Silk RIbbons!

Sorry I have been so sporadic with my postings lately. I plan on posting and then find the whole day has ran away. I guess that means I've been busy. I have accomplished a few things this week but not as much as I wanted to!


I finally received my order of ribbons and this is the results of my first play day with ribbons. I like it very much ^^ They are a bit different to work wit then fabric or floss so I have some learning to do. So far the results are very nice though. I especially like the rainbow =D


I also have started a new piece...more on that later...

My New Studio

Finally we are finished with the studio. I am so glad it's done! Sorry I have been so quiet lately but not only did I not have the time to do any art...I had no place to do it in! Everything was a mess, and I made it worse by dumping everything out of the boxes and drawers to 'organize' it better. Not smart! :p
I thought I would show you some pics of my new place. I just love it! Now it's not fancy. We didnt buy all new fixtures or anything like that...but it IS all new to me and best of all, I finally have space to do my work. I have been surviving for quite awhile now with a shelf board balanced between two small pieces of furniture!


My room is a sort of 'L' shape and starting off, this is the dye area. I thought the shape was perfect because I can keep my sewing and my dyeing seperate. The dye table is actually our old couch! When it broke we took the bottom out, turned it on its side and voila...a workbench! Above it is one of the shelves we bought at the town sale for 5 euros! On the left is one of the shelves I found at Ikea for 40% off. I was quite excited about that. On the wall in the back we mounted whiteboard material so I can just write my notes on the wall when Im dyeing. It's so convenient and easy to use. I also set up my double boiler for when I want to make a quick batch of soap or melt some wax for batik.


DH ran a steel cable around two walls of the room so I can clip and hang whatever I please. Great for notes, inspiration and tools, I even hang my floss from there. I have lights set under the shelf so I can see better when dyeing since this part of the room is without windows.


This is the second half of the 'L'. My sewing area. I love having the tabletops all the way around. The one section of the desk even moves so I can pull it all the way up next to me or push it against the wall when its in my way.


We put a nice big cork board above the desk so I can pin up my WIP's and study them to figure out where I want to go next with them. Also real handy for notes.

On the other side is a nice storage area for my dyed fabrics and in the middle is my mailing center with drawers for my envelopes, paper, etc. The wire also runs around to this side to clip up favorite pieces I want to look at. Above is another of the shelves I bought at the town sale with my wool bits for needle felting stored in baskets and some of my books.


Down below is another set of drawers with places to store my trims, scissors and threads, etc. All in all I am thrilled with it. I finally have a place for everything which I really need since I can be so disorganized. I find if I have a place to put something I usually will put it away but I get in trouble when I dont and everything turns into a big mess!

So that's the tour. I hope you enjoyed it *^_^*. Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend. I know I'm planning on it!

Handmade Twitter Parade

This is a fun thing the girls over on Artfire are doing to promote the site and make people more aware of it. There are a lot of great shops and people over there, so if you use twitter you might want to check out the hashtag. There will be lots of goodies!

The studio is almost finished!

This Friday we stopped by the Ikea to pick up a few small items and as soon as we walked in we saw two of the shelves I had on my list to buy and they were displays. They were marked to 40% off so we bought them. It was kinda funny because we dont have a car and we had to take them apart and pack them into pieces of old cardboard to bring home. I had my shopping cart with me and we put a lot of the pieces on there and wrapped them tight, dragged the whole mess home. It was a bit of a chore but I love to save money! So we spent the rest of the day rearranging the studio yet again. D also hung my steel cable around two walls and set the lights on the bottom of the shelf over the dye table. I will finally have plenty of light when I work on my dyes.

Saturday we were off again to the town wide sale in Neiderhausbergen. We didnt really buy much to speak of but it was fun to visit. The sale there was almost as crazy as the one that was here so I guess it's a big deal here. All I know is man did I see a lot of junk at one time LOL!

Yesterday was my big day to go to my appointment at OFII - the immigratiom and integration office. They did a test on my french language and set me up to finish my classes here. I have 30 hours of class left and then my final test. They seemed to think I was doing well so I guess I will quit being so hard on myself. The appointment was way down on the southeast side of the city and took me half the day to go and come back. I surely hope my classes are somewhere else cause I sure wouldnt want to do that on a regular basis!

