Chikan Embroidery lessons

I am taking a class on Chikan Embroidery which is an Indian stitching technique. I am taking the class through Anita at artisticfingers.blogspot.in . These pictures show my progress on the first 3 lessons. It is very much like shadow work. You can't really see the detail of the thread color, but it is a beautiful variegated thread with blue, blue-green and purple colors. I am wondering if my stitches are too small. I liked it with the small stitches. (-; We are doing this as a group on Stitchmap so we can help each other out.

Antique Store Find

I don't know why I keep buying these. I guess because I keep finding them at decent prices and I have fantasies of putting crazy quilts in them. Fantasy is right!

Kristie's Snowball!

Check out....

I bought this 1920's lamp at an estate sale recently. It was in one of the big victorian houses downtown. I can just imagine the lady's who have stitched under it and am so happy to have it!

CQJP - First Block

I have finally finished my first block for CQJP. It has taken quite a long time! The photo in the center is of my father when he was very young -- it would have been taken in the 1920's. As you can see he must have had on his father's boots because they go all the way up to his thighs! I love the old water pump he's standing by. His Mother is pictured below. Her picture is decoupaged on a scrabble tile. I have put a couple vintage trims and lace on this block. There are also some vintage jewelry pieces. I backed the leaves on the lace with some silk paper and the flower on the lace with some silk fibers so there would be some color showing through the openings in the lace. Then I stitched around them with the split stitch. I also used some orange silk paper on the left side of the center photo. The seam treatment along side the lace is silk ribbon wrapped chain stitch. The same variegated silk ribbon was used on the spider web rose in the lower left-hand corner. I put a lot of beads on this block, but my favorites are along the right-hand side of the center photo - they are just drop dead gorgeous beads! I also put some beads along the top and bottom of the light green trim at the top. The buttons tacking down the ribbon around the center picture are from the 1920s. The fringe on the curve at the bottom is part of the fabric and not an embellishment. I wonder if I should have put some water droplets coming out of the pump. (-; What do you think?

Dyeing Cotton

These are pictures of my first dyeing lesson from Candy. You can see her site here: http://classes.candiedfabrics.com/101-purchase-access/#comment-8962 . I spent a few hours yesterday playing with procion MX dyes. Hopefully you can see the different gradations from dark to light of each primary color. I just love the texture the dyeing gives the fabric!

Snowball - Cathy K.

This is the snowball I made for Cathy K. She wanted a bright snowball and said to think Kaffe Fassett. So I chose a Kaffe Fassett fabric as my focus fabric -- it is the colorful print.