Pure Joy

The flower is changing slowly but steady !
It’s a pleasure to thread paint this flower. Remember I told you I had a bargain in buying “Isacord” threads ? Well I use them to thread paint the flower and they sew soo well…it’s pure joy.
I didn’t want a shiny thread for this work and those threads are rather matte. I love the result so far.
I finished the “first round” of the thread painting.
Now I have to think about the background and the borders.My first idea was to quilt ghost flowers and I believe I will think further on that idea.

Maybe sheer ghost flowers ?
The problem with sheer is the shiny reflection unless I find matte sheer.
Does this exists ?

I could make ‘lace petals’ using free machine embroidery and Avalon. Once dried from the soaking, I could appliqué the petals on the background and on the borders.
Why not ?

I made some quick collages to work further with them :

Still don’t know where this voyage will lead me.

The kids are coming home this evening for a long weekend. The creativity part of my live will be reduced to a minimum till next Monday evening..

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”
Eddie Cantor

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Nathalie

Online classes

I used to take a lot of online classes – I still take online classes - and I came to this conclusion : one lesson in a week is often too much !
Certainly when you’re working full time at work and at home.
And even more true when you have other projects ongoing.
Since my goal for this year is : focus on and finish what I start ; I find it difficult to keep up with online classes unless you only devote to that class .
That happened for the soul journaling class : I’m way behind but I don’t care !
I know I can read my notes even when class is closed and I know that if I have a real problem I can write a note to the ‘teacher’. I never had to do this but I know the door is ‘open’. Wonderful, wonderful internet !

I did some thread painting today:
this time the honour goes to the colour purple.

I want to use the tacking foot in ‘free sewing’ mode.

I never tried but I’m curious if it will work.

The purpose is : obtain a hairy flower heart.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

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Nathalie

Thread Painting

The thread painting is a long and slow process. Mostly I start with one colour and try to thread paint all the similar patches. Then I move to sew with the next colour.
Most of the time, thread painting is a relaxing process.
But it also can be unbelievable stressful :
in some cases, for some reason, you can’t get a good thread tension ;
or when the thread always breaks because it’s too old – yes, it’s possible ! –
or because you move to fast and your needle breaks
or because you run out of “that” thread and you only had to sew 4 more inches…

While thread painting, it is important to take a break every now and then. Otherwise your shoulders and back are hurting like hell. This time, while pausing from sewing, I’m writing my blog and taking pictures from the thread painting I’ve done today.

Later this evening I will read the last issue from ‘Fibre and Stitch’.
I will miss this e-zine.
Thanks, Sue and Terri , for those 8 wonderful issues. I fully understand why you decided to stop.

“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy”.
Jacques Maritain

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Nathalie

Module 4

I finally started the activities from the city and guild course.
I made a paper collage not from the seascape – I already made in fabric –
but from an imaginary mountainscape :

I used different kinds of papers, some were very hard to tear !

After colouring the background with waterpaint, I applied different papers on the two background for auditioning :

I prefer the blue background.

I started to threadpaint ‘the flower’ :

Therefore I grabbed most of the red threads I have :

I love the idea of having the right color for the right fabric. This does not mean I choose the same shade as the fabric when I sew my zigzag stitch !

While I sew, Avril is sleeping :

It’s her way of keeping me company !

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. “
Roger Caras


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Nathalie

Shame on me !

Since I paid for the fourth module of the City and guild course I haven’t done a thing with it. This has to change !
Since peace is visiting again I will have some of my live back. I have my creative evenings back again – ‘kids’ are back at school.
I want to work a bit further on the paper collage theme.
Do you remember the seascape fabric collage ? I will rip some magazine papers and glue them to form the same seascape. Just curious to work with different medias.
Love to have different ongoing projects. It’s fun to have a project you only need to work on for 5 minutes and you can stop if needed (this way I can be creative and cooking at the same time, OK sometimes it’s very well done and overcooked !)

The flower is growing smoothly and when I work on her, I do not cook at the same time !
I’m sewing the heart of it for the moment. And from time to time I see a detail I forgot to sew.

The background will be the last thing to sew. I have no idea what to do with it.
Maybe adding ghost flowers and only quilt the contours with a red thread ?
Relax !
No hurry !

I’m confident that the idea will merge when the time will be right.

This is how my floor looked after I finished cutting the heart :

I assure you that this is the ‘cleanest’ part of my sewing studio !

And this is the result :

Isn’t she becoming a nice flower ?

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Benjamin Franklin

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Nathalie

The flower…Continued..

At first I wasn’t very enthusiast by ‘the Flower’ but the more I’m working with her the more I’m convinced that she will turn well.
I’m already this far :

All those oranges and red. It seems I like to work with similar colors in an almost monochromatic way. Strange… I just love the power of using 1 color family. I could have chosen another color but no, I chose the fantastic power of the red family.

Remember the doodle ?
Well I took a detail and sewed the lines with an automatic decorative stitch :

I used a red/white thread with a satin stitch.
Once finished I coloured (with the caran d’ache, of course !) the surface using the primary colours. I watered the colours and this is the result :

Not a masterpiece but I enjoyed the process and that’s the most important !

