Klimt jacket: Sunflower

For a long time I have wanted to embroider the back of a denim jacket.  Now that fall weather is upon us, it seemed fitting to start this project.  My inspiration for using embroidery came from a pin I purchased from an artist in Russia, Alexandra Krylova.   She can be found on Instagram as kry.embroidery

Being a VanGogh admirer, I picked the Sunflowers pin for my first purchase:

Deciding what to put on my jacket actually wasn't too difficult to decide on.  I am planning an artful  trip next summer with my niece and one of the places we plan to go to is Vienna.  Gustaf Klimt.  What else can I say?  

Klimt painted his sunflower painting in 1905.  It is in someone's private collection, so not nearly as famous as The Kiss or Tree of Life.  

I began by making a rough sketch directly on my jacket:

Deciding that I wanted it to be brighter than the painting, I picked a few brighter greens for the leaves, and just started stitching. Not much planning.  I figured that if I didn't like it, I could cover it with something else.

 I am thinking that the sunflower needs some beads:

Here's where I'm at now:

Eco dye: red day lilies

A few months ago, a girlfriend dead headed her red day lilies and gave me a bag full of dried flowers to use for dye.  I'm finally getting around to using them.  Yesterday I rolled them up in some muslin fabric and tied them with string. They then went into a pan to simmer in a shallow amount of water.  Now I play the waiting game for as long as I can stand, or until they start to smell!  Hope to leave them for at least a week before unrolling the bundle.

Acorn cap dye

Funny story....  I wanted to try acorn caps for dyeing.  My dear sweet girlfriend gathered  a bag full.  Plenty to make a wonderful pot of dye.  But I got greedy.... This past weekend my son and I went hiking and found a nice stash of caps lining the trail.  I gathered another bag to make ink and dye all winter.  Problem was - chiggers!  I didn't wear bug spray (tons of sunscreen, but really didn't need it in the woods).  So now I am covered with itchy bumps.  I should of been happy with the gift acorns. 
Silly me.

Used the dye on silk and cotton threads.  I feel that the silk must have a finish on it as it should of taken the dye better and darker than the cotton.  Still a nice colour.

Paper pieced butterfly

I have been asked to teach a class in the spring at our local quilt group.  The person who asked had seen my butterfly bag from the 100 Day Project.   She is sure others would like to create a bag like mine.  Haha, does she realize how many hours went into it?  At least 100!

My thought was to teach a butterfly that would use more traditional methods , as most of the quilters are very old school.

This is my first sample. I have decided that it needs to be simplified even more to teach in the allotted time.

My next inspiration came at the fabric store this morning.  I believe I see a flock of monarchs begging to be made!

#aroundtheworldin80project - sunshine

Yellow = Sunshine
Today began as a rainy grey day, but as I sit here looking outside I see brilliant sunshine.  With mowing on my list of things to do tomorrow, my money is on rain on Thursday!  That's ok.  I can always stitch!

I've stuck to working on my sunshine blocks for my project.  I have an idea in my head, but need to get a few more blocks done (or at least started), before I can begin real design work. Baby steps for now.

More fungi

So excited to find treasures in Beth's yard this morning:

Momma kitty walked across my fabric! She wasn't happy.

#aroundtheworldin80project

I jumped on board. My plan was to work on my #seaglassandsunshine project for the next few months, so the timing to commit to a project was perfect.  It seems that the only way I get something done is to have a commitment with a deadline.

Friday was "Do Your Own Thing" at the library, so I spent the morning dyeing and over dyeing fabrics for my project.  I plan to work on a quilt (not sure of size yet), using stitching, beads, and what ever else tickles my fancy! I have about a dozen block already stitched, but now they have purpose rather than #morningtea keep my hands busy.