Ribbon flower tutorial part II

For the stem I used another TAST catch up stitch: linked double chain stitch. These big flowers needed a sturdy stem. The thread is Caron Watercolors Gobi Sand. It is a variegated thread of which the very light colors appear in the center patch. 

The two ugly beads form the base for buds.

The first ribbon stitch hides most of the bead.

Two more ribbon stitches left and right.

Btw this is really the same fabric as on the photo above.

Some fiddling to neaten the bud.

Two buds finished plus stems.

A little butterfly to complete this corner.

I think the balance is restored quite a bit now.

TAST week 43: buttonhole wheel cup

Finished buttonhole wheel cups flower spray.

The TAST stitch for week 43 is buttonhole wheel cup.

This is a naked block of the crazy violets quilt which will act as the background. 

Dull block, needs a lot of pizzazz.

First a tiny wheel with eight spokes. It's about 0,5 cm. Hard to recognize as wheel on this picture. 

The thread is perlé 5.

Here is the wheel better visible. My plan was to create a flower with a waving edge. Does this make sense? I don't know how to describe it otherwise.

Anyway, this dark orange Kreinik fine braid # 8 seemed perfect for my plan.

In the first round I made one stitch in each buttonhole stitch and look what happens. When you make the stitches loose enough they look like little petals.

In the second round I made two stitches in one stitch of the first round. As this is a stiff thread the stitches lie neatly next to each other. The stitches have to be even of course.

A flower with lots of petals, no waves.

A french knot for the center.

Another catch up stitch: sheaf stitch. I used it to couch down the stems like a little bow.

As it looked stiff I added tendrils. The same Kreinik thread couched down.

Finished.

The June block continued: ribbon flower tutorial part I

Another TAST catch up stitch: Palestrina stitch, used as simple seam treatment.

This picture shows the June block and the adjacent block which is very heavy embellished. I have blogged about it here. To restore the balance some weight must be added on the burgundy patch. At this point I thought it might be a good idea to continue with the ribbon that I sewed on before, just to get more unity. 

However the color of the ribbon doesn't match the burgundy.

As I went through my stash I found this special ribbon with exactly the right colors. There is a small strip on the edge of it that matches the burgundy exactly. But what do I do with it??? I fiddled a bit and....of course....a flower appeared;)

I gathered the ribbon with a threaded needle, the same way as you would gather a rick rack ribbon.

After some pulling and fiddling, actually a lot of fiddling, the flower got its shape and was fastened. 

The inner triangles had to fit in exactly.

The gathered ribbon flower is sewed on and a large golden bead is added. The flower is about 1,5 - 2 cm large.

Three finished flowers are sewed in place, the fourth at the bottom is just on the border between two blocks and will have to wait.

The balance is getting better, I think that I will leave out the ribbon. The color is really yuck.

TAST week 42: Italian border stitch

The TAST stitch for week 42 is Italian border stitch. Perfect for leaves and flowers.

I had this ready made violet and of course it had to find a spot on the Crazy Violets Quilt. You know by now that I am not a seam treatment girl, instead I'll embroider leaves to cover the seams. First I drew templates, cut them out and moved them till I was satisfied. 

The thread is Caron Watercolors (Fuchsia), a nice mixture of fuchsia and purple. As Sharon said, it is a fly stitch with a french knot. I made the leaves the same as I would with simple fly stitches. The knots form a nice vein. 

Sometimes embroidery takes its own way. I had drawn the outline of the upper leaf with a chalk pencil, for some reason the shape changed. Fortunately the lower "wrong" part is covered by the violet.

I want another leaf towards the top extending to the block above and one to the left. That will have to wait till the whole quilt is sewed together.

This looks messy, doesn't it? My plan is to create a flower spray. These green leaves are pieces of lace I cut apart. They are a bit damaged here and there, but they will be covered by flowers in Italian border stitch. 

For the flowers I used DMC perle 5. I filled the petals of the large flowers with three straight stitches. The smaller flowers are in detached chain stitch. In the center is a French knot.

To finish it off I added purple French knots with Kreinik very fine braid #4 and stems in stem stitch.

If you right click on the photo and choose "open link in new window", you get a bigger picture that even can be enlarged.

Back to the crazy violets

For the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 I am working on a crazy quilt with "violets" as theme. These are the first six blocks partly sewn together in their proper arrangement.  Of course the "new" seams will be adjusted as I want the quilt to look as a unity.

The blocks from January to May are completed and can be found here.

The June block is the lower right one.

The naked June block.

The adjacent fabric of the block below is covered with lots of violets.

I want to echo them on the yellow fabric.

In this little flower spray I used two TAST stitches: cast on stitch for the violets, the stitch of week 32, and oyster stitch for the little leaves, the stitch of week 30. Below I have described how I made the violets.

Nearly completed.

When the blocks are sewn together I will make adjustments to blend the violets spray into the violets  fabric.

For now the spray is finished.

The cast on stitch is perfect for little violets. Five cast on stitches, placed on the same manner as the bullion violets.

The thread is a variegated DMC perle 5 and has the same colors as the adjacent orange violets fabric. The hearts are made of french knots (two wraps), also perle 5.

The little leaves between the violets are oyster stitch. First I didn't like this stitch, but stitching them with this nice thread, varying in color from olive green to purple, made me change my mind. Nice coincidence is that this the purple comes back in the ribbon. The thread is House of Embroidery perle 8. At last I stitched french knots to represent buds.

Finished cushion!

Here it is!

If you right click on a photo and choose "open link in new window", you get a bigger picture that even can be enlarged.

The backside.....and the end of the story.

TAST week 41: knotted loop stitch

Knotted loop stitches used for background leaves.

The TAST stitch for week 41 is the knotted loop stitch. Sharon must have read my mind as I needed a stitch to create leaves on the Crazy Violets Quilt for the CQJP 2012. Here is the outline, drawn with a pencil. It can be erased if necessary.

I tried to make the stitches more slantwise, but didn't succeed.

These leaves form the background for a flower spray.

Ribbon stitch flowers.

Looped straight stitch purple flowers and scrunched gathered flowers.

The flower spray isn't finished yet.