...And THEN ...It Snowed

Why is this so funny, you ask?  It's mid-March here in the valley. It NEVER snows in mid-March here in the valley. Mt. Hood, yes, but not here! 

Well, I was pretty sure it would all be gone by mid-morning today, and it is - huge lumps and glops of snow are falling off the tree branches, smashing happily into the ground.  So, early this morning - around 1:30 a.m., yes. I picked up the camera (ignoring the perplexed look on hubby's face) and went outside in my jammies to take some snow pictures.
           No, I didn't step too far away from the house. I tried to NOT imagine the perplexed looks on the faces of the paramedics as they would need to come and haul away a little old lady lying on her back in the snow with her camera still gripped firmly in hand, staring up at the heavens with little "x's" on her eyes.

Looking up:

Looking down:

OK, you can stop laughing now. It's all gone anyway. But I did manage to capture a picture of some True Snowbirds!



This morning in the middle of The Great Melt, I took this picture of A Birdbath for Snowbirds:

This is my Hydrangea Wannabe:

And this is my Camellia Going-To-Be,-No-Matter-What:

Oh, did I forget to mention that SPRING happened yesterday?  Never mind about that lion and lamb thing -- Spring this year came in on Big Clompy Wet Snowshoes!

Rosalie 

Yesterday it Rained. The Day Before Yesterday it Rained. Today It is Raining.

Well, this is the beautiful Willamette Valley of Oregon, so who's complaining. (I haven't figured out how to take good "rain" pictures yet, but I think I have plenty of time before July-August-September when we have NO rain.)

But with the rain, I noticed one thing. All of the flowers are starting to bloom, and once again I wander my yard with my camera, snapping pictures -- most likely the same ones as I took last year, but the flowers always look SO good.

This is my Frog Gnome (a gift from two little boys with a big sense of humor):

I have a Clematis armandii "Apple Blossom" growing just outside my front door:

Isn't it pretty?  And to think I almost missed it!  All of the blossoms are at The Very Top (because I didn't prune it back last fall):

I think I need another clematis.  But to continue the tour, sidestepping mud puddles as I wander, here's the lovely fragrant daphne just outside our front door. (Last year it turned black and crispy because of a really late frost.)

This year it's pretty:

And this spring I have really pretty blossoms on the wild currant in our side yard.

Everything looked so good, I didn't even mind the seed spitters trying to grow faster than the roses:

Well, there's a big round yellow orb in the newspaper forecast for later this week, so I guess I'll go out and play in the garden.  Guess who is going with me?  Yep.  Cuthbert! --after he's had his coffee.

Cuthbert actually thinks he's An Outdoor Cat and would like to go out now, right this very moment.

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



Waiting for Cuthbert to Move ...

...so I could download my pictures.

He didn't, so I worked around him.

Here is a picture of a new flower I designed -- the Edelweiss, a pretty little alpine wildflower we all remember from "The Sound of Music".

I'm not sure if the designing or the stitching, or the creative presentation is the most fun. Probably all of the above. I stitched the design with the "Alps" on medium blue Trigger poplin and mounted it on foam core board (poked pins in the sides). Then I finished the sides with some pretty rick rack (nice to find a use for that stuff!) pinned to the foam board, too.

I wrote the flower name with my Micron Pigma Pen (the entire embroidery is also signed/initialed-dated). Then I glued it to that board using my favorite fast-drying clear glue, Fabri-Tac (from JoAnn Stores). The wood is a piece of pine board that someone wood-burned some daisies onto (I touched them up with my acrylic paints). I thought it was pretty, and it made a nice frame.  Yes, I found it at a garage sale. Oh - those flowers? 

Well ... I wandered through the house because I just KNEW I had some silk flowers somewhere. I did. They were in a bouquet, so I popped off a couple of blossoms, decided where they might look nice, dropped a splotch of glue down and plunked them into it.  I like the way it all turned out.

