First in a Series

In my first post, I explained that my original reason for starting a blog was to document my “embellishment extensions,” taking a simple embellishment and adding to it to create an even better effect. This embellishment is a simple piece of venise lace, originally ecru in color. I used permanent calligraphy pens to dye it green. I do this by wetting the lace, then dabbing the ink on and letting it sit for a few minutes. I often do this from the back side of the lace. The color bleeds around the lace nicely, and if you don’t get enough color, you can simply hit it with the pen again. The color of the pen I used is called ‘evergreen’ and is quite a dark color. After allowing it to bleed around the lace, the color is a lovely soft green.

After tacking the lace down with silk thread (which is nearly transparent when you make tiny stitches) I placed a detached chain stitch in most the little dimples at the ends of the fronds. I felt that it needed something more, so I added some red-pink lined transparent irridescent beads to the base of each stitch. The beads are more glitz and shine than visible as actual beads. I auditioned several beads before choosing them. I often buy transparent beads, which I then have trouble using because they don’t show up on the fabric. This is most often a problem when working with dark fabrics, which I tend to use more than light colors. However, in this example, the transparent beads are just what I needed.

Until next time…

A Finished Tree

As promised, only just yesterday, I’ve finished the tree motif, and can call that little section of the project complete. The same cannot be said of the rest of the block, but you’ve got to start somewhere. And then, if you’re me, skip around a bit. This project is the “outer shell” of a hussif I have designed for carrying around my sewing tools. It should probably be made of something more durable, but this was the whim at the time I was designing the project, and I intend to go along with the original plan and finish this block for its intended use. I did make another, with the outer shell being a pretty green suede, scavenged from a pair of shorts purchased just for the purpose of recycling the leather. This is what the interior of the hussif looks like. A hussif is old English for housewife, and refers to the sewing kit carried by soldiers for repairing their uniforms. I wanted something I could keep basic tools in all the time, and not have to go looking for them. I made another one, so I could document the pattern as I went along. This one is configured a bit differently inside, as I’m using this one for my knitting tools. It works very well, and I’ve enjoyed having it in my knitting bag. Right now it’s at my local quilt shop, as the sample for a class I’m teaching later this month.

I need to explain the odd looking curved stripe in the upper pocket. I was down at my LQS where I sew most Thursdays, and had just grabbed some scraps to use to make this one. One of the scraps was the discarded back of a jacket I made for myself some time ago. I got the piecing arrangement backwards on this one, and had to make another. This piece ended up in the scraps and I had intended to just cut a piece of fabric the right size from the piece. My good friend Pam suggested I incorporate the curve, and it was a great idea.

Oh, I was talking about the tree, wasn’t I? See how easily I get sidetracked? Okay, so here’s the tree, in its little field, complete with bird, fence and a few flowers. I really like the effect of adding some ‘environment’ for the tree, it gives it a little more character. Pardon the fuzziness, I usually have better luck scanning rather than photographing, but this one’s blurry on the left side. This is most likely because I didn’t use a hoop, and we have a little puckering going on.

While we’re talking about variegated thread, we’ll see a bit later that it isn’t the best thing for bullions, but I should have expected that. Meanwhile, here’s an excellent use of variegated thread, by Debbie of Needle Lil More Time to Sew. Scroll down to the September 2nd entry on the muscari flower. What a great flower and great control of the medium. Oh, and look, I learned how to put links in my blog.

Until next time…

Variegated Threads - Round 3

Sooner or later proved, as it often does for me, to be later. At the end of my previous post on variegated threads, I mentioned that I was going to road test the Caron Wildflowers in the Black Forest colorway on a tree trunk. True to my hopes, this thread does make an outstanding tree trunk. As variegated threads go, this one’s a winner, especially in this application. Whether it was chance or good fortune, one of the lighter areas of the thread landed just along the left hand side of the tree, and not so obviously anywhere else that I got a nice looking highlight on that side. Working from a bare chalk outline, I started at the bottom of the left side of the trunk, worked my way to the end of the branch, and then started back down again, not from the tip of the branch but ‘down’ the branch a little ways. From there I did the other main branches, top to ground, later going back to fill in any gaps in the stitching. The tiny branches off the larger branches were an afterthought, added with the last bit of thread on my needle after the main tree was complete. There was a big chunky mess near the top of the center branch, but I didn’t bother to take it out, knowing it would get some leaves shortly.
After the trunk was complete, I began adding leaves. Using my all time favorite stitch for foliage, the detached chain (aka lazy daisy), I started adding leaves. I made a point of having the leaves cross over some of the branches, just as you would expect to see foliage on a tree obscuring some of the trunk.The thread is one strand each of two different colors of DMC floss, though the colors are so similar they look the same. I was looking for a little depth by using two colors, but it is much more subtle than I was trying to achieve. So, if you’re going to blend using two different colors, they need to be a little more different than the shades I chose. Who knows, it could have been two skeins of the same color number. I have a bad habit of selecting the same shades over and over, only discovering the duplication when get it home. I discovered 3 skeins of the same pink the other day, all right next to each other in the box. It is a pretty shade of pink…

