Machine Embroidery

Kathleen and I have been interested in machine embroidery for quite some time now. We just never really had the capability of doing it. After Kathleen won her new machine from the McCalls Quilt Design Star contest she decided it was time to really learn how. Yesterday we took our first class at Daves Bernina and it was awesome! We learned so much!

In the class we embroidered this cool bird and feathers. It was so fascinating to watch the machine stitch the beautiful design.

I have wanted to learn how to do machine embroidery so I could learn how to make nice beautiful custom labels for our quilts. After class I came right to the studio and started playing around. I made this fun little sample with my daughters name and a flower.

The thread I used on her name was variegated, I don't think I'll used it again but the look.... AWESOME! I have some great mothers day gift ideas I can't wait to make!!

Do you do machine embroidery?

If so do you have any tips you'd like to share with us newbies?

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Folk art embroidery: Andrea Zuill and the black rabbit

~Stay tuned for the May Giveaway !~

Here's a little bunny created by Andrea Zuill, a painter, designer, and quilter based in Southern California. Andrea works in many different media, and her embroidery designs often have a whimsical, innocent "naif" style to them, which is associated with folk art.

Black rabbit quilt, 24 x 30, by Andrea Zuill, at Andrea Zuill.com

We think that the black bunny is adorable, because he seems very young, and he seems to occupy a timeless, enchanted world, surrounded by flowers, leaves, and other decorations that complement his rounded shape. To emphasize his shape and to make sure that he doesn't blend into the background, Andrea has used electric blue thread to hand-quilt the bunny in an "echo" pattern which further defines his shape. Click on the image below to see the detail, and you will be able to see the outline stitching around the bunny and the blanket stitching around some of the flowers.

For the post explaining the construction of this project, please see:  black rabbit quilt is finished  at Badbird's (Andrea Zuill's blog).

Her artwork has been described as sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, and generally figurative in nature. She also writes a very humorous blog: for her funny descriptions of 9 different kinds of quilters, see the post called Line that Divide.  She explains: "Folk Art Quilters are very close to Art Quilters. What makes a Folk Art Quilter is simplistic expressive designs and the inability to make even stitches. Flaws are acceptable, they’re Folk Artists for goodness sakes."

Andrea also creates beautiful quilts with light-hearted, upbeat designs. Each month, she offers a free embroidery pattern (in April's embroidery pattern, you can find a fierce little hummingbird). For a wonderful "Rabbit Queen" pattern, click here.  

Andrea Zuill has a fascinating shop on Etsy where you can find her artwork and unusual embroidery patterns; see Badbird's Art and Embroidery Patterns .

The year of the rabbit in thread and cloth

Each year we seek out the most unusual rabbit quilts and trends (see our 2010 Easterly Quilts). 2011 is the year of the rabbit, so we've rounded up bunnies from all parts of the globe: England, Sweden, Russia, Japan, and the U.S.  Take a look at these sublime thread sketches by Cathy Baumgartner:

Year of the rabbit mini-quilt, 13 x 13, by Cathy Baumgartner, at Baumcat

Cathy Baumgartner created this mini-quilt with free-motion quilting. We love the simplicity of the contemplative bunny. Cathy's masterful thread sketches, including her mermaid, horse, wildlife, and bee, remind us of line drawings with a pen: the stitching is so precise, you can hardly tell it is thread !

Where the blue bunnies fish, 8 x 10, by Cathy Baumgartner at Baumcat

This entire piece is only 8" x 10" (imagine machine-quilting those tiny letters!) Click to see the detail. To see Cathy's latest rabbit quilt, visit her Baumcat blog. Finally, don't miss her gorgeous Prayer-Flag Quilt; each "flag" is stitched with a line from a beautiful Celtic prayer.

Rabbit fabrics

Row 1: Hand-screen-printed rabbits on white linen, 39 cm x 39 cm, by Swedish designer Maja Bäckström on Etsy. Row 2: White Rabbit of Inaba (Japanese watercolor fabric), 100% cotton, as seen at Superbuzzy. Row 3: Brother rabbit (Brer rabbit) linen fabric, a William Morris design, at Fabrics and Papers; other colorways can be found at Historic Style.

Alice in Wonderland,  by Ophelia, at Spoonflower

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is such a classic book !  This clever border fabric brings back the vintage 1800's Tenniel illustrations, along with the text, on a blue ombre background. The border prints and toile-style patterns come in coordinating colors.

 Rabbit Fabric, 8" x 8" repeat, by Olga Nikich, at Spoonflower

Russian artist Olga Nikich has created the most dramatic rabbit pair we've ever seen in fabric. The black and white bunnies nestle together in a yin-yang configuration. We think the blocks would look great as a wallhanging, and we've been playing around with this arrangement:

 
The quilting-weight fabric is available in fat quarters and yards at Spoonflower, where you can also see Olga Nikich's sumptuous red queen fabric. For more of her bold, graphic designs, visit Olga's website at www.olganikich.com.

