Flower Child

Something about spring and its colors makes you just want to stitch it up! I picked up a Project Runway pattern and, for the first time in awhile, sewed it start to finish following the directions! It was an easy project, even with all of the seam finishing (which I don't always do!)


Getting started is always the hardest part, isn't it?


Using that awesome freehand drawing tool (again!), I drew out & stitched up little butterfly trails for the tiny Venice butterflies and daisies to follow.

Then I cut out the embroidered organdy sleeves,

collected lots of Venice lace, rick-rack, ribbons, eyelet etc. (did I say I like embellishing?),

attached those pretty trims wherever I could,

And completed the garment (I chose the mini-skirt version with the bubble sleeve)

add 1 Flower Child

And off you go...or she goes, and goes, and goes

Happy sewing!
-EE

Capturing Spring

As the last of the magnificent blooms give way to spring and summer green, I work fast to catch a late bloom, slightly yellowing, but no less perfect.

Drawing it never really does justice but is fun all the same!
(looks like I need to flip that leave around!)

Using the new color blending tool in Bernina V6 software, the freehand drawing tool, and the texturing tool, I rough out an embroidery design for a baby gift pillow for precious baby Blythe.

The color blending allows me to embroider one layer, choosing my directional stitching with stitch angle options. I chose a creamy yellow rayon for the underlayer.

And a pretty coral-pink for the top layer, then selected from the blending options for my desired look. I ended up making four separate petals instead of the entire flower so that I could control blending on each. The leaf was done as two separate sections so that I could achieve veining as I wanted from angle and fill options.

For the center of the flower, I used the new texturing tool for a more natural-edged circle

Finished embroidery on pink silk-ready to stitch up for Blythe's nursery!

Handmade gifts from the heart are the BEST!
-EE

Birthdays, Charlotte & the Sugar Bomb

Ok, so this one will definitely not win any prizes in the presentation category (nor any category for that matter!) but the girls were much too busy texting to notice & hopping down to Dallas for fun and celebration left no time for perfection this b-day season!

The cake, named Charlotte & the Snowball, aka Charlotte & the Sugar bomb, though from scratch, was not too pretty but was velvety & tasty! I used a favorite German chocolate cake recipe & improvised making the German chocolate/red velvet/buttercream combo. The tiny porcelain doll on top is "Frozen Charlotte" with a kind of creepy story, picked up a few years ago in a museum store under the St. Louis Arch. She pops up occasionally then disappears for awhile.

2bztxtng ?


Fun at a Sushi Bar
(this chocolate dessert was incredible!)
BTW just noticed on Johanna's site a fabulous yummy-looking chocolate torte (with recipe!)

& though my cake did come up a little short this time, I made these vegetarian lasagnas (with lots of spinach & walnuts!) so my family was verrry forgiving!

Lots of pattern, color and inspiration on the quick birthday jaunt,

not the least of which was this ahhhh chair at Anthropologie!
Reminds me that I had better get back to the embroidering & sewing biz

-EE

Home, Art & Rock

Home is Sweet



...thinking this week of things that are sweet, and things that are difficult.

LOVE this new song-can't get it off my mind, "Temporary Home".

..written by Zac Maloy & Carrie Underwood.

Zac, rocker & former Nixons front man & his beautiful wife, Jennifer (aka Bella Beauty, Bella Il Fiore beauty founder) recently moved to Nashville from Tulsa (were my MapleRidge neighbors for years) to make it big in the Music & Beauty Biz. Both amazingly talented, they will undoubtedly take their entrepreneurial endeavors to great new heights!

See Jennifer's Beauty Blog & visit her site @ Bella Il Fiore for her beeeeautiful products!

(Bob & Roberta Smith's Cards of Resistance)

While preparing for new challenges here on the home front & in the studio, besides that song in my head is the Thomas Fuller quote:

"All things are difficult before they are easy"

Fuller, 17th century British clergyman and writer, was spot-on wasn't he? My recurring thoughts as I regroup & quickly prepare for a Spring/Mother's Day show are

"HOME" and"Art as Work".

*ps-Rock and Roll (& Country) are among the Greatest Arts, aren't they??
*pps-check out that song & video!

-EE

Spring Training & The Garden

Ok, so it is less about the training, and all about the garden...though I am working hard to master the new Bernina V6 software, (which by the way, IS even better than the V5 which I am wild about!). I am training & currently teaching V6 at
Quilt Sampler / Bernina / Tulsa.



Meanwhile, Dearest Darling Daughter & I spent an afternoon in the spectacular gardens of Tulsa's Woodward Park and Garden Center. Specifically, the Linnaeus Teaching Garden, named for Carl Linnaeus, (1707-1778) Father of Botany. (Sculpture by the very talented Tulsa artist Rosalind Cook). BTW, the elaborately detailed 3-dimensional tiles inset in the wall behind "Carl" were made painstakingly by hand by my friend & amazing artist, Cindy Dix Harris. We watched her cement them in!

The Linnaeus Teaching Garden is set on the grounds and in the former stable behind one of Tulsa's many magnificent oil mansions of the 1920s, since converted and dedicated to the arts.

Former stable, new greenhouse & glorious color!

Tulip & interpretation

and a couple more..

love these Redbuds!


thanks to those who leave legacies for us & for our children
-EE

Happy Easter!

The Mr. & Mrs. wish you a bright and Happy Easter day! Surrounded by soft-sculptured and embroidered eggs and colorful paper mache' eggs (a tradition in our home!), they prepare for a joyous day.



The solemn sadness of Good Friday's Tenebrae, Service of Shadows, still looms...but tomorrow we REJOICE!



After 6 weeks of Lent-no chocolate, no diet pepsi and baby steps in my spiritual growth (sooo far to go!!), we'll celebrate here, as all over the world. We boil eggs for dyeing, wrap tissue eggs (directions below) lay out our favorite beaded, embroidered and embellished (yeah!) eggs and throw cascarones (confetti eggs) at each other! The messier, the better-ha!



And there will be chocolate-lots and lots of it (double-yeah!).

These silk eggs are sewn, stuffed and embroidered. Embellish with flowers, dragonflies, butterflies, buttons and beads.



Here are the paper mache eggs:

To make: use hobby store styrofoam egg blanks, mix water-soluble glue (Elmers or other school type glue). Dilute glue with water and add fine colored glitter. Tear or cut strips of various colorful tissue paper. Dip large piece of tissue, enough to wrap egg, in glue mixture, wrap and smooth around egg. Let dry on non-stick surface or wax paper. Then dip strips of the colorful tissure and wrap around eggs, overlapping multiple times to get dimensional effect. Let dry. (ps. it is a good idea to spray once dried, with a fixative spray from hobby or hardware store.)

Embellish with you favorite trims, rick-racs, buttons, etc!

"...Mourning to joy, darkness to morn. Open my arms; your work is done."
from Anthem by Daniel F. Gawthrop, text: Madeleine L'Engle

-EE