Annies Crazy World

 
 
 
  • About

    This is Annie Whitsed's Crazy World a world where I stitch the joys and chaos of life into beautifull crazy quilts. email annie@loopylace.com
April 2007
M T W T F S S
« Mar   May »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  
Locations of visitors to this page Subscribe with Bloglines
 
Humpty Dumpty is sitting on the wall April 11th, 2007

Humpty Dumpty is sitting on the wallI am glad that I decided to paint Humpty’s coat onto the shell, his legs provide just enough balance to let him sit upright and I love how he turned out…His arms, legs and hat are are made from cardboard and his bowtie is ribbon with thread wrapped around the centre.

I made the wall from the end of an egg carton lid, the side of the wall in the photo was supposed to be the back because I thought that the moulding of the egg carton would look out of place and the other side is nicely square but as it happens the back turned out better than the front.

When I first thought of doing a humpty egg I was going to paint him and then let him have a little fall and put him back together but once I started making him I realizes that I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to deliberatly crack him, just knowing that I could put him back together is enough.

Detail 233 April 10th, 2007

climbing roseI wanted something special for this seam that is in the middle of the Birthday Block and when I did the Climbing Rose the other night I decided that it would be perfect for the central location of this block.

Our 2007 Painted Easter Eggs April 9th, 2007

repaired egg finished being painted Patricia commented that my repaired eggs would be even more special now and she is so right. You may not have noticed but one of the repaired eggs hadn’t been finished and I didn’t expect that it would be but the nephew was so impressed that I had repaired it that he finished it and to me that makes it even more special.

These are our 2007 eggs

our 2007 eggs

Mine is the candy egg (top right corner) like the ones we had when I was a kid…when every one is here I can only do a simple one because I am on call to find cardboard etc and help when required.

For my second egg I thought that having repaired the eggs, humpty dumpty would be the appropriate egg for me to paint this year and I remembered that I had made one before for the top of a cake I made for a nieces 2nd birthday in 1983 (Cake design frim The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book), I found the Photo and started making one the same but have decided that the cardboard coat makes him far to stable to be humpty so I am now going to Paint the coat onto the egg shape.

humpty won Humpty dumpyt cake

A Rare Sight April 8th, 2007

So that we would have plenty of room to work at painting our Easter Eggs, I cleaned off the table and all the benches in my study, I occasionally see the top of my table but clear benches are a rare sight

A rare sight - Clear table and benches

the painting equipmentMy neice shows off one of the baskets of equipment that she helped me put together…each basket held a pencil, 2 paint brushes, a piece of styrene foam, water bottle, a paper towel, skewers, 2 blown eggs and a chocolate egg…These are the paints we use.

The paints we use

Today we had 9 Painters, painted some delightful eggs and had a lovely time…I will take the detail photos tomorrow in the daylight in the meantime here they are on the table after everyone had gone home.

Days done

Painting Eggs – Its become a Family Tradition April 7th, 2007

In my neices words Painting Eggs has become a family tradition, Easter 2005 I blogged how the tradition got started and 4 years of painted eggs.

I didn’t get Our 2006 eggs blogged…initially because I wasn’t very organized to get them dated, lacquered, photographed and put away…subsequently because while they were waiting for me to finish them I knocked them on the floor….Oooooooops

Broken eggs

I was upset with myself but not devasted because from the beginning I had let them be touched because really they have to be held and turned around to appreciate their full beauty, they are a living collection which means they are at risk of being broken…still I didn’t know what I would do if one did get broken…

I picked up the pieces, put them in a box and put the box on a shelf in a dark corner. I just couldn’t bring myself to throw the pieces out.

repairing broken eggA couple of weeks ago I pulled the box out and wondered if it was possible to repair them, what if I glued strips of paper under one side of the join with half the paper sticking out so that I could glue the matching bit of shell to the paper as well…nothing ventured nothing gained…I seperated the pieces for each egg, 2 of them broken into largeish pieces, 2 of them with shattered ends, each egg with about 15 pieces to be joined…it took time because I had to let the glue dry before joining the next piece…

…the joins are far from perfect but the eggs are in one piece and the cracks give them character.

I am well aware that this is a crazy thing to have done and you are allowed to laugh, Everyone else has…what I find more amazing than the fact that I was able to do it is that when I picked the pieces up off the floor 11 months ago I actually found every last chip of all the shells.

egg egg repaired ella egg repaired

roses egg repaired ella egg repaired

Below are all the 2006 eggs

2006 eggs

Some of you may recognize the wall on my egg, as the one on my Bags of fun, ‘A Charming Garden’ bag.

