White on White -- Fan #9

Here's the sister to yesterday's fan. This time all the exuberant flowers are on display.



The white background gives them their full glory. The white lace is the icing on the cake.

Magenta and Lace -- Fan #8

The exuberant florals in the body this fan



are subdued by the black lace at the edge.

Royal Blue Trailing Garden -- Fan #7

The white cascade reminds me of plants that spill over the edge of a wall



trailing blossoms in their path

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 4

We return to April 2006 for more projects. I made two more ornaments, a greeting card, and a small framed piece.

Peace Angel

I received this ornament kit as a gift in an online gift exchange. It had been so long since I'd attempted surface embroidery that I wasn't certain I wanted to stitch it. But a couple things changed my mind.

A gal from a local stitching group had done an entire miniature quilt in redwork (except that she did it all in a pretty blue instead of red). It was magnificent.

Then I got inspired by an stitcher who has a real affinity for surface embroidery. Her gorgeous work reminded me how lovely surface embroidery can be. I was encouraged to give this redwork angel a try.

My mom taught me surface embroidery when I was a child. I was surprised to find that reaching back into my surface embroidery past was very relaxing and fulfilling. As a bonus, my adult stitches are much more even than they were when I was a child.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this sweet angel. The more I stitched, the more personality she gained.

I finished her as a basic padded ornament. I decided to try something new by finishing the edge of the ornament with beads rather than with twisted cord. The sparkly red Rocailles beads are uneven in size, so I strung some them onto some fine wire, tucked one end of the wire into the top of the ornament, then couched the beaded wire over the side seam. After the beads were couched, I tucked the other end of the wire into the top of the ornament and added a hanging loop made of cording.

It's a little hard to tell from this photo, but the beads add a glimmered halo to the angel.

As an aside, when you make a basic padded ornament in an unusual shape like this, it's important to clip the curves a lot so they lie smoothly as you lace the embroidery to the backing board. It was pretty tricky getting all the wrinkles out of the curves. The beaded edge helped to hide the imperfections.

Easter Card

My daughter Jodie and I created this Easter Card for my daughter Jeanne who lived far away at Eastertime in 2006. I found the adorable Italian freebie chart online.

The card is embellished with watercolor paper, satin ribbon, and stick-on "jewels."

I really enjoy the creative latitude greeting cards give me. It's fun making small mixed media projects.

Little Bit O' Blarney

I stitched this sweet ornament in time for St. Patrick's Day, but my needlework shop didn't have the clover charm for me until April. Sigh.

I bought this chart on eBay for no special reason whatsoever. I just liked it. I'm not Irish. I don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day except to wear green. But I thought it might be nice to have a new St. Patrick's Day decoration in my home.

I chose to stitch with Anchor floss and Gentle Art Sampler Thread floss this time. I like the quality of both these fibers a lot. For beads, I chose some from my stash that would work. They are Mill Hill white and Mill Hill emerald green. The clover charm is one that is usually used on Lizzie*Kate patterns.

I finished my heart as a basic padded ornament. Getting the fabric to lie smoothly around the heart's curve was slightly tricky — especially because I didn't leave myself much seam allowance! The cording and tassel were made from #5 DMC perle coton.

I continue to decorate my mantle with this ornament every year.

Hive & Blossoms

This is the second chart I finished from the 2006 Cross-Stitch Calendar by Accord Publishing. This chart is for the month of August. The stitched area is 59 stitches square.

This piece uses only six shades of floss. The specialty stitches used are satin stitch in the hive and Smyrna cross in the border. The pattern calls for some pewter buttons. Instead, I found some bright yellow novelty bee buttons at Walmart. I used gold acrylic paint to dull them down a bit so they would match my hive. I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out!

I decided to frame this stitchery, using the printed cardboard mat that was included in the calendar.

April proved to be a fairly prolific stitching month for me. In May 2006, I finished another seven small pieces. I'm looking forward to sharing some of them next time.

Violet Queen - Fan #6

The flourishes at the crown of this fan remind me of an elaborate headdress



regal in golden edges

Red Hibiscus - Fan #5

She's very like her sister from yesterday. This time the flowers have the color instead of the background.



And she wears sparkly red crowns.

Green Hibiscus - Fan #4

I don't know that this is really a stylized hibiscus, but that was my first impression when I bought the fan.



The flowers look like they are wearing crowns of gold.

The Red and the Gold - Fan #3

Fan week continues with more scallops, floral, glitter, and gold.



The gold detail around the white flowers is scrumptious.

Blue Scallops - Fan #2

It's ornamental Fan Week on my blog. I'll be posting several of the fans in my collection.



Because I like pretty, lacy, floral sparkly things.