So creatively I have not done anything since I last posted. I am still busy with the studio. I emptied out every box, drawer etc. and have been slowly sorting and organizing so that when I am done it will be just as I want it. I really would like to finish it today. I also have a big order I have to start working on. Lots of dyeing. Soon though, all of this will be finished and I will have this wonderful room to come into and create to my hearts desire as much as I want. I cant wait!

Mushroom Love WIP

While organizing the studio the last few weeks, I once again went through my pile of WIP's. I showed you one piece I am working on last week, the old man sun. I also pulled out this one:

'Mushroom Love'

It has been interesting going through these old projects. I am once again happily stitching away at this one. I really love the effect and have been trying to envision what I should put behind these pieces for the inside of the mushroom. I think I have plenty of time to decide that one though....it's going to be awhile just stitching these pieces *grin*

After the crash

Sorry I have been silent all week. I had a rather busy schedule and I lost track of the days but thats not the only thing that happened. A few nights ago I couldnt sleep so I got out of bed and came into the studio as I am prone to do, and sat down to the computer. Hit the power button and all I saw was an error screen. I did everything I could think of...still no go. Seems it suffered a fatal crash. We thought that the hard drive was gone for sure but upon reinstalling windows it is up and working again. Such a relief! All my files and photos are gone of this last week though and that is a shame. Any WIP photos are irreplacable. Fortunately I had uploaded this before pic just a few days ago and found it resting on Flickr! I didnt like this piece when I finished it so I went back at it and worked on improving it. What do you think?

Finished

Here's a quick peek. I finished one today :)

I love to stitch!

Sunday was a dreary day out so we spent the day working around the house. D put up all my shelves we bought at the sale and a light fixture. They look so nice! We set all our furniture into place that we bought and it's starting to look like a home! My studio is really shaping up. I have nice table space to work on my items and now shelves too. I feel so spoiled.

I received a custom order this week from two gals who both liked a silk velvet bag I have been working on. Since I still had a bit of the floss and velvet from the first one I made I told them I would make another so they both could have one. Made me feel good that they both loved it so. I dont usually make duplicates but I found it quite fun to do actually. I was really curious whether I could recreate it close enough and I'm quite happy with the results. Now I have ideas for others to do...I am thinking a similar tree but with pink french knots for a cherry tree....

I have also been working hard with my ArtFire shop. The gals have been talking about a Christmas in July event which I think sounds like a lot of fun. I am wanting to set up a booth this year in Strasbourg for Christmas, what a perfect excuse to get started on making things early!

Today I am back to quiet stitchng I think. I pulled my neck out working this weekend. The injury from the fall in December has never really healed up correctly and I guess I wasnt careful enough. It's nice that I can still stitch even when I'm not feeling at my best!

Imagination Packs

Undersea Imagination Pack

So sorry I haven't posted. This week ran away with me! I have been so busy dyeing, washing, sorting, rearranging, etc! Today was the huge town wide yardsale and let me tell you... I never seen anything like it! The streets were closed off. They had beer tents, a merry-go-round, cotton candy, crepe and other food vendors and tons of stands...streets full of them. We found several pieces of furniture for next to nothing! A nice big wood table for 15 euros! I couldnt believe it. We have been struggling here with little furniture and no place to put anything. Now we were able to pick up some things without waiting for six months till we could afford them! So now I have even more rearranging to do but I dont mind. I will finally be able to work properly with some furniture in my studio! ( I have been working with a board across two small pieces of furniture for a desk and cardboard boxes for shelves)

Autumn Forest Imagination Pack

So this week I started sorting all the velvets and other silks I have dyed this last week and I put together some imagination packs. These are just my first attempts at them and I would really appreciate any feedback you have about them. Are there enough items included? Am I missing something? What do you think? I love this idea and plan on making a lot more. I absolutely love working with the velvet and really enjoying the other silks too...especially the charmeuse and gauze. You will be seeing a lot more of them in the future! I have listed the first one on Artfire today and plan on listing the other tomorrow. After I put together some more packs I will be listing the rest of the velvet too. I have around 15 new pieces of velvet dyed and I love them all!


Hope you are all having a fun and creative weekend!