A NEW Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Stitch Technique ... Braided Lace

Well, maybe not that new. But new to some, so I'll make a little tute here.

These LadyFlowers are "Becky, Bertha and Bubbles".

Becky, Bertha and Bubbles are all stitched with the same technique - a drizzle I have named "Braided Lace".  I have the instructions for these little LadyFlowers and almost 80 others in my book, My LadyFlowers by Rosalie Wakefield. Here's a picture:

I know, I know... *sigh*.  Sounds familiar.  I advertise and then I advertise some more. That's partly the reason for this blog, but the bigger reason is that I like to talk about Brazilian dimensional embroidery and am always willing to teach/share the things I've discovered. While I'm advertising, you can read more about the book, My LadyFlowers, on my website, here. 

All of the LadyFlower designs/patterns in the book will fit those little 2.5" frames, and are traceable patterns. However, you can tell from looking at the picture above that all you need are a dot for the drizzle and a spray of lazy daisy leaves and some beady or French knot curves and you'll have a design ready for your favorite wearable item or a crazy quilt, or a fabric postcard for a friend -- anywhere you can poke a needle!

I know you are more interested in learning about the Braided Lace Drizzle, so I'll tell you how to do it. I'll show you, too, with pictures as I write, since many of us are visual learners.  (And you can always drop me a note if you have questions).

You're all familiar with the basic drizzle, right? Thread your needle, come up through the fabric, unthread your needle, and start applying thread. Finish by re-threading the needle and going back down through the fabric and out. If you'd like to see a picture, please visit our BDEIG website. We have a "getting started" page that contains all of the basic stitches with diagrams and directions.  Here.  (Look around while you're here - there are freebie designs and lots of other good information, including all of the new Seminar 2013 classes, plus you can join the guild and learn even more!!!)

Back to work.

Braided Lace

You need:

      Two darners

      Two strands Lola (100% rayon Z-twist floss, from EdMar Co.), or your favorite floss weight.

         Needle Threader

      Pincushion for Drizzles

 

Thread a darner with Lola. (Repeat for the second strand.) Knot each end of a Lola strand separately (or just center one strand of Lola so that the fabric bite is approximately 1/8").

 

Bring the threaded needles up through the fabric, unthread needles. Re-insert the 2 darners, point down, about 1/8" apart into the pincushion. Like this:



You'll double cast on 18 times (this is 36 cast-on loops total, 18 alternating, on each side). Work as follows:

      With your left hand, cast on over the right needle.
      With your right hand, cast on over the left needle. 
          (The floss will cross in front) Like this (I did this a couple of times using different floss colors ...):

After you have cast on 18 sets of loops (or 36 times, total), your Braided Lace Drizzle will look like this:

See that pretty braided center vein? By the way (if you are "arranging" colors, the loops on the left side of the drizzle will be your flower "petals"). The right-size loops are 'gathered' into a tight center -- you'll see what I mean in a minute.

 

OK. After those loops are all on your needles, you will thread ONE needle:

     Thread the left-side floss into the right needle.

     Thread the right-side floss into the right needle.  Like this:

or this:

Now ...and very carefully so nothing pulls out, push that threaded right-side needle a little deeper into your pincushion:

...and always holding your floss loops against the needle (so nothing loosens or gets all wonky), carefully pull out that left-side (unthreaded) needle.  Now you have only one needle, the right-side threaded needle. See?

(I went and neatened up my fingernails as soon as I got finished here ...)

 

OK.  Finish the drizzle by pushing the right-side needle down through the fabric a little deeper into the pincushion. Remember to slip a pin or needle into the outer two floss loops so they don't twist and kink and knot for you (it's really hard to undo these with only one free hand...). Here's what I always do:

Oh, oops. Don't let these colors confuse you. I stitched this flower twice - you'll see in a minute. On the above picture, the red loops were cast onto the left-side needle. This is just a better picture, trying to show you about the pin through the two outer loops to prevent kinks and knots. On the earlier photo, the blue loops were on the left-side needle.  OK?  I guess I'd better show you:

As an interesting side note, the Braided Lace technique is a "reversible" stitch. I'll talk more about that in a minute. First, let's finish the drizzle.

