Vintage Leaf with Bud

Here's an interesting little embroidery motif. It is simple enough to trace and enlarge for filling work; or reduce for a simple little beaded motif.

Wednesday Wine Country Monograms - I

 

Marvelous Monday Motifs - 6/13/2011

You can read all about my idea for Marvelous Monday Motifs here. Today we have pages 15-16 of the J. F. Ingalls Company, 1886 Catalog of Perforated Parchment Stamping Patterns. 

Please NOTE: This catalog is not under copyright any longer; but the scanned version released to the public domain on 17 July 2007 (the source of my information) does come with restrictions. None of these designs can be sold. They are for your individual use.

Flower Patch

Here's a little embroidery and ribbon motif you might enjoy stitching.

I added a few blades of grass to my stitched sample.

Wednesday Wine Country Monograms -- D

 

Enjoy!

 

Marvelous Monday Motifs - 6/6/11

You can read all about my idea for Marvelous Monday Motifs here. Today we have pages 13-14 of the J. F. Ingalls Company, 1886 Catalog of Perforated Parchment Stamping Patterns. 

Please NOTE: This catalog is not under copyright any longer; but the scanned version released to the public domain on 17 July 2007 (the source of my information) does come with restrictions. None of these designs can be sold. They are for your individual use.

French Script Saturday-D

Here's a new motif for all those collecting them!

French Script Saturday -- C

Monograms continue!! This one is for Cathy K.!

French Script Saturday -- A

Here's another embroidery monogram motif! Hope you find a good project for it's use!

Wednesday Wine Country Monograms -- B

Today, this post is brought to you by the letter "B". 

French Script Saturday -- B

Here's another embroidery monogram motif for you!

First Thursday Thimbles -- May_2011

The first Thursday of each month, I'll be posting a new thimble for you to stitch. The photo can be resized to fit your given project idea. Most will probably be embroidery work; but there could be a cross-stitch or other style mixed in as we progress. The designs will just depend on what my Creative Muse directs!The first is in honor of May here is a little Queen Bee thimble!And, you don't have to worry about being stung! 

Wouldn't this little thimble look lovely on a name-tag! Or as the center of a little pin cushion? Or follow along for a few months...and you can have a bell-pull...or quilt squares! I'd love to see what your version looks like...when you finish...come back here and comment with a link to your blog! Or send me a jpg file and I'll add it to this post with credit if you don't have a blog! 

Cabochons

The past two days, I've been trying to get a few more cabochons beaded for the Studio's page of CQ Motifs. There are dozens in my stash to work on and it will surely take my lifetime to get them all done! It is a tedious process, but I enjoy it for a few hours...then my eyes need a rest! Here are the ones I have managed to complete and add to the website...for those of you that enjoy adding a cabochon to your CQ Projects (like me!).

Melissa's Heart and Bow

I'm still working on Melissa's block (see posts for 1/7 and 1/9). I finished the embroidery motif of the little bow with hearts. Here's a reminder of the design traced on to the tissue paper and basted to the block.

The design is a little hard to make out in the picture....but here is the finished (without the beads) embroidery.

It turned out to be really sweet. I'll still add some little pearl beads to the tiny flowers. But, that will be later on when I start beading on the block...so I don't snag my embroidery thread on those beads! I added a little butterfly done in 4mm ribbon. This little fellow is included in my templates files on the Yahoo site. So, if you have not yet signed up to get those files downloaded...just go to Yahoo Groups...and join the ShawklBlogFiles group. I'll be uploading all the stitch charts and stitch photos for TDiTM in the next few weeks too...and have other tutorials there as well. It's not an active "group" with lot's of messages and such (well at least not yet I suppose...depends on how "wordy" y'all get!) But, is just a quick stop place for me to upload the files I would like to share with you.
Okay, back to stitching!

Melissa's Drop Flowers

Okay, I'm a little further along on Melissa's block...see earlier post on 1/7/2011 Here is a reminder of one of the motifs I'm going to embroidery. I traced the design onto tissue paper, and basted that to the block.

I thought that I'd share a few process steps with you. I like working with tissue paper, because it is fast...and I don't draw directly onto the project (which means I can change my mind if I wanted to move it before actually stitching). In this design I will not embroidery the flower heads...I am debating beads or silk ribbon...and have not yet made up my mind. But for the stem and leaves...it will be embroidery. To start, I stitch these areas in a simple backstitch in olive green perle cotton, size 8 thread.

Now, you can see from the photo that stitching through the tissue paper can be done without tearing it to shreds. I think there a few things to remember when doing this however...mostly, be gentle in handling...for obvious reasons. Also, having the block in a frame...and you can barely see the side of my little Q-snap frame in this photo...is key to keeping the work flat, taut, and easy to handle. Work carefully in a needle up, needle down motion...not both steps together as a continuous flow. That helps to not "disturb" the tissue while you are working.

Here's what the design looks like when the tissue paper is removed. Very simple and basic at this stage. The point is, you don't have to stitch the entire image...just get the basics in with the tissue paper as a guide. Next, I'll go to the bottom of the stem and work upwards wrapping the backstitches...and then the leaves will be wrapped as well.

And, here is the end result after the backstitches have been turned into Wrapped Backstitch. I added some little detached chain (Lazy Daisy) stitches along the design as well. You might note that these are not in the same place or size as in Mary's original design that was traced on to the tissue paper (scroll up and you'll see this). But, Mary works a lot in silk threads and embroidery floss strands...I don't usually...most of my crazy quilt (and hence embroidery) is done is perle cotton. If I want fine details I use size 12...but for the most part...I stitch in size 8.
Whenever I finally make up my mind on what type of flower heads to use...I'll photograph them and let you see a finished motif!

"A" Motif

I'm still playing around in Illustrator...so, here'a a couple of monogram motifs for you. Just copy and save; resize with whatever photo software you have, as they are jpg files.

This one has a nice wide area for stitching...so if you didn't want to include the snowflakes, how about some spiderweb roses...or lazy daisy flowers...or a string of Christmas ornaments...or whatever you can dream up to fit the individual who's initial you are stitching. Hmmm...A is for Aidan...perhaps I should just put hearts!

Little Birdie

Here's a little birdie I drew in Illustrator. I've got to find the time to read the instruction manuals...instead of just scanning the book...so I can get better...and faster!

But, I don't have time to read! I could be stitching!

Dragonfly motifs

I've been playing around with Illustrator again...and it is so frustrating!

But, I managed to get a couple of very simple little dragonflies drawn.

Perhaps you can use these as embroidery motif patterns.

I am going to enlarge them and use the outline as a base for some beading I'm going to be working on next year. Of course, I'll let you know how that goes too!