Applique - silk BAQ block work in progress

I thought I would also show the applique block I am working on - a silk miniature of the Blue Urn block taught by Nancy Kerns at Applique Academy this year.

Here is the original antique version (p97 Baltimore Album Quilts by Dena Katzenberg):

And here is Nancy Kerns' version (at full size about 14" design area) from Applique Academy 2008:

And here is my silk version in progress:

Because my version is much smaller than the original or Nancy's (not that you can tell from these photos because they are all the same size!), I replaced the green doodads below the urn with embroidery (split stitch in fine wool/silk). I reduced the number of them somewhat to space them further apart so that the definition of the embroidery would show. I used Jan Vaine's embroidery method for the berries in stranded silk (lovely sheen!). The urn is silk brocade (difficult to applique at this scale!) and dupioni silk (the dark one). The brown dividing lines between the colors of silk are a braid from Oliver Twists.

I am pleased with the way this block is shaping up and I have some ideas for the floral wreath at the top. I am also planning to do the birds in ribbon applique, using the techniques Wendy Grande showed at Academy this year.

Stay tuned for more on this block!

Just a Perfect Day - finished!

"Just a Perfect Day"
Design by Shirley Bloomfield, stitched by Mara Warwick
Taught by Shirley at the Elly Sienkiewicz Applique Academy 2008

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I'm so pleased to have finished this block today and even though it is now late on Sunday night, I am so keen to send a picture to everyone immediately that I have taken a not-so-fantastic one under lights at home. Anyway, even though the colors are not completely true, I guess you can get the idea. Maybe I can take a better photo during the week if I am home early enough in the light.

This is a marvelous block - so many different techniques, including dimensional flowers which I have really been inspired by. The majority of the block is stitched in batiks and commercial hand dyes. The peony bud and flower are stitched in hand dyed silk from Jenifer Buechel and the butterfly is broderie perse.

I will post another photo later when the block is framed and sent to its new home. Now, just to convince the Chinese framing shop to frame it with a silk mount......

Applique - Morning Glories block finished

I finished up the Glorious Morning Glories block from the Academy during my plane flight and after I arrived home. Here is the finished block:

"Glorious Morning Glories" pattern by Nancy Kerns and Ellen Heck.

Academy continues....

Well, the week is going quickly, as usually happens at Academy! For the last 2 days we have been working hard on our 2-day add-a-day class. I took Jan Vaine's embroidered BAQ class, which was a really wonderful class. Click here to see the class description (see class 210) and here to see the photo of the block we worked on.

Jan created a sampler book which included instructions of all sorts of useful embroidery stitches. We stitched samples with various embroidery threads to see how the various stitches would work. Then we started our blocks. I really learnt a lot in this class, in addition to getting a whole lot more inspiration for my own applique. The difference between Jan's approach the the work I have been doing recently (see here) is that Jan is working the whole block in embroidery (including all the leaves) whereas I have only used embroidery for embellishment. My new plan, based on the inspiration that I received during this class, is to work somewhere between these 2 styles - I will probably not go to full embroidery, but I can certainly substitute some more of the applique for embroidery. Let's see where this takes me!

Today (Thursday) we start the main classes. I'll be taking Shirley Bloomfield's class. I'm really looking forward to that!

Academy starts!

After an uneventful trip across the Pacific (just the way I like them!) and a good connection in Chicago (miracle!), I arrived late last night in Williamsburg for the Applique Academy. Today was primarily a rest day during which I tried to get as much fresh air as possible (antidote for jetlag) and in the afternoon I participated in the visit to the Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller Folk Art Museum at Colonial Williamsburg led by Elly Sienkiewicz. We had a lovely time viewing and discussing the baltimore album quilt hanging in the museum's current display. We also spent some time looking at other exhibitions, including a new (and wonderful!) display of embroidery samplers. The museum was only opened about 1 year ago and is beautifully designed and packed full of wonderful folk art displays. It is definitely worth a visit, not just for the BAQ!

Here's a few pictures of the sampler exhibition too:

I was really impressed with the samplers because most of them were done by very young children between 8 and 12 years old! Also, while most of the samplers were from the 1840 period or so, many of the techniques were remarkably similar to techniques used today by contemporary embroiderers, e.g., painting of background fabric and details, couching of interesting fibers, the use of heavily textured areas, even silk ribbon embroidery!

Painted background and amazing texture created by thousands of french knots done in what seems to be really fine single strand thread.

Painted background, textured embroidery on the trees and dress etc, and amazing silk ribbon embroidery around the top and bottom! This was done by a 12 year old in 1840 - incredible!

Back to applique......

With all the embroidery, PLOS, TIFC etc that I have been doing recently, I haven't had much time for Baltimore Album applique, but with the Applique Academy coming up in 10 days, I wanted to finish 2 blocks that I have been working on. I have set myself the goal of bringing both blocks (finished!) to show Elly at Academy, so I need to get cracking! Here's the first one, finished tonight. It is a "miniaturized" version (7.5" x 7.5" design area) of the original block, which was about double the size. In addition to miniaturizing, I am also trying to develop a personal style for my small BAQ, including use of Chinese silk fabric and my new found embroidery skills. On this block, the flower urn is sewn in chocolate colored Chinese silk which has a rose pattern woven in. The color comes from a "mud-dying" process. For this series of blocks, I intend to do all the urns in various chocolate brown and blue Chinese silks that I have collected. For the leaves, I have used a couple of batiks and the rest of the leaves are also Chinese silk of various varieties. The flower buds are 4mm silk ribbon and the embroidery on the leaves is in Silken Pearl. Small details like the calyxes, urn details etc are in ultrasuede. The roses are made from ombre French wired ribbon. This is my first attempt at silk roses and while I am happy with them, I think much more practice is needed! The background fabric, which is lovely to sew on, is one of Elly's recent fabrics from Kaufman.

TIFC - January - Post 2

Well, I didn't expect my second post - with my design - to come so soon after the previous one! Anyway, this evening I have been playing around with a design (in paper and scraps of fabric) in my journal and here is what I have come up with.

The background fabric will be brown textured silk. Eucalyptus and birch tree bark printed onto muslin will represent the transition in my grandmother's life from Europe to Australia; several swatches of blue silk and batik (blue was her favorite color) will be added for texture and color; a jewelry motive from her country will be embroidered in silver (metallic thread if I can manage it, white silk thread if my skills aren't up to taming metallic thread!); finally, a 3-D lily made of silk. In addition to this, I intend to somehow incorporate some of the words that I have used to describe the qualities of my grandmother that I admire. I am not certain yet how I will put these onto the design. I tried printing words on silk organza (which worked pretty well) as an overlay, so I might do that.......or my other thought is to embroider the words around the top right and bottom left corners. Let's see what I decide as the stitching evolves. My first task is going to be to try to construct a three dimensional white lily in silk...... Any ideas how I can make the petals curl under a little?

I have decided to return to the 5.5" x 7" format which fits nicely into my embroidery hoop.

Next step - stitching!

P.S. For other TIFC participants, you'll note that I am not using the challenge colors, just the concept. I would not have been able to combine these two ideas as the challenge colors are definitely NOT my grandmother's colors!