TDITM Stitch #96

Wow, I can hardly believe that it has been months since I stitched a new seam treatment! I really have to do better at keeping these going.

Funny how the simple things seem to always get a smaller priority...

So, let's catch up a little. Here is stitch number 96! We continue working with dueling curves as the base of our seam treatment.  These are found easily in rick-rack...and you could use any size to scale with your project.

Or, an alternative would be to stitch the curves as part of the seam treatment as well!!

More cabochons!

Okay, I'm addicted...it's true! I love beading these cabochons!

A dear friend from the HGTV Board, (hugs Renee) ordered two special ones, and I finished them up this morning. Aren't these super cute and girly!

And I added two others to the shop this weekend.

I've got to get photos of a red and black one just completed as well. And, for all the TDITM fans...I have three more stitch treatments I also need to get photos of!! Perhaps I can manage to get all this done today, and post tomorrow...

Seascapes are not all Blue...

The water deep down at the bottom of the deepest deep...is dark and sometimes murky. When I saw the dark gray and brown tones on my friend Coleen's pieced block in our round robin titled "Faces, Faces, Faces" I immediately thought of this part of the ocean. Dark and mysterious...

So, I thought of a sea witch as my use of her clay face. Hope she likes my interpretation of her block.

More Buzz...

Just got back from a wonderful visit with friends in Ohio. We went to bead shoppes, a wonderful thread store, and spent the day at the Columbus Convention Center viewing some GORGEOUS quilts at this year's National Quilting Association Quilt Show. Astonishing work.

I took loads of pictures, but we were instructed not to post any photos of the quilts without express permission from the folks actually making them. So, I have a show brochure and will be contacting at least a couple of them..to see if I can share their creations with you.

While in Ohio, I finished working on a crazy quilt round robin block for Becky...my hostess! It was kinda strange working on someone's block as they sat across the table from you...but still, I was happy with my work, and Becky loved it too. Here are some photos for you as well.

 First up, embellished silkies. I love to take these and over-stitch some of the areas to give it more dimension and interest. The image is printed straight from my inkjet printer, on silk fabric sheets by Jacquard. I purchase mine at www.fiberonawhim.com but am sure they are available elsewhere. The sheets come in cotton, organza, and silk...easy to use...just load them like a standard sheet of paper, hit print, peel off the paper backing and you have a beautiful printed color-fast image on fabric! Isn't technology wonderful!!

My favorite part of this stitching is the basket. It came out just as I had planned. And, the little beaded snail in the bottom right corner of the image is just too cute!

 Here is the other little girl in the block. Her cart is filled to overflowing with flowers! Her sunshine is from a button cabochon I beaded while at Becky's...we picked out the button together while at the quilt show. It was a perfect color and that was great to share that find!

And, here is the last of the embellished silkies. A branch of wisteria for this little bird. The branch and leaf vine are stitched with velvet threads, which we found while shopping at the thread store! Yeah!

Under this image a bit of the beaded lace motif can been seen, and one of my simple beaded seam treatments to the right, along with tatted trim.

 These flowers are made from silk ribbon florals, plucked right off their plastic stems and pulled apart. The petals are then layered and secured with a pearl stitched in the center. Some pink checked and wine colored ribbon roses are added to the tatted doily and peach beaded lace trim piece. I love the look of all the layers of texture.

A little swag of graduated size pearls can barely been seen on the left side seam treatment; as well as the porcelain rose beads added to the pink seam treatment above them.

My contribution to this area of the block was it's start of lace and tatted doily, the wired wine colored roses and velvet leaves, the porcelain roses, and the wired pearls twists. The twists were created by stringing pearls on a short piece of wire, securing the ends by bending them tightly...then twisting the entire length around a pencil to make a coil. Each is couched in place with beading thread to secure it to the block.

Below the wired ribbon cluster is this spiderweb. It is created just as the spiderweb tutorial (earlier post) indicated. The beaded spider is from my collection, and was purchased by Becky's sister...my friend Donna...for another of Becky's block. She graciously let me use it for this block instead. It fits perfectly witht he colors and style of this block.

And, lastly...here's the button cluster placed on the block. I loved all the crystal beads and buttons. The photo does not do a good job of showing how it reflects the light.

The block was really pretty when done. The other ladies working on the block, JaNae and Karen, added their own beautiful beading and silk ribbon...so the finished block was just gorgeous! And, most of all...Becky was very happy with the results. She plans to frame it and hang it in her home, which makes me smile!

Spiderweb Tutorial

Spiderwebs are an absolute necessity to embroidery on a crazy quilt. They are tied to generations of traditional belief that quilt maker and the quilt recipient will have good luck when a spiderweb is stitched into the quilt. Whether or not, that is true....or even if it is believed...it is still an expected embroidery motif in crazy quilting; therefore, it is worth learning.

