I am an artist, a writer, a mom and a wife. I have lived, loved and laughed as often as life has allowed. I have created most of my life, not all of it I would call art, but all of it came from my heart. 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
Here are a few images of more buttons!
These are a few wall hangings that I have made using buttons. These are all featured in The Embroidery Book, by C&T Publishing.
This wall hanging is randomly strip pieced with scraps of silk, moire, and bengaline fabrics, with accents of vintage lace fabric. Their are vintage celluloid buttons with a few fabric buttons mixed in. The embroidery is worked in perle cotton and seed beads.
For this piece I choose batik fabrics that varied from rust to brown. I found these wonderful blue buffed celluloid buttons, which I paired with brass buttons, buckles and both vintage and new keys. The rust and vintage blue ribbons just keep the colors flowing.
This piece started with a crazy pieced base of cotton prints, I added in lace and ribbon as accents. The embroidery is worked with perle cotton and cotton threads. The embellishments include vintage and new buttons, ribbonwork vignettes and garden tools.
The base of this piece started with strip-pieced batik fabrics, that were machine quilted to resemble the wood grain of a fence. I chose clear glass buttons in a variety of sizes for the flower centers, and clear painted back buttons for the accents. The embroidery is worked in both perle cotton and cotton floss, with beads added in for accents.
The base of this piece is synthetic felt, the pre-cut houses are made from a rayon/wool blend felt that was a gift from Barbara at Joggles.com. I added in a dyed rick rack border, and stitched the details with both solid and variegated perle cotton #8. The buttons are all new, except for the four large buttons in the corners, and the one in middle of the center house.
Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen
Here are a few images of more buttons!
These are a few items that I have made with shell buttons.
This is a wreath that I made using a vintage embroidered openwork cotton collar and some vintage velvet milliner’s leaves for the base. There are 5 fabric covered heart shapes that I adorned with mother of pearl, MOP, buttons.
Here is a sprinkling of some of the buttons in my MOP collection.
This is another example of my class Vintage at Heart. The covered heart shape base also included vintage lace, satin ribbon and grosgrain ribbon. A few vintage buckles are mixed in with the vintage mother of pearl buttons.
Here you will find a selection of bracelets made from a variety of mollusk shells, including brown muscle, green muscle, and Tahiti shell.
Tahiti and green and brown muscle shell buttons and buckles from my collection.
This is an example of my class Scrumptious Hearts. You will see a cascade of buttons on the left, and a vintage shisha mirror embroidered on the right.
Here a few more bracelets, the first using pink mother of pearl discs, the second using butterfly shaped abalone shell buttons.
Here is a mixture of all kinds of pink shell and glass buttons, with a few thread and glass beads added in.
Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen
Here are a few images of more buttons!
These are a few necklaces that I have made with buttons.
This necklace started with the wonderful wrapped metallic gold center piece given to me by a friend. The necklace base is made from silk rouleau and rayon cording wrapped and curled into an entwined pattern. The beads, buttons and extras are attached at random, using a free-form peyote technique.
This is a technique that I call “train tracks”, the buttons are attached through two layers of silk rouleau. The beads and charms are added on after the buttons.
This necklace started with a base made from ruched velvet ribbon. The buttons are made from abalone and muscle shell, jade, turquoise, and other materials. Seed beads and larger beads were used for the dangles.
This necklace was made using a right-angle weave pattern, the base is comprised of seed beads, pearls, and buttons made from muscle shell.
This necklace started with a base made from ruched velvet ribbon. The buttons are made from glass and metal, seed beads and vintage glass beads and charms were used for the dangles.
Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen
Here are a few images of more buttons!
These projects can be found in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching.
These are samples of two classes that I have taught. These both use felt as a base, with lace as embellishments, and buttons, glorious buttons!
This is a PDF class called Phat Matt and Friends. Felt is used for the base of the project, embroidery threads and buttons for character.
Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen
In honor of National Button week I thought that I would share a few of my projects where I used buttons, lots and lots of buttons.
The following two images show that buttons are the queen! And that she graciously allows ribbons, trims and other ephemera to come along for the ride!
The following two images are from classes that I have taught at the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas.
This is another class that I used to teach, beads and buttons, what more could you ask for?
Hope that you enjoyed looking! Happy stitching! ~Christen
In honor of national embroidery month I wrote several articles for C& T Publishing’s blog. Here are two articles that I wrote with the help of several fellow authors.
In the first article Embroidery Tips and Tricks, I asked them to share their favorite tips, here is what they shared.
In the second article What’s Your Favorite Stitch I asked them what was their favorite stitch. To my surprise enough everyone had a different stitch!
I hope that you like them!
Happy Stitching ~Christen
In honor of national embroidery month, I have written a series of articles for C&T Publishing.
The first post is titled Embroidery Materials and Tools, check it out!
Embroidery Materials: These are a few of the materials I use, which include floss, perle cotton, silk threads, metallic threads, and silk embroidery ribbons.
