Squirrels Go Like This

Eternal Spring: The Monarchs

I love Flickr, I get a lot of ideas by looking at pictures….but it can be dangerous for me to visit it while working on a project. As I mentioned, after seeing this picture, i just had to add a butterfly to my embroidery! I keep on getting more ideas every time…

Monarch butterflies are another icon of México, and boy are they amazing little things. A few days later after seeing it, I printed out Will’s picture, and  worked up a little pattern to draw this pretty little lady.

Males of the Monarch butterfly have two spots on the lower wings, on the black “vein” closest to the abdomen, and the black lines in these wings are much thinner than the females, so I knew the picture Will had taken was of a female.

A little more biology: Some of these beauties migrate from the US and Canada to central México; in specific they travel to the border between the states of Michoacán and México to winter on the oyamel trees of these mountains.  That is where where the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve, a world heritage site, is located.

Around winter time the trees get completely covered with the monarchs to the point that branches bend down (think of how pine trees look after a heavy snow storm) and visitors have said that the wings of the butterflies create a soft rain-like sound. I can’t wait to visit this reserve some day!

Back to the embroidery, I went shopping as I had no orange or black thread and started. The idea was to use double threaded stem stitch for the veins and single thread satin stitch for the thicker lines, also the abdomen had to be padded for it to look round.

After the outline was done I was amazed. I liked what i saw so far:

I wanted to add more butterflies everywhere! But not so fast, let’s finish the first one: Read the rest of this entry »

Eternal Spring - the sweet smell of vainilla*!

I bet everyone thought this had become a photography blog huh? Wrong! I’ve just been lazy (well, lazy to blog; trust me, I’ve been quite a busy bee!).

Not much progress has been made on the runner as I keep on finding things I’d like to add to it so it never seems to want to be done!

Last time I blogged, we left off with the dahlias; both were done in satin stitch, one with the two colors separate and the second one with the colors blending with short and long stitch…well, let’s move onto bouillons and dessert, shall we? But before, some biology:

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If you are lucky to live in southern climates, you might have noticed that bougainvilleas are a lot like Poinsettias; the red/colorful “petals” are actually leaves, the flowers are the tiny yellow/white centers!

So how would you portray that in embroidery? Well i chose to use bouillons in a light yellow color…what do you think?

And after adding the yellow bouillons, AKA the flowers, the flower ovaries were done. These were done with double thread, in brown, because that is what I have noticed in these flowers.

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And now we have this: Read the rest of this entry »

Spreckels on my Ice Cream

Spreckels Organ Pavilion

Yesterday, CraftyAngie finally took me to hear a concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It’s a reasonably unique thing; I can think of only two other permanent outdoor pipe organs in the world (one in Germany and the other, a small one in Salzburg, Austria). Concerts are held weekly at 2pm on Sundays, free of charge, sponsored by the Spreckels Organ Society.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yashica YL

Yashica YL Rangefinder

You’d think my father would know better than to encourage my camera habit with cameras he finds here and there. But you’d be wrong! My father found this Yashica YL at the town recycling center, grabbed it, and gave it to me.

According to this website, the Yashica YL started production in 1959, which means that this is a nearly fifty year old camera. The lens is 45mm f/2.8; there was also a 45mm f/1.9 version available. The lens appears to be a simple 3 element design; the middle element on this one might have a small fungus problem. The lens elements are not coated, as proven by lens flare. (More on that later.)

This is the first rangefinder camera I’ve ever used; it was interesting to see how it’s different to use from an SLR. Read the rest of this entry »

All I want for Christmas…

50mm f/1.4 SMC-M Lens

Folks who follow my Flickr photo stream far too closely are probably aware that we’ve got two 35mm SLR cameras: a Canon Rebel XTi/400D (digital) and a Pentax K1000 (film). I’ve come to appreciate their respective strengths and abilities. I’ve also found that I really wish I could share lenses between them, but of course the K1000 uses Pentax K-mount and the XTi uses the EOS system EF mount.

