05.27.09
Posted in Design Theory at 8:52 pm by deRomilly
With summer well on its way, here in NC – (I saw my first fireflies today. They never cease to send me into a fit of wonder.) insects are suddenly on my mind again. (The 8 mosquito bites just from planting a melon vine yesterday don’t help keep my mind away from insects, either!
Gardens and their denizens have been favorites of embroiderers for centuries. Spiders and their webs hold pride of place in crazy quilt blocks. In the renaissance and Tudor embroideries, all manner of creepy crawlies appear among the flowers.
But did you know that bellydancers also have a love-hate relationship with the creepy-crawlies? Costumes have been decorated with sparkly versions of butterflies, dragonflies, and so on — usually things with wings (although leaving hte garden mataphor for a moment there have been some unfortunate run-ins with seafood and misplaced, disembodied hands, but hopefully those are rare…)
What interests me is the fact that it seems to be very difficult to do insects on bellydance costumes in a less-than-tacky manner. Butterflies with bra cups for wings, usually made out of those sequinned camisoles that were so popular back in the day (Camisoles and tops that I often love on their own, with a pencil skirt by the way…). Dragonflies on the belt with the body vertical in… umm… suggestive locations. It’s all been done. And often in beautifully executed sequin embroidery.
I have an idea for a garden/insect costume myself, despite the current “thou shalt not even go there” attitude that has developed from the above sad costume choices. Wish me luck — I’ll probably need it. 
But I’ve got other costumes to develop first… and I have GOT to get back to beading that turquoise bedlah I’ve been documenting here!
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05.25.09
Posted in General at 9:59 pm by deRomilly
So I just realized that it’s Monday evening and I haven’t posted. Durn holidays messing with my time sense!!!
The lawn mower saga continues. Saturday morning my father and the EO took the sick lawnmower in to see The Professionals. This turned out to be a very good thing, although they are very backed up right now. (EO also took our tiller in, in the hopes that we can get it running soon, since it hasn’t been since it came home from the garage sale…) Roscoe was very happy to have the opportunity to help the EO learn how NOT to pet a cat (you do NOT tickle a 22 lb poly-dactyl Hemingway cat on the stomach when he asks for a bellyrub… you RUB).
And then came the moment of truth. Mike listened to the saga, nodded sagely, tugged on the power cord slightly, then very calmly, pulled back the dead man switch that automatically turns the mower off if you’re not holding it, and turned the thing on. Now I’ve been using this mower for 3 years now… it is, I believe, a testament to how tired I was this last week that it did not OCCUR to me that I needed to do the thing I’ve always done when trying to start said engine. Kind of like how my car won’t turn off unless it’s in Park!
It also is a testament to how tired the EO has been that not only did he have the same brain freeze, but he tried to take the thing apart AND take it to a professional for fixing when it wouldn’t start for him with this safety feature engaged.
Mike was aparently very relieved that the EO took the news by falling over laughing. The EO then called me to tell me about it, with the words, “Yes, that IS your father laughing at me in the background.”
It then proceeded to rain all weekend and keep me from mowing the jungle out there in any case. Soon, I hope, because otherwise we are going to have reticulated python and anaconda moving into the weeds, and while I like snakes all right, I’d rather not meet one like that in my backyard…
The tiller is on the list for fixing in the next two weeks or so. But after being unusable for 3 years, what’s another two weeks?
In other needlework-related news, I’ve been knitting on a HUGE sock for the EO. Why do men have such big feet, anyway? I thought mine were big!
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05.22.09
Posted in Free Patterns at 7:44 pm by deRomilly
The finished flower
This is the beginning of a series of designs in various stitch styles. They will all use the basic 4X4 inch design and adapt it for the different styles of embroidery.
Crewel is one of my favorite embroidery styles. There is just something about the softness of the wool and the variety of stitch texture that makes me smile as I’m stitching. It doesn’t hurt that once you get familiar with the stitches, crewel wool covers the ground fabric quite quickly and is therefore very quick to work, relatively speaking. (I am VERY slow when it comes to counted work, so it is a pleasant change to embroidery something I can finish easily.)
Supplies
- Linen or cotton twill or cotton canvas (NOT needlepoint canvas).
- 6 inch embroidery hoop or 8 inch Q-Snaps — something to stabilize your work.
- Paternayan tapestry wool in the following colors — your choice of shades:
- green
- red
- blue
- gold or mustard
- Chenille needle, size 20
Steps:
Note: Since this is such a small design, work everything with one strand of wool unless otherwise noted. Links are to Sharon Boggin’s online stitch dictionary, which has the best instructions for stitches that I’ve ever found on the web.
