Floral Ornament With Rouleau Loop Petals

Is it just me? Has anyone else noticed that time is speeding up? Or least our perception of time? I always thought the older you get, the faster the time seems to go. Then, the other day, a friend pointed out that the kids are noticing it too. Her 10 year old nephew essentially said the same thing. I remember as a kid, time dragged on and I couldn't wait for things to happen.

Anyway, I mention this because I started this flower project on January 13th and it's taken two weeks to get it done. I have more stuff on my plate that I have to attend to, and I really wonder where I'm going to find the extra time.

Back to the flower. Those rouleau loop petals were a bit frustrating to make. I have a tool to turn the strips right side out, but unless you "latch" it just the right way, it's not going to work. So after a bit of trial and error and lots of tugging, I did manage. I think the end result was worth the effort. :)

The Beginnings of a Floral Ornament

I'm still thinking about the quilting for the background mentioned in my previous post. In the meantime, I started a new project. This is the center of a flower to which I need to add petals. I follow Karen Ruane's blog Contemporary Embroidery and I thought maybe using one of her techniques, rouleau loops or prairie points, would make great petals. Now more thinking involved. Sigh.

Cat In Progress

The cat is actually finished. It's the background that's still in progress.

One of my artistic goals for 2012 is to produce more detailed works. The swirly fabric that serves as the cat's body is too perfect to spoil with additional embellishment so I left it as is. I stitched around the edge two times with medium and light coloured embroidery threads. The stitches are so close that they almost looks like a satin stitch.

Now I have to decide what kind of treatment the background fabric should get. Probably I am going to quilt it. I'll know in a day or two after I think about it.

Happy New Year

(Branching out in 2012 - studies in paper and textiles).

Peanut and Friend

Meet Peanut, the Shih Tzu we are fostering over the holidays. Here he is posing with a stuffed toy bulldog that hubby bought for me 25 years ago.

Peanut will be with us until Saturday and then he goes back to the rescue shelter. There are appointments set up with potential adopters, so I have every reason to be optimistic that he will find his forever home in a few days. He has been an absolute joy. :)

A Christmas Rose

Another Christmas ornament. I think it kind of resembles a rose so I call it "A Christmas Rose".

Flower - Christmas Ornament

Here is another Christmas ornament I made for a friend. The face is surrounded with red sequins and seed beads and the background is a Christmas printed cotton.

I have a second flower almost completed which I will post tomorrow. After that I have to stitch one more gift and I'm done. I really wish I had more time but our British food and chocolate wholesale business keeps hubby and me extremely busy from the beginning of November right up to Christmas. On top of that, we are fostering a Shih Tzu over the holidays so I have three dogs to look after until January 3rd.