For example, there are two Canon primes I’d like to get for the Rebel: the 50mm f/1.4 and the 28mm f/1.8. I’d get the 28mm lens to replace the 35mm f/2 we’ve got: it’s a little bit wider, a little bit faster, and has silent USM focusing. (Not that this is going to happen any time soon.) And the 50mm f/1.4, pretty much Just Because. (Probably not going to happen, period…)

Too bad I’ve got a 50mm f/1.4 lens for the Pentax, and intend to get a 28mm f/2.8 for it soon. They’d probably be really killer to use on the XTi. If only… Read the rest of this entry »

Eternal spring 2

First Dahlia finished

So the first bunch of bougainvilleas was finished…i moved onto the dahlias. First Dahlia was done with satin stitch only.

As you can see, the edges were done in a darker pink than the middle…at some point i tried blending it in, but voted against it…I can’t remember why.

For the second Dahlia I wanted to try something different: I wanted hints of color rather than a bold edge. It had to be one of those cream/white ones, with a hint of pink (you can tell that pink is one of my favorite colors in flowers can’t you?)

This was done by using button hole stitch on the already satin-stitch filled second dahlia.

perhaps bouillons might have also worked here.

I could not decide on what to do for the middle in the second dahlia. Should I do bouillons? Should I just fill in with satin stitch? Should I use button hole? I felt like the Wordpress spell check, which right know must be in Spanish mode, as it is highlighting basic words in the English language.

After realizing that perhaps buttonhole might get lost if placed in the middle (as it did on the first bougainvillea bunch, which was re-done) so i went for satin, just made sure they were not on top of each other as that might make them look quite messy….

Read the rest of this entry »

The place of Eternal Spring

Bougainvillea in parents backyard

Early in May of this year, we took a small vacation to México. Boombadeus got to meet some of my first cousins in Guadalajara, we went to one of the youngest volcanoes in the world and to a national park located in Uruapan (Uruapan is know as “the place of eternal Spring” and for their avocado orchards!), a beautiful city close to where I grew up. We also went to Guanajuato, a beautiful colonial mining city.

Besides learning lots about Mexico’s history, he also got to finally see where I grew up and the garden that was my playground.

In this garden, to me the place of eternal spring, he discovered Bougainvilleas (known as bugambilias in Mexico). Well, I am very sure that he saw it in Spain and southern France (as there are pictures) and he definitely saw it in San Diego…but this time he found out the name: Bougainvillea. The name stuck.

In order to celebrate this fact, to remember my childhood, and Mexico in general I started a project. We needed a table runner for the coffee table…so how about embroidering some bougainvillea into it? Well, this is how it all got started…. Read the rest of this entry »

Trolleys are a process

Trolley Car Diner Sign

A few weeks ago, after checking out the Morris Arboretum (located as far northwest as you can go in Philly without actually leaving the city), Craftyangie and I decided to check out the Chestnut Hill/Mount Airy sections of Philly. We also had in mind the idea of going to have dinner and ice cream at the Trolley Car Diner (warning, egregious use of Flash on the website) on Germantown Avenue.

Trolley Car Diner

We actually had tried to do the exact same thing a week earlier, but were completely foiled at our attempts to do by a) getting distracted by the Allen Lane train station, which delayed getting to the Arboretum; b) torrential thunderstorms which closed the arboretum just as we arrived; c) construction on Germantown Avenue itself to repave the street and restore the Septa Route 23 trolley tracks, which made the Trolley Car Diner very difficult to find. (Especially in the crazy rain.)

Wait… back that train up… trolley track construction? I am so there! Read the rest of this entry »

Graflex RB Super D

Graflex RB Super D SLR 3x4 camera

What’s 7 inches tall by 7 inches deep by 6 inches wide, has a big 152mm lens, and a giant mirror inside?

A World War II era giant SLR camera, that’s what. And now, thanks to Marisa’s Closet of Photographic Mystery, I have one of my very own: a Graflex RB Super D 3×4 camera!

Read the rest of this entry »

Scrappy pincushion

What does a craftster do when she’s bored or stressed? She grabs fabric scraps and makes craftsy things with them! Check it out:

The yellowish fabric scraps are from a Purl Soho order placed a few months back. It is yuwa’s tiny daisies (i managed to grab the last yard I think! I wish i had been able to grab more like 4 yards, it’s a very cute fabric!).

Most of this fabric became a blouse, and some of the remainder became this pincushion that I am now using for my embroidery stuff…isn’t it cute?

The pink leafy fabric is from some fat quarters I bought in Lancaster a couple of years back. I don’t even know where I got the ribbon from, but i’m guessing it was from the wedding planning…

Anyway, I think my sewing projects need another pin cushion like this. What do you think?