Christmas decorating fun

I love seeing our Christmas tree full of ornaments bought, inherited, received and made over the years. It's also the time when those Christmas runners, placemats and wall hangings get to come out and shine.

Adding to our Christmas decorations

Each year I try to make a little something for the tree or the house. I found the tutorial for the Christmas bell - the bell was supposed to be made of "sheer paper cloth" but I used organza backed with light stabilizer instead. The stabilizer gave the organza a crispness without removing the translucence. For the three-sided bell I used organza with dots and hearts on two of the sides and then embroidered the third side with a star. I hand-stitched the sides together and added the bell through it. If you're interested, the link to the tutorial is in Related links below.

Three sided Christmas bell

The embroidered side of
 the Christmas bell

I also made a snow frame. I started with a meditation stitched piece that I made last year, added an extra piece of fabric to make it wide enough and then added a couched snowman, snow and extra stars.

Snow frame with Christmas tree and snowman

For the Out of the Box Fibre Artist group, I made a Christmas postcard. It was dropped off on November 30 and should have arrived to it's new home by now.

The postcard was 4" x 6". The background is a fluffy fabric that I hand dyed in very light green. I used a pink cheese cloth to outline the tree and then couched some green chenille yarn. I used a Murano star bead for the top. Behind it I attached a small piece of yellow silk to add a little pop of colour. There are also many seed beads within the tree.

In the background, I used a white silk thread to embroider the snowflakes. I like the subtleness, like an impression of flakes. Instead of cardstock, I attached interfacing and then added a white backing.

Stylized Christmas tree postcard

Christmas postcard

Decorating the workplace

It's so different from previous years. This was my office in 2018. My colleague and I had a great time decorating with things that I had brought from home.

Adding colour to our 
workspace (2018)

Decorating the office plant (2018)

This is my present workplace - our dining room.

Working from home, in my dining room (2020)

It certainly is a lot cozier and the commute is very short 😊 I also love that Chevy is always near by!

What I learned

Chevy in my studio.

• I loved the idea of making the bell decorations but once I was done, although I liked it, I didn't feel the need to make more - which is a good thing because I still have way too many projects on the go!
• The snow frame is on my window ledge in my studio. It's so lovely to look at while I'm writing this post. The couched yarn and backing makes it just a little too thick for the frame so I had to tape around it. Since it's for my office, I don't mind but I'll have to remember this if I ever make more as gifts.
• I'm really not missing my physical workplace. It's so much easier to concentrate in my quiet dining room. You can see that I'm not trying to work in my studio - that would be a recipe for disaster...just too many distractions there 😊. 
• Today I took pictures of my studio - it's pretty much finished. I'm hoping to write the post this week. Here's a teaser....

Related links

• *Sheer Paper-Cloth* Ornaments with Margas Crafts
• Christmas Cheer, December 24, 2018

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including with Muv for Free Motion Mavericks until Tuesday. On Thursday, please join me for the next Free Motion Mavericks. Your project doesn't have to be free-motion quilted to link up! Put Your Foot Down, Off The Wall Friday Beauties Pageant, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2020, Monday Making, 

This fortnight we had a workshop with Richard McVetis in the Stitch Club 2020 by TextileArtist.org. The project was to make a hand-stitched abstract collage. 

Hand-stitched Mile of Gold

Here is my  finished piece. As you can see, it meets all of the criteria except for the abstract part. 😊

My interpretation of Toburn Mine
on the Mile of Gold

Here's how it started. I found this picture in my computer. This is what's left of the Toburn Mine in Kirkland Lake, Northern Ontario. It was once at one end of the Mile of Gold. Government Road runs through the town and the mine was at the eastern end while a few others were at the western end of the road.

Toburn Mine on the Mile of Gold

We had to simplify the photo and then make a collage of it. From this sketch, I created a copy on tracing paper. I then cut up the sketch in 8 pieces, cut squares of fusible web to fit each piece and attached these to the fabric that I wanted to use. 