Embroidery Tools: Here are some of the tools that I find invaluable.
Happy stitching to you all!
~Christen
I am happy to announce that my newest set of fast2mark© Embroidery Stencils, the Darling Motif Collection is now out, and ready for you to use on all manner of embroidery projects.
Select, mark and stitch! It’s so easy to embroider accurately with this second collection of four easy-to-use stitch templates featuring over one hundred popular motifs, including garden elements, household items, vintage sewing accessories, the alphabet, and more. Expert instructions and tips in the how-to booklet give you confidence in where and how to make your stitches. Laser-cut into durable, translucent, medium-weight plastic, the stencils are easy to handle and position and create perfect markings every time.
The four-stencil collection includes 100+ easy to mark designs. The stencils are made from durable, translucent medium-weight plastic. The templates are laser-cut, and easy to handle to create perfect markings. They can be found at C&T Publications.
The first stencil includes sewing room motifs such as a dress form, needle, scissors, spool, thimble and pincushion; the other motifs are a teapot, spoon and teacup; a dress, a hanger, a hat, a key and a boot.
The second stencil takes you out to the garden with these motifs: 2 trees, a fence, a bird house, 2 birds, a bird’s nest, a glove and watering can. Also included are a spider and web, a ladybug, a bee and a butterfly.
The third stencil allows your imagination to wonder at the possibilities, with 2 vines, 2 sprigs, 2 stalks, a vase, and a window. These items can be adorned with a pansy, a rose, or a grape bunch; also included are 6 generic shapes for a variety of flowers, and 2 leaves.
The fourth template includes an alphabet and set of numbers that can be used for your labels and written words. This stencil also includes 4 decorative motifs to combine with the templates in the collection. I have also included 3/4”, 1/2”, 3/8” and 1/4” markings that can be used for spacing out your designs.
Here is a sampler of all of the stencils in the in the collection and was used in the booklet included with the stencil set. The booklet explains how to use the stencils, gives you some valuable tips, instructions on how print and enlarge any image, and how to use Wash-Away Stitch Stabilizer© by C&T Publishing.
Each stencil has a few dedicated pages of each template illustrated with embroidery stitches. I have included the directions and illustrations of these 6 popular stitches, to help start you on your creative journey.
May that journey be a long and happy adventure, and may your needles always fly!
~Christen
My special thanks go to thank Colonial Needle Company for providing the Finca perle cotton and needles that were used in the samplers included in the booklet.
Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts by Kathy Seaman Shaw
And the winner is Patricia Salada! Thank you all for entering your name and comments on my stop of the blog tour!
Remember that the blog tour is still running from July 8th until July 16th. If you did not win on my post then I encourage you to enter into the contest on the remaining sites.
The details are that each day, a different blog or internet site will feature Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts and post about that person’s perspective on the book—PLUS each stop will have a drawing and one lucky person will win an electronic copy of the book.
I would suggest that you visit everyone, including the posts that have already run, you never know what you may learn from this talented group of stitchers!
Happy Stitching ~Christen
Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts by Kathy Seaman Shaw
I have the honor and the pleasure of introducing this wonderful new book to you. And the bonus is that you have a chance to win an ebook of this title at the end of the blog tour. So keep reading and peruse to the end of the post for the details!
Kathy approaches her material with a knowledge that goes beyond just the basics. Her writing style is such that the reader feels as if they are a student sitting in front of her in class. Her instructions, her tips, and her organizational skills will give anyone reading this book the confidence to not only easily duplicate the embroidery stitches and the designs, but to then be proud of the work that they have stitched.
The book offers a set of “Stitch Templates” for the reader to make, that will help both a novice and an experienced stitcher with the positioning and spacing for 36 basic stitches. The book also includes easy to follow instructions with drawn illustrations for these stitches.
There is a 14 page gallery section in the middle of the book with a 112 examples of embroidered seams using perle cotton, silk embroidery ribbon, buttons, sequins and beads. Each one of the designs is interesting, unique and beautiful. Then there is a section of 480 illustrated seams, with the stitches listed in the order that they are to be stitched. Priceless for anyone who needs a bit of a boost to their imagination!
Here are four examples of the blanket stitch and the many ways that you can decorate on and around the base of the stitch.
Here are four examples of the chevron stitch, and the many ways that you can decorate on and around the base of the stitch.
Here are four examples of the feather stitch, and the many ways that you can decorate on and around the base of the stitch.
The blog tour will run from July 8th until July 16th. Each day, a different blog or internet site will feature Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts and post about that person’s perspective on the book—PLUS each stop will have a drawing and one lucky person will win an electronic copy of the book.
You will need to leave a comment after the post, and then the winner will be emailed with information on how to claim their ebook prize, so be sure to include your email in your comment if you will be replying anonymously. You can enter once a day at each site… so if you don’t win today, then you have five more chances!
I would suggest that you visit everyone, including the posts that have already run, you never know what you may learn from this talented group of stitchers!
Good luck to you and Happy Stitching ~Christen
