Karrin's Stumpwork block ...... continued

I added a wheelbarrow carrying a fir tree that's waiting to be planted

Butterfly on Arlene's BB&B Block

This is a step by step, while I was doing it, account of how I made the butterfly on Arlene's BB&B RR block.

I began by tracing a picture of a butterfly onto tracing paper.  I cut away the wings from the body and tacked one wing onto two layers of a silvery organza ribbon.  I think that the ribbon was actually a bit metallic. 

Next I used a piece of the wire that I took out from the edges of the organza ribbon.  At the point of the wing where it would join the butterfly body, I couched down the wire following the edge of the paper.  I left a tail of about 1 1/2" at the beginning.  On the first wing I used white thread to couch with, on the second wing I used pink thread which didn't show afterwards because I used pink embroidery thread. 

 I used a single strand of a shiny rayon thread which I ironed flat first, and buttonhole stitched around the whole wing removing the paper pattern as I went along.  The tails of wire were a big nuisance, and I tried taping them down with Scotch tape to save my thread from forever getting caught.

I completed the buttonhole stitch and then did a little bead embellishment.

I added a bullion body and poked the wires through the fabric to the back, where I anchored them firmly.  I will sew a little piece of ribbon over the area with the wires.  I added the felers and a bead for the head

Taking it easy.....

In between trips to the beach and jetties and doing the thrift store rounds, work has progressed on my Brazilian and stumpwork practice block. Here it is so far.

These are calla lilies. In Di van Niekerk's book she used stamens for the middle yellow piece; I made long bullions. In the right hand flower I came through the fabric and up through the bottom part of the flower and made my bullion with the white petal going every which way. I manhandled it too much and as you can see the right side of the petal slipped off the fabric it was sewn to. Learning from that experience, on the second flower, I first firmly sewed down the lily and then added the bullion. The stems of the lily were two pieces of thick wire covered with #5 Perle. The leaves were satin stitched with #5 Perle over a small piece of felt. The white flower and the leaves were also #5 Perle, and the bullions were Edmar Nova.

This is my pansy patch finished. Here I have a silk ribbon pansy and leaves. Two pansies were embroidered on fabric and then the petals cut out and sewn on to the block. The top right one is done in Edmar, the bottom left I used #8 Perle. The fourth pansy is beaded onto the block. The beads are Delicas and I've only recently found a place in Toronto that has a huge selection - such a temptation! And this is Nokomis Beach looking south towards Venice, Fla.

And this is the view looking south towards Sarasota. Its a glorious beach where you can always find the odd shark's tooth hiding in the sand. It's part of Casey Key, a long thin strip of land separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal waterway. There are beautiful homes on either side of the waterway and many along the Gulf where space allows. It's fun to go for a drive south on Casey Key. Many famous folks have had homes here like Stephen King and Martina Navratilova. One of the homes is like a fortress with cameras looking at you from every angle; it is completely walled with phones at each gate, and there is a seriously strong message to stay off the beach. We used to joke that it was Noriega's refuge. Some of the other homes are so large they could be hotels and way up in the several million dollar range.

Somebody yelled "Let's go shopping!!"

This was the mess we left behind in Lesley's kitchen when Lesley suggested a trip to Jo-Ann's. Paul (her husband) was very long suffering of all of us and was a good sport while we spread ourselves out throughout their home. The dogs too, made us very welcome! Lesley and Debbie unloading some of the Breckinridge food supplies. Lesley's big van was full to capacity with food for the retreat, and Gerrie's was full with luggage - Lesley's, Deb's, Gerrie's, Kerry's and mine.

The retreat was wonderful, I enjoyed myself so much. I took lots of projects to work on, but I was so busy learning new stuff, it wasn't hard to forget about the projects and concentrate on button painting, lacy dying, velvet pansies, clay moulding, ribbon flowers and leaves....the list goes on and on. Thank you to all the instructors.

I'm not home yet, but in Florida until the 22nd. There's a heatwave here, it's in the 90s but feels much more. But it doesn't stop me from sewing! Gosh Debbie, I tell you, Edmar threads are the best!!!! Wish I'd bought more!! No wonder you use them so much. Just look how pretty this little piece of Brazilian embroidery looks all done with Edmar threads. I signed up for a RR at CQI called Brazilian embroidery, so I figured that I'd better learn a bit about it. I was surprised at how much fun it was to do. One little section of this quickly hand-pieced block (no sewing machine here!) is just pansies.This spray of hollyhocks and delphiniums is taken from Di Van Niekerk's "Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork". I'm pretty good at the cast on stitch now! This is also from the same book. The oranges should be beads covered with silk ribbon but I didn't have beads in my travelling stash with large enough holes for the ribbon to go through several times.