Cookie Therapy

When my daughter Jeanne is having a rough week, we sometimes don't hear from her for several days running. When she pops back up, she'll tell us that she took some time for "Kitchen Therapy." She doesn't necessarily follow recipes. For her, time in the kitchen means creativity and making a mess and restoring order and having something special and yummy to eat. It helps her feel more centered and ready to take on life again.

I sometimes wish I was more like Jeanne.

Me? I don't much like to cook. But I do like to bake.

I had a short, restless night of sleep again. I woke up to falling barometric pressure and rain. I felt sad for no good reason. Those are all sure signs of a low-level depressive day for me. On days like this, I usually need to sit very still and do a quiet, creative activity.



But I had a hankering for oatmeal cookies. And not just any old store-bought cookies. Our favorite family recipe cookies (not an "original family recipe," per se, but the recipe we use most often in our family). So I made some. For no good reason. No special occasion. Just because.



Now I feel better. Dale says it's because it's not only cookie therapy -- it's aromatherapy.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 3

If it's Thursday, it's time to take another trip in the wayback machine. This week we'll look at the first six ornaments that I finished in April 2006  - The Year of the Ornament.


Wooly Ornaments

I saw these adorable ornaments in the Mary Maxim catalog and just couldn't resist purchasing the kit.

I love the old-fashioned colors and sweet designs.

Wooly Tree
for Jodie

In my first session, I cut out all the pieces from the felt.

Wooly Cat
for Julie

The next session, I lightly glued the pieces together.

Wooly Santa
for Jeanne's husband

After that, each ornament took about three hours to embroider.

Wooly Snowman
for Jeanne

Pieces are attached to each other with buttonhole and straight stitch. Embellishments are made with lazy daisy, chain stitch and French (or Colonial) Knots.

Wolly Sheep
for Dale

These ornaments were great fun to make. 

Wolly Holly
for Margaret

I kept them for my family. They were to be our "2005" ornaments, since I didn't get personalized ornaments made for the previous Christmas.

Needlework Book Cover

I finished another of my 19 in 2019 goals last weekend! I did the finishing work on one of six needlework pieces from years gone by. I decided to make another journal cover.

This is for my "Many Small Dreams" journal. It's a place where I can write down and flesh out my daydreams. Many people have one passion, one dream they want to fulfill, whether it be a dream job,  owning a business, travel, adventure, writing a book, etc. I've never had that kind of passion for one single thing. I have many small dreams instead. In this journal, I'll let my imagination run wild and write details that can help these dreams come true.

The needlework piece I used is a stitch sampler that I made in 2001. I have no photographs of it in my archives. I can't recall the name of the piece. I happened across it in my box of completed stitchery. It has a 2001 date on it. 

I vaguely remember starting this when I was part of the Embroiderer's Guild, because we were learning new stitches. The design has various stitches repeated four times, and combining tints and shades of the four colors used.

Most guild members made this on canvas. But I don't enjoy stitching on canvas, so I used linen instead. I learned that wasn't the best choice for this design. These stitches needed a firmer base. I stitched it, but did not enjoy the process. This is one project where it took a lot of dedication to get to the end.

Apparently when I got there, I didn't even celebrate it with a post!

The construction of the book cover was a lesson in problem-solving ... one problem after another. Thank goodness my daughter Jeanne was visiting. I used her brain power to help me come up with the solutions. (Love that young woman!)

I thought I'd continue my Whittle a Little when turning this needlework into a book cover by using fabric that I re-purposed from a thrift store skirt which I bought five years ago. That was not a good idea. 

It was cheap fabric that got all stretched out and wonky as I used it -- even though I'd interfaced the two layers to give the fabric some stability. I ended up having to trim it down so much that by the time it was ready to wrap around the edge of the notebook it was too short. 

I solved the problem by adding the lace flaps. It ... works. Sort of.

I trimmed down the ground fabric of the needlework to a half inch beyond the stitching. Then I surged the edge of the linen. 

I rummaged through my stash to find something decorative to cover the edge of the linen. I auditioned lace, trims, bias tape, and lots of different ribbons. The ribbon that worked best by color was a one inch mauve grosgrain ribbon. But it was far too wide. 

So I folded the ribbon in half, steamed it really well, and sewed it into place around the edge of the linen. The corners were a problem. I tried mitering the corners, but the ribbon was too thick. I settled for overlaping the ribbon. In the end, the corners look OK.

Next I used a fusible web to "glue" the stitchery to the book cover using the heat of an iron to activate the web. I vacillated with that decision. Usually, once so much energy and time is put into a piece of needlework, I don't want to use glue or tape on the back. Over time, the adhesive can bleed through and ruin the piece. 

So I had to remind myself, "THIS IS A BOOK COVER. THE NEEDLEWORK IS FROM 2001. YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO USE IT AND ENJOY IT FOR A WHILE."

Once the needlework was adhered to the fabric, I sewed down the outer edge of the ribbon to assure that the stitchery stayed in place. 

