Acme Flowers Stitched

I had a blast adding simple stitches to my felt flower postcard. I just need to add the backing and it will be finished.

Felted Postcard in Progress...

I will be adding hand embroidery to this postcard created on the embellisher machine. It was inspired by a bouquet of flowers I saw while standing in the checkout line a few weeks ago at the Acme. Bright orange and hot pink together always catches my eye... The background is made from torn strips of silk (from an old blouse), organdy and a little bit of wool roving on Kunin felt.

Treasures from the Sea

I mounted a small collection of delightful vintage carved Mother of Pearl buttons on an embellished and embroidered background I had created for the TAST challenge a couple of years ago. I think the frame (purchased in Michael’s) is evocative of a whitewashed beach cottage. I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop, soon.

More Progress on Santa...

I finished the vest for the gardening Santa by adding a wool felt lining and buttonhole stitching the raw edges. I’m really pleased with how it all worked out. I just need to add his beard and hat - and he’ll be ready for his close-up. The photos below are not quite true to color - I used regular fluorescent lights.

I have a couple more Santas in varying degrees of doneness – but I’m seriously running out of time! That studio move took much longer than expected – boxes had to be loaded, lugged upstairs and unloaded - I’m still looking for doll-making supplies that got lost in the shuffle. Oh, but I’m having so much fun. I love this time of year!

New Santa Vest in Progress...

I’ve had so much fun this year experimenting with embellished and embroidered felt that I wanted to try it out on a Santa outfit. I cut poinsettia shapes out of red, deep pink and green felt and machine-embellished them onto a vest made from plush fleece. I will be outlining all of the flowers with back stitches and adding some green beads to the centers. As you can see, the front flowers are nearly done. I love the freedom of using simple back stitches to outline shapes. Not being too fussy or precise, I think the look is kind of free-wheeling and primitive. Anyway, it is a joy to work on!

Another Stitch Explorer Example...

This is another example of a contemporary style stitchery done on an unconventional background. I started this piece awhile back and just finished the embroidery yesterday. The blue is lint (from a Snuggie Blanket’s initial washing) embellished onto a felt background with wool roving, novelty yarn and tulle on top. I just need to add a postcard backing and satin stitch around the edges.

Stitch Explorer Challenge WIP

This month's Stitch Explorer challenge was to incorporate something unconventional into an embroidery project, either in the background or in the surface stitching. For inspiration, I reviewed my notes from two excellent courses I had taken with Susan Sorrell: Personal Symbols and Fertile Earth.

For the background, I used a piece of painted cotton from a fabric printing project gone awry (why do I have a seemingly endless supply of those?). For a little texture, I added a few small pieces of fabric made using snippets of leftover thread from other projects. A plastic mesh onion bag from the grocery store was added on top followed by a piece of tulle. The sassafras leaf was made from wool felt embellished with wool roving. It was outlined with floss and then whipped with variegated rayon ribbon. The veins were stitched and whipped with variegated wool yarn. I think I will probably add some beads to the leaf and (possibly) some stitches to the background.

I have had so much fun with this and it has sparked some ideas for future exploration… I love when that happens!

I Love Dryer Lint!

Here is the start of what will probably be finished as a postcard. I used the embellisher machine to felt together dryer lint and novelty yarn on a dark green commercial felt base. Then, I added some tulle and machine stitched over that. All the blue you see is dryer lint from the preliminary washing of two fleece “Snuggle” blankets. I couldn’t bear to throw out all that lovely, clean lint! I added simple floral and leaf shapes cut from leftover scraps of wool felt. I will be adding embroidered details to finish.

TAST: Half Chevron Stitch

I used this week's stitch as couching in the background, oriented both horizontally and vertically (I think I like it vertically best). I wanted to use up some tiny pre-fused scraps, so I added those, along with stitching and beads. For the base, I used a small piece (ATC-sized) of the fabric I created on the embellisher the other day (posted June 28).

TAST: First Attempt at Palestrina Stitch

This was a new stitch for me and I want to thank Mary Corbet of Needle ‘n Thread for the great video tutorial! I have been wanting to try reverse appliqué and thought the Palestrina stitch would be a good candidate to try as an outline. I used a scrap of Bali batik for the base and created the top fabric by embellishing coordinating bits of roving and teased out Kunin felt on top of a piece of lilac (Kunin) felt. I ironed the base to a piece of fusible Peltex before stitching and beading. This was just a small experiment (2 ½ x 3 ½ in.) but it might be worth some further exploration…

It's a Mod Mod Mod Mod World!

This (6x4 inch) piece was made on the embellisher using dyed silk from a scarf, black silk, organza, kunin felt, rayon blend (polka dotted fabric) and wool roving – on a kunin felt base. I overlaid it with sparkly tulle (you can’t see the sparkles in the scan) and placed it on a piece of Peltex before free-motion embroidering with matching variegated rayon thread. I was going to use this as a background for some hand embroidery but I may just leave it alone…not sure…

TAST: Couching

The background is a piece of cotton from my stash to which I added some FME. I felted in circles of Kunin felt as well as some fibers teased from the felt, here and there. Variegated yarn was couched on with black embroidery floss. Too much fun…