Stitch [the magazine for creative stitchers] project
here is the link for their website.

I like this magazine a lot;  it carries out beautiful embroidery and great tutorials by very talented stitchers.



I started this piece from the 2005 magazine awhile ago, but I did not finished it until recently. The initial enthusiasm was not there after sometime as I felt the project was tedious. Then I had other art projects which I spent more time on.












Yet,I did not give up on it. When I took it out from the craft box last time, I made sure that I sew it to the end !

I ran out of yellow thread while stitching the background, and instead of buying new I used white thread which I had for the remaining of the work.  [not a good decision]

I also did not do a good job on the fly stitch on the background of the bird panel, there are areas I simply did the running stitch only.  The tutorial also mentions to add mirror pieces[shisha]  to the shisha border but I did not have enough do so.

..... nevertheless with many flaws here is my attempt.

I am glad I completed it :)

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next time,

xxx,

Gaia

Shades of blue..

Runner

Inspired by these traditional art south asian motifs, I stitched this piece to include in a runner that I wanted to make for my dresser top. These fabric art were done by my brother while he was studying at the art school and the jackets were sewn by my mother who is a good seamstress.

My brother's drawings has more precise and clean outlines, I drew my  creeper free hand using a white crayon pencil.

Chain stitch is one of my favourite to work with. I find it beautiful,specially when used in filling for flowers, and also it is one of the easy stitches for me.

I chose white thread [not happy with the quality, bought at a discount store] as I thought it will be more of a contrast on the indigo[i think that's the colour].

And, as for rest of the piece; I  incorporated various shades of blue from the bag remnants and arranged in a way so that the embroidered panel would be at the centre.

I used a similar blue mixed fabric for the backing.

And, it is done after many hours of  hand stitching ....

I was impatient see how it look on  the dresser :)

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next time,

xxx,
Gaia

Pincushions

I made these for a friend of a friend who wants them for her book club. I have made similar ones couple of times now.

The inspiration is from this creative web site. And, they are beautiful.

                                       

This time I added a few of these coloured pebbles to the bottle cap so it will not topple. [not part of the tutorial]

I also tried one with an empty spool, of course no pebbles for that.

  

........ easy and fun to make. 

I hope her book club will like these !

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next project,
xxx,
Gaia

Miss-Matched Quilt

Last summer while browsing through yard sales, I got this pile of material for 50cents. I thought they were just scarps. When I got home and untied the bag I discovered that were petty petals of soft shades. Some of them were already tacked !

There are two kinds of petals...and lots of them. [I never counted ]

I wanted make a quilt using these but did not want to venture into a large project as I did not know how I would fair. Instead made this smaller one. I also found this guide which has information  helpful for a beginner like me.

Rest of the fabric I used are from yard sales/thrift shops.

• I don't think that these shapes were meant to be used in a flower, as I have done so. I just wanted try something different.

I did applique flower/and quilting by hand. I used the help of the machine to join the blocks.

I am left handed :)

I learnt;

• ... that when piecing geometrical shapes [and the intention was to make a straight line], the measurements have to be precise, otherwise the results will be like this............. 

• ....my hand quilting stitches are not even.. should they be? [i need to read on that]

• ....I should have chosen fabric with similar weave, it was difficult pull the needle through the blue  fabric which is used around flowers blocks

Finally,  I managed to finish it with lessons learnt and more to learn;

Thank you for stopping,

Until next project,

xxx,

Gaia

DiGiTaL ArT - 6

Couple of weekend doodling on  the IPAD, art application; procreate.

Papaya, Pomegranate  and Apricots

I am quite happy with the way the slice of papaya turned out. But, I could not spend the same amount of time on the other objects as natural light does not lasts for long these days.

Shadows...

In this picture I was wanting to capture shadows of the vase and the flowers; well.. I am not very pleased with the final result.

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next project,

xxx,
Gaia

A still life in collage

I wanted to experiment a still life composition in collage/applique medium.  For a start, I chose few objects I thought would be easy shapes to cut and organise.  I specially used the pitcher for its shape and other details. I have used it many times in my art projects.

            

part of the composition  [sorry, it is a poor camera angle, I was way too close]

My attempt was study and stitch light and shadow effects but I could not accomplished a lot in this as I was feeling a little lazy look for details. 

     

  

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next project,

xxx,

Gaia

A happy and a healthy new year

A pot of blue water lily and lotus

I have added one more colour to my natural dyed fabrics. These  few pieces are black berry dyed. The pile is growing and I like to experiment.

Black berry dyed

All fabric used here are my natural dyed ones. The finished project is about 15x17 inches.

 

My attempt was to get the likeness of blue water lily, as well as the lotus buds. I placed the material accordingly, so I would get the colours I had in mind for the flowers and the pot.

   

   

[click on the images if you want to enlarge]

back

    
I tried my best keep the back of the piece as clean as possible.  This time I am quite pleased with the final result. These types of work does take time and some patience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thrift store items

Last but not least couple of interesting finds at the thrift store apart from my usual fabric. I have had not much luck finding knickknacks.

     

It was the picture that caught my eye in here. I paid 0.99cents for it. However, when I got home I did a bit of google search as I was curious and learnt about the history of these chinaware. I also found this similar item on ebay. My one does not have it's handle but still I can use/display it.

And as for this one, it is just perfect to store many little craft items which did not have a proper place before.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving me lovely,sweet, encouraging comments this year. It means a lot to me.

I wish you all a happy 2013 !!!

Until next project,
xxx,
Gaia