Sewing Crafts

On the way to Moraine

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:43:01 +0000

Yesterday I gave you a small preview of Moraine Lake – the bluest body of water I’ve ever seen. But first, I have some pictures to show you of the drive up to the lake. It was very picturesque – though the road was fairly twisty & steep.

All the road in Banff & Jasper National Parks are made with tons of places to stop. Most of these stops are strategically placed to afford the best view (& pictures).

We saw a huge deer on our way up! Too bad my camera wasn’t at the ready… something I definitely should have done that day. Between Banff & Jasper (well, Pocahontas cabins, which are just outside of Jasper), we saw 2 elk, 2 deer & 2 bear! No wildlife pictures though… but lots of wildflowers:

These orange ones were all over Alberta, adding colour to the side of the road.

Don’t worry – plenty more flowers (& lichen) when I show you pictures from Moraine Lake!

Only a couple more shots to show you. We didn’t have the best weather when we drove through here – the sky is a muted dirty white & there are lots of low-hanging clouds.

Still, the weather couldn’t eclipse the beauty of this place.

We were simply blown away.

A History of Beads!!

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:18:32 +0000

I have no picture to show with this, as I didn’t take time to ask permission – but this is a “must see.”!! In the new, current issue of CQ Magazine Online, (which I enjoy, as I get great ideas for surface embellishment on needlepoint here, as well as just wonderful eye candy in the art crazy quilt genre), there is a fabulous article on the History of Beads.

This is from a museum in a suburb of Phoenix- very very interesting. Just go to the link for the magazine, click on “current issue” -and then scroll down to just below the big beautiful picture, and you’ll see the link.

While you’re visiting the CQ’s, do look at Allison Aller’s article on “Composite Flowers.” It’s fascinating – almost makes me want to take up crazy quilting, which I just might do some day instead of adapting it to needlepoint. There is a lot of freedom here, that I think I might enjoy – with Allison’s tutelage, of course.

ice cream cones. but cookies.

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:25:32 +0000

First popsicles that don’t melt and now ice cream. These little cookies were a special request from a friend for her two-year old’s {fun and yummy} ice cream sundae birthday party. I have a little ice cream cone cutter like this one HERE that was perfect to match the theme. The best part about ice cream cookies is you can decorate in any colors and flavors you like.

how to make ice cream cone cookies

you will need:*
dough
frosting
ice cream cone cutter
disposable frosting bags
couplers
tips (sizes “2″s and “4″s)
rubber bands
frosting colors
sprinkles

*Find the bags, couplers, tips and sprinkles in the baking aisle of the craft store. I use Americolor soft gel pastes for coloring, Chocolate Brown, Bright White, Electric Pink, and Electric Green. For tips on finding supplies, click HERE. For tips on food coloring, click HERE. For tips on finding cutters, click HERE.

step one: bake your cookies
Cut out ice cream cone cookies, bake and let cool.

step two: prepare your frosting
Prepare different colors of frosting and fill frosting bags fitted with couplers and size “4″ tips. Tie closed with rubber bands.

step three: decorate your cookies
Because these were small cookies and had lots of detail, I piped everything with the frosting bags except the cones, which I flooded. For the ice cream, simply pipe an outline of the ice cream, let set about 15 minutes, and fill with the same color by piping back and forth. You can also pipe a cherry in the center (use a “2″ tip for the stem and a “4″ tip for the red circle), pipe chocolate syrup on top, or sprinkle with sprinkles right after you pipe the filling (so they stick).
For the cones: Pipe a “V” shape using dark brown. Thin some of the light brown frosting (not all of it! you’ll need more later) with water until the consistency of thick glue. Fill an empty frosting bag and snip the corner about 1/8 inch. Loosely pipe to cover the cone, letting frosting flood to edges and encourage with a toothpick as needed. Let set a couple hours. Use the same color light brown frosting (but thicker, not thinned) in a frosting bag fitted with a coupler and size “2″ decorating tip and pipe criss cross lines on top.
Some flavor options:

Banff

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:01:11 +0000

Our first stop in the mountains was in Canmore for lunch. We did a little shopping, checking out a whimsical book store, Café Books, for some reading material & a souvenir (a ceramic rattle in the shape of a mountain / cone) & Rocky Mountain Soaps for some handmade soap & sugar scrub. Here I am holding the rattle in our room in Banff, with evidence of our purchases & my trip scrapbook on the table.

We didn’t stop to take any pictures because it was raining pretty hard. On to Banff & our fabulous room at The Fox. The hotel is built around an inner courtyard – and in that courtyard, there’s an opening to “the cave” – the hot spring pool in the basement of the hotel.

Our room was amazing! We upgraded to a loft when we got there & I’m so glad we did! (Check out the fun wallpaper!)

We had a fireplace & kitchenette downstairs – and a lovely view from our balcony:

As you can see, the city of Banff is quaint, straight out of a fairytale.

A fairytale set in a tiny mountain village.

After checking out our room & taking a quick dip in the cave, we put on our warmest clothes (it was around 10C – very chilly!) & went for a walk downtown Banff.

