A Finish and some fun!
A finish happened this week and it’s got kind of a cute story:
BTW, is this upside down? I keep going back and forth on it.
My local guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild, has a give away table. For our last meeting we had a Sit ‘n Sew, which was delightful. I walked past the give away table and picked up this interesting piece:
Wish I’d taken a photo of the whole thing, but this is the piece as I began to work on it. When I spied it, it reminded me of another piece that I took and reworked in 2012:
I donated it to the guild’s boutique and it fetched a good number of tickets. Those oranges were very dimensional, it was a cute piece. I thought I could do a similar thing with this “new” piece.
So I plopped myself down at a table with some of my friends and Donna looks at the piece and says “Did you get that from the free table”? Turns out it was Donna’s piece! She worked on it in 1974, so we can say this piece has some history. How cute is that story?
I loved the vintage feel of it and it’s not all perfect and buttoned up, which how I work too. So I set about to put some embroidery and beads on it:
And a little close-up:
I got to a point where I thought I was done and sent a photo to Donna, asking what does it need? She thought it could use something in the corners. So this happened:
I knew I had a lace dying kit that I bought at PIQF in 1863, so I dug around and found it. I also had some lace I bought in San Francisco on an American Sewing Guild field trip in 1902. I cut out bits of the lace and used the dyes on it to create those little corner pieces. In my photo I have them just pinned on. I will probably secure them with sewn-on beads. But it was just the perfect touch for those corners.
I originally just set the piece on the pink wool, but felt it needed some weight as a border, so the navy wool came along to play. I will probably donate it to the guild’s boutique next year.
It may not seem like that big of a deal, but I am proud to be at a point where I can somewhat confidently pick up some sort of dye/crayon/ink/paint/other surface design tool/product, and add it to my work. It has only taken me about 20 years to get to the point where if think a project needs something, something that I don’t have, I can alter it to my liking and add it to my piece.
And I caught this vignette on the Summer Solstice. I happened to be quilting at the end of the day as the sun was streaming across my quilt. I marveled at the beauty of all that texture. I recently hit a low point with this quilt and stayed there for about 2 weeks. My mojo is returning now and I’m excited about it again. I think this quilt is asking for a fancy schmancy edge treatment and I must oblige. I need to get that center quilted first.
One more random thing to share. We went to the University of Beer for Father’s Day. What better place to take your man than a nice taproom? I got a chuckle: Hubby eats pretty healthy, but apparently not for Father’s Day! He ordered a beer battered burger (deep-fried, cheese, aioli, topped with waffle fries & ranch) with Drunken Pig Fries (Waffle Fries, Pulled Pork, Salsa, cheese, sour cream and bacon!!). OMG! That must have been 4,000 calories without the 2 beers! I would have gained 10 lbs on that. Men, they can eat and not get fat. Sigh. I got grilled fish tacos, no beer. Sigh.
I’ll share at:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday.
I love your use of vintage embroidery! Beautiful!
Thank you! It was a fun romp.
Beautiful piece!
Thanks for sharing that it has taken 20 years to accumulate the supplies and the confidence to add surface design products to your work. I had planned to add some paint/inktense pencil to a piece I’m just finishing, but chickened out. I’ll keep practicing and build my confidence.
I think if you get to a point where you know you need to alter or add something, you just go for it! Play on a practice piece and then go for it!
Jenny:
I have that exact same lace dying kit. I recognize the instruction sheet. I think I bought mine the same year.
Kim
And that is why we buy supplies – so that we can use them 20 yrs later!
Looks fabulous and I’m very happy my little embroidered doodles will live on in a finished piece!! And glad it sparked your creativity. Thank you for picking that up.
And I am tickled that it was your piece!
All three embroidery pieces are lovely! Great job saving them from obscurity and heading them to the finish line!
Aw thank you Nancy – it was a joy!
Loved this blog post. You always find the most inspiring artists that you share. Re-vitalizing an old piece is encouraging to those of us with many many UFP’s some actually from the past millennium. Your micro-stippling work is enhanced by the angle of the sun. I am always inspired after reading your blog. Thanks
Thank you Robin! I appreciate words of encouragement.
1863 and 1902?
How old are you? Or did I read that wrong? Lol
Beautiful work
LOL. I couldn’t remember exactly but I knew it was a looooooong time ago!
LOL, I saw that too. I may borrow that idea when I know something was a loooong time ago, but don’t know when.
You asked if the embroidery is upside down so in my opinion it doesn’t matter much, but if it was mine I’d display it the other way.
You are a lot older than I thought your were if you bought a lace dying kit that I bought at PIQF in 1863!!! I had to laugh :- )
Yeah I keep going back and forth on the orientation – thank you for your take on it. Okay, maybe I exaggerated just a wee bit on the age thing…
Thank you for pointing out new, to me, people. I just saved the link to Nina-Marie’s blog. Someday I want to try fabric dyeing.
Nina has a great blog and a wonderful link party. You’ll enjoy it! Fabric dyeing – that’s a whole new world!