I wish you all the best for the feasts!

Two good friends and their unlucky love

I began this piece for me and it began to show it's own will.

I didn't want it to be a sad story but somehow it even evolved as a kind of thriller...!!!

I think I'm watching too many of them on the telly these days...

The thing is that these two nice Victorian girls were the best friends ever but you know what adolescence can do with these well behaved kids... What happened is that they felt in love with the same man. One of them even married him. The other one, I think it was the one to the left, the ones that don't look like it are mostly the wicked ones..., ended up finishing with the life of the couple and committing suicide. Wait... It cannot end like that. Well then, their spirits woke up in another life where there is no unhappy love or crimes or blood ...and now the three of them are the best of friends. Sadly I think that although they are in a kind of naturist realm it doesn't seem to be  much passion there ...

If you marvel at the boobs of the grown up girls I must tell you that they weren't made by me but I got them from Karen Ruane.  She does the most stunning embroidery, please visit her blog to see her work! They are made of silk and beautifully embroidered.

Details

I got really into embroidery with this one!

Finished

The fairy is finished now.

One more detail of "The Night of the Twin Moons"

Not quite finished yet. It is taking the form of a quiltlet but it's because I'm enlarging the background piece adding some fabric strips.

Holidays

I was a month in Alicante and I actually wanted to have a break from work. This is a part of my "break"... I bought fabric, embroidery thread, basic tools in a China shop and spent some days in a cozy coffee shop stitching while I drank coffee. I enjoyed my stay very much, I met friends and saw the festivities for the Fires of St. John.

This piece is going to be bigger and I will keep you informed.

Winner of the raffle!! Gewinner der Verlosung! Qui a gagné la tombola!

Cassio Cassiopeya

has won the raffle!

Semi-Challenge

I’m back after a while and would like to give the last explanation about the challenge and raffle.

As I’m leaving for holidays next week, I will do the raffle when I come back, on the 1st. of July.

The participants who published at least 6 photos of their work in Pinterest and/or Facebook can participate and I would be happy if they send me the photos to my private mail so that it’s easy for me to put them on the list.

The finished piece can be whatever you imagine. The use of the small blocks is up to you. I made a book with them but I put also in the Pinterest filesome other ideas at the beginning of the challenge.

I wish you happy stitching!

An embroidery

This is the embroidery I did in the meantime.

It's name is Love in The Enchanted Forest.

Because of the spring I rather use fabric than wool...

Last Page Semi - Challenge

This is the last page.

Semi-Challenge - One more page

This is the page where the prince fights with the bear that was threatening the princess.

Semi Challenge - New page finished

I already finished some pages of the book...

This isn't yet finished...:

Semi-Challenge Another page

It is going to be a book. Definitely.

Here is the little prince with his men in the woods.

I had some prints from my drawings printed with the ink-jet printer on canvas sheets.

I did more and more cut outs of the former background and collaged them together.

Semi-Challenge - Another Page

I am working on many pages at the same time, always doing appliqué or easy stitches.

I think my book will be finished soon if I keep on working...

This is hoy I sew the pieces together. I don't give many explanations of everything because I think that the process is pretty obvious. If you have questions, please ask!

Semi-Challenge - Second Page "The Owl at Night"

I finished the second page. It is softer as the cover. I only put some cheesecloth behind and punched the borders.

Here you see how it rags out when the book is closed:

Semi-Challenge - First Page

I decided to do a book and this is the first page. Finished.

Adding details:

Not happy with the contrast...:

I sew the squares to a dyed cheese cloth. I punched it to some paper. 

I added more contrast to the piece with couching and these stitches:

Now I'm happy. I put some tulle underneath and more paper:

I sew it to these layers...

Front

Back, painted with white acrylic paint:

Added one more layer of tulle to the back and sew everything together so that you can turn the page of the book when the piece is finished:

Surface texture:

Contrast before and after:

I'm always asked how I plan a piece. I hope this semi-challenge is the answer. I began with an idea and added to it. I can't keep the same concept for 3 months... I always get more ideas and the piece speaks to me all the time.

Now I will continue with page 2...

Reorganizing

I think I'm going to reorganize all this and make a book...

That's me, seeing things... stories... can't get rid of it.

It opens new perspectives. We'll see. These little rectangles can be cut out at pleasure and get a new life of their own...

Ali Baba's Treasure...

You can see that some times I get distracted from my goals... This piece isn't really about only stitches any more. There are stitches. But then there is my stash and yesterday I did some organizing... and noticed I have trillions of sequins, pearls,beads, you name it...

 I am not that young any more, I already wear purple. I can sew about 1000 embellishments a day and I don't like to dump things... I decided to do some experimentation with all this treasure.

I think my work is going to show more glitter in the future...

Semi-Challenge - Unity and Contrast

Looking at my pieces I noticed that I had to do something to add contrast to the embroideries and appliqués.

This is actually the way I work and my challenges are meant to let you see my way of planning (or not) the whole, my way of deciding what to do next and work in small steps, adding slowly and also my biggest concern is to balance the details so that the whole piece has a kind of overall balance.

I am also concerned about using all of the cutouts that are produced while cutting the appliqués because they are not only useful but also push your imagination in the process.

I punched the archs from the back.

I cut the diamonds and the small triangles were left.

I used the triangles too.

Also in the star.

Now you can see that there is more contrast and everything is coming along nicely.

Much work to be done yet!

In the rectangles I don't only use the most primitive stitches but I also do some work on composition.