Whisper of Springtime

Remember the design I stitched last fall for our BDEIG Scholarship Fundraiser Quilt?  If you'd like to have a chance to win this art quilt for yourself (It's approximately 40" x 50"), click the link above. All income from ticket sales supports scholarships to our BDEIG Seminars.

I wrote about stitching the block here. You can see some of the work while I was stitching. I did an interesting combination of cast-on stitches and wraps for the lilac blossoms and I added a pretty enameled button from Susan Clarke Originals.

Shaded floss (EdMar's 100% rayon Z-twist) adds such pretty depth to these lilac racemes. I went through my stash and pulled out 2-3 shaded colors and a couple of solids, plus some extra skeins with only a few strands left. Mother Nature isn't picky, so why would I want to be?

I've used this lilac stitch previously, on my Millefiori design #951 "Seasons of the Butterfly". Here's a picture, upper left corner:

Those butterflies are all embroidered. I edged them with a dark, contrasting color and they look like appliques. I also shared the technique for stitching the lilacs with a lighter-weight floss in my book, "An Artist's Garden". Here's a picture of the cover. I added the lilacs here, too. I guess you can tell it's one of my favorite flowers.

Plus,

I have LOTS of them growing in my garden!

But before I take you on another endless photo tour of my garden, here's a picture of the final design, which I've named "Whisper of Springtime", and which will be one of my classes at this year's BDEIG Seminar in June (and also available for stitching soon).



I also discovered a way to make just one stitch and have it look like I made an entire bank of flowers! It's just amazing the things you can do with a few basic stitches and no rules (That's the creativity and the fun of doing Brazilian dimensional embroidery!).

Rosalie