King of the bees

Well, I was going to return to the subject of the economics of embroidering bees but am too distracted by  the wisteria getting into high gear; one day I was out admiring it when in buzzed the biggest most dignified bumblebee I've ever seen.  He considered the buds from all angles, and then buzzed off, apparently thinking they weren't quite ready for his pollen collection.  Alas, my camera was elsewhere, so I decided to immortalize him by embroidery.  He was lots shinier and more commanding than this, but perhaps you can add those qualities with imagination.

Here also is the bigger square I made out of the smaller squares in the last post.

I want to add some fabric weaving around the outside of this inspired by Judes's work at Spirit Cloth, perhaps using the gauzy cloth on the very left.

Lastly, one more bee item!  My favorite socks.

Back to work, Granny

Sigh.  The dear ones have gone back to their home nest.  It will be my turn to travel next.  I miss them.

 This morning I unwrapped my arashi pole (Glennis' shibori class).

Here it is on the counter with a little bobbin made with a twig from the apple tree.  The thread I used to wrap the silk on the pole is buttonhole twist; you can see it on the bobbin.  This bobbin idea came from Deb G.

Here is my arashi after I ironed it.  My goal is to create a pattern like water and then to make a lap cloth:

with several to many of these (above) sewn together.  I'm practicing Jude's piecing method.  The silk is tricky to manage because it is slippery.  On this piece I used starch, then I tried a fabric interfacing and that worked well, but the silk no longer felt like silk...more like cotton.  I have a couple of other ideas to explore.

More bees

So, I took my camera in for advice about how to improve the color situation and came home with a new camera!  Then, a beekeeper stopped by and gave me a job of embroidering 3 bees on a denim jacket; this was very unexpected.  There was a dilemma about what to charge; he suggested $10. per bee.  (I would love to hear how others resolve this sort of issue.) It seemed really high to me, so I decided to time the process.  The first bee took one hour fifteen minutes...that was on the pocket...hard sewing.  The second took 56 minutes and the third took 45 minutes.  They are goofy looking bees and smaller than they appear here.  I still need to work out the details of how exactly to embroider them, but not today because tomorrow the two grandsons and their  parents will arrive from the east coast!  They won't be staying here but I will see them as much as possible.

Bye Bye Black Heart

Here she is again.  I think this is all.  The colors are a little better without the flash I think.  Thank you everyone.  On this next one though, everything was the same but the pink faded out.  Tomorrow I'm going to the camera store, ask some questions.

 Someone who was mad at me once said I had a black heart.  It plagued me for a long time and then I felt grateful for the image.  This sheer cloth is covered with little sprouts or maybe it's been walked all over by bird feet. Chickens, I think.

 The latest on the home cloth.  I've been busy bee-ing.

I hope everyone everywhere is having either a little bit of spring or the loveliness of approaching fall. What a round world it is.  May there be respite from the quaking.  My heart goes out to those who have been enduring too much.

She has a heart

What a week this has been!

The heart was part of my shibori experimenting, and I thought I should put it on her sleeve, because well, because that was the sort of week it was.

 

I wish the photo showed the rain streaks a little better. I need to learn more about my camera.