Stained Glass – BFC Creations BLOG

Laura’s Iris Fields

Howdy! Happy Spring-ish. It’s 60 plus degrees in Indiana today, and supposed to snow next week. I always feel really sad for all the early blooming flowers this time of year, ’cause you never know if they will make it to real spring or freeze trying. With all that said, I want to show you a picture of Spring that we don’t ever have to worry about. Thank you for your beautiful IRIS FIELDS. The only liberty I took outside of your color list was to use a variegated green in place of the Light Lime. I really like how it turned out. It reminds me of fresh cut lawn grass. I hope you approve. Thanks again,

BFC0434 Windows – Iris Fields

Laura’s Stained Glass Leaf

Had to share….

One layer stiff organza, two layers Vilene, rayon thread. Melted edges of organza. One window showed to much reflection but it is great! Making for the whole family to decorate for fall. LOVE your designs!

Thanks, Laura

BFC2027 Stained Glass Autumn Leaves

Tzu’s Kentucky Triptych

I’m happy to say Im finished and even with my boo boo’s I absolutely love it ! my learning curve has taught me several things for my next one . Oh and while Im no where near y’alls level 2 things that greatly helped me and I quickly figured out was 1 while sewing panels of all embroidery together was to use quilting gloves the grip you get is fantastic and it never hurts the embroidery at all making feeding it to your machine a breeze , # 2 while my feed dogs and foot worked together the grip of my foot seemed to ever so slightly misalign my pieces from bottom panel well a teflon foot ( I know supposed to be for leather lol ) stopped all the misalignment hope this helps someone . Here is my version of Kentucky Triptyc

Great suggestion Tzu! I’m trying this the next – I have a pair of gloves I never use. 🙂 Suz

BFC1285 Kentucky Stained Glass Triptych

Bernice’s Windows on the World – Russia

Such a beautiful professional job! You can really be proud of this for sure 🙂

BFC0614 Windows on the World – Russia

Renee’s Stitching Through the Years

Renee has stitched so much over time! She found this bunch of photos and sent them to my group. Enjoy!

BFC0521 Window – Deep Woods

BFC0292 Vintage Locomotives

BFC0658 Stained Glass- Orcas

BFC0664 Stained Glass Dolphins

BFC0517 Deer

BFC0664 Stained Glass Dolphins

BFC1469 Large Stalking Tiger

BFC0514 Wolf-01

Tzu’s version of Kentucky Triptych (with great hint)

From Tzu:

I’m happy to say I’m finished and even with my boo boo’s I absolutely love it ! my learning curve has taught me several things for my next one . Oh and while Im no where near y’alls level 2 things that greatly helped me and I quickly figured out was 1 while sewing panels of all embroidery together was to use quilting gloves the grip you get is fantastic and it never hurts the embroidery at all making feeding it to your machine a breeze , # 2 while my feed dogs and foot worked together the grip of my foot seemed to ever so slightly mis-align my pieces from bottom panel well a teflon foot ( I know supposed to be for leather lol ) stopped all the misalignment hope this helps someone . Here is my version of Kentucky Triptych

Tzu has not only come up with a beautiful version of this design but also given us a great hint for all designs that require stitching together. Fantastic! I’m going to use this next time – I always have at least one seam that no matter how hard I try gets a little bit *off*.

BFC1285 Kentucky Stained Glass Triptych

Kelly Jean’s Peacock

Hi Suz, Good afternoon.

Your designs are just amazing!! I am sending a picture (as promised) of the Tiffany Peacock, sorry the picture isn’t better I think I am getting a glare off the lake. As I mentioned earlier, you can see the colours are spot on if compared with the actual stained glass. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and this one is just for me. Friends and family see what I have done and now they all want one. I have also found that working on the designs (and e mails back and forth with you) I have also learned more.

Thanks so Much Suz, have a great day.

Gorgeous Kelly Jean!

BFC0933 Stained Glass- A Tiffany Peacock

Donna’s Stained Glass

From Donna: I finally finished this Peony Stained Glass even though I bought it years ago.

It was well worth the wait Bernice! You’ve done a beautiful job.

BFC1478 Tiffany Stained Glass Peony Window

Belva’s The Empty Tomb

From Belva:

Suz, I think it turned out rather well, still need to hand stitch the slip pocket and label. Did I do it justice?

You sure did do it justice!! Suz

BFC1972 Tiffany – The Empty Tomb

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.