Block for Sendai

I finally finished my block for Sendai. It is one I had started a long time ago and never finished. I removed some of the beads and replaced them with French knots, since all the beads had to be double stitched on. Here it is, along with some closeups.

People don't seem to use the bullion-tipped lazy daisy stitch much, but I really like it.







Here is a closeup of the fan. I was so proud of myself because I didn't have any sequins the right size (small) and the right color for the upper part of the fan. So I made my own by punching them out of (ironed) angelina fiber. I used a one eighth inch hole punch. When my hole punch started getting dull, I just punched a bunch of holes in some 600 grade sandpaper and it sharpened right up. But too much pride is not good for anyone and I was not really happy with the crooked-ness of the fan, but it's getting down to the wire, timewise, so I don't have time to fix it.

These turquoise ribbon flowers are a stitch I made up, called the Redderson Ruffle. Directions for working this stitch are here.

I saw these "seed pods" on another CQ block a long time ago and fell in love with them. They are fun to scatter around and I needed to bring some more yellow/gold up into that area. Unfortunately the seam above the dashed line will not make it into the block because of size restraints.

I feel so blessed to be able to participate in this CQ block for Japan. It is sent with many well wishes and prayers for those in Japan...


Happy Stitching!

Art Nouveau Jewelry book

Isn't this the most beautiful lotus? After I got the Fashioning Fashion book, I started looking for other museum exhibition books and I stumbled across this one. It is divided into sections of gorgeous pictures of flora, fauna and the human figure. I love Art Nouveau and jewelry/anything in that style, so I've seen lots of books on it. This book has pictures of jewelry I've never laid eyes on and the pieces are breath-taking! All the pieces are from a private collection. This book definitely serves as an inspiration.

A promenade through French Blogs

A while ago, I happened upon a French embroidery blog and that began a week-long surfing expedition through blogs it linked to, and blogs they linked to, etc.

I can't tell you all the blogs I visited, but I started out at Facile Cecile's blog here. Her blog title actually means "It's easy with Cecile." She is a teacher and designs projects that a group of women work on together. (I don't speak French and Google Translate isn't the best, so I'm apologizing in advance, if I don't quite get it all right...)

One interesting thing about this group of French embroiderers is that they like to embroider much more on patterned fabric. They refer to surface embroidery as "traditional embroidery" as opposed to Ribbon Embroidery or Cross Stitch, which is also very popular. I kept wondering what SAL stood for, since I assumed it was an acronym of French words - imagine my surprise to find it meant "stitch-along"! It was a "Duh" moment for me....

These are both by Cecile.

When they attach a motif, like a "silkie", they embroider all around it, differently than I've seen. Sometimes the motif is not square or rectangular, it's very irregular. I saw it over and over, wide branches and flowers, blending the motif into the background fabric.

One of the projects was a design of poppy pods, where each pod was broken up into 3 or 4 vertical areas, and then each area was embroidered differently, say one area with beads, one with stem stitch, one with bullions, etc. They seem to have very interesting and beautiful ribbons....

There is often quite a mix of all different fibers in one project...on patterned fabric again. You'll see chenille wound with floss as stems, for instance...and lots of layering of ribbons.

There is a lot of embellishing of patterned ribbon...

I saw some ribbon embroidered flowers, where some of the ribbon looked like strips of tulle. I couldn't tell if it was cut by the stitcher; or if it was bought, but it was often space-dyed. Does anyone know anything about this? Check out the pictures below...

I'd like to experiment with a more loose style like this...

Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Spring Garden Show

Last week I went to the 22nd annual Spring Garden Show held at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. The show is set up on all 3 floors of the huge mall there and different companies set up displays. And I don't just mean displays of flowers - they bring in dirt, stones, benches, flowers, plants, water, etc. One of the displays included beautiful flowers and plants, a bench strewn with gorgeous embroidered pillows, with a stream going by! Here is one of the larger displays (click for a better view).

I could have taken a million pictures of all the wonderful flowers there...I really like irises, so here are a few of the more unique ones...

I was blown away by the beauty of these epiphylums- the flowers are huge, six to seven inches across. Don't the petals look just like ribbon?

Check out the shading on these petals...

I don't have tons of room left in my garden - things keep multiplying - I should join a garden club and trade with others...I just bought an iris fan and also these epidendrums (a type of orchid)

It was great fun, but I could have spent about 5 more hours there!
Happy spring,
Lin Moon

Fashioning Fashion Exhibit

I have been trying to update my blog for awhile and couldn't really figure out how to get all the features I wanted(playing endlessly with the html), never imagining that all I had to do was update to the new editor and viola! it would all be there for me! If you'd like to follow my blog, please click on the right side to Follow Me....Thank you!

Last month my husband and I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the "Fashioning fashion" exhibit of European Dress from 1700-1915. To say it was fabulous would be an understatement! Check out the sparkles that would be on a man's jacket:

Clearly the men of that time were more comfortable with their masculinity!

This looks like a rather run-of-the-mill dress, doesn't it? Nothing too fancy.

But check out the trim that embellishes the bottom of it! (And might get dirty - argh!)

Some of the sleeve details were amazing. I love the lace and all the detail that went into the sleeve of this beautiful dress.

...and the layers and work that are apparent in this one...

What comes to mind when you think of today's lounging pajamas? I daresay it's nothing like this!

and look what one wears on one's feet while lounging!

There were some simply wonderful dresses...

and a close-up of the fabulous embroidery on its stomacher

How about this one with its long train...and a detail shot of the train

This dress is all embroidered

Here's a close-up of the embroidery

Here are a couple of close-ups of a gold embroidered stomacher

Isn't the metallic lace along the bottom just beautiful?
Here's a picture of the embroidery on one robe

After seeing all this wonderful embroidery and embellishment and wondering how good my pictures really were, I decided I wanted to get the book. We went around asking and they had sold the last copy just moments before - I couldn't believe it! But luckily Amazon still had a few copies, so my husband ordered one for me the moment we got home (yes, he spoils me...) The book is fabulous too!

You can get the book here.

Hope you enjoyed the eye candy...
~Lin Moon