Sunny’s Butterfly Project

Sunny has been so gracious to show us her project from beginning to end.  It is gorgeous – thanks so much Sunny….Suz

You always give me incentive for a big project, Suz (like the wall hanging f the Geishas on one side and the Samurais on the back!)  I love that moth, and I’m thinking he would look great in the center of a wall hanging and the butterflies all around, such as this:

I love the pic of your moth on the white background pillow, though, and that would be more “do-able”!  I realize butterfly #12 isn’t out yet, but I can wait!  In any case, all of the butterflies are definitely going on a quilt!

Have happy holidays, and I hear the East is going to get pounded with cold weather, so stay warm and dry!  We’re loving the weather now that we have moved back to CA from MT, but would you believe, we even miss the snow (a little bit!)

So far I have four more of the 6×6 butterflies to do.  The block sizes will be 8×8.  And I am going to redo the moth, even though my machine is hiccuping.  I’ve found that using Terial Magic makes the fabrics stiff enough so that there’s very little puckering.  There is a piece of fabric on the very left that I am thinking of using for border (it has a lot of contrast.)  I am thinking of a gold/orange  background for the moth – we’ll see.  The bottom four blocks will be lavender and more shades of blue.  I’m having fun stitching these out, Suz, and they go fast.  The strip between the left column was an audition for sashing, but there’s not enough contrast.  (Pls excuse the busy quilt underneath them all – it is on our guest bed!)  Let me know if you have any suggestions! 

 

Well, just wanted to show you how far I have gotten on this project.  Just finished the gold flange on the large center square plus all the sashing on the quilt-as-you-go method and am getting ready to put the sashing strips on the outside, then the borders and binding!  Woo hoo.  I created an applique to put in the center of the back – it is a poem in Spanish that means:  In order to fly more lightly, Put on two rose petals, As does your companion, the Butterfly.  (It rhymes in Spanish).  Just wanted to show you my progress so far.  And BTW, I love your new alphabet of the flowers.  Thanks Suz for your generosity.   — Sunny
PS – I handed around the square with the moth to our recent little quilt club, and they LOVED it.  (Decided not to re-embroider it and quilted over the ripples!)

LINKS FOR THE DESIGNS

BFC2121 The Turquoise Moth

19th Anniversary Butterflies

Bernice’s Many stitchings!

Bernice does beautiful work and so much of it!!!  She always amazes me.  I love the way she will put designs together to create a mini scene.

From Bernice.  Although these were done a long time ago I thought I would show them. The thing I love most about BFC designs is that you can work with them, such as the steam from the engine needed to be shortened. I made the scene using the freebie, and sizing the design to fit the yoke, I also used the freebies between the kabuki dancers, Suz is one of my favorite designers.

BFC0325 Japanese Woodblocks

BFC0352 Columbines

BFC0292 Vintage Locomotives

BFC1575 Steampunk Owlbert Einstein
BFC1666 Steampunk Couture

 

Beth’s Embroidered Pictures

Beth has developed a wonderful way to finish large picture embroideries!  She has given me permission to include her method and i’m sure a lot of you will appreciate being able to do this too.

From Beth:

I finished the BFC580 design and thought you might like seeing what I did.  I combined the six sections in software, added an  edited design to create the inside window frame to complete the look of a window.  I have a Babylock Destiny and Designer’s Gallery software. This software gives me the ability to combine designs very well.  Also attached is a jpeg of design BFC1601.  Zigzagging the sections together did not appeal to me so I combined them into one design.  Added together there were 305506 stitches and I wasn’t sure it would work, but you can see that it did, and computers didn’t crash.

I am embroidering pictures like this on fusible pellon. For large projects I also fuse the back fabric (usually black) to pellon and then sew the front and back together along the edge to make it very sturdy to put on a table top easel. After the front and back sections are sewn together and trimmed to size, the edge is satin stitched to finish.

I am an experienced embroider and I have made many embroidery designs into pictures to display on an easel. My limitation is only the size of my magnetic 9.5 x 14 hoop.  For the tabletop easel I wouldn’t need something to be any bigger.  I like your designs very much.  I also like the thread you sell so much I bought every color. Your “Blue Study with Birds” would not have been possible without all of your blue threads.

I have not been bored sequestering at home during the pandemic.  I am blessed to be able to enjoy a creative hobby like machine embroidery, and talented people like you are included in the blessings.  I am not talented, but I have learned a skill. I can thread a machine, step on the gas, and thoroughly enjoy being creative.  I retired in 2011 and I don’t think there have been many days that I haven’t spent time at my machine.

