Not Seeing Eye to Eye to Eye

Very occasionally, my bullions and I do not see eye to I to needle eye. I'm still stitching Ruth Griffith's design for Millefiori, "Butterflies in My Heart". I'm using up some of my sparkly threads, also some rayon floss.

These are only 25-wrap bullions with Iris. You would think I could get them right. Originally I had plans to stitch a Japanese Violet, but since my bullions were having their way with my needle, I re-grouped.

...substituting 18-loop up-down cast-on stitches in front of those stubborn bullions. If you look at the first picture above, there is an arrow. I offset the cast-on stitches, just for fun, and to see what would happen. I think that a third row of cast-on stitches in green sparkly thread (this is Candlelight) might be fun.

By the way, I am sure everyone knows this, but I'll throw it in anyway. Most B.E. stitchers are encouraged to stitch all greenery first, leaves, stems, etc. Sometimes you later find that the flowers don't quite reach and the tip of the stem is attached to nothingness.  It's always a good idea to stitch stems almost up to the flower center ... just ... in ... case ...

Since this is the Butterflies in My Heart design, I tucked that pretty little butterfly bead into the flower center.

OK, what else did I do? 

This is Ruth's French Hydrangea flower, four petals around a cast-on stitch center, usually finished with buttonhole stitch. I had this pretty little Swarovski marguerite bead from Fire Mountain Gems, attached the red marg on top, both fastened with a little yellow seed bead.
     Then I added four little purple cast-on stitches (10 loops), followed by four red cast-on stitches (12 loops), and a third row of purple cast-on stitches (also 12 loops).  Of course, after I was all finished, I thought that the center row might have been prettier with sparkly thread like the fuchsia-color Candlelight or a Kreinik cord. 

There's more. 

It's always nice to see what you have "lying around". These little purple beads are plastic and are from a stretchy bracelet that I re-purposed.  By the way, all of those butterflies on this design -- if you check your jewelry box or take a trip to a 'whatever'-store, you can sometimes find inexpensive earrings that can be re-used for your embroidery. Of course, you can also find very nice butterfly beads and/or buttons at your local craft or fabric stores.

Next, I decided to complete the fuchsia. Ruth calls it a Snow Flower. There aren't any labels on our embroidery, so we can call them whatever we want.
In my book Take A Stitch (by Rosalie Wakefield) -- sorry, I thought I had it on my website; guess I'd better go over there and take care of that -- I have a stitch technique called a "Knotted Loop" -- I stitched this flower with Kreinik ribbon, pink #92, but I'm going to change to a darker pink:

Pretty, isn't it? You tie a knot in your floss (1" up from the fabric), then take your needle down through the fabric -- the knot stops on top and you have a (cleverly named) Knotted Loop Stitch. I also do my turkey work with this method -- using Cire or Nova for turkey work gets rid of that kinky 'permed' look because the twist is looser for these two floss weights.

The stamens are made with my New Pistil Stitch -- or Cast-on Pistil Stitch -- something I discovered accidently about a year ago when I thought it would be more fun to stop at my work table and play with my floss for a few minutes instead of cleaning the house. It was a TOTAL accident, but I like it SO much better than our traditional pistil stitch. You'll find ALL of the instructions here on this blog.
     In this series of photos, I used Cire #001 and looped 2 cast-on stitches around the needle (Remember, you come up from the fabric where the knot will be):

 I found some other pinks for the upper petals, so I'm off to stitch again!

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This is Mr. Oblivious:

He likes the nice, warm light. By the way, do you ever wonder why cats have flat noses?  Here's why:

Rosalie

The NEW Pistil Stitch - A Request and a Knot

And here's another picture of my New Pistil Stitch, a little balloon flower that I wrote about in the previous post.

I want to write about how I made that little bow, but first, I have a request in the interest of copyright courtesy and "where credit is due".

      I hope you'll use this stitch often if you like it, and if you would like to publish it anywhere else, on your web logs or online or on one of your own designs for resale, please give credit and let people know it's from Rosalie Wakefield at Millefiori.  Thanks!

That little bow and the streamers are just knots that you make in your strand of floss. We've all done them, accidentally or on purpose, and discover that a knot which suddenly appears in your embroidery thread stops dead, cold, at the fabric.  What a perfect opportunity to turn it into a stitch!!
       It's how I thought up the Knotted Turkey Stitch (lots of little knotted loops side by side -- perfect with Cire or Nova, lightly twisted floss weights that unwind to straight fibers and beautiful turkey work).

So, to use the Knotted Loop Stitch for half of the bow, bring your threaded needle up and tie a knot about 1" to 1-1/2" above the fabric. Go down and out right next to this spot and - OOPS! - knot stops on top of the fabric. 
    Wait a minute!  Even bigger OOPS!  --it made a pretty loop.

Make another for the other side of the bow. Add the streamers by coming up from the fabric, making a knot and pushing it right down to the fabric with the tip of your needle.

