TASTy oyster and palestrina

Here is a small sample of oyster & palestrina. The flower on the left is done with oyster stitch - I like using velour fiber so you can see the pattern the stitch makes. The leaves are whipped running stitch. The flower on the right has palestrina petals, each surrounded by a detached chain. The stem on this flower is also whipped running stitch; I just whipped it 3 different times, using a different thread each time.

~Happy Stitching

Free Turquoise Suede

This has been in my stash for years. I have been doing a major re-organization and cleanup of my sewing room. I am going to cut this up - if you'd like a piece of it (I was thinking about 8" x10" pieces), just email me at LinMoon@earthlink.net - see the link at the top of my sidebar.

Garden Pix

Here are some pictures from my garden:

This is the yesterday-today-and-tomorrow,
whose real name is brunsfelsia pauciflora













Every Christmas I buy one or two amaryllis bulbs and then after they are done blooming, I plant them outside in a pot with others. Some of these came to me from DH's grandmother.






















On the last picture: I don't know what this is, but I think it should get the Weird Plant Award!

TASTy whipped running stitch

Here is a tree I did using the whipped running stitch. It was really fun playing with different textured threads for the tree trunk. I added in some stem stitch to fill in the spaces on the trunk. I know there should be more greenery on the tree, but there's lots to do, so I stopped there.....

Below is the tree before whipping:

Good Book

This is not a new book (copyright 2005), but it is new to me. I discovered it at JoAnn's and was interested in it because I wanted a creative border for my Art Nouveau button (see below). I really like this book - it shows a lot of different edgings that can be used around cameos or buttons. I had some trouble with the instructions for the twisted edging I did, but was able to adapt the directions just slightly to make the final product look a little nicer.

The nice thing is that someone else (Jamie Cloud Eakin) figured out how to do things like make a circle appear more oval with the addition of an edging, make a beaded ruffle around a button, make beaded "lace" around a cabachon or button, make a twisted edging that turns into a looped pendant at the bottom - I just love all the ideas.





On a side note, I also found the SRE Bible there that has been talked about so much. I perused it and frankly, I was unimpressed. The motifs were nice, but I thought a lot of the stitching looked kind of sloppy. Just my opinion.....

Thinking Blogger Award

Ati has kindly tagged me with the Thinking Blogger Award. How thoughtful of her! (LOL) So now I am to tag 5 other blogs that make me think. Hmmm, it's harder than you might think! Here's who I tag:

Allie, who makes me think "Could I ever do something that gorgeous?"

Pat Winter, whose beautiful embroideries and talks of walks on the beach make me think of nature and blessings.....

Iris Susan, who is so good at finding the best seam treatments from Carole Samples' book and then adding her own twist...

Marty52's Textiles in Time, whose encrusted fairy block left quite an impression on me...

Crazy Aunt Perl, whose blog is so hilarious, she really makes me think about how humor works...

Read more about the Thinking Blogger Award here.





insert info/link about award here

Encrusted Block Complete!

Well, after what seems like a loooong time, I've finally completed my Encrusted Block. What with getting my girls off to their trip and spending a week with my husband (alone!) not much stitching was going on there at the end...But I was true to my word and didn't cook one meal that whole week! We had Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Thai food - it was wonderful! And we actually saw a couple of movies that were geared toward adults! And my girls actually survived their airplane trips and came home alive! So many blessings....

I'm very happy with the end result of my block and also relieved to be done with it! Do you, too, get tired of a project if it drags on too long? Also, I always have a plan for the next project - why does the new one always seem so exciting? - maybe because you haven't started working on it yet and don't know its challenges...

Busy Busy

Well, I haven't been doing much stitching lately. My daughters 14 and 17 left for Europe yesterday for Spring Break and the last 2 weeks I've been running around getting them ready for their trip - buying lightweight suitcases (there's a hefty fine for a bag over 50 pounds), getting them shoes, travel toiletries, and worrying about their plane blowing up or crashing.
Happy to say they arrived there safely - I always worry whenever I fly that the plane will spontaneously combust upon landing, so it was a HUGE DEAL that I let them go. They went with a group of teachers and other students, 60 in all - to London, then Paris. So DH and I are childless for a whole week - longer than we've ever had! I informed him that I am not cooking for a week! Yay! Spring is here and flowers abound. My camera skills can't rival those of others, but I'm still enjoying the flowers. I don't have a picture, but one of my all-time favorite plants is Yesterday-Today-and Tomorrow. Do you know of it? It has small fragrant flowers that bloomed dark purple yesterday, turn to lavender today and will turn to white tomorrow. It smells heavenly and is right next to my angel trumpet, which smells wonderful also. I love to just go outside and breath in that smell!

I hope to get back to some stitching soon....