It made me smile when I read that you would like to put my embroidery pictures on your blog.  It’s not often that you can show off something creative that you love to do to kindred spirits who would share the same creative interest. This technique for making embroidered pictures to display on an easel began just before the world was told to sequester at home to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Surfing Youtube in December 2019  I came across a New Zealand web site, www.kreativekiwiembroidery.co.nz.  Heather calls herself a machine embroidery addict enabler and she digitizes large ITH table mats and mug rugs using pellon and water soluble stabilizer. I was intrigued, bought a design, and quickly realized that the very sturdy edge she created for these designs would work, with a little editing, to make frames for embroidered pictures.  The sturdy edge would hold up with lots of handling and abuse. and the pellon would be sufficient support on an easel.  I have been collecting designs that would make beautiful pictures for decades and now with a few inches of fabric, pellon and water soluble stabilizer, Heather has enabled me to be able to make many pictures to display and enjoy in my embroidery machine.  At this point I have made over sixty pictures using quilt blocks, applique and embroidery designs.  They don’t take up very much room to store and I can change pictures to display quickly and as often as I want to.  Seasonal designs have become a focus decoration, but I display something all of the time.

For frames I use Heather’s 8X10 ITH rectangular coaster (ITHRC).  I edit out everything but the edge which has a placement stitch thread run, tack down thread run, and a third thread run for extra security that is stitched before the face fabric and back fabric are trimmed away.  Then a zigzag stitch and final satin stitch topped with the decorative stitch is sewn to finish.  The witch and Christmas bird are examples of this framing.

This framing design has rounded corners and being circular is resized easily without distortion.  I have not been able to find a framing design with 90 degree corners that will resize very much without noticeable distortion, meaning the width of the top and bottom of the rectangle may be wider or more narrow than the sides depending on how dimensions are altered.  If a picture requires a square corner I manually stitch the satin stitch edge.  The attached Ladybug design is an example of my manual edge.

In the software the edited frame design is added to a selected embroidery design.  The frame dimensions are adjusted to fit with the embroidery design and the two combined and saved as a new design. Resizing the embroidery design is also works.  I usually use one layer of water soluble stabilizer and I only use the nonwoven fabric like wash- away stabilizer.  I prewash my face fabric and back fabric to avoid possible shrinkage causing problems.  Pellon cut from a bolt will usually need to be ironed flat using a non-stick applique pressing sheet.  I found it’s best to use a light fuse, no steam, to fuse the face fabric to the pellon to avoid hard wrinkles.  Very dense designs can cause distortion if the fabric is bonded too tightly.  Any problems can usually be steam ironed away as the design is pressed flat after drying.

The embroidery is completed before the back fabric is attached.  To make the back of the picture look the best I prefer to pin the back fabric to a piece of non-fusible pellon before securing it to the back of the hoop.  I use 4 flat head pins to secure corners of the back fabric, not tape.

I re-run the placement, tack down and securing thread stops to attach the back fabric.  The hoop is removed from the machine and the back fabric is trimmed away first. After the face fabric is trimmed, the hoop is back on the machine to complete the zigzag stitching and satin stitching. The stabilizer is dissolved and thoroughly rinsed. away and after drying the picture usually requires a little steam ironing to flatten.

Your Stained Glass daisy design was easily adapted for displaying on an easel.  After centering fused fabric with pins all of the colors were sewn except for the black stain glass stitching.  To be able to add the back fabric I just had added a color stop in the software at the point where the black stain glass stitching moved to the edge.  By moving to and repeating the added color stop, the back fabric could to be attached and secured before the fabric was trimmed away and the edge completed. Depending on how designs have been created or combined it is often necessary to move forward and back through color stops as necessary to achieve goals for creating a picture.

I hope this information is helpful and clear.  Please use and edit as much of it as you see fit in your blog.

BFC1204 Ching Chou’s Barn Owl

BFC1567 Ching Chou’s Stained Glass Ladybug

 

BFC1202 Ching

BFC1202 Ching Chou’s Hummingbird

BFC0580 Blue Study with Birds

BFC1005 Fantasy Ladies – Fairy Witchery

 

BFC1481 Stained Glass Floral Squares

 

 

 

I’ll send you a photo soon cause I did not have the fibers so did something a little different but actually love.

Completion of Stained Glass Floral Triptych. Don’t think photo does it any real justice. Since I didn’t have fibers, I used a lightly molted batik and iris, gold and a light brown metallic in all of the open areas. It sparkles. I’ll send another pix when completed. Jody

I love what you’ve done in place of the fibers on the Floral Triptych!  Very creative and really pretty.   Suz

BFC0772 Window-Mums with Butterflies

BFC1577 Stained Glass Floral Triptych