Slow Stitching 2025 - Feb - Week 4

K3N Cloth Tales Comfort Coverlet 2025 Slow Stitching project - Week 4.

I visit several wetlands with my camera during the summer.  It seem appropriate to add this element to this piece.

I have birds, clouds and a sun in the sky. I have trees and water ripples in the center.

In the foreground I put a duck and cattails with water ripples.

Since this was the last week on this piece I added a fall leave and a winter snowflake on the right hand side.

I think I will be assembling my 12 piece together at the end with a backer fabric to hide all my stitching.

Next week we move on to March's piece.

Slow Stitching 2025 - Feb - Week 1

This is my February piece for K3N Cloth Tales - Slow Stitching Comfort Coverlet 2025.

I chose my photography as the subject for this piece.

I have 2 layers - a top layer of light grey 100% cotton on a foundation of 50-50 cotton poly.

I placed a frame of running stitch about 1 inch from the edge. Using light grey 2 strands of floss. 

I drew a top down view of a camera in the top right hand corner stitched in black with accents of grey and champagne.

I will be adding subjects I photograph throughout the year.

Inktober 2024 - 25 Camera

Inktober 2024 Challenge

26 - Camera

This is the only prompt from the official list that I have followed.  I chose an antique wood camera for its height in this format.

Pencilled then traced with a black marker.  This mixed media paper has worked very well.

I mixed a sepia colored watercolor and added an overall wash to give an old feel.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I met a friend at the St. Albert Botanic Park for a walk through nature and the blooming flowers. 

I love the peachy blushy rose and the shot came out nice.

After the walk, we headed to Timmy's for a tea and a visit.

It was a great afternoon after my dental cleaning in the morning.

The Detective's Secret by Lesley Thomson

The second book in a series.  I have not read the first one but I don't think it impacted the story much.  We get some history of some of the characters in the late 1980 when they were teenagers.  Then we move on to 2013 in the present day.

Jack Harmon drives trains for the metro, does detective work and sometimes pitches in at Stella's cleaning business.  Stella Darnell is a detective's daughter and her father has passed away.  Stella has a few employees in her business and all is going very well.

Palmyra Tower is almost a character in this story as well.  Formerly known as Chiswick Tower it is a water tower used for trains in the old days. It has history in relation the main characters. 

The past comes back to the fore when a man dies at an underground station on the metro.  The connections are not clear as names have changed over the years but grudges are still being held.  This was a great read.

I had an opportunity to try out a Sony RX10 camera for a couple of weeks.  I thought with this great zoom it should be wonderful!

It turned out not the be the easy peasy camera I thought it would be.  

It often did it's own thing when focusing, my photo editing software could not read it's RAW files so I had to delete 300 files an start over. I was met with the "function is not available" quite a few times and could not figure out what was preventing my changing the setting I wanted.

I am glad I did not invest in this camera as it was complicated for me to use.

One of the challenges this week was utility knives and blades.  The blue knife on the right lives in my sewing center and I use it disassembled second hand fabric.  It was on it's last point on the blade. No problem I have some in the cupboard which I use in the orange knife and it lives in the craft corner. No way the blades don't fit!

I headed to a big box store to buy a replacement and while there I invested in blades as well.  I tried the Olfa blades in the blue one and they fit so I will put the Olfa in the tools cupboard and I will have blades for a long time.  

Later, I was a ReStore and I could have saved myself some $ if I bought a utility knife there.  Ah well!

The prepping process is starting to move the furniture from the dining room and eventually the living room so that new vinyl floor can be installed.

I have made a selection so I will be ordering the flooring in the next few days and getting it delivered.

It will be a challenge to find hidey holes in the rest of the place for all that has to be moved.

On top of that most of it has to be emptied, moved then refilled.  Went the floor is done then the reverse process will take place.

I have put the IVAR cupboard ontop of the TROFAST in the front hall. I am filling the storage room where the STEN was taken away last week to be sold.  Thanks sister!

The sewing machine as been put away.

Art Project - My Square

My aunt has proposed an art project and requested a fabric art piece from all the women in our extended family.

This is my piece.  It was recommended that 6x6 be the largest it could be so that is what I chose.

Being a photographer I decided to feature a camera on my square.  I did some research on camera quilts and there were a few patterns out there but of course way too big. 

I designed the block on grid paper so I did not get the proportions wrong. Originally, I wanted to create the camera like paper piecing but it quickly became obvious this was too small a scale for that technique.

I chose a printed white on white background fabric.  Based on the grid pattern I cut my camera from black cotton fabric and appliqued it to the background.  I cut a 2" circle from silver lame metallic fabric which my sister contributed.  Thanks!  I cut the black and white circle at the same time with my Spellbinder Nestabilities and the Big Shot machine.  Then I cut the black and white again to reveal the silver behind.  These were appliqued to the front of the camera. 

I found a translucent button for the sensor which was sewn on with silver metallic thread.  I cut silver fabric for the shutter button and the flash.  These were appliqued on with stitching. 

I found a couple of ivory heart buttons and placed those on either side of my word which is a staple for portrait photographers.  I cut the word out with my Stampin Up Little Letters thinlit dies from red and white fabric to which I had ironed Heat and Bond on the back.  I just lined them up and ironed them above the camera.  I then stitched on the heart buttons. I added silver thread light flashes going out from the flash on the camera. 

I lined the square with a piece of flannelette for a bit of padding.  I cut my backing fabric 1" bigger than my 6" front square.  I then pressed the binding to the front and pinned it very carefully.  I then stitched it down with a straight stitch.  

