Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

Found a truly gorgeous quilt to use as wallpaper on the Desktop this morning.

Click on the thumbnail! That makes it bigger.

What did we do before computers?

 

[BDBoop]

Suhweet!

 

[freedombecki]

Prayers for all who have family gatherings today and tomorrow for safety and the kindest understanding with loved ones.

 

[BDBoop]

Prayers for all who have family gatherings today and tomorrow for safety and the kindest understanding with loved ones.

I was up for like 27 hours straight, in a car for at least seven of that, and most of me hurts. Kind thoughts and prayers are definitely appreciated.

 

[Mr. H.]

Hey, b... we visited a state historic site today and here are some of the quilts that were on display:

 

[freedombecki]

Those truly are beautiful quilts, Mr. H. I'm glad you went to the show and brought back pictures of beautiful quilts!

 

[freedombecki]

Prayers for all who have family gatherings today and tomorrow for safety and the kindest understanding with loved ones.

I was up for like 27 hours straight, in a car for at least seven of that, and most of me hurts. Kind thoughts and prayers are definitely appreciated.

Wow, BDB. Glad you got home safe and sound, and hope the week ahead goes well after plenty of rest.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, my fingers are almost healed well enough to hold a thimble on them. Hope to get back to my embroidery some time this afternoon.

 

[BDBoop]

Well, my fingers are almost healed well enough to hold a thimble on them. Hope to get back to my embroidery some time this afternoon.

I looked up thimbles, just out of curiosity because I have no idea what they cost these days.

Have you ever tried these?

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Colonial-leather-thimble-self-adhesive-fingertip/dp/B001J5JN7G/ref=sr_1_2?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1380542481&sr=1-2]Amazon.com: Colonial brand leather thimble self-adhesive fingertip pads: Arts, Crafts & Sewing[/ame]

 

[koshergrl]

I have been drooling after standing embroidering frames for some time now. My arms and hands go numb quickly when I'm crocheting and embroidering these days. The frame won't help with crochet but I think it would be wonderful for needlework. They have all sorts of cool ones..stand along ones, and ones that you sit on to hold in place...

 

[koshergrl]

I use a leather thimble that my mother got me. Love it. My fingertips sweat in metal ones, and I have a hard time finding ones that fit right and don't feel all clunky.

 

[Mr. H.]

Those truly are beautiful quilts, Mr. H. I'm glad you went to the show and brought back pictures of beautiful quilts!

Yup.
In that last photo, I can't believe they leaned a stack of chairs against the quilt.
Mrs. H. was chiding me "you're not supposed to touch the quilts".
There wasn't a "do not touch" sign, so I took that as an invitation.

 

[koshergrl]

I noticed that too! how dare they! probably someone's kid or husband, or employee of the building....

 

[freedombecki]

Those truly are beautiful quilts, Mr. H. I'm glad you went to the show and brought back pictures of beautiful quilts!

Yup.
In that last photo, I can't believe they leaned a stack of chairs against the quilt.
Mrs. H. was chiding me "you're not supposed to touch the quilts".
There wasn't a "do not touch" sign, so I took that as an invitation.

Men at church didn't realize you shouldn't touch the quilts (they're bedding), and I noticed they and their children were always using the quilt to protect the social hall walls by letting the quilt be their setting place for the folded chairs. I call it "logic" with a bwahaha! after it. Roosters always know how to make the hens run around in circles without really trying by using "logic."

 

[freedombecki]

I have been drooling after standing embroidering frames for some time now. My arms and hands go numb quickly when I'm crocheting and embroidering these days. The frame won't help with crochet but I think it would be wonderful for needlework. They have all sorts of cool ones..stand along ones, and ones that you sit on to hold in place...

Let's see if I have this right. You can't stand thimbles, and your arms and hands go numb these days with putting a lot of time into those fabulous embroideries.

In a nutshell, that's: Acupuncture!

You probably feel pretty happy after a finger-jabbing session, too. I gave my fingers one more day of break. I think what did it was doing a dozen lazy daisies, a dozen leaves, and 3 dozen French knots plus the remainder of the blue butterfly all in one day. To get my thoughts reordered to do the next butterfly, I kept thinking how much this butterfly has so little resemblance to a sulfur butterfly, but I love them anyway in spite of their tiny size (1/2 inch to 2 inches, and they're either all yellow or lime green or somewhere in between, so I went online to get inspired. I didn't start embroidering until after noon, and got one more floral corner done in yellow, then worked my way up to the inner parts of the wing, also in yellow. But the pictures of the sulphurs ranged from lime green to yellow and even orange, almost, so I'm doing one in a mix of yellow and hot lime. Here are a couple of pictures of sulphur butterflies. I had literally dozens of sulphurs on my old computer that ate its desktop away.

 

[freedombecki]

I thought of koshergrl when I was working on this today... I'm just about 3 or 4 inches from the last stitch around the border, but today it's raining and I'm just stiff all over. My fibromyalgia is acting like it's having a bipolar swing into the negative quadrant, so I will be taking a nap as soon as this gets posted. Sorry it's so near yet so far from completion... I gave it the color of the Southern Dogface Sulphur, Zerene cessonia well, reasonably close, anyway.

 

[freedombecki]

Butterfly 2. Found some pictures of a Southern Dogface Sulphur butterfly and liked its coloration, so adapted that to the antennae area of block 2's sulphur-colored butterfly to reflect Southern Dogface's antennae and outer touch of woodrose colorations. Here's the Southern Dogface Zerene cessonia and (finally) completed block as well:

Thank heavens for EBay. I got over 100 skeins of DMC cotton in a lot someone was selling, for the price of about 15 new skeins, and the colors included 3 acceptable colors, but I liked the woodrose color best. Most of the lot were unopened skeins. Lucky me. Every trip you can save to town is gasoline you don't have to spend. Gas is a fortune these days for those of us on a fixed income.

 

[freedombecki]

Oops! Forgot a detail! [MENTION=31640]koshergrl[/MENTION], sos! How do I make a superlarge French knot that looks like a solid ball? Maybe Brazilian work? The eye of the dogface is a large green mass on either side. Well, on the other hand, only the males have "dogfaces." But if you have a panacea, please state it. I'm only twisting the thread around the needle 3 times and just discovered that if you work slowly and loosely, the knots appear larger, but mine are a bit gangly when I do that. /fret, fret

 

[koshergrl]

hmmm...you can try more twists, or use more floss. Instead of using 2 strands, or three, use the whole thing. I think if you use more than two wraps, the knots are going to be loppy.

I'll see what I can find. I have run across some really cool sites on embroidery stitches in the past! But i dont see any directions on how to make them bigger, other than one vs. 2 wraps around the thread. But I think using more floss would probably do the trick.

 

[koshergrl]

Also, padded satin stitch is a good way to create a round ball effect...

Obviously you could make it round instead of oval...

Embroidery Stitches