Welcome friends,
I promise to endeavor to bring you one of a kind, unique creative expressions from my hands to your eyes. May you enjoy perusing through these entries.
Happy day to you, and come back again real soon! Christen Brown
Autumn Wreaths
These are a few of the small wall hangings and wreaths that I have made. The first was featured in my book Ribbonwork Flowers, the second was a class that I taught at my store, and the third features a dragonfly that I taught at my store.
Happy Stitching! ~Christen
Autumn Jewels
Antique Autumn Roses- by Christen Brown 
Renaissance Maiden by Christen Brown 
Umbrian Vintage Ensemble
These are a few of my favorite necklaces, these were all made using a ribbon or silk cord for the base. Vintage and new buttons, beads, charms and other ephemera were used for the embellishments.
Happy Stitching! ~Christen
Welcome to My colors of Autumn
I love this time of year, and all of the colors that we associate with the fall, with autumn, and with harvest time. This is a sampling of some of the PDF Class Lessons that are available on my website:
Happy Stitching to you! ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 30
Question: Is you art influenced by other works of art? YES is my answer!
Misty Blue Hills by Christen Brown
This piece was created with a printed upholstery fabric that I had for many (many, many) years, that I used for the center, because of the great coloring and lines. I pieced the simple border with blue and creme colored printed fabrics. The embroidery stitching follows the pattern in the center, using the blanket and fly stitches netted, along with the chain stitch double, chain stitch cable, chain, herringbone, feather, stem, linked bullion, stem/outline fern, open chain, portugese knotted stem, palestrina knot, string of pearls, coral, running stitch whipped, snail trail, and scroll stitches. The detail stitches were the French knot, bell flower and stacked bead stitches. I used a Sashiko style of stitching on the border fabrics. Many vintage glass, metal, shell and celluloid buttons were used for embellishments, along with two bone dragons.
Hand Embroidery Dictionary by Christen Brown, C&T Publishing 
I wanted to show you the comparison of the two pieces that influenced Misty Blue Hills (first image). The second image is vintage purse, made from a beautiful piece of fabric with tiny bead embellishments. The third image is the very famous piece titled “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. This is a woodblock print, that is also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, created by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai.
This piece is the cover and can be seen in my new book Hand Embroidery Dictionary.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 29
Do you plan out every detail, or do you approach your work with serendipity? For this piece, I did a bit of planning, so that the metal frame could take a prominent place amongst the pieced fabrics.
Midnight in Paris by Christen Brown
This wallhanging is crazy pieced with cotton solid and printed fabrics and vintage laces. The embroidery was worked in silk embroidery ribbons (4mm and 7mm), silk perle, perle cotton, and cotton floss. Vintage buttons, beads, an antique metal frame, and charms were used for embellishments. A ribbon border with beaded details showcase the piecing and the frame.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 28
What form of piecing do you prefer? I really love crazy-piecing, simply because you can use the pieces and scraps that you have on hand, and the pieced lines provide a variety of opportunities to embroider and embellish.
9 1/4″ x 9 1/4″ 
9 1/4″ x 9 1/4″
Victoriana 1 and Victoriana 2 by Christen Brown
These two pieces were stitched using the same fabrics, and are almost identically pieced together. I was going to make a purse, but decided that two small wall hangings were more desirable. The embroidery stitches were worked in silk embroidery ribbon, perle cotton and cotton floss. Beads, charms and buttons were used for the embellishments.
You can find these two pieces in The Embroidery Book by C&T Publishing.
The Crazy Lady Victoriana by Christen Brown
This piece was made using the same fabrics as the above two pieces, with the addition of several vintage silk ties and their lining fabrics. I created this piece while I was teaching a class titled the Crazy Corner. I enjoyed adding in all of the embellishments such as a birds nest, fabric yo-yos, and ribbonwork flowers.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 27
Wild Persimmons by Christen Brown
This piece started with a crazy-pieced base of silk and cotton fabrics, which was machine quilted in a random spiral pattern. A rayon cord was couched down with seed beads to create a pattern. The embroidery and embellishments that follow the pattern are vintage plastic and glass buttons, sequins, glass seed beads, and large beads.
This piece can be seen in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 26
What sewing enthusiast does not have a lot of precious scraps, that just can’t be thrown away?
Ivory and Lace by Christen Brown
This is my Scrap Roll, which is a project featured in my book, Beaded Embroidery Stitching. This piece does capture and keep all things feminine. The base is comprised of a collaged scraps and bits of lace, hankies, appliques, ribbons, buttons, beads and more. This project is embellished with both bead embroidery and bead woven stitches. The base is a painted wooden spool, adorned with lace, beads and a button.
Pansies and Sunflowers by Christen Brown
This is a slightly simpler version of the Scrap Roll (above). I used larger buttons, appliques, and rosettes, as well as wider trims for the base. The roll is embellished with bead embroidery. The button flowers have a floral wire stem, and are clustered together to create the center and base for the roll.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 25
What sewer does not have a favorite needle keep, or pincushion. Here are a few of mine:
Needle keep 
Tomato Pincushion 
Crazy Pieced Needle Case 
Doll Pinkeep 
Perky Pincushion 
Winifred’s Pincushion 
Log Cabin Heart Etui and Pincushion 
Bunny Love
Some of these are classes, some were shown as examples in book, all are used and loved.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
National Sewing Month
Day 24
Darling Motif Sampler by Christen Brown
This crazy-pieced block gave me the perfect opportunity to embroider the stencils from the Darling Motif Collection, by C&T Publishing. I loved being able to use the variety of stencils here, and the pieced sections were easy to work around. I suggest using basic stitches like the outline, stem, chain, backstitch, straight, lazy daisy, and French knot stitches when highlighting a shape or object.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
