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Saturday
13Jun

Sad News

I am putting this blog on hold for a little while as last night Mum died. It was not unexpected as Mum had been very ill for 5 years and bed ridden for 2. Unlike many, however she retained her wits and sense of humour to the end. 

I will return to blogging after the funeral and when things settle. Give me a week or two and things will return to normal.

Classes will go on and I will be in the forums to answer questions with the exception of the day of the funeral. 

I will be quiet on Stitching Fingers too, approving new members but that is about it.

For those doing the stitch explorer challenge June is a catch up month. So if you are behind this is the time to fix that.

Added Later:

Thanks to all who have posted a comment. It is appreciated 

Friday
12Jun

Time for the letter D

It’s the weekend and we have Jerry’s folks over from Adelaide. So it will be a busy family time. Once again I will take a weekend break posting just by CQ details series and the band sampler. 

However, you will not be link deprived as it is time for another of my annotated lists of interesting blogs.

So far I have updated the letter A , B, C and now its time for the letter D.

As I have said before I choose blogs that stay on topic at least 80% of the time, written reasonably frequently, by textile practitioners and designers who do such things as quilt, stitch, dye, sew, embellish fabric,and bead. Or  who are interested in art and design or paper related crafts, such as bookbinding, or  use visual journals.

If you have a blog that you would like me to check out please leave your blog address as a comment and I will check it out 

Meanwhile make a cuppa and enjoy!

D.Sharp Journal: a practical compendium of random things not on topic but a weird and wonderful collection of links and eye candy

Dacia Ray  covers crafts and cooking

Daily Art sketches,drawing, watercolours and page spreads of a visual diary which is frequently published 

Daily Artwork by Carolyn Jean Thompson is a painter who works everyday and posts her progress.

Daleunderdale written by textile artist and owner of the Thread Studio

Dancing Crow  creates fabric postcards (check the galleries in the side bar you will find lots of them), sews, dyes and takes classes to develop circus skills!

Dangling by a Thread  Smarcoux is a contemporary fiber artist interested in quilting, sewing, fabric dyeing and printing

Danita Art  mixed media paperarts and collage

Danny Gregory Everyday Matters  constantly draws and sketches offering advice and tips along the way. He hosts a weekly drawing challenge and runs a Yahoo group for people participating in it. Danny Gregory has also authored a number of successful books on drawing.

Dave’s Blog  Dave documents his progress while learning to draw and paint 

Days of tea and knitting Melissa Barton is interested in textiles. Key aspects are knitting spinning and dyeing 

D’Blogala Dawn DeVries keeps a craft blog in  which she often share pages spreads fromher visual journal

Deanna’s Blog Blue Heron Dolls and Other Interests Deanna Hogan is a doll maker who creates dolls full of personality. Do visit as I can’t imagine people not enjoying them.

Dear Ada  Printmaking, paper arts and collage are covered in this blog

Deb, Cold Feet Quilter Deb H is a textile artist who is also both a longarm and shortarm quilter

Debbi Baker  tracks her latests projects creating fabric postcards, ATCs, and paper crafts

Debbie Overton Designs  Debbie is a mixed media and collage artist

Deborah Fisher writes a thoughtful and honest art blog.I find I swing from enthusiastically agreeing with her thoughts to disagreeing but no matter which reaction I have enjoying thinking about what is written. 

Debra’s Design Studio  Debra blogs her quilting, work in progress and has a wide interest in textiles

Decor 8  Holly is a interior design consultant who blogs her favorite finds

Dee Farnsworth blogs her drawings

Definatealie  Natalie writes well about fashion,design and craft 

Denise Aumick - Wild Thread Studio Art Quilts Life Among The Textiles  is an art quilter who writes about her progress and process (warning for those that find music on sites annoying or have low bandwidth allowances - an automatic music track plays when you visit) 

Design is Mine  tracks contemporary craft and design eye candy

Design Observer  considered writing on design and culture

Design Sponge  Grace Bonney writes about home and product design with lots of eye candy along the way 

Designers Who Blog  which includes illustrators, photographers, writers, advertisers, and marketeers who blog.

Designing Vashti Vashti Braha is a crochet pattern designer who also serves on the Board of Directors for the Crochet Guild of America keeps a blog full of tips and advice 

Designs by Kat is the blog of a doll artist who creates quirky fun dolls

Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic  a well written and amusing blog about knitting, crochet and quilting blog

Digital Gran  has an interest in using computer graphics programs as a design tool to help create off contemporary textile pieces. Her blog is dotted with her fiber projects and experiments using different techniques.

Disdressed  Liesl writes about sewing and has tutorials in the side bar of her blog.

Dispatch From LA  Carol keeps a visual journal and is interested in mail art. There are links to her galleries in her side bar.

Diva Knitting knitting and knit related crafts 

DJ Kreutzer: small moments make a life is an interesting blog which mainly consists of tracking small moments of inspiration. Darlene is a a photographer and writer.  Some journaling goes on but technically this is a blog that is ‘off topic the topic of textiles’ but I think some readers will enjoy it. 

