It's a Moss Pile...in a Leaf Year

This pile is my morning's work. I know...you're saying, "That pile of *&%! is her morning's work?"

Hey, I hear you...


Sometimes I am seized with an idea and I head down a path and I have no idea if it will turn out or not.

I still don't know whether this idea is going to work or not. See, I was trying to create that hanging Spanish Moss that helps to give Tulgey Wood a little dark and sinister air. First I tried crocheting the little buggers...forget that, I would be here until next June. Then I thought I would hand embroider them on stablizer...and then the madness left me and I embraced my sewing machine.

I hope when I attach them to the block, they will have the desired effect.


I've found that if I use Ultra Water Soluble stabilizer (it's much thicker), I don't need to put it into a hoop for the free-motion embroidery.


Only problem is it takes much longer for the stabilizer to dissolve. The trick is to cut away absolutely as much stabilizer as possible and then be patient.

So while the little centipedes of thread were dissolving, I tried some practice stitching.


I've been trying to find the right technique to use to make fiddlehead ferns. Aren't they glorious shapes?


DMC makes Memory Thread, a rayon wrapped wire that holds it shape very well. I decided to coil it around a size 00 knitting needle and then couch the coil down. I threaded through some dark floss but that didn't show up enough so I'll have to use something else.


It's definitely a contender but I much preferred the palestrina stitch on the right. I had to practice starting and stopping my thread and making it look contiguous. See that one wonky thread? That's where I started and ended improperly.

OK. So the rest of today and most of tomorrow, I'll probably be working on creating the Mushroom Forest and filling out the Tulgey Wood. Here I am again, immersed in making foliage!


I think I'll call this year "Leaf Year" - By the end, I think I will have tried almost every method of making leaves that are known to man...

Best Regards,
The Leaf Maker

P.S. There's a thought to ponder in my sidebar today. I'd love to hear your responses...of course, assuming you have the time, and it's not to much trouble, and you'd like to play...

Making Mushrooms

Today I made mushrooms. I'm not sure if it's a worthy pursuit or not...but I did enjoy making them.

Yet again, I found that I needed to make the mushroom components first before I could figure out where they might be placed on the block...then I can place the ferns...and the moss...and the fiddlehead curly-Qs...

So I painted that beautiful velvet that I got from Chris at the Shady Grove...


And then I sewed the velvet to the felt in little mushroom top shapes...and made spots with french knots.


I cut strips from an old felted ivory sweater to make the stems.


Now they are ready to be placed on my block.

There are mushrooms all over Tim Burton's movie...and many of them are psychedelic colors of pink and purple and gold and blue...


But I wondered from where did the inspiration come for these fabulous fungi?

I found these pictures of fly agaric mushrooms on Flickr...and many of them look just like this...[They really are beautiful to behold so you should check it out...]

Photo courtesy of Johnson Cameraface on Flickr

Evidently they are highly toxic and found in Central Europe. They were mixed in milk and set out in a saucer to attract flies...the flies drank the liquid and it killed them...hence the name, fly agaric. Too cool.

So this is the mushroom that inspires all of those red mushrooms with white spots that we see everywhere. Who knew?

See you next time with fiddlehead ferns and foliage...

Three Tables and a Chair

Well, I changed my mind about stitching the lace...I found a few laces that would work as table toppers and I decided to use those.

And I found a 1/4" thick doll house moulding that I used to cut into three smaller pieces to make the table tops...


Covered them with their linens...and voila!


I was trying to make the chair very simple since that is where the Mad Hatter is going to sit. I'm just not sure whether I like it or not but I'm hoping that won't matter in the long run...


Now that I'm looking at the overall block...I need to darken and deepen the area around the table with the Mushroom Forest...and I may have to add some hanging moss from the top of the block...



That will be next before I embroider the tea party. Now I'm off to figure out the mushrooms, the curly ferns and the hanging moss. See you next time!

Planning a Party

Yesterday I spent a good five hours planning, drawing and illustrating the tea table to go on my block.

Using the picture above as inspiration, I decided to draw three table segments. I love the different color tablecloths with the different lace toppers.

I want to recreate that look but, realistically, I don't think I'll find lace that tiny or intricate for the scale of my tiny table. I plan to use whitework embroidery to give the lacy effect. Hopefully, that will work...

As part of this job, I have to have a pattern that DMC can give away. And since I don't want to get in trouble with Disney, I decided to create a generic tea party scene. So I worked on my first draft. The table illustrations below are slightly larger than what will fit on my block so I'll be editing as I stitch to see what will work and what won't.