Regardless of which famed author of crazy quilt motifs you like to read...each will have at least one spider web in their arsenal of motif designs. Search on the web and you will find countless examples. So, here is my most favorite way to stitch a web. It is easy to do, and no pattern is needed. Try it and see if you like the technique...and feel free to adapt the general idea to your own style of stitching.

This style of web will work on any size or shape of fabric patch.

So, we shall start with a patch that has lot's of sides and seams connecting to it.

The first step is to envision where you want the center of the web to be. I normally do not make that point in the "center" of the patch, as most webs I have spent the time to observe are not perfectly circular with a center core.


Once, you decide on a point...place a small pencil dot there as a reference point. All of your "spokes" will radiate from this point. Actually, you will stitch from the outside to this point...ending all of your stitches with a "needle down" into this point.

Thread your needle and needle up along one of the seams of this patch...anywhere is fine. My preference it to begin along a straight seam, and not at a corner. Needle up at this start point and needle down at the center point (the pencil dot).

Repeat this process as you progress around the patch.

Make the "pie wedges" different widths. Try to not start a "spoke" at a corner point.

Remember to needle up at the outside edge of the web spoke, and always needle down in the center. This will make a more even center core.

Because spider webs are naturally "anchored" to something...they don't just "appear in the sky" kind of thing...always start your spokes at a seam or at an object. These photos anchor the web only at the patch seams...but you are not limited to do just that.

For example, if you have a silk ribbon motif, or button cluster, or an embroidery tree...if is perfectly acceptable to stitch over a patch seam to "anchor" the web to that object; rather than keep the web contained by the patch shape itself. Once the spider web spokes are stitched, anchor off at the back of your work. The spokes will be couched down when the "rings" are stitched, so don't worry that they are long single stitches at this point.

Thread your needle, and needleup along the side of one of the spokes...near the center of the spokes. Take your thread over to the adjacent spoke and needle down on the opposite side of that spoke. Needle up on the near side of the spoke...repeat this until you have work around the web. It is not necessary to make concentric rings on the web...like ripples on a pond when a rock is thrown in. A web can have broken rings, spiral rings, concentric rings, the sky is the limit.

If you need inspiration, just search for spider web and check out all the types created in nature.

Continue to work rings until the web is complete. When you can no longer make a complete "ring" around the web, start to do just partial rings.
 

The key (in my humble opinion) to a good web is that it should not be too uniform in shape. The spokes and the rings should be different distances apart. The less uniform the design, the better I like it!

Next, we'll look at making a realistic spider to place in our web. An easy one of course!...so I'll be back with that tutorial when it is completed.

Here are some webs I have stitched...and you can certainly tell they are not all alike. LOL!

Tutorial for dying venise lace (rayon) with Jacquard Acid Dye

Recipe (for each color used*)
1 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
Dye Color

Measure water and vinegar into a large pot and bring to a boil. NOTE: remember to multiply the recipe for the number of colors. For example: if you will be using 6 dye colors...put 6 cups of water and 6 tablespoons of white vinegar into the pot. DO NOT ADD ANY DYE AT THIS POINT. You can boil more water/dye solution if you want to have extra...as long as you keep the ratio (1 to 1) the same.

You need jars for mixing the dye solutions. Here are my supplies when I get ready to mix my acid dye. For this batch of lace, I am using five colors. So, I have five little jars for the dark mix and five larger jars for the medium mix. You don't need quart jars...that's all I have on hand.


Here is the yellow mix completed. You can see that only a small part of the quart jar was used for the medium shade, so pint jars would be fine.


You can also see that the Sun Yellow color of dye looks more like an orange when it is mixed with the water/vinegar. But, it will be yellow when it is painted on the lace. 

You will also need other supplies when you get ready to paint your lace. However, your dye can set for a day or too before it is used...so you can mix your colors ahead of time.


The other supplies you need once you get ready to dye/paint are paper towels, artist paint brushes, old terry cloth towels as a work surface (or some other substitute), small containers to hold the dye while painting, larger containers to hold a weak dye bath and clear water. You will also need disposable rubber gloves if you don't want your fingers/nails to be dyed! Once you mix your dye colors, you should have left over vinegar/water solution. This will be used to wet your lace and to clean your paint brushes...so pour it up into a jar as well.


To mix the dye solutions:
STRONG COLOR: Mix 1/4 teaspoon of the dry acid dye color into a small container and add 1 teaspoon of hot vinegar/water solution.
MEDIUM COLOR: Mix 1/4 teaspoon of the dry acid dye color into a medium container and add 3/4 cup of hot vinegar/water solution.
WEEK COLOR BATH: Pour 1/4 cup of the MEDIUM COLOR solution (that you just mixed) into a glass bowl (glass won't dye where plastic bowls will pick up the color). Add 1/2 cup of hot vinegar/water solution.


