"Take a Chance" Embroidery & TAST

I have had another very productive long weekend away at our proposed new home site, and my sofa currently looks like this with loads of different house plans and ideas that we are "trying on" for size. I've got to make sure I can fit everyone and everything in. 

It's a very exciting time (but I'm sure it will get more stressful the closer we get to the actual build). At the moment we are in designing mode, and I'm in my element there.

Wahooo......... I have actually managed to get some TAST stitches done on my 

CHANCE Embroidery this week.

The pale pink at the bottom is the Bullion Buttonhole Stitch.

(sorry the pic is a bit blurred)

Some Buttonhole Wheels in a variegated pink/green thread.

This next one is a funny little stitch called the Crested Chain Stitch.

It is meant to have a nice braided effect when worked evenly, but my 'roll of the DICE' called for "irregular stitch", and so I ended up with a happy frilly looking thing. I love how I don't have control over what I stitch on this project. I get so many lovely surprises along the way.

And here is another TAST stitch called Slipped Detached Chain Stitch.

(I think it looks like a row of palm trees on a desert island)

And a photo of the whole of this Chance piece so far, with "roll of the dice" telling me to use: lace, wool, braiding, irregular stitch, couching, and some other things as well that are yet to be applied to this piece.

Ok, back to the drawing board for me now.

Happy Stitching

My Free Form Embroidery of CHANCE Project Update

Just a little bit more stitching (and playing) done on my CHANCE project.

Random choices made by the throw of the dice.

You may have seen the purple stitched circle before, as that was a previous CHANCE stitching. This weeks throws of the dice asked for "circle", "applique", "zig-zag", "ribbon embellishment", and "the number 3" amongst other things. 

This is what has randomly happened so far:

This is not finished yet. Lots more randome 'stuff' to happen yet.

If you missed how this project started I will recap a little bit here (to remind myself too).

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(Recap)

This project is called: "An Embroidery of CHANCE"

My 2013 TAST EMBROIDERY project commences with 3 DICE and a coin-toss

(or is 'die' the correct plural for dice?) 

It will be a true Embroidery of Chance and I am expecting to have a lot of fun along the way.

And to quote my previous post about this project -

CHANCE will determine every aspect of embroidery.
I will take whatever TAST stitch occurs each week - that is the first RANDOM aspect to happen that I have no control over.
And then.......every placement, every thread, every fiber, every stitch, every characteristic, every style - will be taken by chance, and will be innovative, fresh and contemporary.

This project will be FREE FORM embroidery. No plan, no design, no barriers, no idea what is coming up next.

There is also NO finished item planned. The stitching IS the project. '

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(end of recap)

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Happy Stitching

International FreeForm Fiberart Guild Challenge 2013

 The International FreeForm Fiberart Guild 

.

 2013 Challenge Exhibition has 

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 GONE LIVE 

I have created the exhibition book for this year's challenge.

Fun or what!!!

This year our challenge was to create a FreeForm Fiberart work on the theme of

MOTHER EARTH.

46 participants from the Yahoo group IFFFG took part and their fiberart work is included in the book and the online gallery.

Once again, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with this very talented group of fiber artists.

Here is the link to the book MOTHER EARTH.

ALL profits from the sale of the book go the charity (or charities) voted by the members of the Guild. This years charity has not been decided yet. I'll let you know as soon as we have made a decision.

Here are some photos of my fiberart piece for the challenge.

And my description for this piece in the exhibition is as follows:

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Beltane - a Gaelic May Day Festival, celebrates Mother Earth in full bloom.

It is a time when Mother Earth is fertile and abundant, half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.

My free form piece applauds the flowers that Mother Earth brings forth. The fiery reds and oranges that I have used are symbolic of the fires that were lit in the rituals of the Celtic festival. The fires were deemed to have protective powers and were used to protect the cattle and crops, and also to encourage new growth from Mother Earth.

  

Techniques used: Free form crochet, hyperbolic crochet, stitching, plaiting, needle-felting, and fused felting.

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Happy Stitching

Retirement Plans (but not much stitching)

Well, it seems like it's been absolutely ages since I've posted, but it has only been about two weeks.

Things are getting a bit frantic here as we explore all the options available to us in doing a 'new build' home in the Central Hawkes Bay area (with a view of the Ruahine Mountain Range).

We spent most of last week there again. It's about a six hour journey to get there, so we try to get as much as possible sorted while we are there.

Bare block site visits take priority, as we need to get the land in our possession first, but we also need to know what prices everything else will be so that we can get everything we want on our block within our budget.

The bare block, or blocks, we are looking at don't even have a formed road, so that is an extra cost that we weren't originally budgeting for, and then we need water tanks etc. and there is some buried waste that we have to get a bio survey done for. It all adds extra $$$.

The site itself is gorgeous, and I would really like to live there.

So you will, I hope, forgive me for not getting much stitching done at the moment.