DJ Pettitt  is very interested in book art, art journalling and combines photography, drawings, scanned found objects and textiles to produce imagery using Photoshop. She also does fabric painting, sewing and quilting. Spreads from her visual journal are also often posted to her blog.

Doe-c-doe for people who are interested in vintage finds you will enjoy much of what is posted here. Also vintage embroidery patterns are freely given away weekly

Dog Daisy Chains  is kept by Jackie a contmeporary British embroiderer who explores other craft areas such a felting and book decorating as well

Doll  Mimi Kirchner is a fantastic contemporary doll artist who blogs the making of her dolls and 

Doll Makers Muse  Rivkah Rosenfeld is another doll artist who blogs her work, techniques and other craft interests.

Dolls are my Canvas  Fran is a mixed media doll artist and doll designer who blogs her interests

Dolls stories  Nita creates mainly cloth dolls but places them in installations and blogs about her process

Don’t Call Me Crafty  Lauri is a crazy quilter who regularly blogs her projects

Down by the River  Rosalind is a contemporary art quilter who writes about her work and textile techniques. She does some wonderful machine embroidery.

Downunderdale  Dale is contemporary Aussie textile artist who regularly uses an embellishment machine and other fiber techniques blogs her discoveries.

Drawn from the Heart Carol Rosinski an artist, author and drawing teacher blogs tips tricks and advice on using the humble pencil to draw

Drawn in Black has a tag line which describes the blog well (a rare thing) “Drawings, sketches, how-to’s, tutorials, and art of artists from across the world.” And in truth that is what is covered so if you are interested in drawing or improving your drawing skills it is well worth the visit. 

Drawn! The Illustration Blog is a collaborative weblog for illustrators, cartoonists and artists

Dreaming Spirals  is kept by quilt artist Liz Plummer who laely is heavily into print and paper making journals and the like

Du Buh Du Designs Christine Alvarad  is a doll artist who writes about the inspiration and process of creating hand made dolls (note for those who are offended by music on websites or have a broadband limit sound files automatically download and start on this blog) 

Dubi Quilts  Debi’s blog covers her quilting, fabric surface designing, and scrapbooking activities.

Dyeing 2 Sew  Valerie is a contemporary textile artist whose main interest is dyeing but also does applique and quilting.

Dyeing to Design  Shirley Goodwin of New Zealand quilts and dyes fabrics.

 

Friday
12Jun

Introducing block 9 on the "I dropped the button box" quilt

I would like to introduce block 9 (placed on this grid ) in the I dropped the Button Box quilt. I hope people will enjoy seeing it in more detail over the next week or so.

A little information about this block follows.

Fabric content:

Piece 1: Polyester Satin

Piece 2: Polyester.

Piece 3: Velvet costuming scrap

Piece 4: Polyester which was a scrap from the cutting room of a local fashion label 

Piece 5: Cotton covered with lace

Piece 6: Polyester which was a scrap from the cutting room of a local fashion label 

Piece 7: Silk second hand after 5 gown that was dyed

Item Count: 

As I have explained before this quilt is a Y2K quilt which is made up of 2001 different elements. My definition of an element was either a different fabric, lace, braid, charm, buttons or ribbon. So far this is the count of items on the blocks so far. 

Fabric: 7

Lace and ribbon: 5

Buttons: 5

Charms:1  

Total items on this block:  18

Total tally on Quilt so far 175

If you have just landed on this page via search engine this is a crazy quilt block which is part of my “I dropped the Button box” quilt. I am documenting this crazy quilt detail by detail, and posting about it on this blog every second day. You will find information about this series of articles and the quilt here.  

If you are looking for the series you will find it under the category of Crazy Quilt  details.

Links to the blocks covered so far are, block 1, 2, 34, 5, 6, 7, and 8

Copyright

This is licensed under a Creative Commons License I have released the block patterns and stitch ideas for non commercial use. However, you must attribute the work to me, Sharon Boggon and link back here.

You may not take whole articles from this series and reprint them online - that is ripping off my work and not in the spirit of sharing.

Thursday
11Jun

When a swap is not a swap

I had an email which is really a scam so I thought I would let folks know that his type of scam is  going on again. I say again because it comes in a few forms sometimes described as a  “quilt square club” or “charm square club”.(Please note I am not referring to subscription services run by many quit shops)  

The way this scam works is you are sent a short list of names and addresses to send fabric squares to. When you have done this you add your name to the list, strike out the top name, and pass the instructions on to five or six friends. 

You are usually promised that hundreds of people will mail you charm squares.

This is actually a type of chain letter which is a type of pyramid scheme. They are fraudulent and as such illegal in many nations including Australia. 

Here is an explanation of how and why chain letters work and why they become popular but better still at the bottom of the page is a huge list of reported versions of this hoax and some invaluable resources and links are listed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also published a page of recourses about electronic chain letters.  

In the stitching community usually people who perpetuate are simply a little naive or ignorant and are being taken advantage of. So beware and if you are invited to participate in this sort thing just send the email to the trash and perhaps tactfully warn your friend who sent it that its a scam.

