Fabric Postcards, Litty Bitty Art Quilts, Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery

Our Chinese Pear Tree -- the one that had only 3-4 Pear/Apples last year.

And now, I have decided to entertain you. But first, a story. When I was a little girl in Nebraska, my dad took pictures all the time, every thing possible. I actually have step-by-step slides of the construction of Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River because that's where we went every Sunday after mass. And I have pictures of the mountains in Montana's Glacier National Park that my dad shot -- from every angle, stopping the car every few miles while we were on summer vacation.

And when we ever had company, my dad pulled out the slide projector and the company and my mother, brother, sister and I all sat in our little farmhouse kitchen on kitchen chairs and watched my dad's slide shows on the refrigerator door ("The best screen in the house," he always said).

And we didn't dare to leave. It wasn't like you had a "delete" key on a blog back in The Olden Days. It would have been impolite to go and play with our toys when we had company.  So, now, when I entertain you with my embroidery, my flowers and my cats, you actually do have the option of hitting your "delete" key. But until you do, here are some pictures of some fun I've been having.

Fabric Postcards.
Fabric Postcards are like little pieces of art, little crazy quilts, tiny art quilts, and a lovely way to go through one's stash and find all the things you forgot you had.

Remember my Rosey Posey from a previous blog post? Here's a picture. I taught this flower recently to stitchers from our BDEIG-WOW Chapter Class. By the way, if you would like to learn more about B.E. in your area, click on that BDEIG link above. We have chapters everywhere and they are usually stitching something interesting, often something new. The best thing about stitching chapters is that everyone shares a like interest.

I teach my individual flowers on small pieces of fabric which can be later assembled into a quilt, a crazy quilt, a tote, wearable item, fabric journal other cover -- anything you can think of. I had a sample of the Rosey Posey left (I'll bet you thought I'd never get to the good stuff!):

I thought it might be fun to make fabric postcards, which are really only tiny crazy quilts (or whatever you want them to be), so I did a little online research about fabric postcards. The Internet is a wonderful source of visual inspiration for anything you want to do, and a lot of blogs are filled with step-by-step written or photo tutorials. Here's one you might want to flag (click the blue link). Most blogs also give you the option of following them by email. You can also Google Janet Wickell at about.com for several pages of excellent quilted fabric postcard tutorials.  Here's another. So I decided to give it a try, too!

By the way, you can purchase the printed postcard backing fabric, or just make your own with a bit of muslin and a Micron Pigma Pen, or even set them up to 'fabric print' on your ink jet printer with just some freezer paper and fabric.  Yes, I've heard that the post office even takes them -- probably admiring them at each stop along the way!

Here's a better picture:

By the way, when I took this finished postcard to show my needlework-impaired hubby, he admired the butterfly. --The PLASTIC butterfly! Aaargh! Not my beautiful, original, awesome, amazing, wonderful, unique Brazilian embroidered Rosey Posey.  The plastic BUTTERFLY!! I think he also didn't understand the concept of "fabric scraps" [his words] so I gave him a speedy tute. 
          But he DID say complimentary things, so he will have a nice dinner this evening.

Here are more detail photos:

These are just a few beads from my bead soup and I attached them with gold seed beads to accent the gold threads in the fabric.

The little frog is a plastic button and I added some straight stitch grass with Iris floss. The purple silk cord just above was fastened with zig zag stitch on my sewing machine (I constructed a lot of this on my sewing machine, although I see often see fabric postcards edged with blanket stitch by hand.) If you scroll back up, you'll see that above this satin cord, I used two colors of rick rack and tacked the lighter color with a size 11/o cut bead (do I like sparkle or what?).

This is my newest Millefiori Brazilian dimensional embroidery floral design, which I have named "Heirloom Tulip", and I'll be teaching it this month at our local B.E. Chapter meeting:

This little tulip features needle weaving, blanket stitched side petals edged with a one-loop running cast-on stitch (looks like a knot, but it's not), and long-tailed fly stitch leaves. 
       Well, since I was in a fabric postcard frame of mind, I decided to have fun with this design, too:

Since I was "crazy quilting" two cards at the same time, I tried to make each look different. I'm not sure if it worked, but I sure had fun! Here's a better picture:

The flower is edged with some pretty dark red ribbon that had gold threads, and I tacked the corner with gold beads. I used the one-loop running cast-on stitch to edge the little flower fairy picture, and I changed to 5-loop 'blanket stitch' cast-ons for the other side.

I found that tulip fabric in my 'collection' - it was a drapery fabric sample, I think, but I liked the idea of two different kinds of tulip on one postcard. Here's a closer shot:

I stitched those tiny heart-shaped beads where the tulip flower is. The little purple butterfly is a plastic button, as is the little yellow kitten (I used the splash of yellow because I also had yellow with the flower fairy.), and the buttons are just odd buttons that were sitting in my button box winking and grinning at me, saying "Take me!  Take me!"

