Sewing Crafts

I felt I needed to share this beautiful work with any of you who haven’t discovered Allison Aller’s blog (Allie’s in Stitches – click on it here to see).

She tells the reason for doing this particular landscape, as she does all of her landscape quilts – and they are, indeed, works of art. This one causes me to really “FEEL” the atmosphere in the picture, as well as to appreciate the fine needlework and talent involved in it’s creation.

Allison A. and Sharon B. (Pintangle) were the creators of the very first blogs I ever saw – over three years ago before I started mine. I stumbled upon them while looking for old crazy quilts, and was amazed at the “new look” in CQ – traditional but yet far beyond in the colors, materials, and arrangements.

This led to my experimenting with adapting CQ to needlepoint, which is what I wanted to do in the first place, but these were soooo much better than the Victorian kind I was looking for. Allison was, at that time, working on her Crazy for Flowers, which won a national award! Beautiful thing, it was.

Anyway, we became acquainted via the internet, and she has been a wonderful mentor, as well as being a very supportive friend in my triumphs and tragedies over the last three years or so. It was she who supplied me with a block to show in my very first article in Needlepoint Now – I believe it was the May/June issue in 2007.

I have just recently gotten this out of storage, and am hoping to get it to the framer soon. It’s a beautiful thing up close – exquisite in it’s small details of seam embellishment and surface enhancement.

Designing needlework is, indeed, an art form, which is why I enjoy the images and inspiration I get from cruising the blogs of the fiber artists over the planet. Each piece is an original creation, which is as it should be!

I look forward to starting the translation of this block (the second photo – not the Sun and Moon quote) into needlepont soon – that which I call “inspiration, adaptation, and just plain plagiarism” – but Allie gives me permission, as I always ask first.

Somehow in the last few weeks, my 2-year old has discovered the wonders of baking and art. We push the kitchen chair up to the counter and she “helps” me bake. That is, she dumps flour randomly in bowls and adds unnecessary eggs to my doughs. Sigh. My mother-in-law suggested salt dough ornaments, and they are perfect for her. It’s hard to mess up the dough, and they’ve given her the chance to try painting (after I covered her in my old clothes, the table in plastic and the floor in towels).

Now, perhaps I’m biased, but just check out her brilliance, the careful application of paint, the deliberate selection of complementary colors…the paint flowed from her brush with stunning ease.

salt dough garland and ornaments

you will need:*
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup warm water
cookie cutters
straw
paints
ribbon

*For cutters, any shapes will do. I used a 2 1/2″ and a 1 1/2″ circle cutters. I used craft store acrylic paints. Dough can be doubled, too.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and knead on a floured surface very well, incorporating more flour as needed until the dough is pliable and not sticky. Roll out as you would sugar cookies to desired thickness (about 1/4″ for mine). Cut out with cutters and place on baking tray. For ornaments, make a hole at the top of the cookie with the straw. For garland, make two holes about 1/3 down from the top of the shape, one hole on the left and one on the right. Bake in a 250 degree F oven for 2 hours or in a 200 degree oven for 4 to 6 hours or until hard. When cool, paint, let dry. Hang ornaments with ribbon. Thread ribbon through the holes of the garland.