January in An Artist's Garden - Brazilian Embroidery Designs, plus Notes on Couching

January in western Oregon, USA, and there is snow. It's up past my ankles.

It's hugging the trees.

It's even taken over one of my favorite summer stitching spots.

So I move my stitching time indoors. It's time to share more of the Brazilian dimensional embroidery flowers I've published in my book, An Artist's Garden:

You can read more at my website, www.Millefiori-BE.com at "Books by Rosalie Wakefield". Meanwhile, here are a few more pictures in color.

 

Simple stitches are used to make this pretty Floss Flower (Ageratum) -- straight stitch, buttonhole stitch, and a bead at the center.

These are all small designs, traceable (although there is a pre-printed design with all of the flowers and veggies).

      Speaking of veggies, here's one - an eggplant that makes one ponder the age-old ponderment (I think up new words now and then, too...) "Which came first, the chicken or the eggplant??"

Yes, it's a fairly scrawny chicken, so it is probably saved from the stewpot. It looks better in Brazilian embroidery anyway - the 100% rayon Boucle makes lovely chicken feathers.

 

This is the English Daisy (Bellis perennis), not too different from the Floss Flower shown above.

I have a note written with the instructions that mentions that white or light flowers will stand out against white background fabric if you surround them with a frame of greenery or fine growth, or change the color of the flowers. 

    

Brazilian dimensional embroidery has lately removed itself from the fine growth we all used in The Olden Days. Now we tend to direct our attention to the actual flowers. But fine growth (couched Glory in greens with French knot 'field flowers' added. Here's an example:





These pictures are from one of my older Millefiori designs, #921 "Twelve for Tea", featuring floral designs from My LadyFlowers.

There are several methods for stitching fine growth, all described in my most recent book, My Book of Stitches. They are Airy Fairy credited to Virginia Chapman of Floss Flowers Plus, my original Automatic Couching and Brazilian Couching. Stitchers can also add fine growth with feather stitch or fly stitch, or can also try the technique I call "R.M. Couching" (named for B.E. designer Rosie Montague and illustrated in her book, Brazilian Three-Dimensional Embroidery). 

    I used her technique for the pictures shown here.





The difference between Rosie's couching and the Airy Fairy couching is that Airy Fairy starts with a long, long stitch which is then tacked and couched back to the flower with side branches and the addition of French knots. Rosie's couching also starts at the flower, but all stitches are short (about 1" long) and all subsequent stitches, also 1" long, sprout from the sides of the original stitch, building from the flower up and out.

 

Back in An Artist's Garden, here's the Flower Girl - a design approximately 2" tall. I've mentioned previously that these little designs will apply nicely to crazy quilts, wearable art, needle books, or any other spot where people can stop you and say, "Oooooh, what's that?", and you can proudly answer, "Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery!  Here!  Let me show you how!!"

 Rosalie