The picture that inspired me was sent by a friend.

I looked at it and tried to decide which stitches I would use (Yes, designing is just that easy!) and I researched it on the Internet. Those "petals" are actually bracts like a poinsettia and the "flower" is the center part. I discovered that the bracts are fuzzy and thought Cire would be a perfect fiber choice.
     I'll leave all of the stitching details to be a surprise! This will be the May Freebie "One-A-Month" design that the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc. is giving to everyone in honor of the start of our next 20 years as a guild.
     Our first flower is already posted - I wrote about it the other day here. If you go to the BDEIG website, scroll to the bottom of the page for "Free Designs to Stitch". That's where you'll find all of the instructions.
 
I stitched the Edelweiss on white fabric using Cire #227 (palest sea green). Here's a picture.

Looking at it on my computer monitor, the fabric threads were showing and it looked kind of "harsh". So I popped the jpg into my photo editing app, tried a little "noise removal" and then did an "unsharp".  I'm not sure I really know what I'm doing, but liked this final version a lot better.

Cuthbert got tired of loafing under the "sunlamp". He moved over and decided to loaf on the kitchen stool instead.

Rosalie

Cloud Nine

This is Cloud Nine (Cornus florida). What a lovely name for a flower. It's a dogwood whose name means "In a state of blissful happiness" and although the flowers are white in nature, in Brazilian dimensional embroidery they can be any color we want.
     The flowering dogwood, native to central and eastern North America, is also the "Flower of the Year" of the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild, Inc., and each year our designers try to think of interesting ways to preserve these flowers in stitch.

I used an interesting cast-on/bullion combination stitch and made the center veins with a drizzle and two needles. It's one of my BDEIG Seminar classes this coming June, and because the flower of this particular variety is white, I used the lighter color shown below.  In addition, I'm going to once again show a new dimensional stitch that I developed some time ago and named the "Interlocking Stem Stitch". It makes a beautiful raised border and I've used it on several designs, even one time as a cholla cactus skeleton and again as the posts of a stake and rider fence. Most often, though, I use it for a pretty raised border. Here's a picture of the design as I'm teaching it:

It almost looks like a Christmas card, doesn't it? I'll have this Millefiori design ready for everyone to stitch as soon as I stop playing on this blog and finish writing instructions. I hope you all like it.

Rosalie

Whisper of Springtime

Remember the design I stitched last fall for our BDEIG Scholarship Fundraiser Quilt?  If you'd like to have a chance to win this art quilt for yourself (It's approximately 40" x 50"), click the link above. All income from ticket sales supports scholarships to our BDEIG Seminars.

I wrote about stitching the block here. You can see some of the work while I was stitching. I did an interesting combination of cast-on stitches and wraps for the lilac blossoms and I added a pretty enameled button from Susan Clarke Originals.

Shaded floss (EdMar's 100% rayon Z-twist) adds such pretty depth to these lilac racemes. I went through my stash and pulled out 2-3 shaded colors and a couple of solids, plus some extra skeins with only a few strands left. Mother Nature isn't picky, so why would I want to be?

I've used this lilac stitch previously, on my Millefiori design #951 "Seasons of the Butterfly". Here's a picture, upper left corner:

Those butterflies are all embroidered. I edged them with a dark, contrasting color and they look like appliques. I also shared the technique for stitching the lilacs with a lighter-weight floss in my book, "An Artist's Garden". Here's a picture of the cover. I added the lilacs here, too. I guess you can tell it's one of my favorite flowers.

Plus,

I have LOTS of them growing in my garden!

But before I take you on another endless photo tour of my garden, here's a picture of the final design, which I've named "Whisper of Springtime", and which will be one of my classes at this year's BDEIG Seminar in June (and also available for stitching soon).



I also discovered a way to make just one stitch and have it look like I made an entire bank of flowers! It's just amazing the things you can do with a few basic stitches and no rules (That's the creativity and the fun of doing Brazilian dimensional embroidery!).