This is the little flower fairy, rescued from some fabric yardage, and embellished with Iris pink lazy daisy stitches, a loop of size 14/o pale yellow beads for the wings, some opaque size 11/o yellow beads for the flower center, and blue size 14/o beads for her eyes.

The fabric in the upper corner is embellished with beads. I found the fringe beads left over from another project, so divided them up (different lengths) and attached them through the holes in the buttons.

This was just the best time ever, and I hope these notes have inspired you to also try other things with your embroidered samples.

By the way, don't forget to pull out your Micron Pigma pen and sign and date your project. These are, after all, tiny works of art!

Rosalie

 

Hats and Tomatoes in Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery

OK, it's not exactly painted, but it is a painted background. I'll tell you what I did in a minute, but first I wanted to point you all to the Yahoo group, BDEIG_Online_Chapter, that is introducing more and more stitch artists to Brazilian embroidery. Click that link to join and learn more. Sherry Johnson is the group's listmom, as I mentioned before, and she and members are posting lots of hints and tips for stitchers.


I'm writing this information on my web log here because when I'm finished you will see how long it is and will be glad it isn't loading up the Yahoo group. Currently there is a discussion about painted backgrounds for our embroidery -- I'll let you mosey on over there to read all the hints and tips.


I'm just going to show you here what I did. See the Brazilian embroidery above? --and, of course, all the cats and flower buttons, and that hat!


First of all, I found this picture somewhere online.

Pretty, isn't it? Well, too pretty to not embellish anyway! So I went over to the quilt store or JoAnn's (which is a wannabe quilt store) and purchased a package of inkjet printer sheets. This finished piece is approximately 5" x 7". I copy pasted the graphic onto a Word file, sized it as I wanted, and then popped in a paper-backed fabric sheet, and clicked "print".

By the way, you can also use freezer paper. Iron it onto the fabric you like, nip a tiny bit off the leading corners (so they don't jam your printer) and print your picture. I think the crazy quilters do that all the time.


Freezer paper you can peel off. The paper didn't come off the commercial fabric sheets as nicely, so I just stitched through the fabric, paper and all. Worked great!


Now you are probably wondering about the embroidery. I've had the request for the hat before, so I'm going to publish it here. If you can't get this link to open for the tutorial, just send me a note at the bottom of this post and I'll get it to you.


The flowers are called S.A.M. (Simply A-Mazing) and the instructions are in my book, Take A Stitch by Rosalie Wakefield (me). You make these flowers OFF the fabric and then pop them in wherever you want, stitching SAM's in green or flower colors. The basket is made with Boucle -- and all of the other flowers and the kitty are buttons from the craft store.

Now I'll tell you about the hat. The original inspiration for this idea comes from one of my fellow B.E. designers, Jinx Shearer, who made a much nicer one with a nice even brim several years ago. I liked the ruffle. Jinx's hat was all on fabric. The only fabric on this hat is a quarter-sized piece of fabric that I did the orignal weaving upon. The rest of the hat is all detached buttonhole stitch, either even (to keep the sides of the hat uniform) and increasing to widen out the brim.


I stitched some tiny roses on the brim and used a piece of Lola to tie on a ribbon streamer. Here's another picture of the hat I made on my tomato!

It's a tomato pincushion! Turned upside down (so the hard green part is on the bottom). I drew a line around the center of the tomato and tied floss tails all around. I took a tiny stitch with the floss tail and just tied a square knot. You can see this makes a nice display for the hat and the sunglasses. (The tomato is sitting on a wine glass turned upside down.)



So, see? What was I saying -- who needs fabric!  You can add Brazilian dimensional embroidery to ANY thing

Rosalie



You Can Embroider on ANYthing

...and this isn't even Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery!  --although it IS dimensional.  I used cotton thread to stitch this fat little mouse, and I stitched him on a dinner napkin (yes, very loose weave) a long, long time ago.

Over at the BDEIG Online Chapter, Sherry Johnson's Yahoo Group, there is a lively discussion about fabrics to stitch. I mentioned that I have a nice supply of cloth napkins, obtained ages ago. Most that I have don't look like they were even used. (I never thought about stitching a flower on top of a gravy stain, but I suppose it's possible....)
     By the way, I definitely recommend anyone who wants to learn more B.E. and join in stitch challenges and have their B.E. questions answered, that you mosey on over to the Yahoo groups (click the link above) and join in. It's a very friendly group, loaded with excellent knowledge, and Sherry is a very enthusiastic Listmom.

This delectable little beetle was stitched with Kreinik metallic threads using a pattern from the book, Brazilian Embroidery Instructions, by Barbara Demke Johnson (still one of my favorite Brazilian embroidery books).

And these are three napkins that I stitched -- the bullion rose is also from either Barbara Johnson's book or one of the Brazilian embroidery books by Zeann Aguilar.

