completed work

You are currently browsing the archive for the completed work category.

and so it goes

May 27, 2012 in completed work, wedding | No comments

Ashley's Wedding Bouquet

Erics Boutonniere

Time, that aged nurse,
Rocked me to patience.

- John Keats

Since about December, I’ve been totally engrossed in the task of creating fabric flowers for Ashley’s wedding bouquet.  I only wish I had been able to devote more time to posting each flower along the way.  In any case, it’s been lovely delicate work and I have enjoyed every minute.  And now it’s done.  I finally delivered her bouquet and Eric’s boutonniere yesterday afternoon, in the pouring rain.  Would you believe today is the wedding?  Yes I agree I may have cut this one a little close.  Well here we are, yesterday’s rain is a distant memory.  Today the sky is blue and the sunshine is dazzling.  I wish Ashley and Eric many love-filled years ahead.

As for me. I’m feeling pleased and at peace with the finished pieces, and oh so eager to return to my regularly scheduled programming.

sage green flowers

March 1, 2012 in completed work, wedding | No comments

Sage Green Fabric Flowers

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

These sage green fabric flowers for Ashley’s bouquet started out as something like this tutorial from the Weddingbee.  I digressed by adding a few sparkly sheer ribbon petals.  OK moving along, 5 flowers done, 30 or so more to go!

ashley’s flowers

January 26, 2012 in completed work, wedding | No comments

Purple Ribbon Flowers

Upon the mound where my pearl fell,
Tall, shadowing herbs grew bright and sheen,
Gilliflower, ginger and gromwell,
With peonies powdered all between.

- translated by Sophie Jewett

The last couple days I’ve been immersed in stitching up ribbon flowers for my friend Ashley’s wedding bouquet.  Enamored by Mrs. Locket’s fabric-floral bouquet, Ashley requested something with a vintage vibe.  I’ve been collecting just the right colors, and now I’m whipping them up.  Well whipping isn’t exactly the right word, it’s more like sculpting.  This is something I’ve never tried before but I’m already foreseeing how easy it is to go bonkers with all the possibilities.

I fell in love with this soft sheer ribbon in gorgeous shades of purple and green. Not at all difficult to do, thanks to a very easy to follow Ribbon Flower Pin Tutorial I found at Make It Do.  So far my strategy is to make a flower, then make it again a little bit better.

little pod

February 25, 2011 in completed work, gemstone, necklace | No comments

Macrame with Pearl Nuggets

& it’s you & me in the summertime
we’ll be hand and hand down in the park
with a squeeze & a sigh & that twinkle in your eye
& all the sunshine banishes the dark
& it’s you I need in the summertime
as I turn my white skin red
two peas from the same pod yes we are
or have I read too much fiction?

- The Sundays

     

I’m oh so missing summer, and being able to listen to songs I long ago purchased but the digital rights have expired. Double Ugh! So this morning I repurchased The Sundays, Summertime with it’s reference to a pod which becomes…

…a vague segue to one of two podlike shapes I created last year. They have become my favorite micro-macrame pieces of late. Even in their unfinished state I have enjoyed staring at them. Over time I have introduced them to various elements, and now I’m finally happy with all my arrangements. I wish I could tell you what the iridescent stones are, but I plum forgot to ask when I bought them. Hanging and dangling are tiny pearl nuggets and Amazonite. The macrame was worked in Conso and C-Lon cord. The sterling silver chain and twist wire jump rings have long been in my stash.

two little skirts

February 4, 2011 in completed work, sewing | No comments

Two Little Corduroy Skirts

You can tell by the way
she walks that she’s my girl.
You can tell by the way
she talks that she rules the world.

You can see in her eyes
that no one is her chief.
She’s my girl
my supergirl.

- Reamonn

   

Really, really trying to complete a macrame necklace, but I got sidetracked by some pretty corduroy prints. These two little skirts are for my granddaughter Tallulah who likes skirts and dresses way better than pants (my kind of girl), and really likes pink better than any color on earth. The pattern is Kwik Sew 3541. I slightly altered the pattern to flare out a bit more at the bottom, and just to be different I turned the ruffle into a pleat.

vintage poppy jasper

January 8, 2011 in completed work, necklace, vintage | 2 comments

Macrame Necklace with Vintage Poppy Jasper Donut

All the things we hide in water
hoping we won’t see them go—
(forests growing under water
press against the ones we know)—

and they might have gone on growing
and they might now breathe above
everything I speak of sowing
(everything I try to love).

- Annie Finch

     

Is there a bit of mystery to what seems a floating donut? No, not really, there’s a hole drilled through the back side. I bought it about 20 years ago and wore it hanging from a simple macrame cord fashioned out of a medly of rayon embroidery thread, à la friendship bracelet style.

I love bringing vintage beads back to life with a brand new design. Or in this case a new take on the v-neck design I finished with a chain last week. This one has been completed for some time, so I thought I’d better hurry up and post before I gift it. The donut and little bead near the clasp are both Poppy Jasper, the zig-zag of cords are all Conso, the beads are size 11 seed beads and 4mm fire polish in garnet, and the gold filled chain was made from my own cut links.

fickleness I guess

December 23, 2010 in completed work, necklace | No comments

Micro-Macrame with Small Blue Donut

And if I loved you Wednesday,
    Well, what is that to you?
I do not love you Thursday–
    So much is true.

And why you come complaining
    Is more than I can see.
I loved you Wednesday,–yes–but what
    Is that to me?

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

           

Out of nowhere I decided to finish this micro-macrame necklace I started a little too long ago. At the time I was in love with the idea of shaping a necklace to fit a v-neckline. So very symmetrically worked in Conso cord with a simple pale blue donut. It’s somewhat adjustable now that I have added a section of gold-filled chain at each end. Sweet and simple and finished. Finally.

newest work

October 5, 2010 in completed work, necklace, pebbles | 2 comments

Macrame w/Beach pebbles

And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass.

– Ezra Pound

I’m happy to say my little beach themed necklace is finally done. Although very different from anything I’ve done in the past, it’s a bit more balanced than I expected. You can see that I tend to gravitate toward small delicate jewelry pieces. I do like styles of all sorts but I’m not really so very stylish myself. I fall in love with jewelry when it catches me off guard emotionally. When it conjures up another time and place and earthy atmosphere.

My next thought is to explore this shape and style with some variation that complements this piece. Actually, I’m working towards 3 complementary pieces. One for each of three sisters.

something new

July 27, 2010 in bracelet, completed work | 2 comments


OK really, does the world need one more craft blog?  I’m thinking yes.  I have heard “inside every person there is a book waiting to be written” so I finally decided to create my own outlet for sharing my love of micro-macramé.
How do I love thee teeny tiny knots…  I confess I tend to be very precise and symmetrical in so many of the things I do.  My husband is fond of saying I have “quality issues” likes it’s a neurosis or something.  Well OK maybe he has a small point.  Truth be told I long to create in the abstract – to think in freeform asymmetrical folly.  I’ll be working on that thought and blogging about once a week.  I hope to offer up something you’ll find perfectly knotted.

Here’s the most recent bracelet I made to go with the awesome colors of my hippie-dippy blouse.