Robin Atkins comes to Phoenix

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a 2-day Improvisational Beading class taught by Robin Atkins. Wow, was it an eye opener! So much to learn and so little time... but I gave it a whirl! She started us out with the basics and then moved into more advanced stitches. First we practiced on a trial piece and then we moved into making our own pieces. More about that later!

I took a few pictures; however, I was too shy to take a picture of Robin while she was teaching (didn't want to disturb her) but I did get a great picture of her hands as she told us about her "Marriage Bag."

As she taught us the different advanced stitches, Robin would bring around examples of her work to show us how she had used that particular stitch. It was a wonderful way to see how the stitch looked on a beaded piece, as well as a great way to get up close and personal with the artist and her art.

Here is another of her pieces that I just love... Rosie!

Isn't she something else? There is so much going on with this little lady! Here's a close-up of her garden...


As you can see from Robin's post about her visit here, there were some talented people in that class. Apparently Lisa has a new love!

As I said earlier, by afternoon of the first day everyone was working on their own personal beaded piece. I started in on mine and got quite a few beads embroidered on it and then Robin said she wanted to show the class my piece... as she took it she said "I hope you don't take this wrong, but..." Oh, dear. Then she used my piece as an example of how improvisational beading should not start! Hoo boy, not the impression I wanted to leave her with! But I soldiered on and got a bit more improvisational with it instead of making it so symmetrical and I think she was a bit happier with it at that point. So was I!! I could see that I had planned it out in my head instead of being spontaneous and just letting it flow the way she had shown us. Wanna see it?

I started it with the buttons and then added the rhinestone beads around the top button and it was altogether way too symmetrical. The bottom part is where I actually started just beading without a plan. I like the way it is going and I'm going to use it as a practice piece as I work through the beading on my Midsummer CQ.

Oh, yes, there will be scads of beading around Titania! I think the techniques Robin taught during those wonderful two days will really help to bring some dimension and extra emphasis to many areas of the center portion. I can't wait to dig into it!

And, speaking of the center portion... all blocks have been pieced! WooHoo! ;0)

I had such a hard time piecing the tree... it took every evening of the past week. The center block and the left block took 4 evenings, then, this morning, I got up and pieced the top right block in 3 hours. Quite a steep learning curve! Of course, I can see where I need to do some revision on the piecing here and there but at least you can now see the idea that was in my head! On my monitor, these colors are pretty true. When I first envisioned this, it was going to be much softer, lighter tones; however, when the muse speaks, I listen! Of course, this is just the base and there will be many additions along the way!

We're off on a long road trip for the next couple of weeks, but I'll be stitching the entire way... WooHoo! Va-ca-tion!!

Still here!

I am still here! I've been doing some stash enhancement in anticipation of doing the final embroidery and beading on the center piece of the Midsummer Quilt.


I bought some Sassa Lynne threads and some beautiful ribbon from Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions.


She had the colors and the selection I needed all in one place which is nice. I also bought some flower beads and size 15 seed beads off of ebay and etsy... some place else, too, but I can't remember where... ah, I remember! Bead World... that's where I got them!


I also got these leaf beads at Bead World. They have a pretty nice selection of flower and leaf beads there.

This is my green bead mix I made up, along with some vintage flower sequins I'll be using quite a bit. They have a lovely irridescent shine to them!

Work has been a bear lately and we've also had company in town so it has been hard to get some major quality embroidery time in; however, I've actually managed to get a bit done, believe it or not! I wanted to show you how I was doing the ferns in the corners. I started them with just a fern stitch, but it seemed way too sparse and not very fern-like at all. I decided I needed to fill in the leaves alot more so I just started adding straight stitches alongside the lines of fern stitch. Here is the plain fern stitch...


and here is the fern stitch with the straight stitches added in to make it more "ferny." (Yes that is a word!) (maybe...)

I've used different greens for the various ferns and it has helped it to seem more... ferny! ;0)

We are going on a road trip in a few weeks and I want to get the whole center pieced so I'll have it with me to fill the hours on the road... and sitting on the couch in my mother-in-law's house. ;0) I'll be back in a day or so with the tale of how I spent my weekend! It was fun!!!