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery. "
James Joyce

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Nathalie

A quarter of a Flower

I’m sewing slowly but steady on my flower. The result is rather flat for the moment but this will change – I hope – when I will start the thread painting. And that’s not for in the next few days.

This is the back from my work :

If you have a better look, you can see I numbered the petals and coded the different shades.
Once I sewed a piece I darken that spot with a pencil.
A bit like “painting with numbers” !

We started the fourth lesson In the soul journaling class from Sarah Whitmire.
The theme is Black/white. I googled for B/W and selected some pictures with high contrast.

I found a picture of two hands : a young and old hand in a different skin colour.

I also found a shadow picture that touched me. Since those pictures are copyrighted I will not post them.

I played a little with the paint program on my computer and doodled with the different available brushes (I discovered a brush that writes like a calligraphy pen) :

On the first doodle, I doodled an apple, a pear, a head, a word and scribbles.

On the second, again a word, boxes, circles and scribbles.

The third is the same as the second doodle but I added some colour.

The fourth is the negative image of the third.

It’s not so easy to write with the mouse and it’s even more difficult if that same mouse decides to run to a corner !

The second challenge has started on Shelagh’s blog.
My first picture from the challenge is BLAH ! I had to be creative since I do not have the required material. I probably will start over or add more foil and certainly remove the straight lines !

But this promise to be as exciting as the first challenge.

“Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth. “
Charles A. Dana

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Nathalie

Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April

She made me cry !

Cruise Control

I have lost my cruise control button. Saying this : I mean that updating my blog is -sometimes – hectic. I start to write a little text in ‘word’, adding some pictures and then go working. Then in the evening I come home with the intention of putting the text on my blog.
Lately I’m not enough at home to put it online : I have an emergency call and I have to go work again.
But I take the time to play !
I continued the flower :
And I continued to play with the soul journaling.
I used a picture of my son (from 1996) playing a pirate.
I added key stamps
Treasure instructions
I used treasure gold to add colour to the page

Here you can see the colours I used : black and red.

I used puff paint to add dimension to the key hole and coloured it gold, what else ?

The next picture is from my youngest daughter – also being a pirate – but I used ‘girly colours’ and her mascot : she is absolutely in love with teddy bears.

And yes, she still is !!!

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

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Nathalie

Long Time

I haven’t blogged for some days due to the Easter Holiday.
There are a lot of people that came on holiday at the coast. And since the weather is fantastic even more people came for one day, just to see the sea. And while walking the tourists see our shop and come in.

I had some kitchen problems : my dishwasher had a water rupture : my whole kitchen was under water. A positive side : the kitchen floor is shining 2 days earlier than planned. It was only the water exit that broke. We were able to repair the damage within the hour.

I didn’t have as much time as planned to sew but I managed to sew this :

After posting this blog add, I hope DH and I will be able to take a walk with the dog. I want to see some nature…

“Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.”
Proverb

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Nathalie

UFO's

If you remember :
I had 1 resolution for this year :
Finishing what I started.
So far : I succeed.
I’m finishing the pear

still have to sew the binding and put a title on this pear.

What a great feeling this is.
I still have some UFO’s but all from some years ago.

Keeping a visual and work journal is – for me – the ideal way to plan a work.
I try several techniques - without making a whole new and big project - and put the try-outs in my journal with the references to remember how it was done.
I’m gathering all the ideas I get, even the craziest ones and work on it when the time is right.
Keeping a journal does mean that I ‘learned’ to sketch again.
Just because I have to visualize my idea, I have to make a clear sketching, not only circles and rectangles and a stripe of colour. It happens that, after sketching I find out that the idea is not what I expected, I still have the sketches in my journal but I can easily drop and let go the idea and move on.
I realize that I sew less but better and more focused. My preparation work has become more important and the sewing has become ‘my desert’, the cherry on the cake.


"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. "
Will Durant

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Nathalie

and so on...

Starting a new project after an intensive one is always difficult. I always feel lost.
The best thing to do, is wait a little and thinking about a next possible project. At that moment I have plenty projects I want to start with the best intentions.

This time was even more difficult because I finished three projects in a very short time : the Marseille L’Estaque quilt, the challenge and the third module from the city and guild course.
I had a project in mind and showed a peek some time ago ; I started the tracing on the stabilizer : and chose the background :

This new project will measure : 60 x 75 cm for its main design.
It’s a partial design of a flower. I have this idea for some time but never took the time to really develop the idea. I never found the right flower picture. The cropping of the flower wasn’t OK.
So I combined these two flowers from one picture :

You will never believe where I took the picture… yes, you’re right : in Marseille.

It’s a tradition to buy or receive chocolate eggs during the eastern holidays. In fact every occasion is a fantastic reason to buy or receive chocolate.

My youngest daughter received 1 kg from a friend.


"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, and just be my friend. "
Albert Camus

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Nathalie