Brazilian Birdies (bet you didn't know there was such a thing!) . . .
You can add these little Brazilian Blue Birdies to any of your embroidery projects or to your crazy quilts or wherever there aren't any cats.
See how easy they are to make:
Just draw a small circle for the head, a nice plump oval horizontally for the body and stitch with Iris or Glory. I satin stitched horizontally for the head, vertically for the body and added 2-3 angled straight stitches for the tail feathers.
If you are feeling really adventurous, you can add a fly-stitch or Glory bullion for a beak and a little size 14/o seed bead for the eye.
From the detail, you can see that I stitched the birdhouse very simply with Brazilian outline stitch (Z-twist floss held below the line of stitching), and more satin stitches.
By the way, since Z-twist floss tends to wind itself tighter and tighter as you go around and around (through the fabric), it's always helpful to "unwind" or "twirl" the needle every now and then. Some stitchers will even drop the needle and let the floss untwist naturally. Whatever works...
If you notice the roofline, it doesn't show a lot, but I try to angle the stitches slightly. They fill the area in nicely and don't give a look of heavy padding to the area.
If you go back to the first picture, you'll see some of the flowers from my book, An Artist's Garden. This is part of the cover design, "Come Into My Flowers":
More information about the book is posted on my in-progress website --uh, oh, Blatant Advertising straight ahead, http://www.millefiori-be.com/.
The flowers encircling the birdhouse are my lilac with a really neat cast-on technique that I published in our BDEIG Newsletter, The B.E. Wrap-Up, last year. I'll probably add it again here at some point. Also shown is the foxglove stitched with cast-on stitches and a double fly stitch (making the tack first and then slipping a fly stitch through, two times).
But the one I want to share with you now is Star-Fill (originally named 5-Point Star-Filling Stitch and re-named by my stitching friend, Gayl). It's stitched just like those stars we learned how to make in grade school. Here's a graphic:
The star is drawn two times with your needle to fill all the lines, as follows:
▪ To finish, bring floss up next to center. Working on fabric surface, slip needle beneath two star points; pull snug.
▪ Continue to whipstitch 2-3 times around, catching central star lines into a group at center.
▪ Star Center: make a colonial or French knot, or secure a bead, crystal or pearl at center with a tiny backstitch.
See? Easy as pie!
See how easy they are to make:
If you are feeling really adventurous, you can add a fly-stitch or Glory bullion for a beak and a little size 14/o seed bead for the eye.
From the detail, you can see that I stitched the birdhouse very simply with Brazilian outline stitch (Z-twist floss held below the line of stitching), and more satin stitches.
By the way, since Z-twist floss tends to wind itself tighter and tighter as you go around and around (through the fabric), it's always helpful to "unwind" or "twirl" the needle every now and then. Some stitchers will even drop the needle and let the floss untwist naturally. Whatever works...
If you notice the roofline, it doesn't show a lot, but I try to angle the stitches slightly. They fill the area in nicely and don't give a look of heavy padding to the area.
If you go back to the first picture, you'll see some of the flowers from my book, An Artist's Garden. This is part of the cover design, "Come Into My Flowers":
The flowers encircling the birdhouse are my lilac with a really neat cast-on technique that I published in our BDEIG Newsletter, The B.E. Wrap-Up, last year. I'll probably add it again here at some point. Also shown is the foxglove stitched with cast-on stitches and a double fly stitch (making the tack first and then slipping a fly stitch through, two times).
But the one I want to share with you now is Star-Fill (originally named 5-Point Star-Filling Stitch and re-named by my stitching friend, Gayl). It's stitched just like those stars we learned how to make in grade school. Here's a graphic:
Bring needle up at lower left (Point #1).
▪ Needle Path: Numerical Order, #1-10. On completion, each leg of the star will have two parallel straight lines.▪ To finish, bring floss up next to center. Working on fabric surface, slip needle beneath two star points; pull snug.
▪ Continue to whipstitch 2-3 times around, catching central star lines into a group at center.
▪ Star Center: make a colonial or French knot, or secure a bead, crystal or pearl at center with a tiny backstitch.
See? Easy as pie!
Hi Rosalie, I have taken the same Brazillian classes over and over from a friend of mine. I havent' done much work but at least I know how...LOL! This looks fabulous. Glad someone is doing it. My friend actually goes to conferences re: Brazilian.
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