Sketch

Copy of the sketch on tracing paper

I hand-dyed all of the fabric used in this piece. The background, rooves and ore cars are cotton while the pinks are linen. After assembling the puzzle, I started stitching. I wasn't going to add much stitching but it was going so well that I kept on going.

Stitching details

I outlined the rooves, the dark pink pieces and the cables with a stem stich while the rest was embroidered using a running stich.

Finished - for now

First piece of Glimpses of Childhood Places?

You might wonder why I picked this image to interpret, other than its simplicity. Five years ago I took a writing course, Memories into Story: Life Writing I,  through the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. It was a good course, although not one that I would have chosen myself (it's a long story). It took me way too long to realise that writing memoirs is as much about the facts and memories as it is pure fiction. You get an idea of some of the things that happened, do some research by talking to those who were around and then you recreate it, which is the fiction part. 

My final project was called Glimpses of Childhood Places. As a memoir, it wasn't great, but as a stepping stone to creating a whole visual textile series about the places in Kirkland Lake that shaped me, it was a real treasure. When I first wrote it, I envisioned a whole multi-media presentation with the written stories and the art. Five years later, most of my ideas and pictures are in a project box waiting to be explored. I think that this might be the first piece.

What I learned

• I don't have many pictures of buildings in my photos, at least not the ones that I take for making art. I didn't think about looking in our travel pictures - there would have been a lot more there!
• I don't usually work with a fusible web but it did make the fabric more stable to stitch on. 
• I put the fusible web on the right side of the low roof but it turned out fine.
• It feels weird to leave the piece unfinished but I think that it would be best since I have no idea what the other pieces will look like....when they are eventually made. This way, if I want to, I could add more background or even foreground, although I sort of like the minimalist grey.

Related links

• Richard McVetis, Instagram
• Richard McVetis Meticulous Slow Stitch on TextileArtist.org
• Kirkland Lake and the Mile of Gold - this is a real cool mining heritage tour of the town
• Charlotte Gray wrote a book recently about Sir Harry Oakes: Murdered Midas: The Millionaire, His Gold Mine and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise. You can read an article about it here.

Linking parties

I will be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's happening out there! Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2020, Put Your Foot Down,  Colour & Inspiration Tuesday To-Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Peacock Party

Happy 400th post and Free Motion Mavericks

This last month had many special events - the 300^th linking party of Free Motion Mavericks, my first presentation about blogging and learning, and my 400^th post at Quilting & Learning: What a Combo! I hope you don't mind if I use this Free Motion Mavericks post to reflect on my blogging journey.😊

Blogging and online learning presentation

Last month, I made a 15 minute presentation for the Out of the Box Textile Artists group. The theme was doing things online related to our textile fibre art. One presenter has been trying to exhibit and sell her work online to replace the exhibits that she was supposed to be in. She had mixed results. The other presenter has been making and selling on Etsy for a while. It was interesting to hear about her experience.

I was the last presenter and I had a slideshow about blogging and online learning. I really enjoyed the process of writing the presentation since it was a great time to reflect and see what I've done, and how my blog and my art has evolved over time.

I thought that I would share some of the things that struck me as I reflected on these last eight years. Here are some of the relevant slides. You should be able to click on the slides to see them larger.

Those last few reasons for blogging evolved over time

I then went on to explain what various blogging terms mean since many of the pieces that I've exhibited with this group have come from these types of events, and many participants are not familiar with them. I mentioned:

Quilt-Alongs help me create beautiful UFOs!

• linking parties, 
• quilt-alongs, 
• finish-alongs and 
• blog hops 

This is what I realised learned:

• Although I enjoy quilt-alongs, they have resulted in more UFOs than finished pieces.

