Cloud Nine

This is Cloud Nine (Cornus florida). What a lovely name for a flower. It's a dogwood whose name means "In a state of blissful happiness" and although the flowers are white in nature, in Brazilian dimensional embroidery they can be any color we want.
     The flowering dogwood, native to central and eastern North America, is also the "Flower of the Year" of the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc., and each year our designers try to think of interesting ways to preserve these flowers in stitch.

I used an interesting cast-on/bullion combination stitch and made the center veins with a drizzle and two needles. It's one of my BDEIG Seminar classes this coming June, and because the flower of this particular variety is white, I used the lighter color shown below.  In addition, I'm going to once again show a new dimensional stitch that I developed some time ago and named the "Interlocking Stem Stitch". It makes a beautiful raised border and I've used it on several designs, even one time as a cholla cactus skeleton and again as the posts of a stake and rider fence. Most often, though, I use it for a pretty raised border. Here's a picture of the design as I'm teaching it:

It almost looks like a Christmas card, doesn't it? I'll have this Millefiori design ready for everyone to stitch as soon as I stop playing on this blog and finish writing instructions. I hope you all like it.

Rosalie