Thursday
11Jun

For the Love of Stitching Sampler - Band 93

This is another band of stitching in which I experimented with patterns.

The top and bottom of the band is  a row of zig-zag chain stitch followed by double herringbone.

The middle row is Algerian eye stitch with satin stitch between each one. 

Thread:

Zig zag chain stitch is worked in hand dyed mercerised cotton. Double herringbone is fine worked in hand dyed fine wool and mercerised cotton. 

The central band of Algerian eye and satin stitch is worked in cotton 

Fabric:

This section of my sampler is worked on 26 count linen 

Dyes:

Procion cold water dyes for the threads

Size:

All samples are 15 cm (6 inches) wide and stitched together in one long band sampler.

The sampler is currently 44 ft 5 inches or 533 inches (1353.83 centimetres) or 14.8 yards  (13.53 metres) long and still being added to.

Date:

This section of the sampler was worked in April 1998

The back story:

This post is part of series documenting a hand embroidered band sampler, which now measures over 44 feet long and is still growing as I still stitch it. That is not a typo, if you want to know more about the sampler related posts are listed below and all posts in the series are in the category For the Love of Stitching band sampler  

Other related posts

Introductory Post - how and why this sampler came to be made 

A few questions answered about fabric choice and width

Extending and backing the sampler

For the Love of Stitching Sampler Sections 1 and 2 

For the Love of Stitching Sampler Sections 3 and 4 

For the Love of Stitching Sampler Section 5

Just a quick note 

Just a quick reminder for those who are interested in taking a class with me. Introduction to Silk Ribbon Embroidery is scheduled to begin on June 18, 2009.  Follow the links to read class descriptions and I have described  how classes work if you are curious.

Wednesday
10Jun

Work in Progress Wednesday 

Hi all here I am waving two more diamond blocks around with a silly expression on my face that really says “Am I a good girl or what?” 

This week I had one more light block. There is a couple more  light diamonds and I am done. In fact I am really on the homeward stretch now.  

This darker block I am very pleased to see done as it has been pinned up on my ‘thinking’ board for months. For some reason I had a block with this that would not shift at all! I decided to sit at it until done. I did it and it is OK now.  I am sure every crazy quilt has a block was a battle.

I thought you would like a detail. 

Just a reminder for those who have not see it. This is how the diamonds will be set. These are the blocks right at the start of the process as they are pieced but not yet embellished.

The blocks measure 15 cm (6 inches) across the middle on short crossing and 27 cm (10.5 inches) across the long section and I plan to set them in a tumbling block pattern. You will find the back story and all the other blocks under the Diamond block crazy quilt category 

Do you want to share your work in progress?

If anyone wants to share their work in progress for this week please feel free to do so. Leave a comment with your blog address and tell us what you have been working on.

On a totally different note

 Studio Journals: A Designer’s Workhorse Starts tomorrow!!!!

 Introduction to Silk Ribbon Embroidery starts on June 18, 2009 and. Follow the links to read class descriptions and book if you are interested in taking a class with me.  I have described  how classes work if you are curious. 

Wednesday
10Jun

CQ Detail 59

Buttons 

As you can see CQ detail 59 is a cluster of buttons. All of them are modern with the exception of the smallest metal button which is vintage. The Butterfly is also technically a button. 

Actually I have just noticed that the photograph I used to illustrate the block when I introduced shows fewer buttons. It must have been taken when I had finished the block but not pieced the quilt. When I pieced the quilt I must have added some more buttons yet I can not remember doing it. Check out the post if you want to see what I mean

Placement and Foundation Fabric: 

This cluster covers the seam between piece 6  and pieces 1, 2 and 5 on the diagram I used when I introduced block 8. In the same article I also talked about the foundation fabrics. 

The back story

This crazy quilt block is part of my “I dropped the Button box” quilt. I am documenting this crazy quilt detail by detail, every second day. You will find information about this series of articles and the quilt here  and all articles in the series are categorised under Crazy Quilt  details 

On another note: Just a quick reminder for those who are interested in taking a class with me. Introduction to Silk Ribbon Embroidery is scheduled to begin on June 18, 2009 and Studio Journals: A Designer’s Workhorse is scheduled to begin on June 11, 2009. Follow the links to read class descriptions and I have described  how classes work if you are curious.  

Tuesday
09Jun

International Freeform Guild 2009 show

The International Freeform Guild has a web gallery up of the 2009 show.  

Four Seasons includes 52 freeform crochet artists. Countries from all around the globe are represented.

This year artists were not restricted to creating a scrumble they were just asked to create a freeform crochet piece that interpreted one or more of the four seasons.

As a result many of the pieces are wearable, or are collars and neck pieces, hats, or are bags. Others take the form of  contemporary dolls, light shades or even in one case an outragious decorated tree! Combined with the use of other media also added interest.

Attractive pieces combined crochet with items such as shells, shisha, and beads but equally effective was the introduction of sticks.

If you have not encountered this form of crochet before explore the International Freeform Crochet Guild web site further.  

 Sites like this always make me want to get out the crochet hook so make a cuppa and settle in for a browse end enjoy some great creative use of yarn.