 

          Pull the drizzle down snug to the fabric and the needle all the way through to the backside.

          Slip one of the strands of Lola out of the needle eye (you can use this long floss tail to knot off by hand later if you want).

 

With the one remaining threaded needle, come back up through the fabric at the base of the drizzle, or right next to where you started. Pull this threaded needle all the way through. With the tip of this threaded needle, guide the outer drizzle loop/edge/center braid of the drizzle to around in a circle to meet the beginning to the end and pull down snug. You'll have what looks like a circular flower with the blue loops forming the flower 'petals' (red loops in the flower pictured just below).

Finishing:

And done:

By the way, if you don't like your "joins", you can tuck them beneath another flower, or you can use any green, come up from the center and make 2-3 long bullions or cast-on stitches to give an impression of calyxes.

 

As a "technical" note, when you are using Z-twist floss and double cast-ing on, you'll notice the right-side loops "untwist" slightly, or flatten out (the reason why Z-twist bullions are wrapped clockwise).  [Perle Cotton is S-twist, by the way, and for those who do not have access to Z-twist floss, just reverse the procedure.] 

          I pretty much speak in "Z-twist". When these right-side loops 'flatten out', you'll see that they sort of tuck into each other and make a nice, smooth center for your flower.

That's it:  Braided Lace!

     

Braided Lace looks different on one side than the other. When I cast on with the blue loops on the left needle, these will make 'petals'. If I cast red loops over the left needle, I'll have red 'petals'. As I mentioned earlier, this stitch is reversible and you can flip the drizzle so the 'petals' will tuck under, or you can position the drizzle so that the 'petals' pop up.

Pretty both ways! See:

At the top of this post, you'll see that Bertha, Becky and Bubbles are kicking up their skirts and enjoying themselves. 

 

If you prefer the more demure LadyFlower "Garnet", let those left-side loops rest against the fabric, or even tuck them under with your needle. The picture below introduces you to the LadyFlowers, "Amber, Opal and Garnet":

I have lots of more advanced techniques in my book, My LadyFlowers, if you have already learned the basic Brazilian embroidery stitches and are feeling adventurous.

 

Always remember, too, that if you are trying to follow my instructions and something different comes out of your needle, just give it a name and continue - you have created a new design! 

 

Be sure to drop me a note, either in the comments below or by email, if you have any questions at all. I really LOVE Brazilian dimensional embroidery. Can you tell?

Rosalie

 

Debbie Kelley's FREE Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Design is up!

Remember our One-A-Month -- the FREE Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs posted at our BDEIG website as a gift to stitchers as we start our next 20 years as a guild? Another of our gifted B.E. designers, Debbie Kelley of DK Designs, has designed a beautiful Monogram Keyhole Tassel. Here's a picture: 

Debbie's lovely little rosebud accents an initial (all letters included) for her tassel and, as with all of her work, she has written exquisite instructions -- all available for a free download here. In addition to the embroidery design, Debbie also tells you how to make the tassel and cord. Remember, the design is up for one month only. 

Debbie is one of our BDEIG Traveling Teachers and will happily come to teach at your store, chapter or stitching group. You can reach her here.

With permission of our designers, I hope to post information about each monthly project as it is posted at the BDEIG website around the middle of the month. Be sure you don't miss any of them; sign up for email notices whenever I make a blog entry. Just type in your addy in that box up there at the upper left of the page.

While you are at the website -- www.bdeig.info (the short version), be sure to look around. Our exciting annual seminar happens in mid-June, a week full of innovative new dimensional stitches and designs for the needle artist; you'll see pictures and descriptions of all the classes, and there's also a BDEIG Membership Application for you to complete so you won't miss a single bit of fun!

Rosalie



The 22-Stitch* (*Give-or-Take A Stitch) Hummer - Brazilian Embroidery

Someone wrote me a note asking about the 22-Stitch Hummer, what it is and what it does.