Finally, if you visit Activity Village (UK), you will find many Year of the Rabbit coloring pages which can be downloaded (they're free !)

Sarah Vedeler Designs

Sarah Vedeler is one of those amazingly talented quilt artists with a fascinating background. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Brighton in the U.K., and her first successful career was as a software engineer and project manager. Now, Sarah has embarked on her second successful career as a designer, author, and teacher of machine appliqued embroidery. Here's a visually arresting quilt not just for the Valentine's month of February, but a lovely way to brighten your home all year round.

Silk Hearts Quilt, 48 x 48, by Sarah Vedeler

For the Silk Hearts Quilt, Sarah chose the perfect colors of silk dupioni, the perfect colors of Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread, and the perfect combination of hearts and squares. The results is one of the most gorgeous heart-themed quilts in existence. The hearts are appliqued onto each block, decorated with embroidery thread, then the individual borders are added to each block. These contemporary pure, high-chroma colors really cause the hearts to "pop" so that you can clearly see both the warm and cool hues of the design. For this joyous, radiant quilt, Sarah sells the fabric pack of 16 fat quarters of silk dupioni, the thread pack of 12 large spools of cotton thread, and a CD of instructions.

Go ! Be Dazzled, by Sarah Vedeler

We can easily see why Go ! Be Dazzled won First Place in the Computer Aided Machine Embroidery category in 2010 in Houston , TX,  at the International Quilt Association's World of Beauty Show. It's a truly scintillating three-dimensional design, expertly rendered in standout shades of orchid, lavender, and apricot. The shapes are cut from an AccuQuilt Machine, embroidered onto the block, then embellished with decorative stitchery. There are 4 different diamond blocks and 4 different square blocks, plus borders and corner, so Sarah has designed this quilt as a year-long Block-of-the-Month project. However, if you cannot wait a year to finish this stunning quilt, you can work as fast as you wish, as Sarah has written a complete Go ! Be Dazzled CD and comprehensive instructions for the entire project. This is one of those quilts that is elegant and sophisticated, and fun at the same time.

Sarah Vedeler is based in Scottsdale, Arizona where she designs products featuring embroidered applique; she also teaches workshops around the country. For more information, please visit Sarah's comprehensive website, Sarah Vedeler Designs, where you can learn about her schedule of classes, seminars, and personal appearances. 

Extraordinary Embroidery

The pairing of blue and white has resulted in some of the most dramatic textiles around the world. Here is a quote that sums up the tradition of blue and white:  "The cosmos is blue and white. Skies are blue, clouds are white; oceans are blue, waves are white. The whole cosmic message is blue and white, all over the world. There are very few countries that don't have a blue and white tradition."  The stunning quilt by Susa Glenn, below, gives us a chance to talk about blue-and-white color schemes and about extraordinary embroidery designs.

Japanese Family Crests Embroidery Design & Quilt, 50 x 50, by Susa Glenn, at Susa Glenn Designs

Each block is richly embroidered with a different ancient family crest from Japan. The Japanese Crests bundle includes twelve unique designs on a CD or as a download, and the bundles include the instructions for the gorgeous quilt project shown above. At Susa Glenn's site you can find digitized designs for wildflowers, cowboy crests, skeleton leaves, bugs, morning glories, continuous line designs, and many more. Here is a close-up of an exquisite Oriental Butterfly. 

In addition to her gorgeous embroidery designs and projects, Susa Glenn has provided some great machine embroidery tips and tutorials.

Image credits and links: Images are the copyright of Susa Glenn Designs and are shown with permission. The quote in the first paragraph is by Amy Sylvester Katoh, the owner of the shop called Blue and White in Azabu Juban, Tokyo; she is the author of four books including Blue and White Japan.

Autumn Leaves Quilts

Autumn is one of the best seasons to enjoy the glorious colors of our changing environment. Mother Nature brings out her prettiest deep greens, sunny golds, and vivid oranges and reds before beginning her winter repose. We've assembled a collection of quilts to celebrate the beauty of autumn leaves as portrayed in the textile arts.

Third Weekend in October, 85 x 110, by Ruth Powers, at Ruth Powers Art Quilts

A well-loved favorite at quilt raffles and shows, "Third Weekend in October" captures the very essence of sun-dappled warm hues. Ruth sprinkled fabrics with lighter values diagonally across the quilt and placed some leaves overlapping the borders. This technique gives the quilt a very natural, realistic, outdoors look, much as we might view a display of leaves on our front lawn. We think that this artistic, unstructured look is one of the many keys to this quilt pattern's success. Ruth writes that "Third Weekend In October" was released in 1997 and has consistently been Innovation's best seller, having sold almost 28,000 copies in the first 10 years that it was available. For the pattern, visit Ruth's pattern page. A wall hanging version of the quilt is also available; see New Leaves.