Now for the blossoms. Determined to make use of my several skeins of DMC variegated pink (color#48), I cut off an entire length of the thread, from lightest all the way to where it was darkest and beginning to go light again. I split it into two groups of 3 strands. Setting one group aside, I removed one of the three strands from the other two and turned it the other way around. So, it had two very light strands paired up with one very dark strand. What I mean to say is that at one end, two strands were very light and the other very dark. The other end had one very light and two very dark. I tied my knot in the light/light end, and began making colonial knots starting at the left end of the leftmost branch. Remember, I’m left handed. I worked my way to the trunk, about which time I discovered that my knots didn’t look so multicolored anymore. I had reached the point on the thread that there wasn’t a lot of contrast between the strands. I puttered around the center of the tree for awhile, until the three strands were all the same color. At this point I cut the thread, tied it off and then cut the rest of the ‘all-the-same’ colors off the remaining thread and started up again. There was a section of about 8″ that I didn’t use at all. At that point, I realized that I should be skipping all over the place with my knots, instead of going to the nearest next good place to put a knot. This gives better balance and puts dissimilar knots near each other. Floss is cheap, and it’s ok to waste a few inches in the interest of better looking work, or just in being satisfied with what you’ve done. The last four knots are the ones falling from the tree, and I did them twice before I was happy with them. The first four came at a point in the thread where the colors were too similar, so I cut them out and used the other end of the thread, where there was more contrast.

If you’re going to skip around while doing this sort of work, either make sure not to pull stitches too tightly, or use a hoop. Since most of my work is wool and has lots of body, I seldom use a hoop, but even with the wool, it pays to keep an eye on your tension.

Alas, this tree is not out standing in its field all alone, and a future installment will show the surrounding grass and a few other little things to give the environment more character. DD thinks the tree needs a bluebird, but I’m still on the fence about adding fauna to my flora. Hey, maybe I should make a fence in the background for the birdie to sit on. That sounds like a plan.

Until next time…

Ribbon Roses

Today on the Hand-Embroidery list, we were talking about ribbon roses, and what different types of ribbons were suitable. Of course silk comes to mind, but you can use other types of ribbon as well. I’ve used both single and double faced polyester satin ribbon, gros grain ribbon, and wire edge ribbon. Ombre ribbon creates a nice effect when making folded ribbon roses.

This photo is the lapel of a men’s sportcoat that I jazzed up a bit. The original inspiration came from watching a guest on the Carol Duvall show. She had several blazers dressed up with a variety of materials. While she used fabric glue - gasp!! I elected to sew all my embellishments onto the jacket. Some of the materials used are vintage, and I wanted to be able to reuse them later if I got tired or something happened to the jacket. The white trim around the edges is rayon bobbin lace, the likes of which I’ve never seen before or since.

The top bright pink ribbon rose and the third bright pink one down are made with gros grain ribbon. Most of the rest of them are made with single face satin ribbon in various widths. Add a little greenery with ribbon leaves and tendrils, and you get a nice layout. I tucked in a few silver toned buttons here and there for visual interest. Though the photo doesn’t do a good job with colors, the jacket is a dark gray pinstripe and all the embellishments are in the pink-mauve-burgundy family.

On the opposite side of the jacket there are fewer things, but I didn’t want the two sides to look alike. There’s a piece of vintage tatting, a wired ribbon rose or two, some leaves and a really cool old glass button. The velvet flower is made of velvet ribbon, gathered tightly on one edge, formed into a circle and then stitched down around the outer edge. A pearl button finishes the center.

