Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery on Two Little Art Quilts

This is a picture of one of my newest Millefiori Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs, #993 "Field of Flowers" made into a little art quilt. I wrote about it yesterday on this web log. It's another idea for stitching the original design which you can see on my "in-progress" website if you'd like to read more.
     (I have a "list" -- I have dahlias and 4 new roses to plant in my garden on this beautiful sunny Oregon afternoon, and then I will finish my design instructions and seminar class prep materials -- and THEN I'll finish my website.)

     "Field of Flowers" has a BRAND NEW stitching idea for a stitch we all know and love and I'm going to teach it at the BDEIG Seminar in Portland, Oregon, this June but promise to share it with everyone here and also in the August issue of The B.E. Wrap-Up (BDEIG quarterly newsletter).

About this little art quilt ... I was so proud of how it turned out that I showed it to my hubby last night. He said it was really nice, and he wondered "where the rest of it was". He asked if there aren't more pieces to attach like a "real" quilt. I tried to explain what an ART quilt was, but the concept escaped him; I think he figures you have to be a really tiny person to get the full benefit of any "quilt".

Since you are all probably zooming your web page to 150% or 200% to see the quilt up close, I thought you might enjoy some of the detail photos. The large B.E. flower is a gladdy that I designed ages ago, and has a nice concept for dimensional embroidered petals -- buttonhole stitch over a framework of bullions for three petals, plus 3 additional "low dimensional" petals buttonhole stitched on the background fabric.  --and a realistic leaf idea -- Brazilian outline stitch (Z-twist floss held below the line of stitching) for prominently-veined leaves.

Here are more detail pictures (I resized everything and hope it isn't too large to open easily):

I named that one a "Delft Rose" because of the leaf pattern. It's another version of the original B.E. cast-on flower, but stitched with a slight difference and two rows of petals. The next picture has a Darwin Hybrid Tulip:

. . .and the last picture just some detail to show that most of the embroidery on this design is fairly simple:

...and, because I couldn't resist teasing -- yes, the new stitch is somewhere on one of these pictures.  Stay tuned!

Oh - before I forget -- here's another idea for stitching the Field of Flowers design. It would make a beautiful box cover for one of the new "flower boxes" they sell at Michaels Craft Stores, or it would also look pretty on wearable items:

Remember, I mentioned TWO little art quilts at the top of this message. Well, these are pictures of the Little Hummy Art Quilt that I started writing about back in January. You can double-click the link or you can look at that "cloud" of words over there on the right of this blog and double click "Hummy Art Quilt" for the in-progress story. Also double click Art Quilt for the start of the embroidery story.

First of all, I want to give total credit and a big thank you to the original quilt designer, Patricia Cox, whose original appliqué pattern of 12" blocks translated itself nicely to Brazilian dimensional embroidery with the pieces resized to about 3" x 4". I felt this was an excellent way to show some of the techniques used for B.E. as well as showcasing her beautiful quilt design.

This was my favorite hummy flower to stitch - probably because it also includes beads with the dimensional embroidery:

   Without further interruption, here is the finished Hummy Art Quilt, and close-up detail of the stitchwork:

...and detail photos:

This is the back of the quilt. My friend Mary, who is A True Quilter, suggested that quilters in the Pacific Northwest march to their own stitch-drummer and can put whatever we want on the backs of our quilts. So I did. This picture also gives a better idea of the colors I used for borders, sashing, binding (or whatever it is called...).

I hope you enjoyed this journey with Brazilian dimensional embroidery on my little art quilts. Finishing the crazy quilt I started ages ago will be on my list very soon!

Now I'm off to get those dahlias into the ground and soak up some Oregon sunshine! 

 Rosalie