You will mix each color of dye separately.  Do not mix them together, or you will just have a huge jar of brown yucky dye color.

My most favorite little containers to use for painting with dye are sauce cups. You can ask for the disposible ones at your local fast food chains. I get stainless steel ones from Sam's Club...and they cost about five bucks for a dozen! And they don't stain with the dye!

CAUTION: Don't use any jars, bowls, measuring spoons, etc for dying that you would then need to prepare or serve food in!! Powder dyes are not to be ingested...so also read your product labels before using.



So, to recap...at this point...you should have three dye solutions for every acid dye color you are using...a strong, medium, and weak.


Next, set up your work station with an old folded towel or something disposable you can place your lace upon to paint it.

Here are photos from a dye process my friends (Pam and Francis) and I had last week. This is our playground!


You can see the dye is still in the jars at this point. The little stainless steel cups are ready for us to pour some medium and dark dyes into.


Our lace is still in the baggies. The large red bowl in the center has hot vinegar/water solution in it, ready for the lace to be wet before we paint it.


One small stainless steel cup will also hold clean vinegar/water solution for us to wash our brush out after each color of dye we "paint" on our lace. 

Here are the glass bowls we used for the weak dye solution. We decided to only use four of the colors, as we were not big fans of purple lace.


We poured each of us a stainless steel little container with each of the medium and the dark color solutions. Since we used five colors...we each had ten little cups of dye...and one little cup of clear solution.


So, the next step is to get busy! We wet each piece of lace as we worked with it, instead of wetting all of them at once...saving us room on the table.

Here is Francis painting some of her lace pieces.


As you can see, she has a yellow piece that she wanted to be only that one color. Then she has a floral in pink/purple/yellow with green leaves. And she is working on a piece of floral trim in shades of blue, pink, yellow with green leaves.


Use the weakest dye bath to submerge the lace after it has been painted...before it has been painted...or both! This will help to blend your colors together. But, it will also alter your colors...so experiment with lace you won't mind "losing" before you tackle your most favorite piece. 


You can paint the colors on the lace using the dark and medium solutions to obtain multi-colored lace pieces. Or, you can just use one color...and paint the lace with the dark shade and the medium shade...then "dunk it" into the weak dye bath of that same shade to get a beautifully shaded single color piece of lace.


CAUTIONS: Remember what you learned in school. Yellow and red make orange. Blue and yellow make green. Blue and red made purple. And mixes of these makes brown!


So work within the colors that can be mixed when every possible...or at least, keep them side-to-side so you get a pleasing design when they do blend...and not a yucky patch of brown! BUT, all is not lost it that happens...just dunk the entire piece of lace into a strong medium color...and you have a solid piece that color shade!

Play around with the shades. If something is too orange...paint some more pink/red into that area. If somethink is too pink, add some blue to make it purple!


When you create a piece of lace you love...WRITE DOWN what you did!!! You will forget those mixes of colors and the steps you took to get that gorgeous result the next time you dye if you don't...ask me how I know!!


HEAT SET all acid dye lace to set the colors. We used the microwave and baked each piece for 30 seconds. Then we let all of the pieces dry. Residual dye will still lay on top of the lace if it can not be totally absorbed; and will run off when the lace is wet again. So, rinse the dryed lace at least once...we did this the next day! Then heat set each dyed piece by ironing it to make sure the colors are completely set correctly. (The manufacturer recommends to iron dry fabric dyed pieces to heat set...but microwaving, air-drying, rinsing, ironing dry seems to work best for lace)

Here are some of our dyed lace pieces. Francis, Pam and I agreed we did not like some pieces...but on the second day, after we had allowed them to dry...and after we rinsed and ironed...We agreed that we LOVED all of them! 

The photo on the right is lace that Pam painted. I love her pink and yellow photo frame and her large piece of rose trim is wonderful. The camera does not capture the color in that well however.

The variegated blue piece was created with the last of our blue dye, just dunk and wring out...some got more dye than others...and we loved this little "surprise".



Francis dyed some cotton threads along with her lace. The purple large trim piece actually has some pink in the center...and it is going into a mermaid crazy quilt block. The large rose trim piece at the top is stunning...again the camera doesn't capture that!

And you can see lots of colors of shell trims at the bottom. These will also go into Francis's mermaid block, as will the pink piece.

And lastly, here are mine. I had no specific plan for any of mine, so just played with colors.

