Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve

Brazilian dimensional embroidery: These are cuffs for your wrist with dimensional stitches and/or bead enhancements. The instructions are ready now - a pdf file offered on my website, www.Millefiori-BE.com.  Just look for Millefiori Design #954; as soon as payment is received, I'll fly (via email) the instructions to you. There are 21 pages and lots of photos and diagrams.  Here's a picture:

Here are some close-up photos of the designs. Colors I used are listed for both versions. The first is named "Sophisticates".



The center design shown is "Celebrations" and has been designed as a holiday cuff with beads added for sparkle. I'd like to thank my friend and fellow B.E. designer, Marsha Johnson/Harvey, for giving permission to use her large central flower for this design:

The third design included in the package is named "Essentials" and here I framed it into a small frame for a narrow wall.

To finish these small designs in odd-sized frames, I mounted the embroidery on 1/4" foam core board, edged the piece with 1/4" trim (attached with size 11/o seed beads pinned into the sides) and glued it to matte board. Here's a detail photo:

 

The instructions include traceable patterns for each, so the stitcher could also transfer the project to ultra suede, denim or other fabric, any wearable item, or even edge a collar or lapel, or decorate a crazy quilt or tote bag.

 

The pdf will be sent via email as soon as your PayPal payment comes through, and I'm only an email away if you have questions.

Rosalie



 

Retro Embroidery: Avocado Green, Harvest Gold, Burnt Orange

The time was late 1960's and early 1970's. Brazilian dimensional embroidery wasn't on my horizon for at least 15-20 more years, but I've been stitching since I was a wee smidgeon (a VERY long time ago) - first those dresser scarves and pillowcases our moms gave us, and later (I have no idea where she found them) the large pictures with deer or landscapes, all long/short stitch with 4 strands of Coats & Clark cotton embroidery thread. 

Fast-forward to the 60's, and colors trending to avocado green, harvest gold and burnt orange. --And a handy supply of McCall's Needlecraft, Woman's Day and Family Circle magazines. 

I pulled out my embroidery threads and started stitching. The design above (inspired by one I saw somewhere) started with lazy daisy stitches. I circled around and around until I ran out of one color, or got bored. Changed colors and continued to stitch.

 

Then I went to look for more. This was a tiny 2x2" picture (McCall's Needlework, I think) that I saw on an advertisement. I'll bet I can do that, I thought - and I threaded my needle again.

 There isn't any dimensional embroidery here, just basic embroidery stitches.

 

We lived in Omaha, Nebraska, at the time. One day when I was flipping through the Omaha World Herald, I saw an ad, just a line drawing in black and white. But I thought it was cute. So I stitched it. Here's a picture:

Everything is long/short or other basic embroidery stitches. The sheep is stitched with lazy daisy stitches worked around and around. I did have a lot of fun.

 

After we moved to Oregon and I discovered Brazilian embroidery in the late 80's, I had lots of fun playing with these newly-discovered dimensional techniques. And when I ran out of things to stitch, I suddenly realized that I could probably draw my own ideas. So I did.

 

So.  If I can do it, so can you! Just remember: our flowers are circles, ovals or triangles; our leaves are heart-shaped. Animals are mostly circles and ovals. Have fun! Easy as pie.

Rosalie

P.S. By the way, our kitchen appliances in Omaha were Harvest Gold.