And I'm not likely to stitch "It's Always Tea Time" on my block -- I just added that for fun. In Wonderland, the watches of the Mad Hare and Hatter are stuck at 6 o'clock. And in the Disney version, the Mad Hatter had to kill Time while he waited for Alice to come back. Time has been stuck ever since and so the Mad Hare, the Hatter and the Doormouse are left perpetually having tea.

The tea table on my Alice block will curve along the long seam treatment in the bottom right of the block.


I've been trying to use as many DMC threads as possible and this green variegated machine embroidery thread captivated me. So I tried it as background grass for my Mushroom Forest. And I really like how the color changes in this application.

After finishing the Tulgey Wood and some of the Mushroom Forest background grass...I decided I'd better put this piece on stretcher bars.


And now here is the block today, ready for the tea table. I want the table to stick out a bit so the table top will be about 1/4" wide -- I'm not sure how I'm going to do that yet.


The greatest news came yesterday when I was told I have an extra two weeks to finish. That was music to my ears since today we're gone all day at a family party.

Though I miss my trips around the blogosphere, I don't have much time for reading blogs and conversing just now. Thanks for all of the comments you've been leaving on the Alice posts! They make me feel pretty Wonderful!

The Tulgey Wood

Well...I went right from simple seam treatments to a more complicated one...


I'm trying to re-create the feeling of the Tulgey Wood with its creepy, craggy old trees...The imagery of the Tulgey Wood helps to lend a little darkness to the movie and I wanted that same feeling for my block.


For this seam, I took a picture of my block and then drew the craggy, curling wood to give myself a guideline before I started to stitch.


I used DMC pearl cotton and used a split stitch...I plan to add some shading to the trunk but I'm going to wait to add that until later. I envision that this craggy wood will be the backdrop to some of the embellishment.


I like it so much I think I'm going to add it to the upper right corner...I thought I might move onto the tea table today but I think I'm going to be stuck creating more forest and background.

Until next time...

Boston Marathon

[Warning: Picture-laden post. Download at your own risk.]

I have never been to Boston for the Boston Marathon. I had no idea that it is held on Patriots' Day...


and that the State of Massachusetts shows up in full-force to line the entire 26.2 mile route -- including eight different towns -- to cheer on the 22,000 runners!

22,000!~ My three good friends from home qualified to participate...Tonie, Laurie and Kathleen...


And so my friend Maura, myself and some of their families all traveled to Boston on Saturday evening to cheer them on. On Sunday, everyone went to the huge expo at Hynes Convention Center to pick up their race numbers...


The marathon check-in process seemed like a well-oiled machine, processing 22,000 runners almost effortlessly.


The expo had tons of giveaways...Here's our youngest paparazzi modeling his new headband...


The rest of Sunday we spent walking through Boston. The Public Garden was absolutely glorious...

And this guy reminded me of my last bead journal piece...I have dreams of setting up an easel in a beautiful garden and painting just like this guy...


We loved this shirt in the Nike store but quickly became angered that the shirt only came in Mens' sizes -- So Maura marched straight up to the counter and asked, "What? Are you saying that women can't be wicked fast runnahs?" They had no answer. And their pink and purple pretty-shirts for the women didn't appeal to us.


On race day, our biggest job as personal paparazzi was to try to station ourselves along the course so we could catch a glimpse of our friends. The hardest part was trying to find them in the 22,000 crowd of runners. And the miles and miles of spectators!

Photo from the Boston Globe

The Boston Globe has some great photo galleries of the crowd...including this picture of the women of Wellesley (see more here)...


Luckily, we had a sighting at mile 17...


Now, don't they look pretty happy and spry for having run 17 miles already??


And here's Chief Paparazzi Maura on the far right capturing the moment for all three -- pink shirt, pink flower and orange flower....we gave them the flowers in their send off packages to wear during the race.


We saw them once again at mile 24 but the finish line was too much of a zoo so we had a pre-arranged meeting spot. All three ladies ran an amazing race and were so fast that they qualified to run again next year -- and that isn't an easy thing to do!

So, with medals around their necks, they celebrated with calls to home and bubblegum cigars...


And wax moustaches...


And lots of pictures...


And where did Alice show up in any of this? Well, we were challenged by Time and were continuously late meeting up with our friends because we had to take pictures like this...

And before we had left home, we had given our runners special elixirs to drink for good luck...

And I'm happy to report that they worked. So, if you'd like to try it too...here's the recipe...

See you next time with some needlework...