Still working away on the Midsummer CQ

Although I've been quiet on this little blog, I have been working away on the Midsummer CQ project. I've decided that 2.5 years is long enough and it WILL be finished by the end of the year!

So, without further ado, here's what I have been up to. When last we left Titania she was wingless and indecisive. Due to popular opinion, including my own, I went with the plain purple wings and here's where we stand today (click to embiggen, then go to all sizes):


I fused her wings to the block and then couched some lovely purple sparkly braid around the outer edges to help with the fraying. I also stitched some tiny metallic thread to emphasize the shape of the wing as well has help hold the fabric down (it didn't fuse very well because of the wrinkles). Then, I backstitched with teeny tiny stitches all the way around her dress and hair as well as the tree. Her hair is also backstitched throughout to try and give the impression of lots of curls (we are rather fond of curls in my family!). Getting this far has helped me get a good feel for how everything in the center portion will work but I won't do any more until she is brought together with all the other center blocks.

And, speaking of center blocks, here are the three bottom blocks of the center portion. I set them up so you can see how they will fit together:


I used Allie's curved piecing method to give some flow to the picture. Of course I haven't seen her do it in person but once I got going it fell into place pretty quickly. At least it did for the left and center blocks... I waited a couple of weeks before I did the right hand block and had to completely re-learn how to do it! I think once I have lots of foliage and flowers and sprinkles and fairies and all that lovely stuff added it will look pretty good. At least I sure hope so! The vines curling around the long seams are running stitch and I plan on adding some leaves and flowers to them. In my mind's eye I see those vines curling through the grasses and ferns on the edges of the glade, rather like bindweed. I just started working on the ferns this week and am really enjoying figuring out how to add depth and life to them. They are done with fern stitch and lazy daisy stitches. I'm so looking forward to exploring this forest glade!

I've also nearly completed the beading of all the seams of the outer blocks. I've been taking each section to work and beading during my lunch hour. Everybody oohs and aahs over it, then says I'm crazy! Yup, that would be me, crazy for crazy quilting... LOL!!

Yesterday I hit Bead World here in Phoenix to pick up some leaf and flower beads. That place really makes me drool! I barely managed to control myself but I still spent too much, as always! Ah, well, they will be lovely on the quilt!

OK, that's about it for tonight. Take care, lovely ladies, and hope to "see" you soon!!

Piecing and which wings?

I have managed to get some piecing done... finally and at last. I took the lower left hand block of the center and began to work on it, feeling my way along, trying to make it work. I wanted to do several things with the center portion. I wanted to
- use colors that allow the Titania block to blend in rather than stand apart
- follow the curve of the light from under the tree to the outer edge
- use Allie's curved piecing method
- make the seams of the pieces curve to mimic grass and foliage

This is what I came up with:
.
It's 11"x15" and it took me awhile but I think I managed to do what I wanted to do. When I got it finished I was rather taken aback at how bright and intense it was... I guess I have been working with neutrals for so long that the color was rather shocking! Here's how the upper right corner of this block matches up color-wise with Titania's block:

I'm pretty tickled that I was able to blend it so well... hopefully I will keep my matching mojo going. ;0)

Meanwhile, I have been playing with Titania and adding some details and shading here and there. I used colored pencils to intensify the colors on the tree, deepen the shadows and give a little more life to her face with eye shadow and lip color. Then I ironed the whole block to set the color. I've never used that technique before but it worked quite well and really made a difference.

Next, I started working on her wings. I wanted to really get the feeling of Titania's block set in my head and to do that, I need to give her wings... so to speak! I had some marbled fabric so I played with that first:

I reaslly wanted this to work but I think they might be a little bit too much. They kind of take away from her rather than add to her. Here's the second try:

This is a textured fabric I picked up somewhere and I like it alot. On this one I laid the wings back a little bit, thinking that that's how they would be if she was sleeping. I'm not sure about that part, but I do like the fabric. I also tried some white organza but it completely disappeared against the background so I didn't even take a picture.

