hand and lock embroidery project. complete.

I consider myself to be relatively computer savvy, but sometimes I get totally stumped with silly things. Like trying to make a multi-page PDF file the right size to upload onto Issuu. Yeah. So that's why this blog post is occurring today and not this past Monday, when we had our critiques. So voila, an online version of my Hand and Lock embroidery project "lookbook". With the help of my sleep deprived post-call husband's photography skills, I whipped this bad boy up on Sunday.

This was the brief I chose to interpret:

 "Faded summers: Remembered summers and memories of past celebration. Using faded colours and surfaces bleached by the sun, take yourself back to childhood memories on old postcards or old photos of the sea side and family parties. Beach houses, huts and sheds. Vintage street parties, bunting and national flags. Pride. Vintage and loose looks. Light canvas, worn knits, embossed and relief surfaces. Shaded stripes and prints. Relief surfaces and faded brights all should come into play, with textures of worn mesh, old ropes, tattered flags draping and wrinkling, chipped surfaces, rust, large knits and perforations. Faded colours: Pastels, dull pinks, oranges and reds. Greys, coral, lobster, musk. Yellow khaki and beige. Sepia."

I focused on using natural materials, some fabric dyed with golden rod, and only hand embroidery techniques (no machine embroidery).  I really like knitting with natural cotton string (it reminds me of nautical things), so I incorporated that into the epaulettes, the belt, and the knit side panels on the shirt.

It was a fun project. I do wish I'd had more time to play around with other ideas I had, more natural dyeing, and different techniques, but a little thing called the #$%%* Knit Vertical Garden was a little time consuming. But that's ok! It's almost done! And this project is done! On to other projects!

knit, sew, embroider, repeat.

Meg is going to be doing a blog post about what some of the Bees are up to on their own lately. This is what I'm up to RIGHT NOW. Live, from Kate's house. Nonstop crafting. 

pies and cats and embroidery

Still haven't located my camera's battery charger...

On Friday it was art crawl, and also a pie competition in celebration of Roisin's birthday. Amazing! I made a banana cream pie and Erick made an apple pie. It was his first (and according to him, his last) pie ever, and it was pretty delish!



10 pies were submitted in total, and there were 10 winners! Yeah, all the pies were pretty amazing. They smelled and tasted so good. Those are Ted's gourmet pies that Liz is sniffing. The tall one was duck, brandied pears, and caramelized onions, and the one beside it contained roasted golden beets, sour apples, caramelized onions, and smoked ham hocks in cheddar mornay sauce. That one was my absolute favourite. It was to die for! Roisin, you're one lucky gal.



There were 2 apple pies, a pumpkin pie, Gary's poutine pie, a deep dish pizza pie, a chocolate cream pie, and a number of other delicious pastry wrapped desserts. Everyone who contributed brought home a pound of Stirling butter, which is considered one of the top 30 butters in the world! Fact.

That was the exciting part of my weekend. The remaining days were spent inside embroidering and knitting non stop, and watching movies/shows on Netflix, or listening to podcasts. I left the house 3 times: once to drop Erick off at work, once to pick him up, and once to go for a walk in the lovely windy weather.
Now back to knitting and Manhattan. 

a busy bee!

Just over one more week of school left! This week will be a mad dash to finish a number of assignments.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned this here yet: for my last dye and print project we had to propose an idea for a large wall hanging be located in a modern open concept stairwell at the new Sheridan campus that is opening in Mississauga. Everyone in the class came up with a concept, samples, and a presentation board to show their intended idea. On the day of our critique, a panel of judges came in to decide which student would be commissioned to create their idea in full scale for the space. And guess who was chosen? MOI! My idea was to create a large (i.e. 5 by 23 feet) "living wall" (aka green wall, or vertical garden) which will be composed of varying sized panels of green designer felt and many MANY knit leaves and flowers (eventually I'll post a photo so you have a better idea of what it will look like). Anyways, now that I've won I've got a lot of knitting to do once school ends. Lots. In addition to the continued wedding planning/decoration making, Beehive events, farming, etc. I'm going to be bee-sy! Buzzing with activity! A genuine certified worker bee!