Francis, Pam and I had great fun dying these. We are not professional dyers...by any means!! So, I feel that anyone could get good results if they have some time and patience.

Start with your least favorite laces...do them in shades of one color. Try adding a second color..play around!

and remember....HAVE FUN!

ETA: For those who are wondering what color of dyes these are. We used #629 Emerald, #621 Sky Blue, #608 Pink, #601 Yellow Sun, and #612 Lilac.

Testing: Here is the pdf of the tutorial.

Cabochons

Having a better day...decided to put away all the business stuff, and the quilt show stuff...and stitch! Yeah!

Well, kinda stitching...it did involve a needle and thread.

I made some new cabochons for the Studio. Then, forgot to take a photo of one of them..so it will have to wait until tomorrow for uploading...but these others are gonna go up tonight.

I love beads!

These took two days to complete, so not a bad production time! With my other daily routine things, I'm beading a cabochon in about 2-3 hours; depending on the size. I can live with that!

Okay, edited to add this last one...her name is Rubies!

Cabochons have a flat back. They can be adapted to wear as a brooch with a pin clip and a little glue. But, mine are really created to be used on crazy quilts. They can easily be couched in place by stitching over the fringe right next to and around the cabochon. Even the fringe could be stitched down by stitching through the last bead again if you wanted the "rays" to be tamed...but I like the dimensional look of them being free to move a little.

Easy, Breezy Trees

I've been asked about the technique used to make trees like the ones in the Queen's Garden below. I use this technique often, and it is so easy...you just won't believe it!

To begin, hoop your project so your work area is nice and flat. For this tutorial, I just hooped a placemat as my work area. Next visualize where you want the bottom and top of your tree. The photo has labels to show my bottom and top points...but you can just remember where you want yours. You will need the thread you wish to make your tree trunk from. I have used all types of fiber, yarn, and threads for this technique. Your choice will depend on the type of tree you are considering...birch would be good in white and black yarn...pine would be in browns...etc. For the tutorial I have chosen white so it will show up well in the photographs. Next, you need to select your stitching thread...for the tutorial I will use green so it will show up; but, in "real life" I would have chosen the same white thread as the trunk is made of.

Here are my supplies:

 Next, take the threads you want your tree trunk made from, fold them in half and find the middle. Lay them vertically with the middle point at the bottom point of your tree. Stitch over this group, couching the bottom in place.

The amount of threads you use for your tree will partially determine how big it is. You can take several in your hand and just twist it to see how big around the trunk would be...too big?...take a few away; too little?...add some more. You want to have enough to create a good solid tree. Another trick, is to twist the trunk tighter to make it smaller...with a lot of threads used.

Next, bring the threads together and twist to form the trunk. Pin this vertical trunk at the top to hold in place. I pin a little on the right then on the left...like holding a corsage in place.

If you are left handed, you probably twisted your tree counter-clockwise...while right handers usually twist clockwise. Either will work...you just need to look at the directions of the twist for the next step.

Bring your stitching thread out at the bottom of the tree. If you twist clockwise, it will need to start on the right side. You want your couching stitches to follow the twist so they are hidden as part of the trunk. The bottom stitches in this picture below are a little to horizontal...while the upper ones are more in line with the "twist"..and that is what you want to achieve.

 Stitch the trunk down until you reach about 1/3 to 1/2 of the distance between your bottom and top. Now, start to open the threads above the last couching stitch...these will be the large limbs of the tree. Determine if you want to continue with a center limb or have all the limbs go "out" at this point. This will depend on the type of tree you are trying to depict...and the area you have to cover on your project. As you open the tree up...couch the major limb down.

Continue to couch all the major limbs down. You might have to use more than one needle/thread...or just move around on the back of your work. Next, open the individual threads up to make tiny limbs. These can be couched some.

Lastly, thread each thread individually into your needle and pull to the back so that the tip of each tree branch ends where you want them. Viola, you have the structure of the tree!! Now, stitch leaves...add leaf beads...add leaf sequins...add flowers...let your mind and needle bring your tree to life!

Try it!

The Queen's Garden

The past few weeks, I have been working on this tote bag. I could not post about it, because it was my entry in the Crazy Quilter's International Yahoo Group purse contest for 2010. But, the contest is now complete, so I can share a few pictures with my followers.

The contest had some super great entries, and it was a great honor to be considered in the running with these pieces of needle art. And, I'm blushing proud of my "lady" because she came home with the 1st Place ribbon. My mom was so proud! She saw the hours and hours of short-long thread work I put into the sleeves and coat. The hundreds of French knots and the bullions in the hair. The beads were a different story altogether...and are too numerous to count. Each was securely stitched because I plan on using this tote! It has already make a couple of trips to town with me!

So, hope you enjoy the photos!