This is my 22-Stitch* (*Give-or-Take A Stitch) Hummer -- a Brazilian dimensional embroidery design (although it's not very dimensional -- it's all lazy daisy stitches and a few straight stitches) and I have the instructions and a pattern in my book, Take A Stitch by Rosalie Wakefield. It's also posted on my website, but I don't have a shopping cart finished yet, so you can contact me by email if you'd like a copy.

Well, this is a pretty good picture.  Ole' 22 is only an inch tall. Here he is stitched with metallic threads (I usually choose the durable Sulky metallic threads, but anything will work - it's only 22 stitches, give or take.) I've also stitched this birdie with Glory. In the picture above, his tummy and bib are Glory rayon floss and his beak is gold rayon Glory floss. His sparkly little eyeball is a size 14/o seed bead. 
            To save you buying the book (although I wouldn't argue), you can see that I made a fly stitch for his body outline which I then tacked with a lazy daisy stitch. I then added a couple of lazy daisy stitches on each side for more tailfeathers.  The upper wings are tapered because of 1) offset [a-b] points through the fabric for those 3 lazy daisy stitches, or 2) 4 lazy daisy stitches with extra-long tacking stitches. The top of his head is one stitch, couched in a curve, and his beak is 2 straight stitches, the upper stitch overlapping the lower stitch.

In my book, Take A Stitch, there is a traceable pattern for this little 22-stitch hummer, and another pattern for several different hummers (different coloring). I stitched one in metallic thread and one in Glory rayon floss. (yes, DMC would work -- one strand). I stitched this design one time with silk ribbon flowers and another time using a Brazilian dimensional flower I developed called "Canada's Rose". Here's a picture:

This little hummer is a perfect addition to any crazy quilt design, or any floral embroidery, or edging a collar or just anywhere that you would like him to roost.

Rosalie 

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

A Pansy in Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery

This is my pansy, stitched in Brazilian dimensional embroidery. It's one of the small floral oval designs featured in the book My LadyFlowers (by Yrs Truly, Rosalie Wakefield). Those little background leaves are two fly stitches, one upside down, and the other right-side up. 
      I'm working on my website http://www.millefiori-be.com/ and posting flowers and remembered how much fun it was to design these little floral vignettes.

     The ruffled pansy was inspired by one of my own pansies. When the ruffled pansies first appeared a few years ago, I bought a "nice selection" (meaning almost every one I could find that was a different color/pattern), brought them home, parked them on my picnic table and took a picture of each one. Here is the pansy that inspired the embroidery shown above:

I thought the colors of this pansy were really striking. Here's another picture, of a ruffled pansy (I have forgotten the name of the pansy variety):

Pansies last only until the weather gets really hot here in western Oregon, but that's OK.  It doesn't get really hot until at least mid-June or July. We can plant them very early in the spring and enjoy them for a long time!

Well, while I was uploading my designs (I'm only halfway done), I found a picture of one of the "Jewels" (Millefiori design #911 -- the front cover of the book, My LadyFlowers) that I liked. This design is named Camille and Queen Anne and the Camellia flower features The Comma, a stitch combining a cast-on and a bullion that I developed waaay, waaaaay back in 1993 for the first two tropical flower books that I wrote, Free Spirit and Tropical Breeze.

     Have I been having fun for a LONG time, or what?!

Here's a picture of Camille and Anne:

 By the way, those leaves on the Queen Anne's Lace (also known as Wild Carrot) are something I called "Carrot Feathers". If you look closely, you'll see that I first made a long straight stitch for the stem. Next, I couched long-tailed fly stitches (with a really long tacking stitch), one mirroring another on each side of the stem - making the stem curve when I felt like it.

    
I invite you to come back often and visit my website. I should have everything up fairly soon. Lately, however, my garden has been looking for me to come out and play.

By the way -- most people who live in western Oregon are used to some rainy days (understatement) and lots of overcast days (overstatement), but in today's issue of The Oregonian the headline had an interesting description of "the sun". See:

Ha, ha.  "Scary-Bright Ball."
     Last year The Oregonian, after three months or more of non-stop rain, had a headline in one of the June issues that read: "Dear Rain: You win. Sincerely, Portland."
     ...and it's the rain that makes the flowers grow, so we can't really complain.