On the pocket below, I used some vintage lace that appeared to be from a cuff of a blouse. Below that is some soutache braid that had a bit of metallic woven into it. The burgundy trim on both lapels is a purchased soutache braid. The color on the photos isn’t very good, which is why I usually scan my work instead of snapping pictures. This time however, there was too much dimension for it to scan well, so I used the digital camera. A newer camera with a macro setting is on my shopping list.

Until next time…

Speaking of Paisley…

I seem destined to skip around from subject to subject with this blog, as I haven’t had much time to work on that tree trunk with the lovely brown thread, but other subjects have come up about which I want to write.

There has been much discussion of late on the subject of paisleys, and I couldn’t resist jumping into the fray. I love paisley motifs, because every one can be different, but still carry a common theme. The pictures below are of the lapels of a jacket I made a couple of years ago.

It started with a pattern for a chenille jacket, but of course I didn’t want to make it in chenille. I shopped around for a tapestry style fabric that I could love, and discovered one with paisley motifs all over it, in lots of pretty colors. Of course when I bought the fabric, I was thinking of embellishing the individual paisleys here and there on the front of the jacket. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea to emulate the paisleys from the fabric onto a solid color lapel. The lapel in this pattern is the lining folded out to the front side. The original lining I purchased was a hunter green damask (which I still have languishing in my stash), but when I found a red merino wool turtleneck to wear under the jacket, I had to kill the holiday image created by the red and green and so went with a more versatile black lining. The lining is silk dupioni scavenged from a formal gown found in a thrift store.

My process was this: I basted the shape of the lapel onto a rectangle of the silk, and then used a Q-Snap frame modified to fit the shape of the rectangle. With the old style Q-Snaps, you can cut your own PVC pipe pieces to any size you want. My frame was about 8″ by 18″.

Once I had the fabric in the frame, I just drew the paisley shapes with a chalk pencil and started off with needle and thread. No planning, just outline the shape and go from there. The materials are mostly Ed-Mar Brazilian embroidery thread in various weights, a little perle cotton, and metallic machine embroidery thread. The beads were mostly seed beads, in sizes 15/0 through 6/0, bugle beads, and in the centers of a couple of the motifs I forced myself to use some bigger beads. I have a hard time with bigger beads, and always head right for the 15/0’s when I go bead shopping. Bigger beads can give you great texture, and as a side benefit, they can fill a lot of space when creativity hits a low ebb and you just want to be finished with the project.

In this picture, you can see the inspirational paisley fabric. All the while the work was in progress, I carried a swatch of the material around in the project’s tote bag.

These paisley motifs have a lot of beads in them, as I really wanted the texture and reflective quality provided by the beads. Other paisleys I have done were bereft of beads and still look just fine.

When I do a paisley I almost always start at the outside, and work my way in to the center, but there’s nothing that says you have to follow that path. I’ve been known to use a stem stitch outline, and then go around the outside with a blanket stitch to give it little spikes. When I hit stumbling blocks in the creative process, I put it aside for a while until the next right thing to do strikes me. Yes, I do have one on an unfinished project that you can tell is a paisley, but who knows how long it will be before I get the right inspiration to finish the motif. Yes, I flit around from project to project. I have a short attention span.

Until next time…

When is Enough Enough?

From time to time the question arises: “How do I know when I’m done embellishing my crazy quilt?”

My first response to that is to say that ‘doneness’ is often determined by a deadline. The wedding is tomorrow, the birthday is next week, the store owner is anxious to get the class sample before the newsletter goes out.

Though deadlines are the number one cause of ‘doneness,’ other things may decide when you’ve done enough on your crazy quilt.

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: You have a small stash and have run out of thread to work with and things to put on. This will probably only happen to you once.

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: The project is Christmas ornaments and you want to hang them on your tree for at least one day before you take it down for Valentines day.

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: You yawn uncontrollably every time you pick it up and start daydreaming about your next 10 projects. Sometimes you just have to let go…

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: You start calling it ‘that damn crazy quilt.’

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: The recipient sees it, loves it and just can’t wait to have it. Unless you tell, no one will ever know how much you meant to put on it.

You may have done enough on your crazy quilt when: You like it just the way it is.

