Taking it easy.....

In between trips to the beach and jetties and doing the thrift store rounds, work has progressed on my Brazilian and stumpwork practice block. Here it is so far.

These are calla lilies. In Di van Niekerk's book she used stamens for the middle yellow piece; I made long bullions. In the right hand flower I came through the fabric and up through the bottom part of the flower and made my bullion with the white petal going every which way. I manhandled it too much and as you can see the right side of the petal slipped off the fabric it was sewn to. Learning from that experience, on the second flower, I first firmly sewed down the lily and then added the bullion. The stems of the lily were two pieces of thick wire covered with #5 Perle. The leaves were satin stitched with #5 Perle over a small piece of felt. The white flower and the leaves were also #5 Perle, and the bullions were Edmar Nova.

This is my pansy patch finished. Here I have a silk ribbon pansy and leaves. Two pansies were embroidered on fabric and then the petals cut out and sewn on to the block. The top right one is done in Edmar, the bottom left I used #8 Perle. The fourth pansy is beaded onto the block. The beads are Delicas and I've only recently found a place in Toronto that has a huge selection - such a temptation! And this is Nokomis Beach looking south towards Venice, Fla.

And this is the view looking south towards Sarasota. Its a glorious beach where you can always find the odd shark's tooth hiding in the sand. It's part of Casey Key, a long thin strip of land separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal waterway. There are beautiful homes on either side of the waterway and many along the Gulf where space allows. It's fun to go for a drive south on Casey Key. Many famous folks have had homes here like Stephen King and Martina Navratilova. One of the homes is like a fortress with cameras looking at you from every angle; it is completely walled with phones at each gate, and there is a seriously strong message to stay off the beach. We used to joke that it was Noriega's refuge. Some of the other homes are so large they could be hotels and way up in the several million dollar range.