Rosalie

The Enchanted Jungle

This is "The Enchanted Jungle", the back cover design from my book Tropical Flower Garden. This one:

That front cover design is "Into The Rainforest".  Well, the book has sold out. I'm not sure if I'll have it reprinted very soon, and I'm all out of 'Rainforest' prints. 

But I DID have several prints left of "The Enchanted Jungle" on cream fabric. So I pulled all of the instructions from the book and have combined them with the printed design. I'll sell them until they are gone - not sure if I'll print more - it depends on the interest.  Anyway, the supply of Jungle prints/instructions is limited. There are 42 flowers, lots of new stitches - including my New Pistil Stitch - and lots of ideas that you can use on your other dimensional embroidery.

If you'd like one, just let me know with an email or phone order. In addition to the screen print, a color photo and ALL those flowers, you'll receive 28 pages of printed instructions -- almost half the book!

And since I'm doing a bit of blatant advertising (I'm allowed; this is my blog...), I'd like to invite you to visit my still-in-progress website to see all of my other Brazilian embroidery designs and books. I've been adding all of my new things here on this blog (it's just SO easy), so come back from time to time, or sign up to receive these msgs in your email.  There's a little box over there on the upper left; you can subscribe and - if you want - unsubscribe at any time.

I haven't forgotten - I'm going to post pictures of my other BDEIG Seminar class designs pretty soon.

Rosalie

FREE-A New Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Design for You

Our Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery International Guild (BDEIG, Inc) is 20 terrific years old in 2012. To help us celebrate the start of our next 20+ years, we invite stitchers to enjoy free B.E. designs - One-A-Month. These will be posted at the BDEIG website here, a new design posted each month, for one month only, and then replaced by a brand new design.

This is "Brazilian Bouquet", designed by Loretta Holzberger.

If you would like to see more of Loretta's beautiful designs, visit her website. In addition to Brazilian embroidery, Loretta specializes in needle lace and has also developed several beautiful stumpwork designs. She has also written several books. In addition to her needle lace and stumpwork books, she has developed some very creative work with silk flowers and Ganutell, a unique wire and floss method of making dimensional flowers.

Be sure to download the pdf file for this design; you are welcome to share it, but please don't charge for the copies you make. These designs are wonderful teaching projects for chapters or for your own projects.

Look for the next design from Debbie Kelley of DK Designs, and in May, I'll send in a design I have just developed for the Edelweiss flower.

Happy Birthday to us!
     ...and don't forget to become a BDEIG member if you haven't done so yet. You'll find a membership application here.

I have more to write in a day or two or three. I've been working on my design instructions for the new 2012 BE designs. And I've been putting together a lot of my stitch samples into a little crazy quilt. 

There were a few hundred left over, so I'm going to do some-exciting-thing else with them.

Rosalie

Time for CATS ... My Flowers Aren't Blooming Yet

This is Emmy.

Emmy is A Woman of Mystery - meaning we aren't sure of her exact age, but she is probably 13 years old -- a beautiful short-hair calico rescue kitty, who is sure the sun rises and sets in her world only.

This is Cuthbert (You've seen him quite often -- he's usually between the keyboard and the computer monitor, beneath the lamp and my 'petting' hand --and as close to Emmy as she will allow).

Cuthbert is a Norwegian Forest Cat; he thinks his pictures are the absolute best:

Emmy has her own opinion of The Big Boy:

I love them both.

Rosalie



Itty Bitty Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery ....and Something New: TooT

It's my "Itty Bitty Clown"!

My Millefiori Design #884 - Itty Bitty Clown -- is back for an encore. I had a request and went in search of this little guy who is only 3" tall. I found him in a circus tent playing with the elephants. He's made with a stitch I developed a while back called "The Nibble" using variegated rayon floss. This is a close-up view of "The Nibble":

Here's a Great Big "Itty Bitty":

Finishing touches are the most fun to do when the stitching is complete on one of our Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs. I used a red plastic embroidery hoop and added a 1/2" diameter blue satin cord as edging, gluing all to the blue mat board with my favorite fast-drying clear glue, Fabri-Tac.