The photo is a block I used for the brochure for Quilt Wyoming, the annual conference of the Wyoming State Quilt Guild. A deadline forced me to send the photo to the class coordinator before I might have wanted to, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done. That is until you spot a few places that could stand a little more. The gold trim could do with a little jazzing up, as could the feather stitch in the upper right hand corner, and the double herringbone on the right side of the victorian lady print. Oh, and I have a little butterfly for the orange floral motif in the center of the block. Oh, and there’s the lace below that flower motif. It could use a little something on the straight edge. See what I mean? Done isn’t really done until you put the binding on the quilt. But wait, I have a wallhanging I meant to do more on, but a deadline forced me to put on the backing and binding before I did everything I wanted to, and I haven’t touched it since. And I’m not taking it apart to ‘finish’ it.

Until next time…

More to Say About Variegated Threads

Imagine, me with more to say about a subject! This time, I’ve gone too far the other way. In the cretan stitch in the example below, I used Caron Wildflowers in a light blue to lavender colorway (the tag has gone hiding). It has a very subtle color swing. The thread looks gorgeous on the skein, but when I did the actual stitching, you really can’t tell it’s variegated. So, why bother? Another live and learn thing I guess. That’s not to say that the Wildflowers aren’t worth getting. I have a fabulous purple, #006 Amethyst, that will make great grapes. The color swing is wider on this one, and since grapes don’t all get ripe at the same time, it will add lots of character to my next batch of grapes. Probably better even than beads, though as a total bead junkie, I might find that difficult. I love beads, big ones, little ones, teeny tiny ones, but that’s another subject entirely.

While we’re still on the subject of varigated threads, another Caron, #063 Black Forest, has huge potential for tree trunks. This one really does have a narrow color swing, but with lots of stitching in a small area, it will be perfect. It might even save me from blending two different strands of regular brown floss together to get a good bark texture. I selected only a few skeins of this brand, on the excuse that I wanted to be able to have good examples of the differences in characteristics when I teach, but it would have been very easy to go hog wild with all the pretty colors. Tonight I feel like road testing that brown blend on a tree trunk. I’ll be back with a report sooner or later.

Until next time….

Jumping into the Blog Waters for the First Time

Here I am, once again doing something I said I’d never do. I’ve started a blog. I said the same thing about crazy quilting, but I’ve jumped into that with both feet as well. I’m a great admirer of Sharon B of Australia and have enjoyed her blog as well as her outstanding crazy quilt work. On day 11 of her 100 details for 100 days posts she talked about interpretation of ideas and of jumping off points for your own crazy quilting adventures. As much as I’m enjoying Sharon’s work and that of the others who are joining in, I wanted to do something different. Maybe it’s the inventor in me, but sometimes I just have to go my own way. OK, so what’s my plan then? I’d like to take a simple embellishment, say a line of feather stitch, or a piece of lace, show a before picture of it, then embellish it further and show it again. That’s the plan, anyway. I’m calling it “Embellishment Extensions.”

But first, after some conversation on the hand-embroidery list at Yahoo this morning, I posted my rather pointed opinions about variegated thread. In a nutshell, I said that variegated thread often looks better on the ball. In my often disappointing experiences with variegated thread, I’ve discovered that those with a wide color swing can be a problem when stitching. By wide color swing, I’m describing thread that is very light going to very dark and takes a long time to get there, say 2 or 3 feet. If your chosen stitch pattern doesn’t use a lot of thread over a small space, then you’re going to get really light spots and really dark spots. That’s only bad if it isn’t the look you’re trying to achieve. Usually,for me, it’s not. (The look I was after.) What we’re looking at here are the little dots (colonial knots) below the curlicues. I used a DMC Perle Cotton in a beautiful variegated green. I started at one end and worked my way to the other end. On the far left, the dots are a deep green, getting lighter until they are almost white, then they start getting darker again, but not back to the darkest shade. This isn’t the look I was after, and I show this to my students as a mistake. They tell me it looks fine, and I’m certainly not going to take it out, but if I were to do it over again, I’d skip all over the place, waste a lot of thread, and get a more even distribution of the colors. It’s one of those live and learn things.

Speaking of learning, I’m still trying to get the hang of this blog thing, so please bear with me while I get this figured out. Hopefully it won’t take me too long.

Until next time….