in progress - wild crocuses to be added by hand

I'm not sure if starting another piece right now was wise, but I think I can manage this.  Besides, it was 'calling' me.  I had to answer!   : )  It's all ready for hand stitching.  I'll be putting wild crocuses into the foreground, inspired by the photos I took at Patti's farm.  There was one photo in particular that drew me.   It was that blue, blue water down the hill.  I think I'll be putting smaller crocus clumps into it instead of one big close-up as the original photos portray.  You can see them here.

Also in progress: #7.  I am teaching on Sunday, so I am getting ready for that too.  I'm excited about this.  I'm heading out to the town of Watrous to do my first Beginner Threadwork Class for a group of 5 women.  I think 2 are coming from Regina.  Annette from In Stitches and Seams is hosting it at her place.  We 'know' each other through The Needle & Thread Network.  I'll be bringing along some yummy Wonderfil Threads too!  Speaking of Annette, she happened to be the one to answer my call for the "Tag! You're it" postcard exchange.  I mailed her one of my Tag cards, and WOOHOO!!  Look what I got today from her!

only the BIGGEST art-to-mail that I've ever got!

It's ONE HUGE TAG!  I had to burst out laughing.  Look at what I made for the swap...

off to Ireland it went... 'Tag! You're It' postcard.

Only the tiniest tag ever!  lol  Annette, I love your card!  Thank you so much!  I'm so glad you swapped with me.  Don't mind me if I show that one off to my postcard classes!  It's a keeper.

I'm experimenting with different presentation options for my art.  The next show & sale is less than 2 weeks away!  Lately, more and more artists and jurors have encouraged me to 'get it out from under the glass'.  With certain work like hooked rugs or quilts, of course I don't put those under glass.  With my fine thread embroideries though, I have put them under glass.  I use a gallery matting or double matting to keep the glass off the work.  Typically, other traditional embroiderers and nearly all buyers of my art want the glass.  "OMG HOW do you keep it clean!?" I get that a lot when I suggest removing the glass.  Maybe it's a matter of not knowing how to clean fibre art?  On the other hand, people from down south cringe and say, "do you know we have spiders and other insects that would eat that or make a nest in it?"  lol  I'd never considered that!  Still, after much thought, I think I will continue to put my thread paintings under glass for the next show.  It can be removed at the point of sale by me, or later by the new owner.  It does protect the fine work from the many, many hands that rub across those tiny little french knots.

And no - grown ups at art shows tend not to know better than to keep their hands off the work.  ; )

So, here is what I've been doing the last couple of days - working on presentation.  So far, I love the results.  First, I machine stitched some linen onto a fitted piece of tough watercolor paper by zigzagging around the edges.  The little Prairie Rugs had the excess canvass hot-steam pressed to the back.  I like it like this with no visible border.

preparing a linen backing

mounting the fibre art

Check this out.  I love this tool.  I can pick any frame I want, remove or add glass, double the matting, change from a tabletop frame to a wall frame... and this inexpensive tool from Lee Valley allows me to make everything fit every time.  See?  I added new tabs because the ones that were made with the frame didn't work once I changed how much I was putting into the frame itself.

best present ever : )

I removed the glass and inserted the linen & matted art, put on the backing board, and held it all in place by inserting the new tabs.

neat as a pin

Tada!  I love this.  No glass.  All fabric.  My small art pieces are just too small to stick on the wall as is.   



Here it is, ready to go.  My label is on the back for identification.

Prairie Rug #11

Prairie Rug #11.  : )  My friend Molly called them 'ruglets'.  Hehe, I love that!

Prairie Rug #11

Number nine (below) was bothering me.  The horizon was not defined.  So I pulled out one line of fabric strips and re-hooked a deeper color in.  Much better!

Prairie Rug #9 (after) click to view larger...

Prairie Rug #9 (before)

I know it's a prairie landscape.  I think It's really cool that someone on facebook looked at the last photo there and saw a pebbled beach with waves washing into the shore.  Do you see it?  I do now!  Isn't that neat!?  Oh I have so many show photos.  What a terrific project that would be!  Maybe that's what I can do this summer while I'm out at the lake with the kids 'unplugged' from my sewing machine.

Now I think I have a good variety and amount of work ready for the group Spring Art Show & Sale.  It's only 2 weeks away and I have a lot of handstitching to finish on my threadpaintings.  Off to tie a few thousand french knots!  Have a love day, and I hope you get in some gardening and garage saling!  ('Tis the season.)

See what happens  when I skip 2 days of blogging?  I get LOTS done.  I have three more Prairie Rugs completed.  I started by reinforcing some burlap weave with a zigzag stitch all around it twice.


Then I basted it onto a long narrow scroll frame.  I know... that's not how you rug hook.  AFTER I got this done, the marvelous Molly left some hoops and a table top rug hooking frame on my doorstep!  : )  Thank you!  (Let me repeat: MARVELOUS!)

too long for a good photo

Next, I mapped out some rectangles onto the burlap with a big jiffy marker.  I have these great old floor-board style box frames (no glass) to mount them into.  They are going to look SWEET!  Away I went!  Here's the first (#8).