• 

  Grandmother's Choice block

  My success rate is not very good with the various finish-alongs, except for the One Monthly Goal (OMG). I'm sure that it's because we only choose one goal - and it doesn't have to be a finished quilt, just a completed step in the project.
• My favourites are the blog hops, in all of their permutations. I try not to participate in too many of them. They usually have fairly broad themes so that I can make something that catches my fancy. I also love to see what other bloggers have made - there is usually so much diversity.
• The biggest drawback to blog hops is everyone's great comments. I love to read them but I've yet to answer even a small percentage of them.

Becoming more involved

My blog took on a bigger presence on the web when I hosted two blogging events in 2017.

Celebrating - Fêtons 150

What I realised was that Celebrating - Fêtons 150 was the perfect event to host because it allowed me to do all kinds of fun research on the Internet and then post great patterns and events that were happening around Canada's 150th. I did make a few projects but it wasn't as intensive as the Learning Quilt-Along.   

I couldn't talk about being involved without mentioning Free Motion Mavericks! I'm glad that I am co-hosting with Muv because it brings me back to my first love, FMQ! It also ensures that I blog at least every fortnight - because sometimes it's hard to do more than that.

As I reviewed my blog, for the first time I had a look at my original visitation numbers for that first year. In that first post I wrote that I didn't know if anyone would be reading this. Well, it turns out that in 2012, I wrote 8 posts and had 18 views and one comment. Thank goodness for friends and family.😊

In 2013, I got tired of posting on Facebook (I'm not a fan), so I added a "Follow by email" from Google's feedburner to my blog.  I almost never check the numbers but when I did last month, I was intrigued by the results. The subscribers took a serious upward turn in 2017, the summer and fall that I hosted the two blogging events. It seems that even if very few quilters were participating in the Learning Quilt-Along, many were watching from the side lines. 

Stats from my "Follow by email" link

Learning Online

The second part of my presentation was about learning online. I've been learning online since I first started quilting - from reading fellow bloggers' posts and tutorials, to the odd YouTube presentation. I started buying Craftsy courses at that time and I own a ridiculous amount of them! 

This year, however, saw a huge growth in online learning opportunities. I love online courses since they are usually relatively inexpensive and I don't have to leave my studio (did I ever mention that I'm a home body?) Of course these are also responsible for a number of UFOs but as I start using some of the skills and ideas that I've developed in earlier workshops, I think that it's all worth it.  

Gratitude Journal
made last week

Well, my learning journey is far from finished as you may have seen in my last post! In a year and 11 months, I hope to go back to hosting at least one blog hop a year. I'm still learning so much from my fellow bloggers. Quilters are a very generous group and I'm very grateful to be part of this little corner of the virtual world. 

Thank you so much for your presence in my life. I am grateful to all of you for sharing my journey.

Linking parties

I will be linking up to many fun linking parties. Follow along if you like and spread the joy! Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, Midweek Makers, Patchwork & Appliqué, Peacock Party, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, TGIFF, Put Your Foot Down, Colour & Inspiration Tuesday, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Wow! What a great turn out last time. Thank you soooo much! I was hoping to start on the Pinwheels and Stars quilt but as I mentioned, it's not something that I can or want to fudge right before the post 😊. For everyone who left an encouraging comment, THANK YOU! As I was re-reading your blog links, leaving comments (finally) and thinking about the "out of this world" quilt centre (thanks Alycia), I prepared a clear plastic piece to draw on, over the quilt top and am getting a plan for starting. So thank you everyone!

There were such amazing and different quilts linked up last time and as always, impossible to choose what to highlight, so I'm going very close to home to show you Sandra's The Final Season quilt about the plight of trees, in Canada and everywhere.

The Final Season by Sandra at mmm quilts

It's now your turn - and I'm going to publish early to get the full enjoyment of my 400^th post!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sashiko stitching and visible mending

I had another great learning weekend! At the top of my quilting bucket list is a trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Yes, one day I will go there...in person. However, this year I was able to attend a few virtual workshops offered through the festival. 