All the buildings, houses & stores have an alpine-chalet style (wood & stone abound), just like in Canmore – these towns were built for tourism! Even the street names in Banff are geared for the tourists: they’re all animal names, like Lynx, Elk, Buffalo & Beaver.

Everywhere you look: mountains.

We even found a signpost pointing out all the peaks & their elevations:

We walked by the art installation by Susan Detwiler: Mountain Camp.

I couldn’t resist the photo-op.

That evening, we dressed up & went out for a fancy dinner at The Evergreen. We tried the game platter, with elk, quail & duck. I’ve had both birds before, but the elk was a first – it was delicious! Not gamey at all!

We went the wrong way on our way out of town the next day & turned around at a beautiful little campground.

I got in a few great shots before we left for Moraine Lake & Lake Louise. The river was almost the same blue as Lake Louise – and the clouds on the mountain foreshadowed our sight-seeing for the day. But you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to see that!

Back from Vacation

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:26:10 +0000

I’m back Did you even know I had left? Hard to tell this time of year I suppose. My blogging is not always as consistent once school lets out. I can’t believe there is just over a month left.

Anyway…there will be some house updates coming soon. I just wanted to give a quick howdy and show you where we have been…Frankfort Michigan aka “Up North”.

We went up with hubby’s sis & her family plus his parents. The set up is perfect. We each have our own room next to each other with an area out front to sit & play games after the kids go down. Well, 3 of the 4 anyway. Next year it will probably only be the 2 youngest that actually go to bed at a “bedtime”. They grow so fast. The cousins had a blast together.
We went canoeing – as we do every time – and shopping in Traverse City – although never enough for me – and this year we tried a couple new places.

We went on the alpine slide rides at Crystal Mountain. Well, we did not include me. We were not sure if the little guy would care for it, so we spent as little $$$ as needed just in case. He loved it. It is basically a small luge run on a wheeled sled with a brake/accelerator stick for control. Oh, and you take the chair lift up to get to the top of the ride. Next year – we all go

The Art Walk (Michigan Legacy Art Park) – also at Crystal Mountain – was so very cool. A nature trail on the side of the mountain dotted with works of art from various artists. Very zen, very peaceful, very nature. Also very hilly. It could be a heck of a workout. And bonus – my bro-in-law knew a couple of the artists. I don’t have any pics yet that we took, but here are some of my faves….pics are from their site:

Early on you see this piece by David Barr…Diversity…that broken column represents the impact of human action on our world…

The best “tv” ever by Byung Chan Cha:

The Hemingway haunts by Patricia Innis:

Five Needles by Michael McGillis:

And the kids’ fave…the Stockade Labyrinth by David Barr…you can walk through it – very cool:

And for some really cool aerial pics of Frankfort from Photography Plus click here.

Evolutions in Stitches!

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:13:55 +0000

This evening bag is an old one – at least 7 or 8 years old. I was in my “jeweled bug” phase, and was determined to put this one onto black.

Drawing it was easy, as I used a white paint pen, but I knew I didn’t want to stitch a solid background on that black canvas. Hard on the eyes at any age, especially mine!

My wonderful finisher and good friend Vikki Pinson here in Austin made this evening bag – I simply gave her the little 5″ x 7″ canvas, and told her to do whatever she wished with it – and this was the result. I love those sassy looking beads at the bottom.

Anyway, the background I settled on doing was the result of just playing around, some time before, on scrap canvas to see what I could come up with. Quite an evolution!

Next is a composite scan of the evolution of the stitch I used on the background. The pink heart was the first, as I was making backgrounds to use when working on learning to make silk ribbon embroidery flowers. Plain color was boring, so I marked off a grid on this one that left 4 stitches square in between. Leaving the intersections of the horizontal and verticals bare, I then put a darker pink (doesn’t show up well on this scan, but I couldn’t find the actual stitched piece) single tent stitch in the blank – but made one on top of that going to opposite direction (an X) to make a little bump.

That, of course, gave me the idea of using a bead there instead – thus the orange and yellow grid. On this one, you can see the progression of stitching, etc.

It uses three stitches square inside the lines, and Scotch stitch used to fill them in. Then one day I was looking at the canvas with the dots placed on it, and “saw” something else. The arrow points to the lines I drew to illustrate the placement of the long stitches made with Ribbon Floss – and the dot left in the middle for later inserting a bead there as well as in the intersections of the Ribbon Floss.

The background could, of course, be worked first in basketweave (leaving the dot bare) and then putting the Ribbon Floss into place. Very simple!!

I used black YLI Ribbon Floss Shimmer Blend on the black evening bag, with Sundance black hexagonal beads. It really sparkles and glitters!! Since I don’t sparkle and glitter any more, I let Vikki keep it to illustrate her expertise in creating fabulous things with a simple needlepoint canvas.

The little green piece with beads is another story – it was on the scan, but it doesn’t belong with this particular explanation/evolution, as it’s worked with the dots in a different format. It led to several other patterns in a different phase. Later.

