Look What I Found!

These are the new Sharpie Fabric Pens, called "Stained". I haven't tried them yet -- am still admiring them in the package. But they are handy when someone is stitching a sample Brazilian dimensional embroidery flower but doesn't feel like taking the time to stitch the leaves. (I LIKE to stitch leaves, and I especially like to draw leaves.)

     But sometimes I'm trying new flowers and know the leaves will be sort of ho-hum. I just draw them on with my fabric pen.

I'm thinking I might use these pens to color in some backgrounds here and there. They are probably a lot brighter than fabric crayons, but you never know until you try.

Before I show you some of the flowers I added "marker leaves" to, I should tell you that I found these at Amazon. I'm pretty sure Michaels, JoAnn's and other craft stores have them, with a coupon, too. Here are some of my tropical flowers from my book (Millefiori #940 - Tropical Flower Garden).

    This Maui Magnolia is made with a double cast-on drizzle, coiled around the bead and tacked to the fabric on one side only.

I wrote the names on the fabric sample with my Micron Pigma Pen. I try to let the ink wick from the pen into the fabric; otherwise, it's easy to break the pen tip.
    You can see that I've taken "artistic license" with the flowers, but that's OK. We are supposed to be creative stitchers!

For the Princess Flower, I made cast-on stitch spokes first and then wove the periwinkle color around and around, going through the cast-on stitch loops only. With a brush marker, you just turn the pen on its side and make a swipe like a comma (or as in tole painting).

This is my version of "Cup of Gold" (Latin name: Solandra).

I like the leaves. If I was using floss, I'd make 1-wrap French knots to edge the leaves -- not too original, but it's fun to try different leaf stitches when you have a lot of leaves on a design.

I didn't draw ALL the leaves on these little sample flowers. This design has contrasting-color leaf veins and highlight edging.  The flower is easy to stitch -- just draw a long oval and satin stitch vertically. Zig zag cast-on stitches over the top, as shown.

      And finally, this is the Sugarbush -- it was my favorite when I made it and I'm planning to use it again on one of my Millefiori designs -- simple stitches, but the petal arrangement causes the change in perspective.

My "Tropical Flower Garden" book is sold out. I'll probably reprint it, but most likely will use a lot of these flowers or stitches in other designs in the meantime.

Next time, I'll have a sample of my BRAND NEW STITCH. I'm making a flower tutorial as we speak (except I need to find another strand of Iris #083 in a matching dyelot). The stitch is a BRAND NEW way of doing one of our favorite basic stitches ... and that's the biggest hint I'm giving at the moment. The tutorial will be on the education pages of our BDEIG Newsletter, The B.E. Wrap-Up, and you will see it posted on the BDEIG Website in a few weeks.

     I think I might make a new flower to share with you here, too.  Next time.

Meanwhile, for your entertainment ...one of my kitties - Cuthbert, who else - has decided to check out packages to see what I bought at the store.

Yes, he has worked himself nicely into a trance. For those who don't know, Cuthbert is a Norwegian Forest Cat and is almost 7 years old. His faithless companion, Emmy, is A Woman of Mystery and is Ageless (meaning we got her at the rescue place).

This is Emmy.

...wondering why I woke her up to take yet ANOTHER picture!

See you soon! I will probably post pictures of REAL flowers next.

Rosalie