We were chatting about places to do our stitching and one of the ladies mentioned giving some embroidery as a gift.  A long time ago when I designed the Millefiori Flower Patch and Veggie Patch Pillows, I had the bright idea to use one motif and stitch it on a piece of scrap fabric, even a cotton print, cut it out (raggedy edges are OK), glue it to a blank card (card stock cut to size), add a bit of lace, glue down buttons or other trim and send it to someone you wish to entertain.   --sort of like "Scrapbooking for the Stitcher"!
   Here's a little collage card I made from a Millefiori design I did a while back called "Ice Crystal Rose". I didn't finish the edges, just cut the fabric out and glued it to another piece of print fabric and added the ribbons.  Almost anything will work, and it's a nice way to use up our stitched samples:

So the bottom line would be this: if it sits still long enough, you can probably stitch on it.
....and I can't believe that I have posted TWO times in one day!

By the way, dinner napkins also make wonderful DOODLE CLOTHS, mostly because the edges are already finished!

Rosalie

Brazilian Embroidery with Blending Filaments

I've mentioned often that I enjoy adding sparkle to my Brazilian dimensional embroidery. Beads, metallic threads, Candlelight thread, Kreinik cord, etc ... all love to get acquainted with my needle and see what I will do to/with them.

Most of the time the threads don't mind that I have my way with them. The extremely fine cellophane blending filaments, however, tried to argue with my needle, breaking apart on a whim.

Never one to throw anything away (much), I like the idea of re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle, daydream, re-invent. So I pulled out all of my Kreinik blending filament spools -- 4 or 5 at a time, held them together and crocheted a row of chain stitches.

When you do it with a crochet hook, it's chain stitch. When you use a needle, it's a chain of "lazy daisy stitches" without the tack (detached buttonhole).

After I made the chain as long as I wanted, sometimes 4" or 6" long, I pulled out a tapestry needle and made a detached buttonhole stitch in each chain stitch loop. Sometimes I went back and made two detached buttonhole stitches in each.

That's a close-up, above, of a bead embroidery picture that I did which was published in Bead & Button Magazine back in 2003, and available in their Kalmbach Bookstore. You'll see a larger picture there.

A group of ladies in our local BDEIG chapter in the Portland/Beaverton, Oregon area selected a picture (Google "coloring pages" online for ideas.) This search engine is great for inspiration -- just ask my 4-year-old grandson who is the proud recipient of a half-dozen Star Wars coloring pages that he got to select himself yesterday morning! (Back to the subject...) We combined Brazilian embroidery threads, beads, buttons, including lots of pressed glass flower beads we found at Beadcats, and used ultrasuede, cotton sateen, brocade, or any other fabric we chose, and we each had a completely different finished embroidery.

So, that's one way to use up your threads. If you look at the picture above, you'll notice that I stitched a button in place first. Next, I curved the strip of crocheted/embroidered blending filament fibers around the button. And to make the flower "look" tubular, I added a few fly stitches.

I wrote about it in The B.E. Wrap-Up, our BDEIG quarterly newsletter, but I also - never at a loss for words, it seems -- wrote an article and submitted it to Bead & Button for publication. Imagine my thrill when they accepted. It made me feel "famous." But the best part is that I didn't have to throw anything out and enjoyed the creative embroidery.

I hope this idea inspires you to look at your stash with a fresh eye.

Spooky Ole Owl

Fierce, isn't he? (also tilted...) Well, I stitched him a long, long time ago. If I remember correctly, this is a pattern from the book, Brazilian Embroidery Instructions by Barbara Demke Johnson.
     I was stitching him onto dark green Trigger cloth and needed to see the lines better, so I went to JoAnn's and bought some lightweight Solvy by Sulky. What NOT to do: trace the pattern with a Sharpie pen.  I did. 
     See what happened:

Except for his face and feet, I used white floss - Bouclé and Nova. The Sharpie ink rubbed off onto the white floss and he has an eerie green glow in his tummy parts as though he has ingested an ecologically-sensitive, environmentally-compromised, irradiated munchie. (I like adjectives...)
      Because of this "experimental" stitching a few years ago, I have since used pens that won't smear when I make a mark on the Solvy transfer film. I like metal-tip pens like Uni-Ball and Roller-Ball that are available anywhere. I think a Micron Pigma pen would also work.   However ...

I like to save my Micron Pigma pens (I prefer light brown) for signing and dating my embroidery. I'll usually use the pen to write one time and then go over the letters a second time. If you hold the Micron Pigma pen right next to the fabric (not pushing too hard), the ink will wick from the pen to the fabric and the tip will last longer.

There's an interesting discussion about various products at the Yahoo group hosted by Sherry Johnson. It's a great way to learn a lot more about Brazilian embroidery and has easy signup.  Visit the BDEIG_Online_Chapter  by double-clicking this link.

By the way, I have saved this Spooky Ole Owl in my "Oops" Box.