Something About Nothing

This idea came to me from a friend. She wanted to know if I had any wintery pieces. After thinking about it, I remembered a snowflake piece, and another small piece of a girl in a parka. I decided I needed to make a wintery face. I searched for photos online of beautiful women, and drew a few ideas. At first I thought I wanted her to look up at the sky, but after drawing this face, I knew she was right. Winter looks you right in the eye. She is bold, not bashful, yet cool, thus she would be shades of blue. July 5, 2021 My original thought was to shade her facial features with stitches, but after embroidering the outline of her eyes on a courthouse steps block, I decided she didn't need the shading. I thought she should have curly hair so the snowflakes could be catch in her hair, but I wasn't sure what stitch to use to create the look of curly hair. I looked online to see what other people have done to embroider an afro. Most of the things I saw were a solid background, and the...

And the Stitch goes on. . .  -think Sonny & Cher -  hope I just passed along that little ear worm.  You're welcome. Swirly, twirly winds stitched in to the sky And now, The Hands... One Hand Two Hands Three Hands Five Hands Sometimes I know how to count. Each hand was traced with a chalk pencil then stitched using a basic outline stitch. These stitches go all the way through all three layers.  The back side so far. And although it is a basic stitch, each hand took a little over an hour to outline. It doesn't help that my carpel tunnel has been creating a lot of pain and numbness in my own hands.  Next it is time to fill in the back ground! I'm also dyeing more fabric for another project. I always have at least three projects going at one time  so I can bounce from one to the other when I get bored.  How do you work?

My friend, Lynn Krawczyk  of Smudged Design Studio, wrote an awesome book this year. I really admire Lynn's ability to let her art brain fly. She gets a fabulous idea and she just goes for it! I spend too much time telling myself why the idea won't work, but Lynn thinks up fabulous stuff and then writes a book about it. I want to be more like Lynn. The Hand-Stitched Surface is all about creating great mixed media art with hand stitching. I've been doing a lot more hand stitching lately thanks to her book, and I have a tip for you: As I've quilted straight lines on my Thunderstruck quilt and the lines aren't always straight. They are straight-ish. I suppose that is part of the charm of this style of quilting, however as I am finishing the quilt I discovered an easier way to make straighter, better spaced lines and I want to share this simple idea: Fold the fabric over, and finger press (or iron) a line.  You now have a straighter line to follow...