My 2006 egg

I am organized this year…I have all the eggs blown and undercoated, have purchased new fine brushes and have the paints all ready….Wishing you all a happy, safe Easter.

Painted detail – Detail 232 April 6th, 2007

first ideas for horse detail in visual journalThe pencil sketch is my first ideas for a picture seam to represent that my 2 youngest brothers and a sister in law worked with horses.

I thought that an embroidered track would be to textured for the scale of my horse charm so I decided to paint the track…scary decision, paint can’t be undone like stitches if it doesn’t work…best have a practice which I did in my visual journal.

Experimenting in my visual journal

I used acrylic paint and the fabric was easier to paint than I thought it would be and I think it will work…time to be brave and put paint on my block…

I built the scene up in layers letting the paint dry each time before adding the next layer.

I started by covering the area with brown…..

first layer of paint

The second layer is splodges of dark green along the edges and a little bit on the track.

second layer of paint

I then used lighter browns and greens and a finer brush to blend the track area and add grassy details to the edges.

third layer of paint detail

I used single strands of brown and green embroidery thread to add just a little bit of texture and finer details, stem stitch for the fence and finished the seam by extending the tip of the climbing rose to make it apart of the picture.

embroidered detail on paint

The 19th block for my mum’s memory quilt.

19th block finished for mum

Climbing Rose – Detail 231 April 5th, 2007

climbing roseThe vine is stem stitch done with a mix of green and brown scraps of thread.

The Roses are the same silk ribbon roses that I illustreated with detail 203 and detached chain stitch for the buds at the top.

One Stitch 4 Seams – Details 227 to 230 April 4th, 2007

The first 3 seams below are on my boxtop…The stitch I started with was Italian Insertion stitch which I found on page 125 of The Embroidery Bible by Betty Barnden…The first one looks completly unlike the diagram and I can’t remember how I did it.

Italian insertion stitch 01

My second attempt and I still only looked at the diagram instead of reading the instructions and consequently I did the buttonhole stitch part from the outside to the centre…actually I like this one better than the original.

Italian insertion stitch 02

3rd attempt and I got it, although it still looks different from the diagram because the stitch is intended for joining 2 pieces of fabric so the stitches need to be close together but as I am useing it as a decorative stitch I have spaced the side stitches further apart which gives it a webby, lacey look.

Italian insertion stitch 03

It is a long time since I did the seams above so I had to get the directions out again…I thought that I would end up with a seam that would look very similar to the one above but oops I didn’t make the seam as wide and only did 2 buttonhole stitches instead of the 4…It would seam that missreading instructions is a good way to come up with different stitches.

Italian insertion stitch 04

TAST week 14 Bonnet Stitch – Details 222 to 226 April 3rd, 2007

Bonnet Stitch, the TAST week 14 stitch is one that I have not done before and as it has a couple of manourvers to form it, I decided to do a sample to get the feel of the stitch.

Tast 14 test 1On the first sample I miss read the instructions and didn’t go though the fabric on the second loop stitch, I finished the seam by alternating the actual stitch with my mistake stitch.

Tast 14 test 2On the second sample I made the upright stitches longer which made it a more open stitch.

Getting into the swing of this stitch I worked my third sample as a 2 sided seam…it took me a couple of tries to work out the direction of the loop for the mirrored side and my spacing and tension are a bit uneven but it was worth the trouble the finished stitch has a nice curvey look to it.

Tast 14 test 3

On the next seam I did the looped part of the stitch as a twisted loop.

Tast 14 test 4

block 19 for mums quiltTo use this stitch on one of my works in progress I had to make another block for mum’s quilt…I did the 2 sided variation and made the top stithces shorter than the bottom ones…I had planned on putting beads along the bottom but when the stitch was done I decided that it was pretty enough to stand alone.

19th block nearly naked

Additions to detail 211 and Detail 221 April 2nd, 2007

I have been using a lot of beads on the birthday block and the first seam was starting to look a little under dressed so I have given it a few trimmings.

Additions to detail 211

The braid I used for this seam was very crinkled but as I like wriggly lines I stitched it on with the crinkles and added sequin flowers with green bead leaves.

braid with extra beads