Sashiko stitching 

I took 3 courses and today I want to tell you about Sashiko Essentials - A Modern Adaptation of Ancient Handwork. The master class was taught by Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby of Shibaguyz Designz.

Sashiko printed designs - two of five are now done

I've been interested in Sashiko stitching for a while and a few years ago I bought a sampler that was printed onto the fabric since I haven't been able to figure out how to copy a pattern on the dark fabric without a stencil. While I watched the recording of the class, I stitched the second square of the table runner. I believe it's the Asanoha pattern or hemp/ flax leaf.  I researched it and the first pattern that I stitched was the Higaki or Cypress fence pattern. These are moyouzashi patterns. 

Offset Crosses pattern

After watching the master class for the first time, I went back and created a grid using a cupboard lining type of vinyl that I use for free-motion quilting to grip my fabric. They used a plastic canvas grid that is use for crafts but I wasn't able to find any. The important thing is that it's an even grid for stitching Hitomezashi grid patterns. You may be able to see my pink lines on the image above. These were made with a Frixion pen and will disappear when ironed. 

Creating Offset Crosses pattern after the course

Boro or visible mending

During the class, they showed us a few projects using visible mending or Boro, the Japanese art of mending.

This was timely because my favourite jeans are falling apart and I want to keep wearing them!!!! I first added embroidered patches to them while I was in Venice, picking up my daughter. Here they are in all their glory.

My favourite jeans' 
patches were made in Venice

Close-up of the new lovely patches

Considering how they were made and that I wear them a lot, I'm quite lucky that they lasted a year before un-raveling. Those were lovely stitches but the embroidery floss eventually started breaking.

I could live with the patches falling apart but then I just plain used up the jeans and had a couple of big rips on my butt! I wore them until they were too revealing and then added some fun plead flannel patches. Again, these didn't last very long. So, after seeing Shannon's mended pants and listening to how she mended them, I got right on it and reinforced my patches the Boro way 😊

Reinforced patches still show the
original embroidery designs

You can still see some of the original embroidery, but it has been reinforced with the running stitch that is used in Sashiko.

Both patches got a face lift! 

The big difference is that there is now a piece of fabric inside the jeans so that they patches are now quilted. How cool is that? 😊

There was some major stitching to fix the rips. You can see the patches from outside and inside the jeans. I didn't removed the original embroidery since for me, they show the evolution of the patches. I know that they are not cultural resources that are being preserved but I believe that the evolution of a piece, even a pair of jeans, needs to be respected. BTW, these flannel patches may be colourful but they are not very visible.

The layer on the inside of the jeans

Stitched patches on the
outside of the jeans

Boro & Sashiko 

While I was doing some research for this post, I found out that Shibaguyz Designz offers a course, Sashiko 101, that is very similar to what I took. The course is offered through Creative Spark, C&T Publishing's online course platform. The links are below in Related links. 

I've also bought Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby's newest book, Boro & Sashiko. That's where I got the terms for the different types of Sashiko patterns and stitching. They talked about them but I had no idea how to spell them correctly!

What I learned

• I really enjoyed Shannon and Jason's course and I highly recommend it. It covers some history as well practical tips on how to mark the grids, work the needle and make the stitches.
• To keep the top and bottom of the patch attached before stitching, they recommend using a glue stick. It worked very well 😊
• I'm just sorry that I can only view the course for another week. Since I have the book, I should be fine.
• I love the way that Shannon and Jason mix up the types of Sashiko patterns in the projects in their book. 
• There's nothing like another tool to put into that artist's toolbox! I'm thinking that Sashiko could easily be added to my Traveller's Blanket, either as a meditation block or in the stitching around the blocks. 

