02.19.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 12:24 pm by deRomilly
I want to apologize for not getting comments approved more quickly this week. Sinus infections turning into bronchitis stink. Even more so when your husband gets it at the same time — and his wants to become pneumonia!
We’re both doing much better, thank you. And now for Step 2!
Supply Notes:
I was asked how much floral wire you need for this project. Eep. I haven’t measured yet. Floral wire comes either on spools or in packages of cut pieces. One of either will give you plenty of wire to do this project a couple of times over. About 1 1/2 to 2 yards will be more than enough.
I also neglected the small pieces of yellow felt you will need for the flower center. If you can match the color to the thread you’re planning on using, that’s even better. 2 pieces of felt, each large enough to cut the circle out of. (I’ll edit the supply list with both these notes today as well.)
Step 2
Stem Stitch finished!
Note: When putting this into the hoop to start embroidering, I realized that my chosen fabric really wasn’t sturdy enough to support wire and padding on its own. If you even suspect this is the case, please get a second piece of muslin and when you put the embroidery in the frame, put the muslin onto the back of it to provide more support. I used a piece of polyester/linen blend that I had lying around that was the right size.
Again, you can click the pictures to see more detail of what happens to my stitching when I do it when sick! 
And a slightly different angle and light source...
- Once in the frame, use three strands of the green embroidery floss and stitch the stem in stem stitch. (Link goes to Sharon Boggin’s wonderful stitch dictionary!)
- When you have stitched the main stem, use TWO strands of the green to stitch the tendril, also using stem stitch.
Note: Remember when stitching the stem stitch, that the tighter the curve you have to go around, the smaller your stitches need to become.
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03.11.09
Posted in Design Theory at 7:00 am by deRomilly
In photography, depth of field refers to the distance between the camera lens and the object to be photographed so that the subject remains in focus. When you change the depth of field you can decide whether the subject or the background has more clarity. It’s an advantage in SLR cameras that you can play with this.
Block one with many (not all) seams stitched!
Recently I have been focusing my depth of field on backgrounds in my art. Simple is beautiful. but as I discover some of the more detailed and deep layering in mixed media art I want to figure out how to apply that to my tixtile work. A while back I took Sharon Boggin’s Sumptuous Surfaces class — which set me on this path. This year I am taking her Encrusted Crazy Quilting to continue this line of thinking. What better format for adding this kind of depth than crazy quilting? I stitch slowly, so I can’t promise you quick results on my original blocks (though I seem to be moving faster than I originally expected!)
In addition to the quilting class, I took Kelly Kilmer’s Prompt a Day mixed media journaling class last month. Can’t justify the time this month since I havent’ done all the prompts from LAST month yet! But what I’m finding is that the more layered the background, the sharper, and more prominent the focal image appears — a way of adjusting the depth of field in hand-made art as well as photography. This should be an interesting experiment.
I highly recommend sidestepping out of your normal media choice and play for a while. The results to your focus may surprise you.
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01.20.09
Posted in Dance at 6:34 pm by deRomilly
This deserves an extra post. We woke up this morning to snow. Beautiful pretty, dangerous to drive in in the South, snow. And it kept coming all day long. We now have almost six inches in the back yard, and it doesn’t seem to be likely to go away tomorrow, although they claim it’s going to be back up to 50 by Thursday. It has stopped coming down now, however.
When the Universe grants you a gift like this, you take advantage of it. The EO couldn’t make it into work. I couldn’t make it into work, although I had advance notice and brought my computer home so I could work.
We went for a walk. Remember that 65 degree weather I mentioned last week? My peonies have bloomed. They are not happy with the snow.
We were accosted by our next door neighbor (she’s 12) and had a snowball fight, which I lost. Which felt normal for me, although I’ve won most of the ones the EO and I have had.
Dora wanted to know what the white stuff was. Her mom looked at her like, “You are insane, kitten. You do NOT want to go out in that.” Her mother was right, of course, not that she would get to go out in any case… indoor kitty!
I scattered birdseed around the back deck and it promptly was buried. Later in the day, a very cold squirrel came to visit and found it — at least some of it. hopefully the birds will find the remainder later.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of my next session of dance classes. I am told that they may close the community center, and I don’ t think I’d be adverse to that. We’ll see what happens.
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