Category: hand embroidery

Posted in hand embroidery, sewing

Henry’s Haiku

Posted on by Laura Kate

During a recent visit, my grandson handed me this post-it note containing a haiku that he had written.

Henry’s Haiku

Henry is a boy of few words, so I got almost no explanation on the source of these bonne mots. My husband reminded me that we had visited the zoo with Henry, and given him a camera to use. The poem may have been inspired by the sight of a jaguar cub. Here is a photo that my husband took that day at the zoo.

Looks like White Whiskers to me.

I am inspired by this poem and the photograph to make a fiber object featuring a white whiskered cat and Henry’s haiku. I’m planning to use applique and embroidery techniques. There is a very nice image in NatGeo of a jaguar cub in the jungles of Brazil with a good layout.

Here are some fabric options. I am thinking about using the color washed gold fabric as the background for the piece.

To be continued………….

Posted in hand embroidery, knitting

The Luna Moth Returns

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’m finally getting back to the little knitted baby dress. After I became inspired by the Luna moth in my backyard, I decided to embroider a Luna on the green dress. I had finished knitting it a few weeks ago. Today I completed the embroidery. Here is the Luna moth image which served as my model.

And here is the baby dress from the front view.

My plan is to work the embroidery on the back of the dress. But first, I will need to reinforce the yarn so that it can support the embroidery stitches.

This is a very lightweight version of fusible interfacing. It actually flexes with the knitted fabric. Next I drew a pattern of the moth and pinned it to the dress.

I was forced to shorten the moth’s back wings, in order to fit the dimensions of the dress. To transfer this pattern to the dress I simply stitched all around it with white thread. The embroidery took a couple of hours. I tried to use colors that were true to nature. Here is a picture of the finished piece.

I’m sort of happy with my work. Perhaps after a night’s sleep, I will reconsider my choices, and make a few adjustments.

Posted in colorwork, hand embroidery, quilting

Vigil Scene Part II

Posted on by Laura Kate

This is the completed work of the Easter Vigil scene. I know that the subject matter is not for everyone. But I am particularly happy with this fiber object. In the first place, I was able to control the color application in order to get the result I was aiming for. The character of the marble wall in the darkened church is much as I remembered it. The statue has the ghostly quality that matched the atmosphere of the moment. And the rendering of the little dancing candlelight reflections almost capture the way they appeared to me. It would seem not possible to render the shimmering character of the reflections in this media.

I used cotton muslin, candle wax, Jacquard Dye-Na-Flo paint, Pebeo Setacolor opaque paint, hand stitched with cotton and metallic floss, machine quilted.

Posted in hand embroidery, quilting, sewing

Fiber Arts Class String Quilt Sampler

Posted on by Laura Kate

Dear Fiber Friends,

After five days of baby care and two days of travel, I have insufficient creative energy to start something new. So it’s a good time to finish up the works in progress. Primarily on my mind is the string quilts that my students are working on. It is my practice to have a good example of a finished work for my students, both to inspire and instruct. As I previously posted, I had finished the top. Today I completed the backing, quilting and binding of this sample. Here is the piece squared-off with the backing fitted and pressed. This piece will be self-bound by folding over the backing.

Wonky perspective is due to my odd camera angle.

I decided to use as many different (beginner) quilting techniques as possible, so that the students could see the possibilities. The image below shows the piece after quilting is done. I used hand quilting and some machine quilting.

Quilting techniques include knot-quilting, buttons, running stitch, and contour quilting by hand; and stitch-in-the-ditch and parallel lines by machine. And here is the finished sampler with binding blind-stitched. I used folded corners, since I consider mitered corners to be a more advanced technique.