Oriental berries

Finally finished this, it speaks to me of Chinese brocades
Worked in three shades of gold, with a deep tangerine for the berries, on dark green linen.
The little cushion it sits on is my solution to the issue of display, inspired by this picture
of a dorodango, or Japanese clay ball.
Here it is unburdened, with a flower embroidered to make a hollow for the Bauble.
From the back, not quite so neat, but you can see it's made from a simple square of fabric.

On a different note, I'm still thinking and studying about the future of this blog. I invested in a couple of e-books from Diane Gilleland, over at CraftyPod. I think they are going to be really helpful; I've only read the first book "Making a Great Blog" so far, which covers topics like blogging goals, content, eye-candy, and blogging ettiquette, with lots of handy hints. I plan to take a while to study and use her work sheets to improve my blogging skills.

Crazy purple

Another crazy Bauble. This time the crazy patches were applied onto a 'couldabeen' ball - yes, I do sometimes recycle the failures! I used raw-edge applique, as turning the edges under makes too much of a ridge. Don't you like my snail?
And of course there has to be a spider, hanging from his web.
I could go on on with more of these, but it's time to move on to a new embellishment. (You'll remember the original plan was to devote the whole year to exploring the possibilities of Baubles - and it's almost September!)
These have re-kindled my love of crazy patchwork though; I'm thinking maybe it's time to start that crazy quilt I always planned to make... maybe next year?

Stuffing around

It would be nice if all I did was make lovely Baubles, photograph them, and post them on my blog. It's a simple process, after all - stitch the pieces together, leaving an opening for stuffing; turn right side out, stuff firmly, stitch up the opening; decide on a design, and stitch away happily. Then admire perfect creation, and repeat the process.
Ya think so? Then where did these come from?
There's so much that can go wrong, even at the stuffing stage. Overstuffed balls will stretch and become misshapen. Some balls just WANT to be lumpy. With the synthetic fibre-fill I've been using, closing the opening is a real challenge, as the fibre is springy and tries to escape, the opening gapes, you haul on the thread, which either breaks or cuts the fabric. The final seam is ugly.
I tried using a woollen stuffing, with little improvement. Jinny Beyer recommends cotton stuffing, but she's in America, where would an Aussie find such a thing?
At the local Futon Factory, that's where. Yes, the lovely Belinda was happy to supply a sample of cotton, which proved much easier to use. Cotton is kinda inert, lacking the rebellious spring of fibre-fill, content to stay where it's put, allowing for a nice tidy closure. And it's a natural fibre, which I like.
OK, now I have a nice round ball, all I have to do is embellish it. There are lots of possibilities. Let's see, I could... or maybe... no, that won't work. What about... or - no, I don't think so...
This process can take a while. Hours, days even.
Finally a decision is made, and work begins, with lots of happy anticipation. This will be the best yet!!!
Sometimes, everything falls into place, and I stitch away happily, watching my creation unfold in my hands. But not always. Oh no.
Perhaps, after a day or two, it doesn't look at all like what I envisaged - the colours/shapes/layout are all wrong. Should I press on, hoping it will improve with more stitching, unpick it, bin it?
Or maybe it's going according to plan, but it lacks - something... yaaawn... I'm bored.
Which is why I have a boxful of couldabeens...
Birthing a Bauble can be painful.

Sweet and Crazy

I bore easily. After the monotony of the all that chain stitching in Aerial View, and Sea Urchin wasn't much better, I needed a bit of variety. So I returned to a secret vice of mine, not indulged for a while - crazy patchwork.
My usual taste in crazy work is of the gypsy variety, lots of rich colours, but for this experiment I chose a safer palette of pink, green and cream.
Each of the eight segments was foundation pieced before assembling and stuffing the ball, then I embroidered it. Despite looking 'crazy', the fabric placement had to be carefully planned. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to achieve this. I made up a diagram using isometric graph paper, as each segment of the ball is basically an equilateral triangle with slightly curved sides. Even so, I made a couple of boo-boos, but I don't think you can tell.
The embroidery was great fun, and not at all boring. It turned out better that I'd hoped, and there will definitely be more of these!
Incidentally, for the very best of crazy patchwork, have a look at Robyne Melia's work - this is her old blog, worth exploring for some marvellous pictures.

Sea urchin

I've always loved the delicate shells of Sea Urchins, and though it might make a pretty Bauble.


I did my homework, and discovered that sea urchins are divided into five segments.



This one is not quite correct in every anatomical detail, but certainly conveys the idea.


I chose pale creams and pinks for the embroidery - it was a good opportunity to practise my french knots!

Aerial view

Another Bauble inspired by Aboriginal depictions of the land. I imagined a river flowing across the country, bordered by greenery, fading gradually to desert sands and rich brown hills.


