Stumpwork pansy, a tutorial

Of course there will be some stumpwork pansies on my crazy violets quilt.

I will show you how I create one.

First I drew the 5 petals of a pansy on muslin.

I don't think the wire is the "right" wire, but it is thin enough and it works for me.

I cut a piece of wire into about 12 cm length.

Actually I didn't use the tweezers to bend it into the shape of a petal.

Well, only once, but it caused an unwanted kink in the wire.

I prefer to lie down the end of the wire on the drawn shape and carefully bend it by hand.

The wire is couched on the muslin using purple DMC coton.

Than I worked very closely packed blanket stitches to cover the wire completely using the same thread.

Than I embroidered long and short blanket stitches inside the petal as close as possible to the wire.

With a lighter shade of purple I filled the rest of the petal with long and short stitch.

All five petals are embroidered.

The most scary part: cutting the petals loose from the muslin.

You have to cut very close to the edge of the petals taking care not to damage the embroidery.

Here they are: five petals ready to put together to form a pansy.

The second part of the tutorial can be found here.

TAST week 8: chain stitch

 

The TAST stitch for this week is the chain stitch.

 I thought it would be a good idea to  use it to hide this seam.

First I sewed it together.



Then I embroidered chain stitches. At the end of each "branch" I used the chain stitch to hold a sequin.

This is the pebble as it looks now.

Beaded hedebo edge

As a seam treatment I added a beaded hedebo edge. It reflects the scallops of the carnation.

The thread I used is Caron wildflowers 059 apricot blush.

You can find the beaded hedebo edge here.

The whole block looks now like this.

I am not sure what to add to the pink patches top right and bottom right.

Lace perhaps.



Pebble progress: handling wrinkles

This is where I am now.

It starts with this somewhat irregular shaped pebble.

The fabric draped over the pebble. Problem: wrinkles.

In the discussion on Stitchin Fingers are all kinds of tips on the wrinkle issue.

I chose to make two folds in the top fabric. The open part of the folds will be filled. The stitched seams will be covered with embroidery.

It looks already better. The two folds are pinned. The other wrinkles are not a big problem. They can be streched or manipulated. The one at the left isn't even a wrinkle, a little tube is trapped there.

I used the fold as a kind of chasm and filled it with gems.

The edges are embroidered with buttonhole stitch.

Further I added somme drizzles, raised cup stitches, french knots and colonial knots.

I used DMC floss.

TAST week 7: detached chain stitch

This is the first post about my Pebble Adventure. I started it together with my friend Deb. I also added a discussion on Stitchin Fingers.

The TAST stich of this week came in handy for this project.

It started with a wooden bead with a very large hole. I decided to attach it to the backing fabric first. That way it would be easier to tighten the top fabric over it.

The center of the bead and the four sides are secured.

More sewing around the bead.

Seen from the side.

From the center of the bead I stitched 6 lazy daisies.

I came up through the hole, made the loop, went down through the hole. I came up at the side of the bead as close to the bead as possible taking care to remain between the fabric and the bead.

Than about halfway the bead I picked up the loop and went back the same way.

This is not certainly not easy to do, as the bead is round and a needle is straight.

Another six lazy daisies.

Seen from aside.

The cherry on the cake.

The second round plastic bead with a small hole is added the same way as the first.

I stitched 8 lazy daisies at the lower half of the bead. The loop part was easy. Than I inserted the needle at the base of the bead and came up in the loop halfway the bead, taking care to stay between the fabric and the bead. I stitched back the same way.

The two trapped beads. Here you can see the finished second one.On top I stitched french knots with DMC coton and DMC metallic. At the base are needle woven picots.

Pebble Adventure

Have you ever seen a photo,that takes your breath away?

That is how I felt, when I first saw this photo.

I quickly saved it to my favorites, vowing someday to stitch my own pebble.

The photo and project can be found here: http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/projects/encrustingcalico/index.html

The project is stitched by Jennifer Rochester with the photos by Ian Cole.

My friend Deb and I are about to explore this project.

We are calling it the "Pebble Adventure".

You will find the complete instructions and needed supplies on the Embroiderers Guild Site.

Deb and I would like to invite you to join us on this adventure into the world of textures.

Post your photos on your blog, on this Stitchin Fingers discussion or on Flickr.

We're off to see the texture, the wonderful texture of stitch....

well, that may need some work.

I hope you will join us!

Love to all, Marjolein

Little flowerspray

I started this little flowerspray with three 4 mm ribbon roses. They are stitched in a running stitch-colonial knot combination, at least the left rose is. I found the colonial knot too big for this size of rose, so for the other two roses I stitched a french knot. A tutorial on how to do it, is here.

Than I added with the same ribbon some french knots. Finally I stitched some beads on and three pale pink beads. These beads have a little hole at one point where they are sewn. It means they don't lie flat on the fabric unless you press them down. May be I will add a drop of glue at the back to fasten them. My problem with glue is that the glue gets everywhere except on the place where I want it to be.

Adding beads

Wednesday, Feb.15th, My friend Deb and I will share with you a fun project we have both admired for a long time. And now we are going to rush into an adventure.

I hope you will stitch along with us. Stay tuned!

 

 

I added some little red Mill Hill beads to the center section of the carnation.

The same beads are added to the hearts of the little pink flowers.

TAST week 6: chevron stitch

This week the TAST stitch is chevron stitch. I stitched it with 3 strands of purple DMC coton.

Than I used two lilac Madeira metallic threads to interlace the chevron stitch, meanwhile adding beads.

A little gold

The fabric with gold in it, is so lovely that I thought it might be a good idea to expand the gold to the center patch. I used a fine Madeira gold metallic thread. I stitched in tiny stemstitches.

Second leaf and some lace.

The second leaf is finished. It is embroidered the same way as the first one. You find it here.

I sewed on a piece of lacetrim, actually two pieces with the straight edges against each other.

It soothes the transition between these two patches.

Than I embroidered pink flowers in detached chain stitch.

Tatted treasures

Some time ago I saw a beautiful tatted edging (the one at the bottom) on Pam Kellogg's blog http://kittyandmedesigns.blogspot.com/

I asked her about it and she was so sweet to send me some.

She also sent me two other tatted edgings as a surprise.

The lilac one in the middle will be perfect for my violets quilt, the upper one is for an undersea project.

This is my first attempt on needle tatting. I hope to tat items as leaves and edgings for my crazy quilts.