Prairie Rug #8

I think it has a nice glow.  I kept working into the wee hours last night, by the light of the Ott lamp : ).


I was using all those delicious scraps from Perwinkle's... and I made a few more of my own to add to the bags.  Yeah - I color sorted them all.  It sure is helpful to have bags of color!

Prairie Rug #9

I love the sky!  The horizon is a bit washed, but the cotton scraps really blended well with the chucky yarn I hooked into the lower part.  WHAT a cool effect!  I did that this morning and decided I couldn't stop there.  So one more...  I had the composition of 'Bloom' in mind here.  # 8 and #9 are about 5x7".  #10 here is smaller at 4x6".

Prairie Rug #10

I'm just so extremely loving this texture!  I'll post some 'glam shots' on Sunday for you.  Now I'm off to the Mother's Day Spa at the elementary school to get my toe nails painted.  ; )

linking to TGIFF!  Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday  hosted by M-R.  : )

It's funny how things work.  I happened to splurge and buy myself something very special for my birthday.  I bought my first fibre art ever!  No regrets!  : )  I chose fabric art by Kirsten Chursinoff, a wonderful fabric & thread artist in Vancouver.  She's been in Quilting Arts magazine more than once over the years.  She's the one I model my framing after.  I've been watching her blog and waiting... waiting.  When I saw this little gem, I could wait no longer.  I bought it, and it arrived just in time for my big day.  (Please click on her blog link to see a better photo of this piece.)

Elderberries & Ladybugs by Kirsten Chursinff

The SAME DAY that I took the leap to spend $ on fibre art just for me, I got an email from Krista Hennebury in Vancouver, requesting to purchase one of my Prairie Rugs.  You know Krista - she's the Poppyprint blogger.  She is the proud new owner of Prairie Rug #5.


Today Krista wrote all about it here.  Wow - what she wrote.  You should go read it.  She sounds pretty happy too.  Isn't that funny how things work sometimes?

Here's what I've been busy with - another 'pile of prairie' for the Spring Show & Sale at the end of the month.  (see the top of the blog for details).

starting on the handstitching now

hand stitching to be added - just a few tiny white stars I think.

mini flax field remake - 4x6"

Two more Bloom pieces just finished!  4x6" and 3x9"

I feel better after making this post.  It looks like I've done so much more than I thought I had.  I've been slowly working on things throughout the blog give-away week, but never really felt I had made much progress.  I'm linking up to The Needle and Thread Network.  Please drop by to see more fabulous works by bloggers from across the country.  Thank you for stopping by my blog!

After a long ten days of sick kids / sick me / sick kids / followed by 3 schools day off... I am having some serious withdrawal.  Today I got some headway on the Denmark piece, a commission from Megan in Australia.


A little before (above) and a little after (below)...


I love thread painting.  When I work in long repetitive lines, I like to sew left to right.  This means that I am making these trees sideways.  It always helps my brain to turn the source photo sideways as well.  I'm not very good at thinking sideways apparently : ).  This is how I work...


Looks funny, doesn't it?  That's her photo up on the screen.  I'm pretty happy with the work so far.  It's small at 4x6 inches.  I start with the faded background first, then work forward. Unlike most threadpainting instruction, I don't work light colors to dark colors.  I prefer stitching down the middle or main colors until I have everything in place.  Then I will go back and darken that dark parts to create definition.  Lastly, I'll add the lights or whites for the highlights. 

Yes - I always drop my feed dogs because with this buckrum canvas, it does cause drag to keep them up.  And yes - I always use my Janome 'blue arrow' bobbin case.


It's set a bit lower so that I never need to bother with adjusting the top tension.  Whether I use cotton or rayon, it doesn't much matter.  This set up seems fool proof for me.


Tip- when free motion sewing, always ensure the presser foot lever has been raised BEFORE rethreading a new color.  This way, the upper tension discs are open and the thread will get into the right place inside your machine.


I'm getting there!  I would say I'm about half way done.  The front foliage will be easy now that I have the background and trees in place.  I'm having fun!  I love the way the scene fades into the sunlight.  Thank you Megan for your patience!

At Postcard Cottage, I signed up for the "Tag! You're it" swap.  I love the swaps.  You make three and you get three.  Working with themes on a time limit is such a fantastic way to spur your creativity.  I spent a half hour in the laundry room with scissors, removing tags from my family's clothing.  It became more and more interesting as I found tags I had never seen before.  There's always the ones that say "keep away from fire" (!?) and there's the ones that have the strangest synthetic names in the materials.  lol

a bucket of tags

My first idea was to make a patchwork quilt card.  I love all the interesting text.  It reminds me of graffiti.

recycled tags become art to mail!

