.

There were 2 identical doilys and 1 possible dresser scarf. I bought them and the scarf didn't intrigue me except for the cord. That afternoon I sat and unpicked the cord (it had been hand basted down) and from one end I had about 2 yards of white cord. I still have 2 other areas to unpick and will do that and then use some in my new embroidery class.

I tried to get a real closeup of the doiley so you can see how wonderfully this person crocheted around the cording to come up with this beautiful piece.

PICS FROM 3rd. CLOTH

apparently the pics did not come through. I will try again.

3rd CLOTH

I am finished with the 3rd. cloth and have learned a tremendous amount and have really enjoyed myself. A nice change for me from cq and all the colors.

The whole cloth is finished except I have the lace in the upper right corner not sewn down yet. It is a continuation piece of the pretty piece sewn on the cloth. I actually bought this from someone I did not know at the Connecticut retreat last year. It had 2 very pretty ends and then narrowed in to a long piece about 4" across. was a beautiful piece and hated to cut it. You will see in the pics that I showed it going 2 different ways. I have decided to have it go to the corner and then will sew it and the little puff down.

We start our new class next week with Karen Ruane of Contemporary Embroidery. If you are not aware of her blog do yourself a treat and go see her wonderful work. words cannot describe. http://www.karenruane.blogspot.com