Author Archives: ruthlane

Goodies from Trip to Seattle

Posted on by under Uncategorized
We went to Seattle last weekend for a quick trip. I visited the La Conner Quilt museum which had two wonderful exhibits – On the Surface and Imagery & Imagination. I really enjoyed the surface design group’s section – there was even felted work. If you are in that area, I suggest a visit.
About the only other thing that we did besides eat was shop. I found some DMC Medici wool threads at Ana-Cross Stitch in Anacortes that I just had to have as well as the rainbow tweed ones. Then there was an outlet fabric store where I got the rest of the goodies. The bobbins didn’t come in the little oval holder, I added those when I got home. It just fits the number of bobbins that I have.
Now, hopefully, I am off to Richmond, VA tomorrow. That is if we can fly in there between storms. The flight into Richmond is cancelled tonight and I’m not sure we’ll make it tomorrow either. The trip is to go to the Buyers Market of American Craft in Philadelphia that we attend every year for the shop. We will be driving from Richmond to Philly. Wish me luck!

Look what I got in the mail!

Posted on by under Uncategorized
I got my first book page in the Traveling Pages swap. It’s from Gayle in California and it’s called “A Walk in the Redwoods”. Isn’t it wonderful?
Here’s a detail of her embroidery work. I love it, Gayle, thanks! If you want to know more about it, follow the link on the sidebar for the Story of the Traveling Pages.

Spinning and a Peak

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I got a drop spindle at Thanksgiving time and have finally been trying it out. These are my first attempts in which I achieved something that looked vaguely like yarn. It’s wrapped around a piece of cardboard to keep tension on it so it won’t lose its twist.

Here is one set that I have tried to set the twist by soaking it in some soapy water. As you can tell, I am not getting an even yarn but I am getting a bit better. It definitely takes practice. I just want to spin bits and pieces to add to my felt. I won’t be doing whole skeins. No knitting or crocheting happening here.

The other thing I completed today was my second page for The Story of the Traveling Pages. It is for Ann in Germany and her theme is fairy tales. I like how this page turned out but I can’t show the entire page until Ann receives it. And, the page isn’t due until February so I am ahead. As I’m going to be out of town for a portion of February, I thought it would be a good idea to get Ann’s page done now. Next page up is for Mandy and her theme is The Sea. The photo below is a peak of the other project I have been working on all week. I free motion embroidered all the way across my piece in an organic “pebbling”. It took all week, working about an hour at a time to get all the way across. The piece is over 4 feet across. I have at least twice this much left to do. Thanks for all your comments and I appreciate everyone stopping by whether you leave a comment or not. Have a great weekend!

First Book Page Received in Australia

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I’m finally able to show you the page I made for Johoanna for her “Goddess Within” theme. If you’re following the Story of the Traveling Pages blog, you’ll have already seen it. It is machine felted background on a recycled sweater with machine and hand needle felted tree. The leaves are hand stitched and the copper shield is embossed and then hand stitched on. If you’ve been following this blog very long, you’ll know that I use trees often as my inspiration. So I thought that my personal goddess would be a tree goddess.

The shield has the symbolism of the downward facing triangle which stands for goddess as creatrix and the double spiral symbolizes the duality of life in going inwards to self and outwards to the world.

Here’s the back of the page where I included one of my favorite poems “Think Like a Tree by Karen Shragg. If you click on the photo, you should be able to read the poem. I am now working on February’s page for Trillian which has the theme of “Fairy tales”. It’s coming along well and I’ll show a sneak peak soon. However, I am having to redo part of it because I went a bit overboard with my tendency to add 3D to a flat piece. I suddenly remembered that these pages were meant to make a book and I think something sticking up off the book more than 1/2″ might cause a problem with binding etc. So now I have an extra bit of fairytale that looks really good but is too thick. Oh well. I have also been working on a large piece that I am planning on submitting and can’t show photos. It’s coming along but is really turning into a “slow” cloth. I am currently doing machine embroidery of which I did over 2 hours work today and I’m not even a tenth of the way done. Me and my bright ideas!

The other thing I did today was to paint the bottom of my new slippers with a silicone gel so that I can wear them outdoors and so they will last longer. I painted 4 layers – I’m not sure you can really see it in the photo above as this is just the first layer.

This is the stuff I used. It’s clear so that the color of the slippers would show through. I had to special order it through the local hardware store because no one around here carries anything other than black, red or blue. I guess most people don’t want clear handles on their tools. That is what you’re supposed to do with it. But this kind can be ordered with colors and you can make your own. I didn’t get the colors though. I thought clear would look best. I’ll show you another photo once they are dry.

I’ve been really working at keeping up with my goals. I’ll give you an update at the end of the month but I am definitely being more productive. So just need to keep it up for another 4 weeks or so and then supposedly, it will be a habit. We’ll see…