Autumn Wind Art Quilt With Embroidery, 32 x 34, at Advanced Embroidery Designs

The three very creative designers at Advanced Embroidery Designs, Sophia, Venelina, and Helen, combine their talents to produce some of the prettiest and most elegant embroidery patterns we've ever seen. Here they have combined their patterns of Lady Autumn, the FSL Autumn Leaves, and the Maple Leaves to fashion a lovely tribute to the changing season. They encourage quilters to use their imagination in adding small embellishments to this art quilt, such as beads, charms, cords, ribbons, and floss.  In the quilt shown above, they have couched a sparkling gold cord over the individual pieces, especially Lady Autumn's graceful garments. To see the detail and obtain the pattern, visit the Autumn Wind project page.


Scrappy Leaves, 77 x 83, by Ilene Bartos, at Ilene Bartos Designs

If you love the idea of an autumn leaf quilt, but you want to add in some summer and winter colors in addition to traditional autumn hues, then this Scrappy Leaves pattern will be perfect for you. Ilene used purples, pinks, blues, and greens to fashion this rainbow colored quilt. She selected 132 different leaf fabrics and cut them into 2.5 inch strips.

Scrappy Leaves is the gorgeous cover quilt for Ilene's book, Maple Leaf Quilts. Her book includes 12 different maple leaf quilt projects, and focuses on imaginative and original ways to construct Maple Leaf blocks.  Ilene offers very helpful suggestions for creating the sharp, accurate points which gives this pattern its well known crisp and clean look.

Ilene shows several other beautiful quilts on her Gallery of Leaves page, including the bright and sunny "Scattered Leaves" quilt below.

Indian Summer, 60 x 69, by Judy Niemeyer, at Quiltworx

In this quilt of the energetic color combinations of orange, teal, burgundy, and olive, the clean geometric lines create delicate pinwheel images. As the eye glides over the pinwheels, they seem to rotate gracefully, symbolizing the dance of leaves as they drift in the breeze to the ground.

Artist Judy Niemeyer remarks on her Quiltworx website, " Indian Summer was designed as a tool to teach foundation paper piecing in an afternoon class. I wanted to design a quilt that did not require figuring  yardage or picking out color. This quilt is surprisingly fun and simple to make. "

For another glorious quilt in fall colors, also see the Autumn Splendor design by Bradley and Judy Niemeyer.


October, 48 x 64, by Barbara Persing and Mary Hoover, at Fourth and Sixth Designs

Award-winning quilt artists from Jersey, England, Barbara and Mary were born the 4th and 6th children in their family. After moving to the United States, they developed their quilting talent into a full time career. They now travel extensively, giving workshops and seminars on quilting. Barbara Persing also provides long arm quilting services. They are proud to announce their first book, Strata Various Quilts from C and T Publishing.

One of Barbara and Mary's trademarks is their successful use of dazzling, pure colors against a contrasting background. You can see this skill applied in the "October" quilt, as the brilliant leaves are appliqued on a background of soft neutrals. Background strips of off-white and ecru evoke an image of a pale yet luminous landscape, as nature reposes for the season. The muted background tones cause the vibrant orange leaves to pop off the quilt with almost a three-dimensional effect. A stunning reminder of the beauty of autumn and winter, the "October" pattern is available at JWD Publishing and also from the catalog at 4th and 6th Designs.

Below, you can see the beautiful fused applique technique and thread painting on the close up of one of the leaves of "October."

Image credits: Images are shown with the generous permission of the artists.

Embroidery

Last week I quilted this darling quilt for Bonny. She made this quilt for her granddaughter and she did some AMAZING embroidery work.

 Close up of the quilting and embroidery.

Thanks for letting me quilt your quilt Bonny! 

Some day maybe I'll really try my hand at embroidery, I think it's so pretty!

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~Natalia
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Resplendent: the works of Jayne Townsend

When we came across the embroidered batiks of Jayne Townsend, we were astounded by their beauty, and wanted to share it with our readers. Jayne is a UK-based artist and design teacher who is based in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Jayne's work is currently on exhibit at the gallery at Buxton Gardens.

The main elements of her designs are produced in hand-dyed batiks, which are then richly embellished with multicolored embroidery, beads, and sequins. The final result is often reminiscent of filigree, rendered in fabric.


Maternal Heart, 2008



Landmark Patterns, 2007



Isabella's Heart, 2006



Detail of Isabella's Heart



Jayne notes that she does not always plan her work, preferring to let it grow and develop in a more organic way. "The style of my work is constantly changing... I have acquired a sewing machine as the hand embroidery took so long!" To see more of Jayne's embroidered batiks and other works, visit her website here.

