Water Lily

Kayaking is a favorite activity at the lake and this piece is inspired by the wonderful plant life in the backwater areas of beautiful Minnesota.

This piece has taken me a while to finish.  I had lots of starts and stops as the piece just seemed to need time to develop.  I would work on something, finish that idea and then I would  need to step back and wait for inspiration on how to go on.

Step one was hand coloring this wonderful vintage napkin.  I have had a set of these vintage water lily napkins. When I found them they seemed to be a work in progress. Some had the cutwork areas still intact while others had various amounts of the cutwork finished. I used both a finished and unfinished napkin in the final piece. You can see the difference in the above photo (an unfinished napkin)  and the detailed photo below which shows some of the cutwork in place.

 I'm not sure where I picked these napkins up but I've always loved them. The napkins were a cream color and I spent some time playing with changing the color.  I wanted a more sepia/aged look while retaining an organic nature.

Most of the color work was done with Tsukineko Inks.  Different types of accent marks were also used.

I also took some time cutting off the stems and small leaves.

The next step was to stitch the napkin to a backing fabric and then thread paint like crazy. 

 Back

When I finished thread painting the flower I free motion quilted the sides and turned under the edges to make a finished knife edge.

 

I reinforced the edges to give them a crisp fold.  My hope was that the addition of this extra interfacing would help keep the corners extra firm.

I used inks and markers to add shading, and pop to various areas.

And then the embroidery and beadwork began.

The piece is beaded with several types and sizes of beads.

Algae was made with confetti patches.

Stems were made using twists of fabric.

I also added a string of "knotting" along the edges.  

Because I wanted the piece to hang in the on-point perspective I wanted to add the piece to a base.

I experimented with several options before settling on a linen toweling fabric.

I made a quilt sandwich with linen toweling, batting and cotton backing. I free motioned quilted this in a design I hoped would reference wood grain.  To the corners I added dark napkin pieces, these were from a second napkin. After I colored the napkin I needed to cut it into quarters to fit under the top piece.

The binding was done on a curve.  Batting is  80/20. Finished size: 26.25" X  26.25", 80/20 batting.

According to the Department of Natural Resources for Minnesota The White Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata) which grows in mucky low water areas is important to the natural balance as it is an excellent habitat for fish and the seeds are eaten by waterfowl.  Management questions should be addressed to the DNR.

I really love how it all turned out.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about my journey to finish Water Lily.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen 

The Rescue. A puppy crazy quilt pilllow

 Today's post is a fun little piece I've been working on during my watching t.v. time. Now that I'm finally finished with it I thought I'd share with all of you.

I found this sweet little crocheted puppy in with a bunch of odds and ends at a thrift shop.

I really loved him but he has been sitting around unused for a long time because of some brown staining all over the center.

I tried gentle cleaning - no luck.  I tried cleaning with a bit of soap - no luck. I tried multiple types of soaps - no luck.

I tried bleach and really going a it - not much luck.

So I decided he was clean and it was time to live with the stain.

As I worked with him I wondered if maybe the original maker had also stopped work on him because of a spill.  If you look above his head you came see a new row of fancy edging was started but it was never finished.

 I decided it was time for my poor puppy to be rescued!  It was time he was used in a finished piece.

I'm guessing my puppy may have started life in the 1930's or 40's? If so it seemed fitting to work him into a piece with reproduction 1930's prints and suround him with embroidery.

I also decided not to try and cover up the brown but let him be.  After all maybe he just returned from a walk outside!

Below are some detailed photos of the embroidery.

I used the finished piece as a decorative bed pillow.

Finished piece: 14.5" X 16.5", polyfill.

Cotton fabrics, vintage handwork, commercial lace, sik ribbon, buttons, beads, embroidery done in various weights and types of thread.

I hope you enjoyed meeting my rescue puppy. I think he will enjoy living on the bed surrounded by pillows and stuffed bunnies!

Thanks for stopping by,

MaryEllen

I guess I'm workng on a series?

Much like  "Swirls" from February of this year "Evening by the pond" uses a combination of materials to develop a very textural composition.

"Evening by the pond" was also inspired by a piece of lace paper. The paper lace I made is colored with Tsukineko inks. See my Blog post from 2/11/2025 for more information about paper lace making.  The paper lace and other elements are set on layers of fabrics I've hand dyed, and marked with paints, inks and makers. Also added are scraps of upholstery fabrics and trims. These layers are machine quilted to a backing and cotton batting. What looks like the base gray fabric is really one of two layers of that fabric.  The edges of the bottom gray piece is turned to the back and stitched to the backing fabric. In this way I was able to make a clean binding but still have that raw edge on the viewable top.

Added embellishments include. 

Embroidery and silk ribbon for the plants.  Vintage blue embroidery edging, yarn and trims for the water details and shoreline. Colored cotton batting, Angelina fibers and embroidery for the sky.

Like "Swirls" this piece is attached to 16" X 12" artist board which was painted brown.

One more quick note.

In getting ready for this post something just bothered me about the paper lace.  With the piece finished and in a photo I noticed a dark blue piece that was just to distracting. Luck for me it was easy to remove.  The thing is it reminded me how important it is to stand back a view your work.  Sometimes what works great close up really doesn't work at a different angle or distance.  So prop your work up and step away once in a while.

 Before. 

See the blue square in the center.

 No square. 

Much lighter looking.

I hope you have enjoyed this piece.

Thanks for stopping by!

MaryEllen

Crazy Quilted Bag and exhibitions

I called this piece The Crazy Bag Lady because it was such a mad dash to finish before a deadline. What a wild rush!  Now that I'm calmer I'm rethink the title, so you may see this piece with a new name in the future.