By the way, this stitch also makes very pretty little butterfly wings. Make a large Knotted Loop Stitch for the upper wing and a small Knotted Loop Stitch for the lower wing.  Add a bullion (or bead) body and a fly stitch for antennae. Very pretty. Sparkly thread (I like Candlelight, which is a Z-twist fiber) - even prettier!

      Oh, you noticed!   Yes, I make my butterflies starting with the fly stitch. The fly stitch is finished with a 10-wrap bullion as a tacking stitch, which then becomes the body of the butterfly.  (Two for the price of One is a Very Good Price!)

Rosalie

A NEW Stitch for Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery

This is a Pistil Chick:

and this is an example of a brand new stitch for Brazilian dimensional embroidery that popped into my mind a while back.

I'm sort of late sharing this stitch with you because I was waiting for our BDEIG newsletter, The B.E. Wrap-Up, to be published. It now is. If you aren't already a guild member, click the link, scroll to the bottom of the page, fill out a membership app and send it in. There's a free education project in the August issue that explains more about the New Pistil Stitch, and includes a freebie traceable pattern.

Now I'll tell you all about the New Pistil Stitch.

Remember the pistil stitches we use in Brazilian embroidery to stitch the original Geron Daisy (shown above)? They are also called long-tailed French knots, knot-on-a-stalk and other occasional names That-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned. (Yes, I read Harry Potter...), especially when you've taken your fabric bite, added the knot by wrapping the needle, and then going down and out?  ...and then to look at the finished stitch and see that it is loose and floppy and just not neat ...and you need to add a little tacking stitch like a bow-tie (or noose?) just under its chin?  Or you give it up and make a straight stitch and then add a French knot to finish?

Well, the NEW Pistil Stitch is MUCH easier.  The New Pistil Stitch begins by casting-on (not wrapping), and the needle comes up at the knot, not at the base of the pistil stitch. This will make a more secure long-tailed pistil stamen.
          This is my "Oopsy Daisy" made with all NEW Pistil Stitches:

Here's how:
>  Thread needle and knot floss.
>  Bring needle up where you want the knot of the pistil stitch to be [A].
>  Make a 1/2" fabric bite (or the length of your pistil). [A-B]
>  Bring the needle back up at [A] again and cast on with your left hand:

1 time with Lola, 2 times with Iris, 2-3 times with Glory. 

>  Wrap floss to the back side of the needle.

>  Pull needle through.

>  Sink the threaded needle into the fabric just to the right of the cast-on loop (the only place where you can), and if the pistil stem seems loose, just pull the "floss from fabric" toward you and the loops will slip down the stem a bit.

>  Pull needle through the fabric to back.

>  The Cast-on Pistil Stitch is finished!  Make more.

You can edge a leaf with New Pistil Stitches:

Whoaaa!  That's a BIG leaf!

     Well, just remember to come up on the outside edge to start your New Pistil Stitches.

Remember, the New Pistil Stitch is a cast-on pistil and is worked exactly opposite of the traditional pistil stitch, and it will make a more secure "at the fabric" long-tailed pistil stamen or petal.

Actually, I had so much fun that I was looking for places to use the New Pistil Stitch (Wait until I start with another infrequent stitch - the detached buttonhole!).  So I looked around for a flower with LOTS of stamens. I don't know where this stitch was back when we were all stitching the BDEIG Flower of the Year, the St. John's Wort:

I stitched this one but I used my Millefiori Knotted Turkey Stitch (different than the usual Turkey Work).

But I'd been there, done that.  Looked around for another stameniferous flower.  I found "Grandfather's Whiskers". Yes, it's a Cleome, and that's another name for this garden charmer.

And while the mood was hot, or the irons were in the fire, or the needle was in the fabric, I made another design -- little balloons decorated with the New Pistil Stitch, and little Baby Balloon Flowers growing nearby.

I printed these designs onto one fabric and am offering them for sale at my Millefiori website. (Look for #994 - Pocket Projects). These are three little 3" x 3" designs that work well on crazy quilts, wearable items and ...yes, even Pockets! 
          --and, of course, you all know how to embroider a pocket easily. Just undo the stitching, add the B.E. design, and stitch the pocket back in place on your shirt or Levi's (back side or knee patch). If you use a hoop, baste the pocket to a lightweight backing fabric.

Oh, yes -- one other thing.  That little Pistil Chick up there at the top?  Well, very soon I'm going to write about how I think up designs. Hopefully, some of our creative Brazilian embroidery stitchers will want to make their own. I'll tell you what I do and you can then do what you do. It will be fun, and it doesn't hurt a bit.
       If you look at that little Pistil Chick, you'll see that it's really just a rolled rose with a few modifications. I added my New Pistil Stitch for the little Pistil Flowers and made a pistil Mohawk hairdo just for fun.  It's not every day you see a chicken with a Mohawk.

The next time I write, I'm going to tell you about something interesting I discovered about the lazy daisy stitch.

And maybe if I wrote more often, these posts wouldn't be SO long.  But I hope you have fun trying my New Pistil Stitch.

Rosalie