Monday, December 26, 2011

On the first day of Christmas...



Look what my DH gave me for Christmas! The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment and Applique by Janice Vaine. Published by Landauer in 2011. What a gorgeous book! Kudos to my DH for bravely going into our local Joann's to find this book for me. He talked to a male employee (I think it really was an angel because I have NEVER seen a male employee at our Joann's) who showed him where to find the books. 

The book includes how to do needleturn applique, embellishment techniqes including embroidery stitches, fabric techniques, ribbonwork, and stumpwork. The book includes a DVD which lets you print the patterns for the many 4 inch blocks, the 8 inch blocks, and the 16 inch block and a swag used in one of the quilts. The quilts include one done in redwork. Excellent photos and drawings showing the stitches and techniques. 


Here is the chickadee block I worked on Christmas afternoon. The branches are Encroaching Stem Stitch. The berries are beads. The leaves (using variegated embroidery floss) are done in Fishbone Stitch. The Chickadee is outlined first in split stitch and then filled in with long and short stitches. The eye is a black bead. He's pretty cute, don't you think? I love the Fishbone stitch, very effective for the leaves. 

So, now I'm enjoying my day off and am going upstairs to stitch and listen to an audiobook from Audible. I'm listening to Time and Again by Jack Finney.

Enjoy!


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