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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Reading and Stitching

Once Upon a Time Round Up :
  1. The Summoner:  Book I in the Chronicles of the Necromancer
  2. Heartless by Gail Carriger (The Parasol Protectorate)
  3. The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
  4. Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper
  5. River Secrets by Shannon Hale (The Books of Bayern) 
  6. The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb (Vol. 1 of The Rain Wild Chronicles)
  7. Dragon Haven  by Robin Hobb (Vol. 2)
  8. City of Dragons by Robin Hobb (Vol. 3)
I may read another one, but then again, I may not as I'm back to enjoying my mysteries. 

 I have three more reviews scheduled--WooHoo!  I have only two more to do, and I'm caught up with reviews!

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Stitching lately has been white on white blocks of various sizes that will be sewn together eventually for a small quilt.  Moving from sorting through various vintage linen pieces and choosing various white fabrics...
vintage handkerchiefs, doilies, napkins, tatting...

to hand stitching together blocks like the one below, adding prairie points to some seams.
 
Then embellishing the seams with embroidery and adding thrifted  or vintage lace, creating button hole lace, and adding other embroidery.

And moving on to other embellishment techniques like ruching draped with French knots and bullion knots.

And puffy tufts--and more embroidery, of course.

I'm having fun with this!  There are five blocks in progress, and I move from one to another.  There is no telling how long it will take to fill almost every square inch of space on the five blocks.  

Reading and stitching--two of my favorite activities.  And some gardening, although it is really getting to hot and humid for much of that.  

5 comments:

  1. I've finished my first Once Upon a Time book and started my second, just in time before the end of the Challenge. I was more in the mood for dark fantasy and so ended up reading none.
    I always admire people's crafts but I'm not that talented myself.
    I think stitching white on white must be hard.

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  2. Caroline - I didn't have as much luck finding really good books for the Once Upon a Time challenge this year, but fantasy, myth, and fairy tales remain among my favorite escapist reads.

    Yes, I find working with white on white difficult for two reasons. I have to be so careful to keep it clean and sometimes it is hard to see white on white. :)

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  3. I have been slow with my Once Upon a Time reading lately. It's sad!

    I love all your crafty posts. :)

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  4. You do such gorgeous stitching! I especially love the butterfly.

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  5. Kailana - It is funny how our reading picks up and slows down. I did enjoy the Robin Hobb novels for the challenge, but I'd like to discover a new high fantasy author to love.

    Stefanie - Thanks! The butterfly was already on a ragged and stained little tea napkin. I think I had two of those, so I can use the butterfly again somewhere.
    I love being able to save the best part of stained and damaged pieces.

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