maandag 29 februari 2016

leap day mandala ... giveaway

What a special day !!!
I know a date isn't something "fixed"
It's just an agreement that we count the days like that,
and keep a bit of extra time every year,
so we once in a while cast in an extra day !

And that also isn't the samefor all the people in the world
(just take all the Chinese or Jewish people for instance
and there are many more others)

Ohhhhh
and what about :
if it's your birthday today ???
Once every four years !
(but then : you don't age that quickly  ;-) ...)

I thought something special was appropriate.
So I made a special

LEAP  DAY  MANDALA


and more :

it's a giveaway

You just have to tell me in a comment
why you think it makes a wonderful present for someone you love
(or even for yourself)

I'll draw a winner in seven days.






This mandala is made on heavy weight drawing paper (A4)
with pen, colour pencils and silver pen

zondag 28 februari 2016

"window" Sunday

The BIG task daughter (and I as helper)
has for the window painting at school
is nearly completed..

The last few weeks the big full size drawings
we use as templates were finished,
so today (on this last day of the "crocus"holidays)
we went to school and started on the last two classrooms.

(we didn't like this one very much,
but the children could choose ...)



In grandson's classroom there will be a lot of birds

In fact it will be our saying :

WINGS  AND  ROOTS

a good theme for the last (8th) year of elementary school !



He was very proud to be part of it !

The rest of the work will be done during school time.

*

In the garden the snowdrops are still going strong !

Mmmmm I love spring 

vrijdag 26 februari 2016

exchange ... to and fro

February is nearly gone.
(though it's a very special February this year :
with one (leap) day extra !)
It certainly is time
to send my felted piece for this month's exchange !!!

For the exchange
I received a wonderful package two days ago.
It was wrapped up like a real gift

Something like that can only contain
a true treasure ...


... and there it was : a new jewel !

Thanks very much Jolanda : love it !
*

The piece I had to make this time
has the theme 

  nocturnal  animal  

The plan I had for this one, was on little sketches
right after I made the "Baba Yaga house" piece in January,
but then my "Challenge House" took over

And then,
when I was working on the water soluble making butterfly wings,
an new idea emerged for the nocturnal animal theme !

a  moth
(a butterfly of the night)

It took some time
but today at last, my moth was ready to fly !

Here it is slowly growing ...

and there she goes
... to the light !

(and she's in the mail)

dinsdag 23 februari 2016

yippee ....!

It wasn't even as much work 
as I thought it would be
.....
The walls were stitched "invisibly"
(with the wire integrated in the seam)

A safety pin to hold the sides together while stitching.

(first stitching in bright sunlight,
half an hour later all was gray with splashing rain)

When the three walls were stitched together

I could add the last separate leaves
to hide the wires.


And here it is :

the Caterpillar House


another wall


And when caterpillars eat lots and lots
(and drive so many a gardener crazy)

they become a beautiful
butterfly

I'm very happy with the result for Sara's House Challenge !

maandag 22 februari 2016

more embellisher and water soluble

Though it's a bit slow right now
the Challenge house
is coming to an end.

I made a lot more leaves :
I think I can use some more for the "roof"
(that will not be a roof at all)

I made the leaves with the embellisher
than stitched them on the sewing machine
.....
and cut little holes.

Now I'm busy stitching the sides together
with some wire in between,
a slow job.

*
Because the stitching on water soluble
("soluvlies")
is so much fun, I did more butterflies
(and one has flown away already)

A very thin one,
with lots of loose threads between the tulle and the water soluble.

The backside       ...........     and against the light


And one in another colour scheme.


dinsdag 16 februari 2016

water soluble

The "House Challenge" 
is coming to an end.
Last Monday Sara sent the last pdf
with instruction and suggestions.
The houses of everybody are far from finished
but that is okay,
we will have many more weeks to continue.
On the 20th of March
random couples will be picked by Sara
and we'll make some small item
for the house of the other person of the couple :
a small fun swap,
just like at the end of the other challenges !

These are the three walls of my house.
I incorporated the roof :
the green walls end in green leaf-like points.
I also found my coloured wire,
thick and thin.

The wings of the butterfly
have very thin blue wire attached to the front side
and now she has long antennae 
(with a bead at the end)

These are the walls since yesterday.
There are some more inhabitants now :

... a (sleeping) cocoon and the known "doorman"

... two new baby caterpillars ...

Making the butterfly wings with
water soluble
was sooooo much fun
that I had to do some more with that funny stuff today.

I have two varieties of the water soluble "fabric"
One is kind of plastic-like,
the other one is thicker and looks more like interfacing
only DON'T touch it with wet hands, or sneeze :
it will shrivel away !!!

First I have a piece of  water soluble
(big enough to fit in a plastic embroidery hoop
that one is thin, so it will easily go under the presser foot of the machine )
then I use some tulle or polyester sheer
with lots of threads and snippets underneath.
Then comes the "free stitching" :
you have to be sure that all the snippets are connected by stitch.
When you are satisfied with your end product
you can pin your work on a thick cellular polystyrene
and rinse out the water soluble !
(using little water leaves a lot of "glue" in your work and makes it stiff, 
using a lot (and rub some) leaves your work a lot softer !)


 A new idea taking shape

Held up against the light
you better see the waste threads I used for this one

*

Just have to show this gorgeous Amaryllis  :
two stems with four flowers each !!!

And last week we had another mandala evening

(Isis & Osiris)








dinsdag 9 februari 2016

growing ...

Sara's "challenge house" and the inhabitants
are "growing"

Today I made the triangular shaped walls
a little more precise 
with little fluffs of green wool,
linen and tulle.
I had to be really careful
not to break any felting needle of my embellisher machine
because there are already some beads
and stitching on the walls !
(ahhhhh ..... couldn't help myself,
just had to do it !)


The top ("roof") end of each wall
needs some adjustment too.
There will be some leaf-shaped ends.

Then I will have to put it all together
and, most probably, stabilize it with wire frame
(still thinking about that)

But I was also playing on my normal sewing machine
with tiny bits and pieces of fabric
and some "water soluble"
That was a long time ago I used that
but very, very much FUN !


Anyone can guess ?