kerrykatiecakes

The AAQI auction for the month of June is up and running!  So, run over to the site and drool over the little art quilts up for auction - there are some real beauties this month! Very exciting for me is that my quilt, Asian Dreams, is on the block this month!  I can`t wait to see how much money it manages to raise for Alzheimer`s research!  Keep your fingers crossed it does well.

Well, it only rained three times yesterday which was a huge bonus - I actually managed to mow 20 of the 100 sites!  Since it didn't rain at all today and the sun shone, I was able to finish all the mowing and am caught right up on that job. The beavers are still determined to destroy what few trees that have managed to grow here on the bald prairie.  Sooo frustrating.  There are two of their big dams in the canal now so they must be multiplying.  More beavers - fewer trees! Carrying on with my summer reading, I have three Michael Slade books here in my pile. Kamikaze:    Michael Slade is actually a pen name for a father and daughter writing team from Vancouver, BC - more books by Canadians! I enjoyed this because I am familiar with Vancouver and can picture the streets and landmarks they refer to.  For murder/mystery fans, Michael Slade is another author you can add to your list.  Bit of a warning though - the violence can be quite gr...

Here is the Encrusted Beading Stitch for BAS (Build a Seam) #69.  I hope you have as much fun playing around with it as I am.  There is a tutorial in the next post with more photos.  Have fun!

 I begged the teacher of my Fabric Manipulation class at Seminar to teach us this Encrusted Beading Stitch when I saw the results on one of her pieces!  She did, and it is so simple but the results can be stunning (well, hers were - mine need more practice, lol) Make sure your thread is well secured as always with beading.  Bring the needle up in the area you want to encrust and thread on three beads.  Take the needle back down very close to the same place you came up. This little "bead lump" is what each stitch looks like when it is done. Here you can see the type of effect you can get using this stitch - such fun!  I hope you enjoy it!

Well, here I am back out here working at the lake for the summer and living in my trailer onsite.  The summer isn't starting out too well weatherwise.  It is cold, about ten degrees from freezing still, and raining steadily for over a week now with more to come.  Much of the campground is under water and I only have one trailer full of very hearty fishermen  lol The weather is getting me down with the constant downpour and the grey skies so I find myself not able to stitch much as a result.  My stitching is a joy and I find it hard to do when I am feeling blue myself.  I am well into my summer reading though and thought this year I might share what I've read in case anyone is looking for a good book: Perfect Match, written by Jodi Picoult I discovered Jodi Picoult last summer while I was looking for a new fiction author.  This is one of several of hers I have read now.  She seems to choose a thorny subject, in this case child abuse and the way...

At this year's EAC National Seminar, I had the choice of several tours and activities on the free day between classes, or to take an additional one day class.  Well, I took the class since I was there to soak up as much new knowledge as I could!  My free day class was taught by Silvia Murariu, a noted designer of Romanian Point Lace.  Please click on the photo above to enlarge it so you can see as much detail as possible on the vest Sylvia is wearing.  The lace on it is jaw dropping and of course all made by Sylvia. This Lavender Basket was the project we worked on in the class.  Romanian Point Lace is worked on a muslin backing cloth with the pattern marked on it.  Crochet cords are basted onto the backing cloth and then the needleweaving and other stitching is done between the cords.  When complete, the basting threads are snipped and the lace motif is freed from the backing.  I think perhaps mine will not end up as shown in a picture but rathe...

This week's BAS (Build a Seam) Challenge stitch was suggested by Leslie Ehrlich and is called the Renaissance Stitch.   The photo above is from Sharon Boggin's wonderful Stitch Dictionary and you can check out Sharon's tutorial on this stitch here .  This is a new stitch to me so I can't wait to see what to do with it.  I love the way it looks in the variegated colours!

One of the two day classes I took at the Embroidery Association of Canada's National Seminar in Sackville, NB, was the Harvest Penny Rug.  Sadly, this isn't mine if you are wondering!  I am still working on mine but it is a project I will definitely finish in the near future.  Our teacher, Deborah Gale Tirico , was wonderful and I think everyone will follow through and finish their project in all likelihood.  This piece will make a beautiful addition to someone's table during the fall months.  I am not sure how it will fare on my dining room table - five cats and black wool don't really mix. lol These are some of the other pieces that Deborah had on display for us to see in the class.  A lot of them are available as kits at her website .  Her background in graphic design really shows up in the gorgeous colours of her pieces and I can't wait to finish the Harvest Penny Rug and start another.  I bought a kit for one of the Vi...

We had a round robin on the CQI Novice group that I was acting as angel for.  The angel takes up the slack and stitches for anyone who has to drop out or has fallen behind.  Well, in this group of five ladies, two of them dropped out right after they mailed their blocks!  So, I was up to my ears in angel stitching for awhile there. Happily, though, I have mailed off the last three blocks to their owners and this round robin is not sucessfully completed.  This first block (above) was Ely's.  I had already stitched on once and finished it up when it came back to me for the second time. There were an extraordinary amount of seams on this block, or at least it seemed so!  I added a trim to cover one seam where the fabrics were fraying apart and stitched the rest of the remaiing seams.  I added a few more motifs - some lace flowers, a button cluster, and a bead motif.  My favourite part of what I did on this block is still the spider and web.  I ...

This morning's mail brought me the buttons from the Embellished Button Swap we had at CQI and I love them!  I had sent seven buttons in so received these seven beautiful buttons back.  Below I'm adding an extreme closeup of each one along with the information on who made it - I want to give credit where credit is due.  This first button was made by Lorrie Ramsay in Canada and can you believe this gorgeous thing was made with.... wait for it...... shrink art!  How cool is that?  I have a bunch of that stuff still kicking around from when the kids were using it for crafts so now I am going to have to dig it out and do some experimenting.  This red and white button was embellished by Maria Silva in Portugal.  The little red lace motif is fussy cut and attached to a red button and then adorned with a bit of tatting and red and pearl seed beads.  Very creative!  Carol Davis of Alabama made this beautiful ribbon flower button - I know just the b...

 I have just finished another block in the Tea Time DYB Round Robin I am in at CQI.  In DYBs (Do Your Block) each person makes six blocks which are each six inches square and one block is fully embellished by each of the other stitchers in the round robin - you receive five of your blocks back completed as well as one for you to finish yourself.  This one belongs to Peggy Sue and all of her blocks were in these lovely pastel cottons with a tea cup already appliqued on it.  As soon as I saw the little teacups, I couldn't wait to fill one with silk ribbon embroidered flowers! I started the bouquet by trailing down some little pink flowers - these were from a little vintage bouquet of the type that used to be on Sunday hats for little girls.  I made a few spider web roses next.  The remaining spaces were filled in with french knot flowers, detached chain stitch (lazy daisy) flowers and filler, ribbon stitch leaves and a bit of embroidered fern.  The se...