Flower Power

 The Dallas Area Fiber Artists annual exhibition begins tomorrow, July 1. This is the first time I have participated; Marbled Rose and Popcorn Hydrangea are my entries. 

 

Toward the end of April, I chose two flower photos which I had taken long ago. In Photoshop I altered colors of the leaves and backgrounds and found that the conté crayon filter produced some interesting effects. Overall I applied a find edges filter and enhanced that with some outlining by hand. To the rose photo in the background, I also added a medieval-style design.

Then I sent them off to Spoonflower to be printed on a fat quarter of cotton/linen canvas. (In case you haven't discovered Spoonflower, be sure to have a look. In addition to having your own design printed, you can choose from a delightful plethora of designs from others and have them printed on a selection of different fabrics or even on ready-made items, such as pillow covers and curtains.) In one week Spoonflower sent back the printed fabric, and it looked terrific!

That was really only the beginning. My initial plan with to hand embroider all the outlines on the leaves and the flowers, emphasize the centers with French knots and sprinkle some beads about. After hours of work on the hydrangea image, I realized that it would take me way too much time to embroider all the outlines, so I became selective. And when I did the rose, I decided to limit the embroidered outlines to the flower itself. It's actually a bit difficult to see all the embroidery as much of it blends in with the printed image.

I listened to the entire audiobook of Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer Prize-winning Demon Copperhead and got a good start on Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt during my embroidery sessions. As I said to Mr. C, I don't think there is going to be an embroidered flower picture series. But all in all, I'm pleased with these two.

Mr. C made the frames, and I happened to have just the perfect color of metallic green paint.

Today I took them to CC Young, a beautiful senior living community where DAFA holds their meetings, and where the exhibition is being shown. It was gratifying to already receive compliments on my work while everything was being set up. And I enjoyed chatting with other members about their (very diverse) pieces as they brought them in. Can't wait to see the entire show when I go back for the next DAFA meeting in another week.

Embroidered and beaded version B

Although it took me a while to blog about it, I did get right on to stitching up version B of Marcy Tilton's Vogue 8497.  The shady chartreuse cotton interlock that I picked out of my stash almost matches the garment on the pattern photo.  I hope I'm going to like it as well as I do version A.  There's not too much to add to the info in my last post on that short sleeve top with its zig-zag front and back seams.

Once again, instead of overlapping the curved front and back seams, I turned under the seam allowances on the top pieces and stitched them close to the edge and then again a bit over 3/8 inch away. These seams I embellished with a Double Cretan stitch, using two colors of embroidery floss and accenting that with seed beads in a green-turquoise range. The neckline is also simply bound, as I did on the red version, then embroidered and beaded exactly like the front and back seams.

I hemmed the sleeves and the bottom with a double needle.  On the sleeve hems I worked the straight version of the Zigzag Chain Stitch that I used on the neckline of the red top.  I used two strands of embroidery floss in the two different colors of the other embroidery and put a seed bead in each stitch. 

I used the size 12, but did stitch the side seams with a ½ inch seam allowance, rather than 5/8 inch.  One thing to note in construction is to make sure the front and back seams meet precisely at the shoulders, and that the uneven hems meet at the correct place.  There must have been a small amount of stretching or distortion when I cut out the garment, and if I hadn't been careful about matching these up, they would have been off just enough to cause a problem.  Also I used a narrow fusible bias stay tape on the neckline edge which had stretched while I was doing the embroidery and beading. 

 
  
I found that the embroidery and beading went fairly fast, as I sat at my sewing table listening to The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles.  (IMO, audio books are one of the best things that ever happened where sewing is concerned.)  Now I've started on something more pedestrian, some olive-y denim pants that I know will be a welcome addition to my wardrobe.  But not as rewarding as making this fun top.