I hope you enjoy the photos of the front, back and all the sides.

Materials: cottons, silks, velvets, lace and upholstery materials.  Some pieces old others new, some hand dyed and some commercial.

Embellishments: beads, lace, rick-rack, buttons, silk ribbon, cording, floss and various threads.

Techniques: machine pieced and hand embroidery and fancy stitched.

Making the background.

Working on the front.

Embroidery and embellishments.

Making the lining.  I added a small pocket and label on the inside before finishing.

Finished size 9.5X11.5X2.5

This piece will be on display at Love Field  Airport in Dallas Texas, September 2024.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful and creative day!!

MaryEllen

Wild Grapes

Just a quick look at a piece I made for the the Dallas Area Fiber Artist show Wild: Persetives in Fiber, which

 is running now through August 10th.

This piece was based on a series of fall photos I took of wild grapes growing along an old country fence line.  Below are a few of my inspiration photos.

I finally settled on one photo I really liked. I did some digital manipulations to photo and then copied to fabric.  After the image was copied to the fabric I continued doing  manipulations to the image.  Below is a photo of the image right off the printer and startng to make additional changes  before stitching.

As well as stitching directly on my image I did areas of stitching that mimicked the original image. In these embroideried areas I tried to make the design in a different scale.

The photo image and embroidered images are both collaged into the finished piece with a mix of interesting fabrics.  The surrounding fabrics are very textured, left raw edged and also hand embroidered and embellished.

Finished size: 20.5" X 17".

Various fabrics including several upholstery fabrics, buttons, lace, silk ribbon, silk fabric, embroidery floss, net, specialty threads and photo on cotton fabric.  Machine quilted on my domestic machine.  80/20 batting. 

This was a fun piece to do.  I enjoyed experimenting using  photo in the piece not just as an inspiration for a piece.  I have lots of ideas And, as always I love the hand stitching and using lots of embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen

Happy fall y'all! A fall vine wreath

Today's post is a cute little fall table topper. The inspiration for this piece was the dark brown novelty

yarn (?) I used for the vines. This yarn was something I found on a freebie table at guild and I thought it was so much fun I had to grab it. I got some other wonderful colors too so will see what other projects may happen.

The construction of the rest of the piece starts with a linen napkin which I colored with  Tsukineko inks, and ink printed accents and green leaf designs. Machine stitching and hand embroidery. Beading and vintage silk flower buds.

I added the vines and silk flower buds after all the other stitching was complete. Both are hand tacked into place.

Notice the inks painted to highlight the woven designs in the linen napkin.

The piece finishes at 12" X 11 3/4",  80/20 batting and cotton backing.  I did add a small rod sleeve on the back in case I decide to hang it in the future.

I have a growing collection of lace and doilies and I think it adds a lot by layering the pieces on my buffet.

I hope you enjoyed my piece.  Have a wonderful day.

MaryEllen

Papermaking projects

 This summer I've been having lots of fun making paper. You can see my post from earlier this summer with how I was going about this. Today I thought I show a few pieces I've made with my paper.

Mounted on 4.25" X &.5" colored paper with Lace flower appliques, netting buttons, machine stitching, ribbons, 3-D flower made with my hand dyed silks, and leaves made by thread painting on netting using washable stabilizer.

4.25" X 6.75", ribbon, lace, buttons, paper doily, paint, 3-D silk flower, hand and machine stitching.

4.25" X 9.5" mounted on an envelope , lace, paint, twine, buttons, 3-D silk flower, hand stitching.

5.75" X 3", wide ribbon lase charm hexagon piece, Sharpie pen, hand stitching.

THE BIG TAKE AWAYS

With these pieces I was really trying to see what materials would work on my handmade paper.

I found I could hand stitch but you had to be very careful with the uneven pressure 

used when holding the piece.  Surprisingly machine stitching with a long stitch length worked better.

Paint worked fine but many markers and pens would bleed so you needed to test beforehand. I also used hot melt glue on spots that seemed weak, like under the weight of the buttons.

I still have quite the stack of papers to experiment with.  I'm also still experimenting with using more fibers/fabrics but so far have not had the results I'm looking for. The above projects are paper pulp made from scrape paper.  You can see the post on making paper by searching crafts. Stay tuned for updates as  continue to experiment.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

MaryEllen

Paper Making

 Today's post was another craft experiment!  This time I tried paper making!

I found an old blender at the thrift store for this project. 

I marked the blender "for crafts" on the side with sharpie so no one will ever use it for food.

I mixed small paper scraps (in this photo I'm using an old magazine), with water.

extra water is good, if it is to dry it is even harder on the blender's motor to mix.

Above is a photo of what the pulp looks like after blending. Here I'm using a strainer to drain off the extra water.

Above is a photo of a wad of pulp. I'm using apiece of plastic  screen to mold the pulp into paper.

Above is the pulp sandwiched between the screen. 

I then used a rolling pin the press out more of the moisture.

Above I'm now using a cotton towel to blot out more of the moisture.

Above photo shows my new handmade pages laying on a plastic sheet drying in the sun.

This step took several hours and I flipped the pages over a few times to keep the edges from curling up.

I also pressed the pages under a heavy stack of books to make them nice and flat.

Most of my pages are made just with a magazine however, I experimented with adding fabric scrapes and tissue paper to a few of the batches of pulp.

I was very happy with my results, but it is a big project. I have some ideas as to how I want to use my new papers, but I'll save that for another post.  

One of the things I'd like to make in the future is paper using only fabric scrapes.  Unfortunately, I think I will need to find a stronger blender to make the pulp with fabric idea work.

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful day!!

MaryEllen