Tiny Stitches and Paying in Foward

Look what came in the mail on Friday! I've been checking my mailbox with anticipation every day for more than a week. This gorgeous embroidery sampler was hand stitched by Maya the Embellisher. She hosted a giveaway in June and I was the very lucky winner. Maya's Blog is titled "Million Little Stitches" and this sampler lives up to her reputation. Oh my these are tiny stitches, smaller than the head of most pins. All done with a single strand of embroidery floss. I love how she inserted subtle changes of color in certain places. It just makes the embroidery shine.

My great, great Grandparents moved to the United States from Norway and Germany. Many of the motifs in Maya's work remind me of handwork and knitting that I have seen in my home since childhood. Her work will have a cherished place in my home. Thank you Maya for your generosity!

To pay my good fortune forward I am hosting a giveaway that ends this evening (Sunday) on my Dye Candy Blog. Click here to enter.

Playing with Pencils and Needles

I love my colored pencils. They are the beginning of so many of my creations. A little doodle..
becomes a design

Then a work in progress

And then

A finished piece.

Pardon the wrinkles. I used too much wash away blue ink and had to soak the fabric 3 times before all the ink disappeared. I wanted a bit of a rustic feeling to the embroidery. I used 3 strands of floss on the yellow flowers which gives them a rough finished look.

This embroidery design is on a laundry bag I made recently. It will be part of a display for my hand dyed fabrics at Patsy's Homestead Cabin quilt retreat.

My long awaited trip to Paducah starts on Wednesday at 5:00 am. I am looking forward to travel with wonderful quilting friends to the AQS quilt show. I hope to see you there. If you see me say hello.

Sam the Dog

First off, thanks so much all of you who left happy birthday wishes for me in my last post. Each one was a gift in itself and they all put a smile on my face!


Since Mo had her stroke, (she's still doing good, but the med she was on caused her blood to thin which caused her sinus tumor to start to bleed a bit...) I have moved my sewing from my normal work space into the living room, so as to be close to her while she continues to recuperate. This small move totally shifted my creative energy. While I still have some unfinished Mod Squares to complete, my head rebelled against them, and insisted I do something just for fun. And that is how Sam the Dog came to be.


SAM The DOG:

Well read.
Good sense of humor.
Friendly.
Enjoys organic gardening and an occasional good smoke.
Loyal.

Sam began his life when I free-hand cut into a piece of cloth which I had earlier quilted and washed, (to bring outs it's cuddly texture). His features were cut from more of my quilted cloth and securely hand sewn down and embellished with embroidery floss. Because he's hip he insisted on two turquoise colored earrings. To be kind, I obliged.


10.5" tall from toe to tip of ear. He can't wear his heart on his sleeve because he has no arms... so he wears his heart on his hip.

Sam is soft, lovable and sewn with great care. Suitable for young and old.


He hates baths, so if you adopt him, please be kind and promise to only spot clean him.

I am working on Sam's friend, "Bebe the Bunny" and will introduce you to her soon. xo

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NOTE: Sam has now been adopted to a good home!

A Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the crazy quilt block I just completed for the current president of the Friendship Quilt Guild. I was so pleased to have a chance to use my imagination. Each year we make a quilt for our current guild president as a thank you for their service. The theme is chosen by the president but she does not get to see the progress until May when the completed quilt is presented.

My apologies for the brief posts I've made lately. Something had to give way to make room for all the other things going on in my life. I have attended two weekend retreats this month. No, this in not normal for me but it sure was a great way to start the New Year.

I also taught a class about hand piecing quilt blocks at the Piecemakers Guild which meets at Patsy's Retreat once a month. This was the first time I taught the class so I had some work to do to get the samples in order for class.

Last weekend was our annual Sleep-In for the Friendship Quilt Guild. Our Art Quilt group met to share paints, markers and other messy embellishments. We also did a little color discharge from fabric. Lots of fun and a great chance to see which products worked well and which did not.

Here is another project we worked on at the overnight. Our group is sewing pillowcases for children with cancer. These pillowcases will go to the cancer ward at UW Hospital in Madison. We made 40 pillowcases on Saturday. I was able to finish 3 at the overnight and have 4 more to complete this weekend. Suzanne will continue to collect these into next month. See info on RC blog for details.

The biggest reason I have not been blogging as frequently is exercise. I used to read and write my blogs in the morning before work. I am now riding my exercise bike each morning. More about that soon.

I recently started using Google Reader to read posts and have sometimes waited so long that I have 200 posts to read before I can get caught up. Please know I am reading and enjoying what you write. I am not commenting as much as I used to because Google Reader does not have a option to comment (or am I missing something?). Also, please note I do not reply to comments on my own blog but will e-mail a reply to you if you enable the e-mail feature when you leave a comment. I welcome comments and e-mails.

Wishing you all lots of time to create and dream. - Chris