I cannot count my day complete
'Til needle, thread and fabric meet.
~Author Unknown

Sharing a common thread with those who love the art of hand embroidery

Monday, October 10, 2011

Working Your Embroidery Into Other Mediums

I have embroidered on just about every kind of linen throughout all of my years...........always leaning toward my love of pillowcases and bed linens. Over the past weekend, I gave my needle a try at crazy quilting.........something I have always wanted to try............it is a wonderful way to use small pieces of embroidery  and a wonderful way to incorporate my embroidery into my other love..........
quilting.
And I have always loved embroidering little pieces..........pieces I embroidered to send to customers to show samples of my stitch work...........(the days before I had computer and a digital camera)
little pieces just because they were whimsical or pretty. The one piece above I love because I stitched my favorite saying to it. That saying I clung to throughout the first 20 years that we lived in a scary neighborhood on busy city street. I made up my mind during that time that I would definitely bloom where I was planted. ................I must say, I am so happy that I have been transplanted to my country life I live now. {:
I am blooming in a so much brighter way.

In my stash of fabric, I have many floral prints with roses and leaves...........
I think they are my favorites................
what is your favorite material design?


I decided to embroider over one of the printed roses for the crazy quilting..........I love the way the texture is on this..........don't you?

This is material I hold dear to my heart.........it is what I used for my children's baby nursery.........the crib pads, the baby quilt.......the pad on the changing table.........and a few bibs. It always brings back those sweet memories. I think I need to embroider a bee or a butterfly here...........
what do you think?

Along with learning the new stitches that accompany crazy quilting...........I took use of my
"creative license" and made my own leaf scroll to go with the green fabric.

I also had to add some blue and white............
I think I will work some stitches over the white flowers............

and here it is...........in it's very beginning stages.I made the "bloom" embroidery my main center piece and will work and add around it.  I still have much I want to do and to add. I am planning on making this a small wall quilt..........I have more flowers, a butterfly or two and of course there has to be a chicken pecking in there somewhere.
How about you?
 Do any of you crazy quilt or do regular quilting?
Do you add embroidery or other embellishments to it?
Do you incorporate your embroidery into something else?
I would love to hear..........and see! 

13 comments:

Miss Holly said...

Oh my gosh I love your leaf scroll.....I was just using that on my machine and thought I should try it by hand ..my favorite way to embroider!! It looks wonderful!!

Bev said...

How beautiful! I have quilted a bit...lately I have done Serger Quilts as they are FAST!!... Life is too busy for me to get into such intricate work! But I love it!!

Pamela said...

I have wanted to make a crazy quilt for so long. And I'm totally loving working embroidery into it. How do you know how to cut the fabrics? You have me just itching to start one.

And you have beautiful embroidery techniques.

GardenOfDaisies said...

Your crazy quilt block is wonderful! I love the embroidery you did to give a rasied effect to the rose. I did make a paper pieced crazy quilt Christmas stocking a few years back. I LOVE them because of all the tiny little stitches and details.

KathyB. said...

I think you should add a bee AND a butterfly to the fabric of your children's nursery.

Your crazy quilt is already a piece of art, and it is a work of love too, making it priceless even before you've come close to finishing it.

Lovely Kathleen, simply lovely.

Cindy said...

I love your crazy quilt so far, especially the way you added the embroidery on the floral fabric, and the cross stitch. Both unexpected touches.

My husband loves crazy quilts, but I have never been a fan of those dark velvet and satin ones. But then I saw examples of lighter, floral quilts and I was in! I showed a small crazy quilt pillow on my blog this summer. It was fun to do.

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

I don't sew, but I do cross-stitch, and have tried embroidery -- so many stitches. One of our Fiber Arts meetings last year included crazy quilting -- I started a block, but never finished it -- and certainly never added any embellishments. We were sent home with a whole booklet of stitches to try. A bit overwhelming for someone who can't make a button stay on properly. :/ Love how yours is looking so far. I like the scrappy look of crazy quilting -- bits and pieces all sewn together to make something really pretty. Hope your day is great! Tammy

lil red hen said...

Kathleen, your block is beautiful!! I wish I could be a fly on the wall and learn all these wonderful embroidery stitches. I have a doll quilt in the crazy quilt pattern that I am in the process of embellishing with thread. It is made of fabrics from men's neckties, velvet, and another shimmering fabric. I think I would rather use cotton prints.

I use a lot of redwork in my baby quilts and recently embroidered primitive nursery designs for another.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful work.

Shoumi said...

Marvellous @@@!!

MeganH said...

Beading the edges and contours of flowers/leaves is also very effective.

My fav material is brocade - not much use except for backing - but I love how elaborate and 'rich' it is.

Joanne said...

It's looking beautiful so far!
I often think about blending the different crafts- embroidery; quilting; knitting; beading. Sadly thinking is as far as it gets most of the time for me...perhaps when the super-busy time of raising my kids is over I'll have more 'free' time.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to soak up the ideas and inspiration from other people. :)

Eklektikos, Mind Body Spirit Healing said...

My great grandma made a crazy quilt with embroidery stichies similar to yours, it was one of the most beautiful things I had seen, yours is so lovely. i have been saving velvet to make one someday. Great idea I adore all the things you make. <3 Have a wonderful week end. Tink

Vickie said...

Kathleen, I don't visit much here, cuz I guess I forget about your other blogs, but I wanted to say that this project is absolutely gorgeous. I am anxious to see this completed. Wouldn't it be beautiful in a full quilt!!! I can just see this beautiful thing covering a bed or folded on the end of the bed. Wow - you are an artist with your needle!