adventures of a quilting diva » embroidery

adventures in sashiko

laura west kong — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:00:04 +0000

Last week I took a sashiko workshop from Nancy Ota. I’ve always wanted to learn to do sashiko properly, and I’m so glad I did. Nancy is a wonderful teacher and a fabulous quilt artist as well. Here are my results from the last couple of days:

Chidori-Tsunagi, 6″

Mashu-Zashi, 6″

Asa-no-ha, 6″

That last one is on pre-printed fabric (I’ve only just begun, my stitching is the lighter part in the upper left corner), the other two are drafted with a white pencil. Following the stitching lines on the pre-printed fabric is good practice, I’m getting better at the tiny stitches in the centers. I think I prefer drafting to pre-printed though. When you draft them yourself you can draw the designs any size you wish and you can be more free with your stitch length and placement. These blocks are going to eventually become part of a sashiko sampler when I’ve finished enough of them.

Here’s a necklace I made with my Fast, Fun & Easy Cover Button Jewelry techniques by stitching on the pre-printed Asa-no-ha fabric. That’s a 1-7/8″ button.

4″ Dear Diary block made with my sashiko practice piece

and another 4″ Dear Diary block using up the rest of my practice stitches.

Sashiko is a great take-along project. You don’t need a hoop or complicated equipment. I’d like to try sashiko quilting on my painted Spring quilt top, but I didn’t use any fabric paint medium in the acrylics so it’s not going to be the most needle-friendly quilt top I’ve ever made. Maybe I could limit the sashiko to the upper part of the center panel where there’s not much paint and machine quilt the rest. For now though, I’m just going to continue with my sashiko sampler blocks.

muse monday: inspired by … deadlines!

laura west kong — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:15 +0000

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned looming deadline to jump start a person’s creativity. As you can see below, my African Folklore Embroidery, A Beadiful Day, is finally completed and ready to take a road trip {to Road to California that is}.Genuine deadlines work better than fake ones, but in the absence of a real deadline it can’t hurt to make one up anyways.

If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by and visit the African Folklore Embroidery exhibit at Road to California, January 14-17, 2010 in Ontario, California. To learn more about African Folklore Embroidery visit the African Folklore Embroidery website.

wip wednesday: bead on (and on)

laura west kong — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:33 +0000

Just started on the beaded binding. I’ve got a deadline next week for this, so I’ve been working on little else. Here’s how it’s coming along:

wip wednesday: almost finished!

laura west kong — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:28 +0000

As you can see, I’ve been a busy little embroiderer/beader. I’m still working on the tree trunk there in the lower right-hand corner in case you’re wondering what that jumble of orange thread is. I might add a few more beads here and there, but it’s basically done.

I’ve already sewn on the border but I’m going to keep you in suspense a little longer about exactly what kind of fabric it is. Anybody care to guess?

wip wednesday: african folklore embroidery

laura west kong — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:01:00 +0000

I’m still stitching away on my African Folklore Embroidery piece. It’s coming along slowly but surely. I really like doing hand work. I should bring it along with me in my purse so I can work on it here and there. You may not be able to see it, but I’ve done some itty-bitty beading on the mama’s necklace. I’ll need to find somewhat larger beads for the eyes.

road 2 ca chapter 4 … african folklore embroidery, plus tv news!

laura west kong — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:46:00 +0000

It was great to see Leora Raikin at the African Folklore Embroidery booth.

Here’s a cute teacup design. I love how the flowers’ petals are not stitched down to the fabric.

This is a new colorway of hand-dyed South African perl

é embroidery threads , #79 STOCKS, isn’t it delicious?

Don’t miss Leora Raikin and African Folklore Embroidery on TV, “Uncommon Threads” (HGTV Episode DUCT-254).

Tune in to HGTV or set your TiVo, January 29, 2009, 6:30 am e/p Leora and her group will show us how to make a collection of beautiful eye-catching designs using colorful African threads and beads against a black background. We will begin by making a “Giraffe” using basic embroidery stitches, such as chain stitch, satin stitch, an incorporation of beadwork and African Folklore Embroidery embellishment and enhancement techniques.