Related links

• Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby, the Shibaguyz Designz
• Sashiko 101: Iconic First Stitches on Creative Spark
• Boro & Sashiko by Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching as well as many other fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on! Oh Scrap!, Patchwork & Quilts, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Off The Wall Friday, Peacock Party, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2020, Monday Making, To-Do Tuesday, Put Your Foot Down, 

I will be hosting Free Motion Maverick's linking party on Thursday. Please come back to link up and check it out!

Finished stars and making plans on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 308. The stars on the Pinwheels & Stars Baby Quilt are done. In this post I'm going to wrap up the free motion quilting (FMQ) of the stars and plan the next part of the quilt.

FMQ star designs

At the end of July, I proposed seven possible FMQ designs for the six stars on the quilt. By November, here is what I ended up with. If you missed any of the posts, the links are in Related links below.

Making plans for the negative space

I designed the quilt so that the centre could almost be a wholecloth quilt. I've made a couple of quilts like this and love that some of the sides have blocks but that the centre is all negative space. This time, I'm going to be brave about FMQ the centre. It's going to be in colourful thread that will NOT blend in! That is a very scary thing to do, but I do believe that if the centre part is well planned and practiced, that it should be fine! This is not a project to do the night before it's due 😮

Here is the quilt so far.

All of the pinwheel and star blocks have been FMQ

A better image taken during the day 

This is my initial idea for FMQ the centre.

A space theme to go with the stars

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do (especially if I want a rocket that looks like a rocket!). I'm sure that I will re-arrange these but at least I have an idea of what could be included. I would also love to include something that could represent the Milky Way, so I will be playing around with this a lot.

What I learned

• It's been a lot of fun finding and practicing various FMQ designs. 
• This is the scary part - but as I mentioned, planning and practice should help me do this well (not perfect, but good enough).
• I will also have to deal with some of the puckering in the fabric in the middle of the quilt. I will undo the stitching at the end where there are no blocks, so that will help.
• I love researching the various elements to figure out how to represent them - how to draw them, where to put them and what colours to use. This is where the various elements of creating art come in - such as focal point, mouvement, contrast, etc. 
• I also have to learn to draw that spaceship! 😊

Related links

• Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt related posts
• FMQ Star blocks related posts
• Stars with Swirl Hooks & Flames on Free Motion Mavericks, November 12, 2020
• FMQ a simple star on Free Motion Mavericks, October 15, 2020
• Sparkling Star on Free Motion Mavericks, September 17, 2020
• Seeing stars with Free Motion Mavericks, September 03, 2020
• FMQ the first star on Free Motion Mavericks, August 6, 2020
• Planning to Quilt Stars on Free Motion Mavericks, July 23, 2020
• FMQ Pinwheel blocks related posts
• Finished pinwheels and Free Motion Mavericks, July 8, 2020
• Trying more FMQ designs with Free Motion Mavericks, June 11, 2020
• Pinwheels on Free Motion Mavericks, May 27, 2020
• Baby Quilt at Free Motion Mavericks, May 13, 2020
• Links to the FMQ designs for the star blocks
• Star Struck at Seams French 
• AQS Blog - 25 Ohio Star Quilting Designs
• Leah Day - How to Machine Quilt a Sun Star Block 
• Leah Day - How to Machine Quilt Flame Flower #36 and the YouTube video
• GF Quilts on Flicker
• Angela Walters, 4 Ways To Machine Quilt Star Blocks: Week 4 Free-motion Challenge Quilting Along
• Links to some of the FMQ designs for pinwheels that I found (as posted on May 13, 2020).
• Free-Motion Quilting Inspiration
• Quilting It - Client Sharing Day
• True Blue Quilts - Free Motion Quilting Designs in Triangles
• Angela Walters - Three Ways to Machine Quilt Pinwheel Blocks: Help How Do I Quilt It Free-motion Quilting Along

Linking parties

I will be linking this post to many linking parties. I hope that you'll check them out, but not before posting your FMQ projects below. Remember that you can also post projects other than FMQ!

