Day 20
Question: When you embroider a piece, do you like to use free-form images or do you use stencils? If you like to have guidelines and shapes, then I have just the thing for you! I have a series of stencils that I designed for C&T Publishing.
fast2mark Embroidery Stencils, the Essential Collection and fast2mark The Darling Motif Collection.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
Day 15
Question: Do like to work with felt? I find that this is a great way to teach a simple project, that can be embroidered and embellished.
In the above pieces, I used the synthetic felt squares that you can find at your local craft store. I used a variety of perle cotton threads, to work the embroidery stitches, which can all be found in my book Hand Embroidery Dictionary, by C&T Publishing.
Embroidered From the Heart by Christen Brown
This group of hearts are the examples from my Embroidered From the Heart PDF class lesson. There are a variety of heart shapes to work with, which you can mix and match; embroidery and embellishment stitches are also included in the 2 lessons. These make great gifts!
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 14
Question: Do you name or title your projects, and how do you choose those names? Sometimes I choose a name by an item in the project, or from a song that I listen to, or just a fond memory.
Lady Bird’s Bzzy Garden, and Lady Bird 2 by Christen Brown
The theme for each of these crazy-pieced wall hangings came from the creme colored print that has flowers and ladybugs on it. I used a variety of garden themed buttons including flowers, bees, fruits and vegetables, and gardening tools. I also used ladybugs (representing our daughter), frogs (representing my husband), and bunnies (representing me.)
I used the same printed fabrics for each wall hanging. On the first I used black as an accent color, and worked the border row stitches in black, with the decorative and detail stitches worked in the same colors as the fabrics. In the second piece I used creme as an accent color, including in a variety of cotton laces. The border row, decorative and detail stitches are all worked in the colors found in the fabrics.
These two pieces can be found in The Embroidery Book, by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 13
Question: Do you plan out a project, with bits and pieces of paper lying around the workroom with your notes, or do you use a dedicated book to keep track of all of those ideas? I keep my notes, thoughts, and swatches in this planner.
Embellished Art Embroidery Project Planner by Christen Brown
This delightful planner is designed especially for embroiderers so that you can track multiple projects throughout the year—because let’s face it, who doesn’t have lots of projects going at once?! Set your project goals, track your progress, and manage your time and works-in-progress (WIPs). Each project has four pages to track and record all the critical details: the name of your project, the layout, the stitches and embellishments, due dates, supply lists and more. Plus, flip to the back of the planner for a reference section and even more handy tools.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 12
Question: When you design a project, do you sometimes think, hmm I like that, but I want to try it in another colorway or design? Here are a few of my ideas.
Castle Door and Rustic Door: These two wall hangings are based on a door theme, using vintage and new keys as the focus. The first piece is all machine stitched, with hand embellished charms and ephemera. The second piece is machine quilted and hand embroidered, with ribbon trims and ephemera.
Bouquet of Flowers: These two small wall hangings start with a lace basket, and lace trims, but change dramatically with the choices I made in color palettes. The project can be found in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching, by C&T Publishing.
Beadazzled Stitches was a class that I taught for many years, that eventually grew-up to become the nexus for my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching, by C&T Publishing. I love both color ways here!
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 11
Rustic Americana, In memory, of 9/11/2001 by Christen Brown
The base of the flag is made from a faded plaid fabric and a left-over bit of blue fabric. Vintage navy-blue seam binding highlights the stripes, and perle cotton #8 was used for the embroidery stitches. The states and future additions are represented by a collection of heart and star buttons, both vintage and new that were made from a variety of materials.
Happy Stitching, ~Christen
Day 9
Question: Did you know that the wooden spools that you have in your stash may be 50-100 years or older? If you have been saving them for just the right project, here are a few ideas and ways that you can use them.
Spools and Tools Wreath, started with a group of wooden spools, that are threaded through an 18 gauge florist wire, to create the base. I wrapped an old pair of my grandmother’s scissors with a printed cotton tape, and wrapped the base with a printed satin base. The flowers and and ladybugs were made using instructions from my book, Ribbonwork Flowers, by C&T Publishing.
Tid Bits and Tats, is a class that I taught, were you take a length of ribbon and cover it with scraps of lace, fabric, doilies, hankies, and all manner of goodies. The ribbon is attached to a wooden spool. I also have version of this project in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching, by C&T Publishing.
Wooden Spool Vase is a simple and fun way to use a wooden spool, and use up some of your other treasures. This project can be found in my new book Creative Embroidery, Mixing the Old with the New, by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 6
Question: What type of embellishments to you like to work with on your projects? Buttons, beads, and charms? What about those little notions like snaps, hooks and eyes and safety pins? How about found objects, like paper or ribbonwork ephemera?
Scrap Pins, is a new project that you will find in my upcoming book, Creative Embroidery, Mixing the Old with the New. I used bits of ribbon, lace, and fabric for the base, and all kinds of treasures for adornments. Ugly Bug Ball, is an example of another project, called the Hoop Frame. The spiderweb was created with vintage silk embroidery ribbon and rickrack trims. The bugs are made from sewing notions stitched with perle cotton, or beads.
Scraps and Leftovers, by Christen Brown
The fabrics in this wall hanging are all scraps left over from other projects, with leftovers of ribbon, lace, trims, appliques, and zippers for embellishments. I literally emptied the sewing box in search of buckles, safety pins, snaps, and hooks and eyes. I combined these with vintage buttons, charms, and other ephemera. The quilted and embroidered stitches were all worked in perle cotton thread. The pin in the center was from an original Shirley Temple doll that belonged to my mom.
This piece can be found in my book, The Embroidery Book, by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 5
Question: Do you like to recycle old clothing, or use something in an unexpected way?
Country Hearts 1, 2
The base for each of these small wall hangings started with a pair of old jeans. The heart shape is cut from an old birdcage cover, that my mom made for our parakeet Tweetie. There is a hand-dyed piece of lace shaped as a vine on each, and all of the flowers are made from Hannah Silk bias ribbons. Additional embroidery was worked with silk embroidery ribbon.
Blue Jean Pockets
These two pockets came from that same pair of jeans. I embellished both with crochet appliques that my mom had made. The first has a rococo trim, ribbonwork flowers, buttons and additional tatted flowers. The second has ribbonwork flowers and leaves, and vintage glass buttons.
For information on making your own ribbonwork components, see my books Ribbonwork Gardens, and Ribbonwork Flowers, by C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Day 4
Question: When you choose a fabric, what are you drawn to, do you like to work with solids or prints, or hand-dyed or batiks? I have a fondness for batiks! I love the variety of colors that the artist has started me off with, it seems as though the hard work of choosing a color palette is already done.
Psychedelic Balloons, started with 2 different batik prints, that I pieced into blocks and strips. I worked all of the stitches in perle cotton form Artfabriks. I used almost every stitch included in my book, Hand Embroidery Dictionary, by C&T Publishing.
African Sunset, is crazy- and strip-pieced with quite a few Hoffman batiks, and one block-print batik from Bali. I used Wildflower threads from the Caron Collection for the embroidery. In fact, one of the threads I used is called African Sunset. This piece can also be seen in my book, Hand Embroidery Dictionary.
Happy Stitching~Christen
Christen's Creations 