MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Finished x 2 !

Before I start into my next big project I thought it would be wise to take a couple of days and finish a few projects I've had sitting around waiting for attention.  First of all, I covered a blank hardback book....


Click on the picture to embiggen!  Here's a mini tutorial for how I did it (be prepared to be impressed...not!!).  Anyhoo....first I covered the book with some heavy brown paper (recycled from a grocery bag), glued down with a coat of Mod Podge I had lurking in my stash for what seems like forever.  Big surprise was that it wasn't all dried up.  I marked out the spine area and covered that with little torn strips of masking tape.  The 'stamps' were cut from a vintage stamp collectors album (thanks Liz!!).  Another slathering of Mod Podge and I collaged the stamps onto the rest of the cover (front & back of the book).  After drying time on the balcony in the sun, I scrounged through my stash and came up with an eons-old bottle of water based walnut wood stain....slathered that on, and back into the sun to dry.  A coat or two of waterbase varnish and voila.....a new everyday sketchbook for moi!!

AND...


Here's a little felted bag.
This afternoon I embroidered the musical
notes onto it and it's now DONE!!
Pattern is 'Two Measures of Joy"
by Elizabeth Mamo.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Final (at least for now) ledger pages...

I am very sad to say that the formal lessons have ended for the Embroiderer's Ledger online class.  Will I miss it?  No question!  Would I strongly recommend taking this class?  Oh yeah!!  Do I have ideas to carry on?  Definitely.

Below is the final two-page spread...



and here is a closeup of the final page...


Clicking on them will embiggen them so you can see the details.

Thank you Karen, so much, for 
sharing your considerable knowledge
and being such an inspiration
(and being downright fun to know!).
Go HERE to see Karen's blog
where you can find out more information 
about her classes and to see her
work.
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Some of the more eagle-eyed of you might have noticed that I have done a big update of my link list (look to your left).  Please visit any and all of them and say hi. 

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Stitching! At last!!

Here you go...


Sorry that it isn't a great picture tho'!! 
The light just didn't want to cooperate.

If you click on it, hopefully it will be clearer.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Sites of beauty

Jack received this watercolor painting
from our friend on the weekend.
It was a complete surprise and isn't it great?


Be sure to click on it so you can see all the
wonderful details.
Would you believe this is one of her very
first paintings?

I think Ginette has a very huge talent and
we're SO proud of her and SO 
happy to own this.
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I have to say that my studio currently looks somewhat pristine (or the most pristine it has ever looked!), but at the detriment of my stitching!  So. in lieu of stitching pictures by me....here's some news and beyond incredible eye candy that you might like to have a drool over...



Friday, August 24, 2012

Piles and atc's

Well folks, there's no real pictures of stitching today and when I do show you these photos you will understand why!!






Most of that mess is simply because of having to find
space for my new printer!!  
Yikes!!

On another note...today was our monthly CQTeers meeting and  our 'theme' was to create something using a cup and saucer die cut that Sue gave us as our inspiration.  These are what I came up with...


They're done on fabric, trapuntoed, and then painted.  I had some really shiny 'goo' that went over top to hopefully reflect the glaze that is on a 'real' cup and saucer.

Sue made the lovely one below - from paper, which is her forte.....


Thursday, August 23, 2012

New toy, and sites

Sorry, still no stitching to show you today.  I did do something but can't show you yet.  I also had a grand shovel-out (still not done!) of my studio to make room for my new toy...


I know, it just looks like a black and grey box,
but it's actually a laser printer.
I finally got totally fed up with having to pay so much to buy
ink cartridges for my old printer.
It scanned and photocopied and printed in colour
but the ink was beyond belief. 

So....
this basic black toner printer is
my answer.
I will still keep the old one for when I want
the extra features, but this one will
be my workhorse.  

I even installed it all by my own widdle self!!!  




Wednesday, August 22, 2012

My name is MA and....

.... I'm an embroidery book junkie!

Yes, I admit it.

I'm hopelessly addicted.

Here are my latest acquisitions,
purchased at the princely sum of
$3.00 each!!


 

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

sorry state of stitching

Yep, a day spent in doing anything BUT stitch  = a very grumpy person!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Sadly....

I'm sorry to say that once again there are no photos to share.  Rest assured, I'm stitching merrily away and in the next day (or maybe two) I should have something to show for my efforts.


Friday, August 17, 2012

TUSAL and mystery solved?

Today is the day for us to post our TUSAL results for the past month.  I've done a little stitching but not as much as I would have liked.  Here's my pile of ORTS for the month...



and my ORT jar...



AND,
here's what I've done with that piece of 
mystery fabric I showed you yesterday...



ORTS = Old Recycled Threads

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Yikes!







Now, what in the world

do you suppose I'm

going to do with

THAT???!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Ledger page extension



 The photo above shows the extension closed, and the photo below shows it open...



Monday, August 13, 2012

Fishing, so the mice played!

Jack and our friend John went fishing for the day so that meant.....

I WAS HOME ALONE!!!!

It's a very rare occurance that I get to have the 
house to myself, so I made
the most of it
and completed two more
pages in my ledger.

See?

Oh, yes...
the guys caught fish too...





....Here's John


















and here's Jack......

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Just a ledgering along....

Here's the latest spread in my sketchbook...






I can't thank Karen enough for this class!
I have learned so much
and I'm very happy with
what I'm creating.**
 Not only am I happy, but I'm having 
a lot of fun at the same time!

** well, I'm happy with everything, but my career in water color painting
will be VERY short-lived as you can see from
the appalling mess on the bottom left!

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Another ledger page

Here's what I've been stitching on the past couple of days...


a closeup - to show what's inside all
those little envelopes...


You can click on the pictures to embiggen them to
see further details.

- - - - - -

Today I've been hobbling about - muttering about how dumb I can be.  This morning I managed to wrap my toe around a box full of books and .... guess what?.....boxes of books don't move, and toes?  Well, mine is black and my whole foot is swollen.  

Hmmm.....wonder how many times I'm going to whack it again before it heals?

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Books

I've been happily stitching, but can't show you - yet!

I was happy to see the UPS man come today because he brought me this...




I haven't opened it yet because I'm saving it until I can sit down and have a delightful read.  This book is by Sue Bleiweiss who I've followed online for some time.  
This book has been talked about all over the 'net so I decided that I simply couldn't live without it any longer!  Specs:  'The Sketchbook Challenge" (Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Achieving Your Creative Goals) by Sue Bleiweiss.  Published by Potter Craft, c 2012,  ISBN 978-0-307-79655-4

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Tuesday, August 07, 2012

I'm not here.

No time to blog.

Stitching....


Monday, August 06, 2012

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Another page and Roses

First of all, I would like to point you towards a sweet tutorial on Di van Niekerk's site for silk ribbon embroidery roses.  Go HERE.  I love the little birds nest too!!

I just finished working on another of the pages for the Embroiderer's Ledger class....

(you can click on the picture to embiggen it if you'd like!)

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Mystery solved

Remember that odd-looking stitching I showed you yesterday?  Well, this is what it turned into...



Another page for my ledger class!
Clicking on it should embiggen it so you can see it better.

Sorry about the poor quality photo - it's too late in the day and I had to use artificial lights.