Monday, May 15, 2006

Wedding Heart Progress

I've made some progress on the 8" Wedding Heart. All seams have been embroidered and beading has begun.
Progress on 8 in CQ heart
I like the way the seam treatments have evolved. Linda at Chloe's Place has been doing some inspired blogging, focusing on her seam treatments and giving lots of good info, helping readers understand how she is approaching her latest work. I like focusing on the details of a block, so I thought I would do the same and learn something at the same time.

So far, in my extremely short acquaintance with Crazy Quilting, I have just sort of worked on the seam treatments without pushing myself to explore and stretch my skills. On this block I have started to really think about the seam treatments and consciously pay attention to what I am doing... what a concept!! ;0)

This seam treatment was completely ripped out and done over...
8 in CQ heart seam A
I got rather carried away and it was just too loose so I pulled all but the initial line out and filled in with much less exuberance. There was a problem with this approach; however, in that I used a commercial printing product to print out the picture on the center block and the material is rather unforgiving. The initial feather stitching left holes in the center block that I had to use again for the second round of feather stitch. Challenging but doable... although, I do believe I will be a tad more cautious in the future!

On this seam I used Peking or Pekinese stitch (thank you to Sharon Boggon for the stitch index) with the varigated #8 perle cotton and laid a line of beads along side to highlight it and give it a little more weight.
8 in CQ heart seam B
I have tried the Peking stitch before and was not happy with the way it looked using regular stranded cotton floss; however, in perle cotton it is just lovely. The perle cotton gives it much more definition, allowing the eye to pick up the detail. This is a stitch I will be using more and more.

This seam turned out well, using varigated perle cotton in Herringbone stitch and detached chain stitch in strategic areas so the colors contrast nicely.
8 in CQ heart seam C

So, this is where the 8" heart stands for now. Hopefully I'll have more progress to show in the coming days.

5 comments:

sharonb said...

I am pleased you find th stitch collection useful - its great to see how people use it - thanks

abeautifulcraft said...

I really loved wandering through your blog - a brilliant read, and so enjoyed seeing everything you do. The wedding heart is just stunning!

Marty52 said...

Thanks, ladies... I'm having fun with my baby blog!

Calidore said...

Marty - Thanks for popping over to my blog and commenting. You are very kind. Your wedding heart is so pretty. Can't wait to see what it will be like finished. For printing might I suggest you try Sandies method - http://abeautifulcraft.blogspot.com/2006/03/printing-on-fabric-tutorial.html if you haven't already seen it. The fabric is very forgiving ...lol and it is incredibly easy to do. I used it for the house picture I am embroidering and honestly it is much clearer than the photos on my blog suggest. Just a thought.

allie aller said...

I just love that you have used orange on this block...it evokes a real contemporary feeling within this traditional, sweet subject.
Great stitching, too!