The notebook I'm using is also a Whittle a Little object. I bought it for about 10 cents at a thrift store and thought this would be a good way to use it up. It's not quite thick enough for the cover. But when I tried a 5-subject notebook, that was too thick for the cover. So I settled on using the thrifted notebook.

---

The entire construction of this book cover was frustrating. But I suppose that's fitting for a piece of stitching that was frustrating to complete. 

I'm not entirely satisfied with the outcome. It feels wonky. I just keep reminding myself that this stitchery has been hidden for nearly two decades. It finally gets to see the light of day. It's not fine art. It's a book cover. 

Not every item I make needs to come to an ideal end. It can be a pretty, serviceable object instead.

It's Only Words

Do you remember when you were a kid, and playmates would sometimes treat you poorly and call you nasty names? We had a retort ready,

Sticks and stones will break my bones,
but names will never hurt me.

Yeah...


No, I never believed it. I have thin skin. Those words stung! I was criticized for being "too sensitive." It took me decades to realize that this hyper-sensitivity is a superpower, not something to be used for derision. Being sensitive allows me to have empathy, sympathy, compassion.





.
Four to five years ago, while dealing with some very nasty family business, I was having all kinds of hurtful and untruthful words hurled at me. In large part, I simply refused to push back with words of my own. I remained largely silent, publicly.

Privately, I did a lot of soul searching and reading to make my way through the onslaught. I found this quotation, which I wrote down. But I don't remember who said it. In part:

Words are things.
You can put some words together and make people want to go to war.
Put another few words together and make them long for peace.
Words are so important ... they inform ...
so be careful how you use them,
because they carry power.

I found this graphic the other day while doing my weekly Whittle a Little.

I'd made it and kept it where I could see it to help me have courage during that hellish time. I seared it into my memory to steel me against the waves of vitriol.

I made it to remind myself that the words contained herein are the words that describe the reality of who I am and how I choose to enter the world. These are the people and characteristics I value.



Sure. Name-calling hurts. But I refuse to allow that spiteful language to do fatal damage, and be the closing words of my life story.

Easily Distracted - Fan #1

I've been easily distracted by shiny objects for most of my life. When I was a little girl, it was fans like this that I craved. The one I saw had an ivory handle and fine rice paper. It was the idea of the pretty fan that was more important than its composition.

Recently I was distracted by this fan, and bought it.

It's super cheaply made, but I don't care. This is all about the sparkle and embroidery and prints and lace and sequins and gold that catches my eye.

I've now got nearly a dozen of these fans ... precisely for the simple pleasure they bring me. Perhaps I'll share more of them over the coming days and weeks.

Like I say, easily distracted by shiny objects!

August Goal Update

August was a good month for progress on my annual goals! I had to reassess my list now that I'm more than half way through the year. Several of my original 19 are now moot, as life in the Davaz household changes over time. I knew I would likely have to switch some up, which is why I have a nice juicy list of alternate goals to choose from. Here's what I completed this month.


Goal #17: Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects.

Though I already completed this goal of 25 in July, I wrote four more in August, bringing my total to 30 #throwbackthursday blog posts.

Goal #19: Finish at least one of seven courses

I finished The Creative License by Danny Gregory and wrote some of my thoughts on the book in an earlier post.

Alternate Goal: 50 movies/series from my Netflix and Amazon Prime queues

I completed this goal with these:

44. The Conspirator
45. The Music Never Stopped
46. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
47. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
48. Mary Poppins Returns
49. The Great British Baking Show
50. Far from the Madding Crowd

I suppose my favorite of the bunch was Mary Poppins Returns. The Great British Baking Show is a close second. Both are completely charming and make for a sweet way to end a day.

Alternate Goal: Deal with the yellow basket on the chair in my bedroom

The basket had been sitting there for years, containing costumes and make-up for half-baked self-portrait ideas. The ideas had potential when I thought them up, but they haven't aged well. I may do only one of the four or five I had planned. What is left over has been absorbed into my collections or tossed out. It feels good to have finally made those decisions -- and have a chair I can sit in to boot!

Whittle a Little

Dale and I have been going whole hog this month! We've pared down quite a lot -- including many, many more books. I found good homes for them, along with some quilts, blankets, most of my bead stash, some musical instruments, and a couple more pairs of shoes. But my biggest focus was on the kitchen. I donated quite a few small appliances and dishes that we seldom used. All in all, we whittled well over 100 items. It's feeling lighter around here!

Fondue, anyone?

2019 Totals as of August 31

SIXTEEN GOALS!
11 of the original goals finished
3 original goals in progress
5 of the alternate goals finished
4 alternate goals in progress

Only 3 more goals to complete my 19 for the year. I hope to have them done by the end of September.

And then, as you might guess, I'll follow through on the goals I have in progress because ... well ... why simply achieve when you can over-achieve?   😉