The balloons are buttons (you can cut the shanks of plastic buttons with your wire-cutters), an old earring (the golden 'balloon') and buttons with offset holes (I have seen these recently at Michaels). The balloon strings are black sewing thread. 

By the way, I found the elephant he was playing with. The elephant's name is "TooT, and is one of my newest Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs that I will teach at BDEIG Seminar 2012 this June. (Pictures of ALL available classes will be posted soon; keep checking back.)

Here's a picture of "TooT":

One nice thing about elephants -- they can hold a LOT of flowers. There are some new flowers here, and there are some favorites - a petal of one, a leaf of another -- all fitting together to make something brand new! For example, TooT's little "hat" is really a flower from the book My LadyFlowers by Rosalie Wakefield (me). I knew it would balance up there because I've seen it done before! See:

Rosalie

Ketchup and Mustard and Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery

Picture a picture of ketchup and mustard, together.

Well, OK, they didn't do a lot to inspire me.

But this sure did!

This is a brand new rose introduced for 2012. It was on the cover of my Edmunds' Roses catalog that came in today's mail and kept me occupied for a while. It's a floribunda cleverly named "Ketchup and Mustard".   Mmmmm. Yum. Better than a chocolate chip cookie any old day!

It was enough inspiration that I stitched out a rose for a fellow Brazilian embroidery teacher, as a sample for her class.  Here it is:

This is a rose designed by Ruth Griffith, the original designer for the first JDR Brazilian Embroidery business. She calls it "Full-Blown Rose" and it's on her design "Mini-Roses", which I market for her as "A Millefiori Design by Ruth Griffith".  Here's a picture of the finished embroidery:

I posted the picture of Ruth's Full-Blown Rose because it is truly unique. There are three layers of petals and the two center layers are stitched in such a way that they stand well off the fabric. The petals tuck into each other to make a very realistic double rose center. Since I stitched just a sample of the rose, I pulled out my fabric marker pens and drew in the rose leaves.

Well, that's what I did today, besides daydreaming my way through a rose garden that I'm just SURE I have room for in my yard. I suppose I can go and put the ketchup and the mustard back into the refrigerator. I'll keep the rose catalog out a while longer.

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 

Where Have I Been??

Goodness! How time flies when you are having fun.  Where have I been for so long?  I know, I know…

I've been stitching new Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs that I'll be teaching at our BDEIG Seminar this summer. I'll share some pictures here. I haven't forgotten my finishing (framing) tip - pictures still in my camera, and I have lots of other goodies to share.  I just seem to have gotten quite busy.


Here is the first of my new Millefiori Brazilian dimensional embroidery designs. These will soon be posted at my website for you to purchase and stitch. If you’re coming to our Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Guild Seminar this June in Portland, Oregon, I invite you to sign up for this class, too.


This is Millefiori design #995 - Rose Garden

All of the roses are new cultivars from my drawing board; the frames are a simple stitch with a unique treatment, and the twining vines are easy and elegant. And every rose is different, each with an original dimensional stitch technique.


I have lots more to share and will add pictures in the next few days. Sorry I've been away for so long. (I've been working on a crazy quilt, trying to de-stash my fabric stash. ...and my bead stash, and my lace stash, and my button stash, and my trim stash.  Yes, I've been saving a long time to pile all of this "stuff" onto one piece of fabric).


I've been linking to these posts on my Facebook page and Twitter (since I have the little icons anyway), and want to thank those of you who write notes there.  You can also comment here if you'd like.


By the way, the "Rose Garden" design will be ready to purchase and stitch as soon as I have the instructions done, fabric printed, photos made.

Rosalie