Saturday Stitches -> French Knots, part II

Hi!  Welcome back to Saturday Stitches!  This is my collection of embroidery tutorials as I learn more useful stitches for my work.

Click HERE to see all Saturday Stitches posts

Lately I've had requests from a couple of people for this post. (Thank you!)  With all the french knots I've been doing, it was suggested that I show how to get the different sizes of knots.

Canola Summer, 2012  (detail)

It's so simple to do!  I'll show you.

* From top to bottom, there are examples of how the size changes by the number of threads or strands you use at once.  You can even use yarn.  Heck - you could use a shoelace!  Basically, the knots will be bigger if you use thicker threads.

* From left to right, there are example of how the size changes with the amount of times you wrap the same amount of thread around the needle as you embroider.  For me, three wraps is too lumpy and chunky, though that has it's applications for sure.  One knot is very much 'a knot'.  I nearly always stitch a French Knot with 2 wraps because I like the way it looks.  It has more of a donut or nest shape and it's easier for me to get them looking uniform.  For teeny specks like snow or stars, one thread with one wrapped knot is also shown... VERY VERY small.

* There are other ways you could change the look of your knot, like by wrapping looser to create open loops.

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies, 2011 (sold)

So there you go!  If you need a French Knot refresher, click the Saturday Stitch post HERE for the tutorial.  You'll see it at the end of that post, so scroll through.  To see all Saturday Stitches posts, go up to the My Tutorials section in the menu bar at the top of this blog. Bye for now!

Finishing, Framing, and Friends

I feel so stress-free at this moment!  I have enough pieces framed for the Craft Council jurying on Sunday - even without finished the Tipi & Rosehips!  Awesome.

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies #2  (commission / sold)

I am happy that I finally feel that this process is easier than my first couple of times framing my own work.  Oh it was SUCH a learning curve.  I really wasn't expecting it to feel easier.  That's a good thing.

My Sweet Prairie, 2012 (sold)

It's a very nit-picky process.  People tend to look reeeeally closely at my work so it's important to clean the glass so it is completely dust & fibre free.  I swear I hold my breath the whole time.  It's pretty tense.  ; )  So now for the rest of the week, I am finishing a few dozen postcards.  They are all simple 4x6 inch prairie scenes in fabric with no fancy threadwork.  No two are alike which is pretty cool I think.  They are my 'art to mail'.  I have protector sleeves on the way for when I put them up for sale.  I have more stamps I LOVE coming in the mail eventually.  In the mean time, my job now is to trim up the loose threads and stamp all the backs for Sunday.

Fancy-schmancy.  : )

Linking to The Needle and Thread Network! ; )

p.s.  I must give a big warm THANK YOU and round of applause to all the fabulous people involved with TN&TN.  The Canadian WIP Wednesdays have been a real treat.  Feature Fridays is quickly creating some terrific connections.  And Rita (my new co-mod) has been such a great person to get to know.  She's in Ontario and I'm in Saskatchewan.  We've never met before.  We phone each other often now.  Can you believe her family immigrated to Canada on the same line of ships that my family did in the 1950's!?  She also has no middle name, just like me.  WHAT ARE THE ODDS?  What a small, small world.

March - In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion.

March.  Oh March!  What a month you will be.

* Every Thursday night I have Experimental Fibre Art classes for a total of 18 hrs.

* March 11th is the day I get my work juried at the Saskatchewan Craft Council.  (gasp!)  That is in 10 days.

* March 18th is the day the embroidery guild puts up a double display at the Centre Galleries.  I plan to put the Spirea into that one.

* March 24 is a sneak-peek art show that Creative House has invited me to do.  I'll talk briefly about my work, and do a machine demo (they sell Janome). Nervous?  Yeah, a tad.  I'll post details on that later in the month. I know there will be refreshments and door prizes.  Oooh!  Exciting.

* March 29 is when I put my work up for sale at Gardenscape for 3 days & volunteer there (with traffic of 25,000+ people).

* April 4 (we'll count that as March too), I am doing a presentation for the Bridge City NeedleArts Guild.

WHEW!  After that - all my work goes to new homes, and I start fresh with a new body of work.  In the mean time, March is also the month where A Needle Pulling Thread comes out.  Wait until you see what they have done!  My head is spinning.

I want to let you know that I'll need to blog less for a while, but that never seems to happen!  I'll spend the summer off with the kids, and then get back into it with teaching in the fall.  Pretty exciting!  In the mean time, my husband is pushing me to do a book or video classes, but oh man.  Some day.  Some day!

In the mean time, I have been working on this:

Tipi and Rosehips, work in progress...

I'm so at peace with this.  You might think it looks like crap at this stage, but hold tight!  It's the back drop for the tipi and rosehips, with the dry grasses poking up out of the little bit of snow from last November.  I'm pretty sure I can get it done by the jurying session.  It's a sister landscape to this one.

At the Buffalo Jump, 2011

I just picked up the last of the double mats from the shelves at Michael's lastnight.  Talk about LUCKY.  What they had left was exactly what I needed to get ready for the jurying session.  These are all ready for framing.

Stitchin' away...  framing next week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Things I Love Thursdays

I love details.

The Buffalo Jump, 2011 (detail of lichen rocks & grasses in November)

I love the colors that inspire me!

Spring Greens, 2012 (detail)

I love each season.  I love to stitch them.