I made a third card and decided to free motion quilt it.  The thickness of the tag layers made it a huge disaster.  So... it's garbage.  (Note to self not to try that again!)  I had a cool idea to make a card that would be one giant tag.  I planned that it would be white, and that I would embroider the washing care symbols onto it like in the top right corner of card #1.


That certainly would have been a great card!  Four cleaning symbols on one white card?  But I didn't.  I fused white fabric onto the next surface and got a totally different idea, and I think it's so funny!  It's like the hem of a big white nightgown, but with the teeniest tag on the bottom.  lol


Hehehe.  I love this one best.  : )  It makes me smile.  Unfortunately, it seems that the swap didn't fill, so I have an extra card with no home.  Tag! You're it!  If you would like to swap directly with me 1 for 1, shoot me an email and we'll arrange to swap addresses.  : )

I had the best birthday!  Seriously!  30 came & went - no party.  40 came & went... nothing happened.  40-something was just loads of fun!  Not only was May 5th my daughter's due date (she was a week early), but it's also my birthday and my mother's birthday.  May 5th was also a Super Moon.  How cool was THAT!?  Turns out, May 5 happens to be 'free comic book day' too!  Off we went to the comic book store to check it out!

Like my moose Cowichan?  I do.

I snuck up on this Tusken Raider for a photo op.  He was mumbling something.  I'm guessing he was like, "hey lady, you are WAY to close," and I was like, "yeah? too bad man, you are making it on to my blog whether you like it or not!"

It's my birthday.  Deal with it.

Then LOOK - it's Carole Epp.  If you aren't from around here, you might not know who she is.  Carol is with SK Craft Council and hosts Flock & Gather (blog here).  Promise me if you click the link that you'll look around for a while.  There is SO much to see!  It's a very dynamic craft collective that holds show & sales with local artisans.  I did not know her boy was a super hero too!  : )



My husband got these made gluten free just for me (and I don't even like cake)!  Still, I ate about seven of them.  lol

Chocolate Mint Gluten Free from Cupcake Conspiracy

We headed downtown to The Mix art studio off Spadina Avenue to see a show put on my Nicki Ault (paintings) and her father Bob Racine (wood).  I bought this GORGEOUS wine bottle stopper that he made.


Nicki was BUSY.  My kids got stir-crazy and we had to cut out early.  They kept playing 'chase' in the gallery after someone fed them cups of super sugary lemonade on an empty stomach.  sigh.  On the way to vehicle, I spotted this rock and told them to climb it.  We were there in the front yard of a highrise for a half hour.  lol

PULL!  Come on boys!

You think I have lots of energy?  You should see my daughter.  o m g.  Never a dull moment.

: )  She's no shrinking violet.

My husband surprised me with new patio furniture and then mother nature surprised us with three days of pouring rain.  THAT was another exciting part to my day.  My birthday always gets a good thunderstorm for as long as I can recall.  Sure enough, Saturday saw the first thunderstorm of the year!  I am crazy-in-love with prairie thunder storms : ).  We turned on a multicutural radio program and danced up a storm inside to all the Cinco de Mayo celebration songs.  Fun fun!  It was a very good day.  Here's to a new year!

Yeah, I know that was a little crooked.  That's what you get when you're parked by a ditch leaning one way, and the clouds are slanted the other way, and the kids are jumping around in the back seat.  lol

Is it just me, or does everyone remember playing Duck, Duck, Goose in school?

The field was full of Canada Geese and duck families for as far as I could see.

It's like you could just reach up and grab a handful of cloud.

Check this out...  !????  SOMEONE didn't sleep last night when they arrived at their new home.  GOOD GOSH it's lucky it landed in the ditch and not through the windshield of another vehicle!  SHEESH! 

Double mattress & box spring.

I'm glad I did the give-away week.  I planned it in advance, and as it turned out, I ended up sick as a dog along with two of my children all week long.  I'm glad I had that break.  I need to thank everyone for all the fun comments!  I read them all.  Here are the winners picked at randomly by one boy and one girl.  It was not a number generator, so for anyone who had more than one comment per day, no worries - their chances were no better than yours.  If you see your name, I'll be emailing you for your mailing address. Here we go!

the winner: Katie / Unconventional Kate

the winner of a 1 yr subscription to: Joanne / Threadhead

the winner of the thread sampler pack: Judee (spelled correctly FYI)

the winner of the 1 yr subscription: Krista / Poppyprint

the winner of $30 worth of 'creative cash': Tamara

Please understand that these gifts aren't out of my pocket at all.  I just asked around, and this is what happened.  So, special thanks to the generous gifts provided by Periwinkle Quilting & Beyond (Saskatoon), Quilter's Connection Magazine (B.C., Canada), Wonderfil Thread (Head office in Calgary), A Needle Pulling Thread magazine (Ontario, Canada), and Creative House Sewing & Education Centre (also in Saskatoon).