Worked with stranded cotton, using chain stitch throughout.


I think I achieved what I set out to do with this, but it took a long time to cover the ground!
And while as a decorative piece it succeeds, but as Art? No, I don't think so.
It reminds me of an earlier Bauble which I needlefelted with variegated wool - decorative, but lacking in a focal point, and not interesting enough to hold the viewer's interest for more than a minute or so.

Ethnic

I've been reading a lot about Aboriginal art lately, and wishing I could convey some of the unique mark-making in non-western art. This is an attempt, I think it looks more African than Australian.
I used a patterned fabric for the base, which gives an extra richness to the finished Bauble.

Harmony

All the Baubles so far have been embroidered, this one's a bit different. After some experimenting I devised some crochet motifs, using Pearl 8 cotton.
I love it, and can see lots of possibilities for using crochet, but it's very slow, and a bit hard on the eyes.

Fantasia

I love Paisley, and after reading Aimee Ray's sweet little book Doodle-Stitching, I decided to make a paisley style Bauble.
Side view

I used some unusual purple shot cotton for the base, and worked the paisley motifs in several shades of pink and lavendar.
Top view

Base, with initials

There are twelve motifs, all different; I had great fun designing them, with occasional consultation of my stitching bible - "The Stitches of Creative Embroidery" by Jacqueline Enthoven, for inspiration.
This is a wonderful reference, purchased many years ago, and well-thumbed. Most of the stitches I will never use, of course - but they are fascinating to read about.

Serenity

For this Bauble I began with blue cotton fabric, which I sponged with acrylic paint in a paler blue- as quite a lot of the fabric would show, I wanted to add a bit of texture.
The design came from a doodle. I tidied it up a bit, enlarged it on the photocopier, printed it on copy paper, then cut it out, making a template which I pinned onto the ball and traced around with a white gel pen.
The outline is stem stitch worked in Pearl 8 cotton, the "feathers" are worked in two strands of stranded cotton.
I like it a lot.

All wrapped up

It's been a while since I posted, but I've not been idle. Not, unfortunately, sewing.
Mr T's plastered arm has been a right nuisance, to me as well as to him. Riding a bike (his usual mode of transport) is forbidden, so someone has to drive him to the station for his commute to TAFE in Bendigo, and to his part-time job - we live about a mile from the town centre, and it's winter...
Domestic duties like washing up or - Heaven forbid - cooking are also out of the question.
So chauffering and general Domestic Goddessing duties have eaten up some sewing time. Add in two family reunions, a grandson's Year 8 graduation, and some Goldfields Quilters stuff - no wonder Bauble production has slowed down.
When I do make it into the sewing room, nothing works out as planned, anyway. The last attempt at a Bauble wound up in the bin; it seems as if my brain doesn't have room for creativity, being stuffed too full of the mundane at present. So for the moment, I'm making small crafty gifts for the upcoming trading table. There's a Quilters working bee on Saturday, I'll show you what I've been making after that.

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However, there are still some Baubles you haven't seen yet. These were the result of some experiments in wrapping strips of fabric around a ball. Here's the first one -
I'd like it more, I think, in different colours.

Then I did this -
fine cream cotton, embroidered in pale green and lemon.
I called it "Simplicity".

Here's one I prepared earlier

Still working my way through the backlog of Baubles, this one I'm quite pleased with.
The foundation ball was light green cotton, which I covered with stretch lace - an op-shop find. The lace even came with toning spangles. With judicious cutting it was easy to make it appear seamless.
The leaves? I'm glad you asked, I'm quite proud of them.
Here's how they were done. I used two pieces of medium weight Vilene, ironed together. Painted it green with acrylic paint. Made a cardboard leaf template, traced around it, cut out the leaves. Then sponged gold paint around the edges of each leaf.
Then the leaves were attached with gold-coloured thread, each group finished off with a sequin centre.

Shocking

I think of this as my 'French' Bauble, because of the colour, a deep intense pink.

In 1937, the Parisian coutourier Elsa Schiaparelli released her perfume Shocking, which was packaged in this shade of pink, her signature colour. The bottle, designed by Dali, was reputedly modelled on the body of Mae West, a client of Schiaparelli's.
Since then, bright cerise pink has been known as Shocking Pink.
I applied layers of fabric and lace, then stitched spirals in shaded cotton thread.
Finally I added embellishments of shot silk, with tiny gold beads in the centre.
I'd like to think Mme Schiaparelli would have approved.

Mothball

Well, what else could I call it?
Eight pastel moths on a creamy background, embellished with sequins and outline stitched.

I used Vliesofix to attach the moths, ironed them down with my nifty little Clover iron, then outlined them in backstitch.