Friday, March 30, 2012

Ribbon Embroidery by Di van Niekerk

Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork by Di van Niekerk (Search Press, 2005) is the latest book I've purchased.  I've had it a few weeks now, and the more I look at it, the more I like it!


When I bought it I didn't realize that it is basically a project book.  It has all the instructions for the sampler that is shown on the cover.  The project is beautiful, but I really have no intention of making it.

But even if I don't want to make the project, I've been thinking of lots of ways to use the individual components in other projects.  Right now I am mainly interested in the ribbon techniques, although some of the stumpwork ideas are appealing as well.  Look at these cute hydrangeas:


As I said in my review of Inspirations 73 last month, I have been seeing more and more of this kind of turned edge stumpwork, which I really like.

For the ribbon embroidery, van Niekerk provides excellent diagrams of all the stitches used in the book and advice on what needles to use, as well as all the information needed to transfer the design and prepare your fabric.  To my mind, what distinguishes van Niekirk's work, in this book and others, from other ribbon embroidery books is the naturalistic effect she achieves with the ribbons.  There is nothing stiff or formal about her flowers!  I am used to always thinking about keeping stitches even, with a consistent length and tension.  This style of embroidery requires you to break out of the box somewhat, which is a good exercise for me!

You can see how every stitch on these blue delphiniums is different:


The deep rose coloured hollyhocks are done in a combination of cast-on stitch and bullion knots in a gorgeous hand dyed raw silk thread.  I love the extra dimension that the variety of materials and stitches gives in the project.  I am sure I would learn a lot if I did the whole sampler!

You can buy all the materials for this project and others, including complete kits, at van Niekerk's website - www.dicraft.co.za.  I admit that I used to be afraid of what the postage cost from South Africa would be!  But I recently bought some of her ribbons from the site, and the postage was quite reasonable.  I think the key is to keep the weight down, and fortunately, the ribbons are very light!

(Update May 2012:  Unfortunately it looks like my order got lost somewhere along the way.  After six weeks I received a full refund, but it was still disappointing.  If I try again I will look into using EMS rather than regular mail.)

Van Niekerk's new book, Roses, will be available soon.  It is definitely on my wish list!  I am even contemplating buying the whole kit, I think it is really something special.

So, although I was a little slow to warm to this book, it is now another one I definitely recommend.  If you have never bought a book on ribbon embroidery, this may not be for you, although it certainly has all the information you need to complete the project.  If you are looking to expand your ribbon embroidery horizons, however, this is a great way to go!

Related Posts:

Inspirations 73


Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Time to Get Over Myself

Do you know that I have now done 15 posts about Sedona Star, and I have yet to completely finish any of the months?  The sticking point all along has been the fusible applique.  Well, I am over it!  And I have this brilliant quilt to thank:

Go! Bedazzled

Isn't it beautiful?  This was made by Sandy Lawrence of Phoenix, AZ.  It is another Sarah Vedeler design.  Sandy was lucky enough to take a class with Sarah when she made this quilt, and another class with Diane Gaudynski for the quilting!  As you can see by the ribbons, the quilt won First Place for Machine Embroidery and Best of Show at the Arizona Quilter's Guild show in 2012.  No surprise!  You can click the photo to see it larger.

What I really love about this quilt, and what has finally converted me, is the way Sandy has made the machine embroidery into a separate design element of the quilt.  The embroidery is not just a way to hold the appliques down.  For instance, most of the hits of turquoise that you see in the quilt are thread.  Imagine the quilt without it!  I love the Southwest colours she has used.  If you look at the large photo, you can see areas where more than one colour of thread was used around the edges of the appliques.  Sandy has also done embroidery within the shapes. 

There are so many great ideas here!  Even with my basic machine I can think of some interesting combinations to try.  Now I am so keen to get started again!  Alas, I am still waiting for my new iron, so it may still be a while.

Now it looks like I won't be paper piecing Month 2 after all!  But I'm still glad I did it, because it made me very aware of how the dark fabrics show through the light appliques.  I will have to do some careful trimming, I think.

Sandy, thanks so much for the photo, and all the inspiration too!


Related Posts:

Paper pieced practice block

Adjusting the template for paper piecing

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Heather Stewart

The speaker at our Rouge Valley quilt guild meeting last night was Heather Stewart, who did her trunk show and gave us some extremely entertaining anecdotes about her quilting life.  She is a fantastic speaker, and gave us a good mix of laughter and tears.  Her story about a city slicker magazine editor, and a photo shoot involving a horse, goats and sheep, is one we'll all remember for a long time.  She also brought home the challenges faced by our military families, which made us all a little more appreciative of the sacrifices they make.

Presentations like Heather's reinforce my belief that the story behind a quilt is often as interesting and significant as the quilt itself.  Right now, I am having a difficult time thinking of any other craft that has quite that same quality.  Fine embroidery, especially ecclesiastical embroidery like Ruth O'Leary's St. Cuthbert's Banner, can impact many people, but it is in a different way than a quilt that is used in daily life.  As Heather said last night, it is the idea that a quilt can also be a "comforter" that is so appealing sometimes.

And on a completely different note, Heather also dropped a great tip about using a photo or painting you like as your inspiration for a colour scheme.  Starting with a photograph is an idea I've run across before, going all the way back to Kaffe Fassett's first book, Glorious Knitting.  But Heather added a very helpful expansion of the idea.  In addition to using the colours from the photo, you want to make sure they are in the same proportion as they are in the inspiration piece.  She says that the relative proportions of the colours are actually more significant than the colours themselves.  So if the photo you like is about 10% yellow, you want to keep the amount of yellow in your quilt to 10% as well.

I love this idea!  I have already been tearing photos I like from magazines, without being sure how to use them.  Now I know!  Trust me, my mind is turning.  ;)

So a big thank you to Heather for her great presentation.  If you have the chance to get her to speak at your guild, I highly recommend it!
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