embellishments

Hello.  I’m a new member of the fire blog.  (Yes, the third Beth, and thus Beth #3.)

I don’t have any finished embellished work to show you, but I wanted to share some thoughts and some of the playing around I am doing.  Maybe it will give you some jumping off ideas.

I really enjoyed Quilter Beth’s series of detailed tutorials this month.  As a jewelry crafter, and bead hoarder, my initial thoughts were along the lines of: piece of cake, and I’ve got this one nailed.  Pride goeth... well, you know.  I did blithely stitch beads onto a fabric project that was underway (above).  I went to bed happy, looked at it the next day.  Ugh!  And ripped every bead off.  My first lesson learned--you can’t just DO this.  It has to be called for.  It has to enhance without overpowering.  It has to be the perfect touch.  A little goes a long way.  

So I am very happy to have the bead embellishment techniques to add to my bag of tricks.  And sometime it will be just what is called for.  One of my main hang-ups was a quality of texture.  Adding touches to cloth with embroidery thread feels very intuitive to me.  Glass or stone beads added to a fabric piece are hard on soft.  They reflect light very differently.  On some project that is going to be just the touch needed.  Where I was trying to add beads was not that place.

Below is the piece I tried to add the beads to.  What I loved about this piece was the movement of the lines.  Somehow that got lost with the distraction of the beads.  I’m trying French knots instead (as seen below.)  I’m still not sure about it, but at least it is moving along the lines again.

I’ve also been doing some stitching on pieces of denim from old discarded jeans and playing with a round form, moon-like.  Below, I used the circle in a negative space and added white matte seed beads.  I thought this had potential as an effective way to use beads.

Below is a close-up section of the piece I was doing as I was exploring extreme texture.  I sort of couched (or attached) a length of scrunched up, hand-dyed, twill tape with French knots (also, some other couching appears beneath that.) 

More couching

Below are two beaded brooches I made a long time ago.  The centerpieces are buttons.  A string of beads has been couched around each button.  Once the string of beads has been couched in place, you can go back through the strand of beads with your needle and beading thread several more times to secure it.  From there more beads can be added that are not stitched to the ground cloth.  The brooches were stitched onto ultra-suede, but a similar technique could be used on fabric.

Below is an idea I was trying of adding stitches to a commercially patterned fabric.  (Couching, running stitch and fly stitch.) 

I also wanted to share some couching stitch I did on a learning sampler.  I love how this looks and can definitely see using something like this somewhere.  Here the couched thread is a glossy rayon yarn held in place by yellow embroidery floss.

I love seeing how others have used these techniques successfully.  And when that perfect project presents itself--I do have a bead or two to add to it!

Embellishment examples

I have used a number of embellishment techniques over the years in my fiber arts projects, and thought I would share some of them here in keeping with Quilter Beth’s wonderful tutorials for January.

In this example, I used beading to represent the bumps on the cactus, 

and hand stitched the ‘stickers’.

This is an art quilt I did for our annual ‘Recycled Art’ exhibit. It consists of hand

dyed fabric scraps, buttons, couched chenille yarn, bark and vintage beads.

In this piece, I used metallic thread, embroidery and beads as my Embellishments.

Here, I did a lot of embroidery, applique and beading to accent this 'Crazy Quilt' vest.

This is a framed  piece with two fiber  post cards created with various Surface design techniques, including couched eyelash yarn and beading.

And finally, this is a beaded butterfly purse I made several years ago using mostly vintage bugle beads.

What I like about using embellishments in my work is the personality they add.  They can transform a good piece into one with much more visual interest.  My only caution would be to use embellishments as you would icing on a cake.  I try to use them sparingly so they do not overpower the piece.  Thanks to Quilter Beth for her wonderful posts... I'm inspired to take some time to try some of the techniques she shared that I haven't yet tried!

Couching

Couching is defined as "a method of embroidering in which a thread, often heavy, laid upon the surface of the material, is caught down at intervals by stitches taken with another thread through the material." Usually, the thread that is couched is too thick to pull through the fabric, so it can't be added simply by sewing it "into" the fabric. The thread used to do the couching can either be decorative or strictly used just to attach the heavy thread.

On my extreme texture piece, I used couching to "connect" all the little "puffs." I call the piece "Six Degrees of Separation," because we are ALL connected in some way. Each "puff" in the piece is physically connected to the other with the sari yarn I couched to the surface. I chose to use a thread for the couching stitch that matches the sari yarn. I chose NOT to make the couching stitch a part of the design; I wanted it to be hidden and used it simply as a way to attach the sari yarn.

 On this next piece, couching is used for the worm's body and for the snail's body.
First lay the heavier thread (on my extreme texture quilt, that would be the sari yarn) across the fabric. It is best to use a hoop of some kind to keep an even tension on the fabric. Depending on what is more comfortable for you, you can start either from the left or the right. (I find, that for me, it is easier to work from left to right.) In the illustration below, the pink part of the drawing represents the decorative thread being couched down.

If you'd like to learn a bit more about couching, you can go to this link--Couching Tutorial. (Sarah has given me permission to link to her blog.)

Tomorrow, I'll go over French knots. In the next day or two, I'll be giving you information about another giveaway, so be sure you check back.

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