Let's Make Baby Quilts!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, To-Do Tuesday, Patchwork & Quilts, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Patchwork & Quilts, PHD in 2020, 

Free Motion Mavericks

It was a quiet party last time but as always it was great to be seeing everyone's amazing and diverse free motion quilting. I don't know if you realise this, but the hardest part of hosting Free Motion Mavericks is deciding on which quilt to feature! So, here goes... if you haven't dropped in on the Joyful Quilter's lovely little wall hanging with lots of texture, then take a few minutes to drop by to see it.

Look at all the texture on that little quilt
by the Joyful Quilter

It's your turn now 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Progress on my son's quilt

Some of you may have seen this quilt a few times - mostly when I was setting objectives, and not so much in progress 😞. To fill you in, I am remaking a quilt that my mother made for my son. The quilt was loved to death, so I said that I would remake it - but unlike my mother's original quilt, it will not be hand-quilted!

Progress Made

It may not look like a lot, but the lower part, underneath the black, took me most of the day. There were quite a few re-dos since I'm using the old quilt as a pattern. I have no idea how my mother pieced it since there are very few seams. Wherever I can, I'm making triangles and strips, but it's really not easy to figure out. 

Progress made on Part 1

My mother made it based on a photo in a quilting calendar. Unfortunately I have no idea who made the quilt - so if you have ever seen it somewhere, please let me know!

Here's my plan. I made Steps 1 and 2 earlier this year (see Related links below). This weekend, I worked on Step 3 and I'm hoping to have Step 4 finished by the end of the week (or month since it's almost here).

The plan for Part 1

If I can get that far, I figure that I can make finishing the quilt top my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for December. It's so difficult not to get side tracked with other projects that require much less brain power!

Here is a close-up of the next step. I'm hoping to get up to the red strip done, or maybe even the beige one since it's right underneath it. After that, I will probably work on the bottom left corner and hope that it all matches up somehow.😊

The next and final step in Part 1

What I learned

• I thought that this would be difficult and I wish that I could tell you that it was easier than anticipated, but I can't.
• Since I finally find the link to my previous post, I need to read it to see if there is anything that will help me NOT make the same mistakes.😊
• I need to stop working on this project BEFORE I get too tired. I ended up cutting off a bit of blue fabric that I thought was too wide - but it turns out that it wasn't and now I'll have to add another inch or so to it.
• I have placed the part that is done on my design wall so that I can't forget about it!
• It may not be enough to count the quilt top as a finish in my PHD but I will be thrilled. The quilting of it should be much easier and I can use it as a project for my Free Motion Mavericks posts (I love two-fur!)

Related links

• Learning quilting math the hard way, February 11, 2020
• Happy New Year and Finishing up stuff - PHD in 2020, January 1, 2020

Linking parties

I will be linking up to many fun parties. Let's check out what's going on out there! Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Midweek Makers, Design Wall Monday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, 

See you on Thursday for Free Motion Mavericks!

As I mentioned, I am linking this post up to One Monthly Goal for December. I want to finish both Part 1 as well as the rest of the quilt top. That's a very ambitious goal but I know that my son would be thrilled!

Creating a stitcher's journal with paper and fabric

I'm back to making hand-stitched projects based on our latest workshop at TextileArtist.org's 2020 Stitch Club. This week's teacher is Ali Ferguson who showed us how to make a stitcher's sketchbook or journal with paper, and then to cover and embellish it with fabrics.

Making the Journal

This is the first workshop that I finished the project only a few days after it had started. I was hooked! I couldn't leave it. 

My new stitching journal

For my paper, I chose some printing paper (one with a gardening motif that I bought years ago, some brightly coloured paper, as well as the normal white stuff). I also found some lovely writing paper that I got as a gift when I was in my teens. It has my name (maiden back then) printed at the top. It was smaller than the other papers but I added them in separately and adjusted the holes. My book is made up of 4 signatures - those are the folded sheets of paper that make up each section. Once the signatures are complete, they are bound into the journal.