Spring Greens, 2012 (detail)

I love finding beauty in unexpected places.

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies II, 2012 (commission detail)

Most of all, I LOVE what I do!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

~Monika

Finished It! Friday

I have to finish the edges and then mount & frame it still, but the thread painting is done!  Here is a commission I finished for K.  She saw my Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies at the Centre Galleries last fall and really wanted this scene.  It was already sold.  I told the first buyer that this might happen and she was okay with it.  No two are ever identical as they are all hand done - so in that sense, everyone gets an original.  I certainly don't mind!  I loved this one and barely spent much time with it.  It was sold before it was even finished last year!  Here are some pretty details of Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies 2, for K.

Prairie Lilies, grasses & weeds at the bottom of the fence post.

Trees out on the horizon.

A beautiful day with pretty clouds.

Grasses and wolf willow behind the barbed wire.

That's all I'm going to show you!  I want K. to be the first to see the whole thing.  She won't be getting this for a while since I'm having it juried with the provincial craft council some time next month.  I need a dozen pieces on hand, so everything I'm making now needs to stay put for a bit.

Thank you K.!  I really enjoyed stitching this one for you.

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies, 2011 (detail)

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies, 2011 (detail), a photo by My Sweet Prairie - Monika Kinner on Flickr.

Friday Finish! This commission is done now. I am so proud of this one. I hope they love it. : )
~Monika

WIP Wednesday #15 @ TN&TN

It's Wednesday!  Here's what I'm working on...

wrapping, wrapping...

I've been sorting my floss, threads & fibres.  It's a great way to sort the little bits, and a great way to use up unwanted business cards.  : )  Bigger stuff has been put in clear ziplocs.

I've been preparing to set up my art for Sunday!  Whoa - I just had a sudden wave of nerves as I wrote that.  lol  I have decided to leave "A Prairie Dress" out of it since it will be part of the SCC's 'Seeds' show only a week after the Centre Gallery exhibit ends.  So, I've been thinking and thinking about what to replace it with.  I want something that will make people notice when they walk down those busy halls full of art.  Suddenly, I had it!  I phone up my friend Patti, knowing that show lives on the farm.  I asked if she has an old milk can or two for me to use.  She has something even better!!  Check out what she left on my doorstep the other morning!!  IT WILL BE PERFECT, and I'm setting it in front of my white fence gate : )))

Patti rocks.

I got my labels in finally!  So I'm putting them all on the backs of each piece of art.  I have nine in total, assuming that this one gets finished.  It's already been sold FYI.  It's not done yet.  It needs a bit more thread work by machine and then I can embellish the flowers by hand.  Here's it is so far...

There you go!  That's what I've been up to.  In the mean time, I've put my Snips n Snails quilt up for auction.  ALL procedes go to charity.  Bidding ends at midnight on Thursday Dec 1st.  You can read all about it here:

In The Spirit of Giving

Linking to The Needle & Thread Network.  If you stop by there, please join to keep up to date with what's going on.  Even if you don't blog, you can still follow by email.  Once we get 100 followers, there will be artist/stitcher profiles.  All the best!

Friday Finishes

I have been no-net for 2 days.  Here's the proof that it's all good.  I got many things accomplished.  I finished the second 'Flax at Jackfish Lake' and it is stunning.  My second-time-arounds really go together easier and the colors just all seem to fall into the right places.

Flax at Jackfish II, 2011 (detail)

I love the way the evergreens sink into the flax field!! I love the slight curve in the foreground.  I love the land on the other side of the lake.  I am super happy with this one.

I did a lot more work on the Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies from the last blog entry.  The wolf willow has been stitched in.  I may add some light silver highlights.  The post is in.  I did a few more grasses, and then began looking for the right color to stitch in the prairie lilies.

Wolf Willow & Prairie Lilies in progress... SOLD

Yeah.  Really.  It's spoken for!  My head is spinning - half my work is sold already!  I am just aching to go thread shopping.  Oh let me tell you!  lol 

Notice there were no prairie lilies stitched in yet?  

I looked through my stash with no luck.  I recalled that I had red dye left over and died some floss I had made yellow earlier.  No luck.  I even dunked a brown skein into the red to see if I could get the right color.  Nope.

New dyes.  Useful, but not what I need right now.

I went to Periwinkle and the floss was either too rusty, or too light.  What a tricky flower!  I'll try one more shop...  In the mean time, I made up this little baby!  I started it a couple afternoons ago and have been plugging away at it.  It's complete.  I've signed it and everything.  It's a row of trees up at Cedar Lodge as you look back over to the canola on the other side of the lake.  You can't see the water of Blackstrap Lake from there because the hillside is VERY steep.

Twelve Trees.  3" x 9"

That's right folks.  Monika put trees into her art.  Sorry that's blurry - I snapped a quick pic in the dark to show you.  Once it's finished and I get a sunny day, I'll do a retake.  Believe it or not, I bought the right size of matting and frame first!  This one was a surprise finish.  I had planned to put the curly dock at Bergheim Road into that frame.  I suppose I can get more.  I'm really glad about how well Twelve Trees worked out!  Those tree lines are everywhere, planted as windbreaks around farms.  I love how they were planted in a row and properly spaced, yet the trees are certainly individual.  They have a lot of character.  p.s.  I did recreate each trunk as they were.  I thought they deserved that.  ; )

Have a great weekend!  Happy Turkey Day to my American friends.