Click here to learn more about Leora Raikin and African Folklore Embroidery.

dresden rose

laura west kong — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:40:00 +0000

Dresden Rose

quilted by Lynette Harlan

made by members of Citrus Belt Quilters

embroidery designs by Jenny Haskins

sponsored by 1st Centennial Bank, Redlands, CA

Road to California is coming to Ontario January 15-18, 2009 and my guild’s new opportunity quilt, Dresden Rose will be on display there. If you’re going to Road, be sure to look for it, this is one quilt you have to see in person. It knocked everyone’s socks off when it was unveiled at our last meeting. The background is wool with the Dresden appliqués in batik, embellished by machine embroidery and gorgeous quilting.

safari!

laura west kong — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:42:00 +0000

Last week I attended the African Folklore Embroidery workshop and Safari through African Folklore Embroidery lecture by Leora Raikin. It was refreshing, fun, educational and entertaining. Leora grew up in South Africa and learned African Folklore Embroidery from her mother.
The authentic designs are drawn by village women in South Africa and printed onto a sturdy black cotton fabric.
The variegated threads come in the most delicious colorfast colors, and are hand-dyed in South Africa. Different color dyes are poured onto the threads every two inches with a teaspoon, giving a wonderful range of colors in even a short length of thread. What is great is that the employment opportunities created by the market for these beautiful threads has enabled many women to move from shack housing to regular housing with running water and electricity.
The Ndebele tribe has many other wonderful handicrafts, such as this beaded Ndebele Ceremonial doll. You can add beads and other fun stuff to your embroidery as well.
Here is the very charming African Folklore piece that I am working on. The first rule of African Folklore Embroidery is that any color you choose is the right color. And with so many gorgeous colors to pick from, you can’t go wrong!
My daughter Annika chose a cute hippo, and declared the chain stitch used in African Folklore embroidery to be very easy. Picking just one design is what is hard.
African Folklore Embroidery kits, hand-dyed House of Embroidery threads, and Leora Raikin’s book, Safari Through Africa Folklore Embroidery (which covers embroidery, beading, and other wonderful embellishment techniques) are all available at the African Folklore Embroidery site. Or visit Leora’s blog for African safari photos and adventures.

quick quilts

laura west kong — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:24:00 +0000

I’ve discovered the secret to making quilts quickly: Just don’t sleep (or at least not too much anyway). But you’d better finish them in a few days, because you wouldn’t want to sew through your fingers or anything like that from lack of sleep. I’m going to make this post quick as well because it’s time for me to catch up on my ZZZZZs.
Last week I attended an excellent CBQ workshop with Patricia Beaver on redwork. I was particularly thrilled because I’ve never done this type of embroidery before and I’d always had the impression that there was some sort of trick to it, kind of like doing French knots. This is my class practice piece (it’s from a BHG pattern found in their Two Color Quilts book). I turned it into a little wall hanging … quilted, bound, and everything by the next morning. My head is positively spinning with ideas I want to explore. Patricia Beaver gave an inspiring trunk show the next morning with a mixture of vintage quilts and ones she made as well. Above is an interesting vintage cross stitch quilt (bed-size). Wow! That is a lot of X’s. From a distance you can see how closely it resembles appliqué. Finally is my October baskets quilt top which I made over the long weekend. Now I’m ahead of schedule for several weeks, since I don’t have to show this top until the meeting at the end of September. I could even quilt and bind it by then if I wanted to, but I’ve got other deadlines to focus on.

Patricia Beaver introduced me to crayon quilts as well, which are tons of fun and very addicting. I’ve been working on a crayon and embroidery quilt project and have one block completed. My daughter Annika made a few crayon blocks as well. If you want to try your hand at crayon quilts, Prang 100% soybean crayons are the ones to look for. I would give you Patricia’s website, but it’s not live yet. She has a lot of really neat vintage patterns, supplies, several different trunk shows, as well as embroidery and crayon quilt workshops.

happy quilting! And thanks as well for all the advice on quilting those large quilt tops. It really is a whole different world from quilting miniatures and small wall hangings, with a completely different set of considerations.

crazy quilt in a day

laura west kong — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:41:00 +0000

Here it is–my very first hand-embroidered crazy quilt project. It is my own variation of an ATC (artist trading card), a not quite 2×3 inch gift tag. I am quite tickled pink over it. What’s more, I started and finished it today!

For the very first time I tried out my very cool new scrapbooking tag punch, hand-dyed the daisy lace, experimented with hand embroidery (including my oh-so-delicious hand-dyed pearl cotton I purchased at the 2006 Road to California show in January. It is the zig zag-looking stitch on the dark pink), and applied the mini eyelet. There is a marbled pink cardstock fused to the back, and 2 mm hot fix crystals in the centers of the daisies (I still lose several of those tiny crystals every time I use them, and my eyes are not that bad!) Believe it or not, I also did most of my usual daily routine.

I will definitely make more tags in the future and also experiment lots more with hand-dying lace (I have a whole drawer full of cotton and rayon lace just waiting to be colorized). If I make enough tags, I may be able to actually part with some of them and use them on actual gifts.