I added my name in permanent marker in the bottom right hand corner.  It will be off in the mail this week.

Upgraded Photo Studio

I have made a few changes to the photo studio in the last few weeks.
The upgrade to the photo studio started when I rescued these plastic corrugated plastic panels from a soaked Ikea door on my walk in the morning.  The door was just particle board and it had rained a lot the night before so the frame just came apart.  I released 6 panels from the door.

The door was similar to this one but with panels.

I brought them home, washed them up and had to push some dirt out of the channels with a skewer.  It took some time but now I have great translucent panels that can diffuse light wonderfully.  They measure 15" T x 19.5" W.

 

 

I asked my brother in law when they delivered the sewing machine if he could make some supports which would allow me to stand the panels as I chose.  I sent a 2x4 and a plastic panel home with him.  When I visited in early August they were ready. 

They are great because I can have a small profile, they can support the panel from bottom or side, provide in nice snug fit so make a sturdy structure.

This black base was the shelf that sat on the support in it's previous life.  It was just sitting around and I went "Why don't I use that for the base?"  It's black which is good.  It is larger than the bases I was using.  

So I placed it on my pine shelf and snugged stuff to it.  The space measures 21" W x 24" D.

That left me space on the left hand side for props, objects and whatever I need for a given photo shoot. 

This is the backdrop support at the back of the space.  It holds whatever I want to use as a background for my photograph.  I use plastic, lace, metallic mesh, and a lot more stuff depending on what I am photographing.  

It could be sturdier if it had supports on both ends. I will put my thinking cap on and come up with a stand that I can make which would work better. This works pretty good.

Now the lights for the studio are stored on the metal shelf across from the studio.  It is behing me when I am taking photos.  The small clip lights just clip onto the shelf support.  The larger lights are stored on hooks attached to the top shelf and just hang down along the side of the shelving unit.  I have had the hooks for a while but this the perfect place to use them. 

I added a power bar along the bottom of the shelving unit which allows the lights to remain plugged in all the time or shut them all off with a flick of a switch on the bar. 

I found some LED light bulbs at IKEA which work well for the E17 base lights I have. The small clip ones and the IKEA lamps need this size bulb.

The camera case has it's spot on the metal shelving unit.  Just a clip and it is easily on my shoulder ready to go.

There's a clip to hold the tripod.  I have added a black ribbon to the head of the tripod and that just gets hooked onto the metal hook.  

I was sure glad that I had about a dozen of these hooks and a sturdy metal shelving unit for all the extra photo stuff.

 

There's a bit of space between the stand and the boxes to store extra plastic panels, reflector, white reflector panels, and color gels.

I am very happy having made the decision to have a permanent space for my photo studio.  It is a horizontal space that is always available and everything I used has a place to be stored!  

Clean up is quick and easy!

Recent Snapshots

Here is a few flowers I captured on my walk this morning.  The left is a nice yellow speckled flower. Is it a lily?   The pink center one is a Cosmos.  There was a full bed of them it was great to pick out a few for photos. The right is a nice purple color but again I do not know it's name.

I took a trip to the country to celebrate my aunt's birthday.  We spent some time on Saturday at a local fair which is so much different that city events.
My aunt's husband was driving this truck in the parade with one of the many local celebrities.  We watched the parade go by and the kids caught a lot of candy.

We visited the local museum.  I captured this old camera used in the 1920's by a local person and it was donated by his family.

It is a Kodak as indicated on the metal support which locks the camera closed when put away.

It features leather, metal and wood resulting in a quality product.








The blue jay was having a great time in the bird bath.  As you can see the water splashing a lot.  I love how I captured the water drops.

He came out with a spiky hair do!






Sharing with
Through My Lens #108 hosted by Mersad at Mersad Photography.

Cards - Tab Closures

I made a couple of cards for my exchange group.  A Stampin Up Card Base Pop 'n Cuts XL die has come my way and I didn't know it created a card which closes with slits and tabs.  That was a super surprise. I've done some research and there are interesting projects to come.
For these cards I cut the double sided card stock with the card base then folded it in half.  For the blue one I used Make a Wish Dandelion paper from Pebblesinc.  I cut a SU Lattice Die in white and adhered it to the card front in the tall orientation.  I punched a couple of SU Five Petal Punchies in deep brown then 2 small white Five Petal punchies and adhered them onto the brown ones.  I added a bit of a centre with a marker.  These were mounted with 3D foam tape. I added a greeting in the bottom right hand corner with a SU Modern Label punchie in white stamped with a stamp from the Small Script Stamp Set. I punched a brown punchie same card stock as the flowers, cut it in two crosswise and offset them to the back of the greeting layer.  This layer was then adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.

 This second card was cut with the same card base die.  I used this map card stock with a deep red on the back side.  I cut the Tim Holtz Camera Mover & Shaper from the same card stock but with the red in front.  I cut it twice and then layered some pieces from the second onto the first so I would have map accents on it.  I used a strip of white card stock which I put Distress Stain in Antique Linen and Gathered Twigs to help it coordinate with the card stock.  I then cut the sentiment with the Stampin Up Little Letters dies and adhered them onto the colored strip.  I ran the edges of the strip into the dauber of Gathered Twigs stain.  I adhered the strip to the card front. I wrapped the card front with several layers of kraft twine and knotted it on the front. I then adhered the camera to the left of the sentiment with 3D foam tape.  Note the card is being used in the reverse manner from the first one hence you only see the red tabs showing through the slits.  Very versatile die.