For the front cover, I used part of a panel that I created during Gregory T. Wilkins' workshop in July (see Related links below). For the back piece, I used fabric that I painted using a plastic fork and blue Colour Vie paint. The book spine tabs were printed using a print block that I made during a virtual workshop with Christine Chester, as part of the Birmingham Quilt Festival. I just coloured them using Sharpie markers and then sewed on some fun buttons.

Printing block made with
Häagen-Dazs sticks

Making marks with a plastic fork

The fun really started when I embellished the journal.

I started by using only batik fabrics, but then I got even more creative and took out all of those sheer scraps from making my last two sheer projects.

One the inside cover, I covered up the button stitches by gluing on some pieces from a cute scrapbooking sheet. I stitched a diagonal border on the opposite page and stitched the bottom of the page to the next one to create a pouch. I even attached an upside down label 😊.

Inside cover with a pouch for keepsakes

My journal has 58 pages, so I won't show you pictures of each one of them! All of the pages have some stitching on them, but I will show you my favourites.

I made this one this morning. I stitched the fish to the background fabric with a running stitch and then added some French knots. I practiced my "writing" skills based on Joanne Sharpe's The Art of Whimsical Lettering book. I haven't practiced this in a long while but I now have an excuse if I write in this book!

"So long, and thanks for all the fish" Douglas Adams quote
with stitched fish

The fish (above) and the purple batik and organza piece below are on the back of my personalized writing paper. You can see the printing flower paper on the other side.

Using batik and silk organza scraps. They are attached
using embroidery stitches

This is one of my favourite pages. I drew around an oak leaf from my neighbour's yard and then stitched it with this amazing yarn made from Tencel (some type of pulp fibre). The colours are amazing and it's made locally by Trail Head Yarns (see Related links). 

Oak leaf outline with stitching using Tencel yarn.

For one of the signatures, I used a piece of scrapbook paper instead of my personalized writing paper. It's just too cute!

Adding scrapbooking paper in one of the signatures.

My first embellishments were rather simple but as I got going, they became more layered and creative. 

Starting to get the hang of layered embellishments.

As I mentioned, I made the fish this morning as well as this one. I love adding the sheer fabrics. This one has lots of texture which may get flattened a bit when the journal is closed, but that's fine. 😊

Adding more stitching and using sheer fabrics

What I learned

• In this journal, I want to experiment with stitched layers and then place the pieces in the journal. I would like to use more interesting embroidery stitches but this needs to be done separately and then attached to the journal. 
• You may have noticed in the image above that the page is getting pretty crumpled. That's what happens when the paper is handled too much. I've figured out that the best way to add the stitching is to put the piece together first and then stitch it on or even better just tack it on with a few stitches.
• I tried to do the button hole stitch on the paper but just couldn't hold the paper properly. 
• In the end though, the crumpled paper won't show since I'll be filling this journal up with lots of pretty stitched pieces!
• BTW, I've actually finished my Marks & Stitches piece - it's even framed! I'll write a post soon...

Related links

• Ali Ferguson, Instagram, Facebook
• Gregory T. Wilkins, Instagram
• Marks & Stitches related posts
• Swamp visit & slow stitching, August 29, 2020
• OMG and slow stitching projects update, August 03, 2020
• Mark-making & Dyeing perle cotton, July 27, 2020
• Joanne Sharpe's The Art of Whimsical Lettering
• Trail Head Yarns

Linking parties

I will be linking up to all kinds of fun stitching and quilting link-ups. Let's see what's happening in Blog Land! Colour & Inspiration Tuesday, Patchwork & Quilts, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Midweek Makers, TGIFF with Storied Quilts, Free Motion Mavericks with Muv, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, 

I'm also linking up to Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly linkup as well as Sandra of mmm quilts' DrEAMi - if this isn't a squirrel, nothing is!