Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery on August 2, 2008 | 1 Comment »
For the corners of my block, Carole Samples has graciously given me permission to use some of her fan designs. I’ve chosen the ones shown in the corners of her block design on page 219 of Treasury of Crazyquilt Stitches. Here’s how I’ve used her designs. First, I copied the page and cut out [...]
Posted in Stitching, beads, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery on July 31, 2008 | 6 Comments »
But it’s coming along. If you click on the image, you will go to Flickr where you can see my notes about recently added details.
Now the question is: how shall I finish this block? Does it need a border? Should I frame it? What shall I do with it?
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, family, gifts, goldwork, hand embroidery on July 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Mary Corbet and I have been talking about sadi this week. Sadi refers to gold and silver metal threads, used extensively in India and other parts of the world. It is coiled fine wire that comes in smooth tubes, faceted tubes, and pearl. You can read about it in Betty Luke’s book:
Here’s a close-up of [...]
Posted in Stitching, beads, crazy patchwork, hand embroidery on July 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »
This seam treatment features lace and beads. At the bottom there are tiny pearl seed beads. At the top are beads covered with rayon thread. In the middle, I stitched rayon ribbon thread over the lace and as colonial knots. Ah, yes, there are Cretan stitches, too.
Posted in Stitching, beads, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery, tagged beads, goldwork, Kreinik, rick rack, bullions on July 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
You’ve seen the motif on this patch. Today I’m showing you its seam treatment. This seam began with a row of tiny rick rack, on which I added glass beads. Not enough. Next I added bullions in Eterna silk twist #5. Under the rick rack I couched Japanese gold twist, DMC perle #8, and a [...]
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery on July 9, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Here’s where I am, now that I can get back to work.
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery, tagged back, floral, seam treatment on June 28, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I thought I would show you the back of this block so far. All the gold metal threads that cannot be stitched through the fabric have to be couched in place, each little piece. Then the two ends have to be sunk through the fabric with a big crewel needle and anchored with stitches on [...]
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery, tagged S, seams, center patch on June 26, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Meanwhile, I have made a little progress on my S block. I won’t tell you how many hours this small amount of work took. Here’s the center patch, finished.
And here are a few more details–some basic seam coverings and a flower motif.
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery, tagged practice, padding, felt, wedding album, Matt's gift on May 30, 2008 | 4 Comments »
It’s not as though I hadn’t done this technique before–putting felt over the string padding before attaching the gold purls. I discovered that the felt provided a firmer shape and sharper outline for stitching the gold when I made a wedding album for my son and his wife in 2003.
This was a practice cloth. I’ll [...]
Posted in Stitching, crazy patchwork, goldwork, hand embroidery, tagged padding, cutting board, needle, thread, wax, gold threads on May 5, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Oh, I’m excited! I’m finally stitching the first S design. I’m not going to strain your interest by showing you every step of the way, but I do want you to see what’s involved in getting started.
My new floor stand is a dream. Turns of two knobs and it was perfectly positioned to hold the [...]