Click on any of the images for a larger view.
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Pattern - click for full-sized printable version
Transfer Design to center of fabric. Use your favorite transfer method. I used a heat transfer pencil, which reversed the design, something I wasn’t worried about. Note, though, that these work better on fabric that has a bit of polyester in them… Since mine was 100% cotton, it took a lot longer to transfer, and wasn’t completely clear.
- Center design in hoop.
- Begin stitching the stem of the flower at the end furthest from the flower. Work in Reverse chain stitch with green wool. If you prefer, start at the flower end and use chain stitch. I prefer reverse chain stitch in this type of design area because it’s easier for me to judge how large the stitches are and make them even.
- Whip the chain stitch from the flower back to the stem.
Whipping the chain stitch
- Work the tendril in outline stitch or stem stitch with of green.
- Work the large petals in laid filling work in red. Work outline stitch around the outside area (that isn’t part of the small petals).
Laid filling stitch - lay long stitches in a grid across the petal and then “tie” them down where they cross with a small diagonal stitch. The direction you lay the grid and how uniform you make it is up to you, and can help define the character of the embroidery.
Laying the grid
Tye the grid at the intersections and stitch an outline stitch around the outside edge.
Finished laid work.
- Work the smaller petals in satin stitch, radiating from the sepals out to the point in blue.
Blue petals added.
- Fill the flower center with French knots worked with two strands of gold. I used one wrap on the knots, rather than the two I usually use. You could probably get the same effect with one strand and two wraps.
Center finished.
- With green, outline the top leaf with buttonhole stitch. Because of the curved edges, the lines will bend toward each other on the inside of the leaf.
Buttonhole stitch around leaf.
- Again with green, outline the bottom leaf with four rows of outline (crewel) stitch.
Stem stitched leaf - 4 rows of stem stitch around outline.
All done! And ready for a frame, to be made into a pillow, or used as part of a quilt block. I’m considering using all the different samples of this series each as the center of its own crazy quilt block… a sampler of sorts. Hopefully similar colors and the design will unify them. We’ll see.
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05.18.09
Posted in General at 6:01 pm by deRomilly
The EO being cautious...
The EO is currently outside fixing the lawn mower. Or rather, attempting to. You see, last week when attempting to do my wifely duty of 1/2 the yard mowing, I found the cord stuck. I tugged. I thought it was caught on something. It was — the guide it was supposed to be caught on. I unhooked it. Oops.
Now it’s still stuck, but it’s likely that when I unhooked it it pulled back in and unsprung the spring that holds it in place… Not a good thing. Possibly a costly repair, if my mechanical wiz of a husband can’t fix it.
I am pretty handy around the house. I can saw, nail, plane and screw things into place with the best of them. I’m even pretty handy with a plumber’s wrench. But I draw the line when it comes to motors and other things that can explode if I fix them incorrectly. That’s why they certify professionals to fix my car. The EO knows more about motors than I do. I’m not too worried about him blowing himself up, as he’s extraordinarily cautious.
He didn’t blow himself up, but neither was he able to fix it safely in the space we have available, so it’s off to the repairshop with it. In the meantime, the jungle that is our lawn will get denser for a while.
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05.15.09
Posted in Book Reviews at 7:00 am by deRomilly
I didn’t think that I’d like this magazine – I glanced through the first issue and thought, “why would I buy a magazine when all it is a compilation of what’s already on the web?” Silly me.
Last month I bought my second issue – vol. 3, issue 1, Feb-Apr. 2009. It’s as beautiful as the last one. With tips on making your blogging better, stories of wonderful bloggers and how blogging has changed both their lives and them, and, of course, urls and photographs from their blogs, it reads much more like Ricë’s Creative Life than a magazine. And it fills my need for reading about people who, like me, are trying to live creatively (in a format that I can take into the bathtub with me). I sometimes feel not misunderstood – but just missed, by my friends and acquaintances. Several of them have said, “you’re so lucky to be so creative!” It’s not luck, it’s just me.
And sometimes it’s lonely. The people profiled in the magazine remind me that I’m not alone. And so do the people I’ve met through this blog and their own blogs and several mailing lists.
So thank you all – and may we all have many more years of Artful Blogging ahead of us!
P.S. Yesterday I bought yet a third issue when I was at the bookstore. Heh. I think I’m hooked.
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