Sunday With Sue

Another birthday rolled around recently and Anne surprised me with a little gift à la folk artists Sue Spargo - a lovely book called Stitches to Savor. The pretty little bird was complements of Betty.

I love the creativity in the vast collection of Sue's detailed handwork patterns and stitches worked in wool and cotton, and her use of fun, bright colours.

How can you resist all of those teenie, tiny details?

New to me - and equally appealing - was her work in a neutral palette. Against that pebbled quilted background it reminds me of beach stones. Very soothing.

As the review says, 'for sumptuous texture and depth, nothing compares to the handwork quilts of Sue Spargo'.

It's a beautiful visual reference but I would also have been happy if it had included instructions for a few of the stitches. Regardless, today I'll be pouring through the pages imagining all of the projects that I will could make....M

A Special Sunday

Two weeks ago four of us got together at Jane's cottage for a day of hand stitching. It was sort of a consolation prize - we had thought we might be able to swing a trip down to Niagara for a Sue Spargo workshop at Stitch in Jordan but, unfortunately, schedules did not allow for it so we did our own mini workshop with her in mind.

Betty and Jane had gotten a head start on Saturday and by the time I got there Jane had two of these wonderful felt Christmas trees made and was well on her way to finishing up this very rustic, very adorable little snowman.

Betty was working on a covert Christmas gift so she kept cutting wool for her piece and disappearing into the next room to lay it out (me thinks all will be revealed Christmas morning).














Jane also started work on this cushion top. It is wool and the beadwork just brought it to life that much more. She's still thinking about how to finish it off.














Linda joined in with me on Sunday and she was working on a beautiful piece with wonderfully embellished leaves. All three ladies are crafting commandos so they made great progress with their projects - I always feel like I am sitting with idle hands when I am around these three because they work so quickly.

I was working on felt birds for the bazaar so Jane got a quick tutorial ...

...and whipped up this pretty little one out of blue wool (I told you she was quick).

The place was bursting with fabric and felt and beads and buttons and yarn and ribbon and all manner of embellishment and lucky me came away with a little supply of irridescent white & pink snowflakes to use on my birds, compliments of Linda.

All in all, a wonderful day....M

Channelling Sue Spargo

I've been watching the updates come from Sue Spargo's blog as she works her way through Australia doing amazing folk art workshops with her sister, and loving the absolutely gorgeous embellishments that she and her students are creating. I've also been looking for new, small projects that I can whip up for the Holly Bazaar, (I think the ones I have been doing to date are more appropriate for the silent auction and I don't think that there will be one this year) so I guess it's no big surprise that the two thoughts have come together.

Little birds seemed like a good idea but they needed to be fairly fast to make and I wanted something a little graphic, rather than literal. So, a search landed me on the Pilgram blog and these sweet little birds that she made in December 2009. I liked the fact that they were three dimensional but they also seemed really open to interpretation, and, you know me, I can never do it exactly as presented so I started to play. The fact that she graciously included the pattern in her blog made things that much easier.

I have a really limited selection of felt available to me but I do have tons of red, white and cream that I bought last year for another project so that's where I started. And, as luck would have it, I had gotten a great deal on this gingham ribbon (buy 1 metre get 4! free). Now that I have a purpose for it I think I might need more...

Anyway, this was the result of my first effort. Isn't he cute? Indeed!

But a little traditional if we're channelling Sue...

so...I tried a different ribbon and I like it too so I will make both.

But when I was buying the ribbon I had also picked up a selection of beads, because Sue was playing around in my head (AND they were a great deal too - buy 1 get 2 free - it was my day!). So I moved to the white felt and a few scraps of brights that I had to see what I could do.

The embroidery took me back to one of the 4H courses that we did when we were growing up - I remember embroidering a dresser scarf with a huge selection of stitches. My first attempt for this deco I ripped out because the green stems weren't deep enough, and I doubt that I have created the stitch correctly, but it turned out well in the end.

I still need to decide what to do about the eyes and I'm thinking I'll hang this one with a very simple white cord so I've got a few more details to work out, but I'm really happy with them so far so it's time to cut out a few more and try new colour combos for the white. The cream might be a little more romantic because I've got tiny silk roses that I could use...M

Oh My!

I've been following Sue Spargo who does incredible contemporary folk art pieces, primarily with wool and an amazing array of creative embroidery stitches and bright colours, so I was more than excited to see that she recently did a workshop in Ontario at what looked like an amazing little shop. These are a few images from her recent post - Jane & Linda, I can't help but think of you when I see her work.

She lives in Ohio so her post was a little vague as to the shop's location, describing it only as being in Ontario. Needless to say, I had to do a bit more digging; I am SO glad that I did.

Photo from Stitch, by Nella

The workshop was held in Jordan at Stitch, right in the heart of wine country, and is a little piece of heaven. Operated by Jocelyn Chamberlain, it is self-described as a sanctuary for knitters, quilters and needleworkers and looks like someplace that you'd just love to spend days and days. Their website is fairly basic but I found Nella's Acorn Lane Vintage Living blog that has lots of really fantastic images of it. Take a look and tell me that your heart doesn't go pit-a-pat. I haven't picked up a pair of knitting needles in a few years but its hard to resist when you see this shop (Dawn, this might be a new addiction for you). Sue is planning to return next fall for another workshop and me thinks this might need to be added to my calendar.