I've been looking at these so long, though, that I can't really see which would work anymore. So, which one do you like better and why?

Hello, darlings... nice to see you...

it's been a looooonnnnnngggggg time! (Name that singer!)

I've been working on my Midsummer CQ... beading all the outer blocks. It has been an interesting journey, going back over the blocks and really seeing the stitches on the seams again. The beads I've chosen have been matched pretty closely with the background fabric. There have been some purple and green added in here and there because I want to pull the center colors out into the border a bit. Here are the blocks I've been beading, from lightest to darkest:


This is the block closest to the moon on the left side. I used iridescent beads on this and it really sparkles in person.


More iridescent beads along with some opaque ones since this is farther from the moon.


This is back over on the right side where it's a little darker.


As I look at these in closeup, they really arent't very good pictures. Sorry 'bout that! You can kinda see the beading though, and I knew if I didn't get a blog post up soon, I never would!


Getting quite dark now, moving farther down to the forest floor.


This one is nearly at the bottom so it is even darker.

I've so enjoyed going back over these blocks as I beaded them. I look at some of the seam treatments and think "How the heck did I do that?"... too funny!

I was supposed to piece the inner portion over the long 4th of July weekend; however, my sewing room was such a mess that I spent most of the day finding my way to all the flat surfaces! Once I found work space I couldn't get started... I was stuck and didn't know where to begin. I finally started pulling fabrics and realized that I didn't have enough greens.

A couple of Goodwill stops later I had a pretty good selection of green fabrics so I tried once again this weekend to piece the center portion. I still couldn't see how I was going to do it... My first vision wasn't working and it took me hours to really figure out what I wanted to do. Now that I have a reworked vision to go with, I'm hoping I can get started this week. I did manage to pull the muslin backing out and begin cutting it to size... that's a start at least!! ;0)

That's all for now... I've received some lovely squishy mail recently so I hope to post about that later this week. Wish me luck on my piecing, it should be quite the adventure!

"After the Ball" is on it's way!

Made it! I squeaked under the wire and got my entry into the Alliance for Quilts "Crazy for Quilts" contest.

I kept the smaller embellishments to a minimum in order to emphasize the main design elements. The ones I did use I kept close to the color of the background. Supplies used on this piece include vintage linens, lace, pearls, crystals, buttons, sequins and gloves. Soie d'alger silk floss and perle cotton, along with a few beads made up the seam treatments. I had a couple of problems with the finishing but I'm hoping it will be accepted. If it's not, that's OK too! I learned so much in the finishing alone that it was worth doing.

Here's a close-up of the Lady herself.

There's a bit more buckling here than there should be but all in all, I like it! As always, click the pictures to get to a larger size. If you want to see even more detail, use the "All sizes" feature on flickr to go to a giant size.

All in all, I learned so very much doing this piece. It has also kick-started my creative self and that's a good thing! Keep your fingers crossed that it's accepted into the contest!

Later, ladies...

"After the Ball"

What a weekend! I spent nearly 25 hours this weekend working on my Alliance for Quilts piece, "After the Ball." I'm so glad it was a 3 day weekend! ;0)

This addition of gloves to a CQ project is an idea that has been percolating in my little brain for awhile. I knew I could weave a story around a pair of gloves, and when I saw this lovely lady and her hand mirror, everything clicked in my head.

The gloves have been slipped off and her jewels have joined them. She gazes pensively into the mirror and, once again, feels the music and his touch on her arm...

I think I may have read one too many historical romances! :0)

Anywho...

I've fixed the parts of the button detail in the corner that were bugging me. It "feels" much better to me now. The major components are all here, now I just need to add all the pieces that pull it together.

We spent the weekend before in Colorado with the kids and the grandkids. It was a whirlwind 5 days but it sure was fun. I'll treat you to a couple of pictures... after June 1st!! I have to go do some beading now.

Hasta!