First Stop: Calgary

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:48:00 +0000

After splitting with my family in Regina, Pat & I made our way towards Calgary. It was late & Pat had been driving a long time, so we stopped in Medicine Hat Saturday night. We continued on to Calgary, refreshed, the next day. Our hotel there, Hotel Arts, was stunning! The lobby was incredibly beautiful, with original mixed-media artwork & glass walls facing an inner courtyard with a shallow swimming pool. The hallway upstairs had colourful blown-glass light fixtures (unfortunately, I didn’t write down the artist’s name). Our room was modern & sophisticated:

I really liked the colour palette. I also liked how the carpeting matched well with the tiles in the bathroom. The beds & pillows were super comfy too.

A great sink & fixtures in the bathroom:

The bedside tables were really neat. The top was glass with strips of bamboo & inside there was a light. A nice warm glow really set the mood:

We had a great view from our balcony – you can just see the Calgary tower peaking over the buildings:

We didn’t do much sight-seeing while we were in Calgary: we were only there for a night. One of my University friends is in Calgary for Med school, so I met up with her at the Stampede.

Yep, we were in Calgary for the Stampede. We saw a free concert Sunday night (the Barenaked Ladies – surprisingly good!) & had free pancakes for breakfast the next morning. It was great to catch up with my friend & see what the Stampede is all about. I even picked up a cowboy hat for the evening:

Ha! No, I didn’t wear the hat when I went horseback riding a few days later – but more on that in a future post!

FooDoodler winner! and some answers to your questions

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:58:30 +0000

I wish I could give FooDoodlers to everyone. I loved reading all of your clever comments! But your great response has inspired me to host more giveaways, so I’ll try and come up with more good things to give you soon. Thank you all for visiting and participating!! And thanks to random.org for choosing…. the winner is:

comment 174:
Lora Joy (visit her blog, Ja e Bellz)
“WOW!!! I’d LOVE to have those! So fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “

(Side note: if anyone knows how to easily copy the proof picture of the random.org results box, please share! I went through much effort to get this lesser version of a picture–printing to pdf, copying, pasting, cropping, using publisher and all kinds of ridiculous tricks. I’m sure there’s a better way!)

And don’t worry, I took care of a couple repeaters (accidental, I’m sure) and only counted those within the time frame (hence why the random counter is from 1 to 278 though there are 279 comments). And a few of you asked me questions in your comments. I didn’t want to answer within the comments because I was afraid my entries would mess up the fairness of the random draw. (I know, I’m a total nerd.) Here are some answers, and if I somehow overlooked your original question, feel free to leave it again.

gingerhse said she had trouble with markers on chocolate or candy coating. The grease from those foods do make the surface less hospitable, so if you are going to try and write on them, let them dry well (overnight) and keep them at room temperature.

Libby asked about the trees in the photo. Those are from my daughter’s Thomas the Train set!

lisa k asked if there were opaque white markers. Nope. You didn’t miss them. They don’t exist. Similar to regular markers, it’s just not possible. In fact, you can’t even really layer the other colors on top of each other without the bottom color showing through (except black). If you make a mistake, you’ll just have to eat the cookie and start over!

lauralee asked if the giveaways are real. Yes. The giveaway is real. Perhaps you mean does everyone get the prize? I so wish I had unlimited resources, but alas, I’ve enough to give just one lucky winner.

Emma asked if my book was available in the UK. The book is a few years old, so not as readily available, but should be available at amazon.co.uk. But if you go there, please read the much more balanced reviews of my book on amazon.com instead, or my rave in the Washington Post. There’s one very sour review on by a very sour source on the UK site. Harrumph.

A New Face for Emma Broidery!!

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:06:22 +0000

If you haven’t visited with Emma Broidery on the DMC Threads blog recently, do go and take a look. It has a whole new personality, as “Emma” has changed the look and format, and it’s very very enjoyable now – great projects, much more interesting and knowledgable, with tasteful and fun projects.

She is presenting at this time, projects for children, but also those that would appeal to adults as well – such as the “worry dolls” made here on wooden clothespins.

This is delightful, and such a wonderful change from the “same old same old” stuff. That will be there too – but with a refreshing facelift!!

Proof

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:53:36 +0000

The first pictures I have to show you are “proof” that we went on a trip out West in the first place. My sister-in-law wanted some more souvenir-like photos of the kids at all the border signs. Unfortunately, not all the provincial borders have noticeable signs…. so we only managed one good one driving there & one good one driving back.

First up: Manitoba. After over 12 hours of driving, we were finally out of Ontario. The kids lined up under the sign with their Nana & Papa (my sister-in-law’s parents) … and Uncle John (for some reason). Give us your best “gangsta” pose now guys:

We didn’t see a sign for Saskatchewan & it was dark when we reached Alberta (plus, Pat & I split from everyone else in Regina, since we headed South to Calgary & they went on to Edmonton), so that was it for the trip out West.

On our way back home, we spotted this border sign almost right away:

Here’s a good shot of my older brother Matt, his wife Terri-Anne & the kids:

I think we may have seen another sign after this one, but we didn’t bother stopping again. Still, these 2 shots make a great souvenir!

More photos (maybe of some scenery) tomorrow!