New Stitch Technique for Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery. . .and the Cats

It took me most of the afternoon to work out this little stitch (yes, it's very tiny, and yes, I dreamed it last night), and it will be part of one of my BDEIG Seminar 2013 classes next June. I named it Staccato - and there's a reason (if you go to Wikipedia.org and look up the derivation of the name). I guess this is a teaser, because I won't say more until it's actually part of the final design. It is fun, though, and it's easy to do.

Meanwhile, here's another teaser:

Cuthbert.
       He has the "good" spot.  (and I need to buy a can of white spray paint and give that poor chair a makeover...)

Emmy, meanwhile,

has to nap on the cold, hard floor.

Does Cuthbert care?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Rosalie

 

Teacup of Kitten - Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery for the BDEIG Scholarship Quilt Project

Each year the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc., asks for stitcher volunteers to sign up and complete a quilt block for our Seminar Scholarship Fundraising Project. I wrote about it a couple of days ago, but you can read it again at this link. ALL of the money received from ticket sales goes towards scholarships at our June seminar in Portland, Oregon, and one scholarship will pay for ALL of the week's classes, or registration, or other seminar expenses.

 

For our 2013 seminar theme, "Tea, Thyme and Lavender", we each received fabric with a design area of 6"x6" and the outline of a teacup, along with a color sample of the fabric that would be used to complete the quilt. 

 

 

My teacup is finished. 

The flower on the teacup and the rosebud are both a made with one of my original Millefiori stitches. I named it "Archie" -- it's an accidental drizzle that arches. Latin: Archie R. A. Drizzle. Instructions are in my book Take A Stitch by Rosalie Wakefield. You'll see the book at my Millefiori-BE website. (or you will whenever I stop playing with this blog and finish posting to my website).

    Here's a picture of the book cover:

Those purple flowers in the lower right-hand corner are also made with "Archie". The flower is named "Olde English Rose". Here's a close-up of Archie:

Notice that I enjoy adding beads and sparkly threads to my embroidery. Dimensional embroidery is just that much fun! You can add whatever you want and you can be as creative as you wish.

 

Here's a close-up photo of my Archie Rosebud, just one "Archie" drizzle that zigzags its way back to the fabric and is held in place with a tacking bullion:

 

The picture above is the border and background fabric that one of our Colorado BDEIG chapters has chosen. Everyone - both BDEIG members and anyone else who enjoys beautiful art quilts will have a chance to win this beautiful quilt when it's completed. Visit our BDEIG website often to stay updated, but the final photos will be published in our February 2013 newsletter, The B.E. Wrap-Up.

Rosalie

 

Wouldn't You Think . . .

. . . that for as long as I've been doing Brazilian dimensional embroidery, I would know to have enough floss to finish a project?

I must have forgotten. Using Cire 119 to stitch a cute little orange kitten for my BDEIG Scholarship Fundraising Quilt project square, I was just sure two strands would be enough.

No.

And I looked high and low, and the only other dye lot I had made the kitten look like a little raccoon when I added stitches (No, I didn't take a picture - I "deleted" the stitches).

So I regrouped.  In this town we have 3 needlework stores (lots of nice fibers) and a quilt store that carries rayon floss. I made a field trip. And found this pretty thread called "Fuzzy Stuff" and am now stitching a blue-gray (Right! I also didn't have any Cire 146 or 147) kitten.

You can read more about this quilt in yesterday's post. I'll send more pictures in a day or two ... now that the kitten and I are on the same wave length.

Rosalie

 

I Will Now Brazilian Embroider a Teacup

Here's my project.

Each year the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc. (BDEIG) has a fundraising project for scholarships to our annual BDEIG Seminar. You can read more about it here. Our theme for the year 2013 is "Tea, Thyme and Lavender", so our Scholarship Quilt Committee is planning to make a wall hanging. Members sign up to stitch a block.

We can stitch flowers or anything else that we choose. So I went in search of pictures and templates, floss, beads and pen:

I will stitch a flower and the "anything else" will be a cat, tucked comfortably into the teacup. I've done this a time or two before:



This little kitten was inspired and adapted from a graphic I found on the Internet. I stitched the kitten and teacup as part of a gift for one of our guild's outgoing presidents. Several of us stitched our choice of designs. I knew she liked kitties, so that's why a kitten was my contribution.

One of our BDEIG Scholarship Fundraising Projects was the "Critters in a Jar" quilt and so I stitched a similar design with a kitten holding a label:

I like this kitten best and will probably use it. I'm not the best artist when it comes to drawing animals correctly, but if you think about it -- everything is just an oval or a circle or a triangle. When you look at it that way, you can draw almost anything! Cire is great for silky kitten fur and can even be brushed a bit.

Speaking of cats ...
     I wrote to our BDEIG Online Chapter the other day, asking about a remedy for those little finches that keep crashing into our window. You might have read about them here. Several people suggested window stick-ums, but I found another solution. It's temporary, and VERY moveable, but when it's in place the little finches scatter to the four winds:

Yes, it's Cuthbert.
    Not only is the view just like "Television for Cats", it also saves the finches a lot of headaches, concussions, whatever.

Oh, wait.  We were speaking of flowers, somewhere in here. I just happened to wander my Back 40 the other day and found some interesting things in bloom.
This is a hollyhock in my side yard with a bee visiting:

The hollyhocks are so tall that I just pointed my camera UP to get this picture:

The coneflowers are blooming. This year I remembered to tie them up.

And this is the seed pod:

But this is my favorite picture today. It's my polyantha rose named "The Fairy" and each batch of flowers is like an entire bouquet. It's been growing in my Oregon garden for over 30 years. 





Maybe I should go shopping for some NEW roses. But I think I will stitch my teacup first.

Rosalie



 



If I Wanted To Embroider A Finch

It's not like I don't have enough material:

These little critters are always flying into our picture window and knocking themselves silly.  I can tell by the "BONK!"

 

My kitty Emmy can always tell, too. But I raced outside just as Emmy was on her way to explore that interesting sound, and I found this little birdie, almost with "+'s" on its eyes.

So I rescued him.  (All together now, say, "aaaaaaw!") I placed him on top of our barbeque, out of Emmy's reach, and ran to get my camera. He wasn't planning to go anywhere any time soon.

 

And I promised myself I wouldn't post any pictures if he toppled over on his side, feet in the air, a real goner.



 

But he re-grouped and flew off after a while. Emmy slept in the lounge chair the entire time, oblivious to the fact that her "wannabe dessert" was within a short hop.

 

And I was lucky enough to end up with some pretty close-up photos ... just in case I ever decide I want to embroider a finch.

Rosalie