"In the Garden" Again: Rose

Both Kara and I (Teri) have June birthdays, so it is no surprise that we enjoy creating roses. You will see them in many of our designs—in fabric, ribbon, and embroidery. And thus, we knew we would dedicate a block In the Garden to our June flower, the Rose. We layered the petals and accentuated them with stitching and a sprinkle of beaded dewdrops. As you'll see, there are other ways to interpret the pattern. How will your rose bloom?

We love when stitchers make the patterns their own:
one student shared her dimensional rose, created with a
long strip of hand-dyed wool, twisted and tacked in place.
There's always room for adventure—even with roses!

You can find our Rose pattern—and all of the In the Garden patterns—in our website shop. This week, you can use the coupon code ROSE10 to receive a 10% discount on the printed Rose pattern with ribbon.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

"In the Garden"—Rose

Happy Valentine's Day! In the spirit of the holiday, we stitched a rose for our garden this month. Whether the red rose signifies love or warm, summer days for you, who doesn't enjoy the beauty of this perennial floral favorite?

While the rose is made with wool, the buds are created using wired ribbon, adding a different texture, and of course, a bit of fun! We also added beads around the bloom for a bit of sparkle—a hint of early morning sun shining on dew drops, perhaps. 

This new block in our In the Garden Block of the Month series is now available on our website, and it comes with the ribbon needed to stitch the buds and calyxes. Here are a few highlights of the rose.

The leaves are placed and appliquéd, and then the rose petals. Each petal is surrounded by a chain stitch. A feather stitch creates the leaf veins, and a blanket stitch with the spokes going outward toward the tip form the serration of the leaves.

The folded rosebud used a 2-inch piece of wired ribbon. From the center point, each half is folded down at a 45-degree angle, so that the edges meet. 

front

back

Using the wired edge on the back, fold down again to shape the ribbon bud so that it will fit neatly behind the sepal pieces. 

For the smaller bud, use a 3/4-inch piece of ribbon. Fold raw edges under as pictured below, and then angled, so that it will be covered by the wool piece.

                   

When the buds are the desired shape and size, place them on the background and tack them so they are secure, but the stitches will not be seen. Appliqué the wool sepal pieces on top of the ribbon buds with matching thread. 

Using hand-dyed 4mm-wide silk ribbon, twist your ribbon and do a
long straight stitch to create the small stems between the rose and the buds. 

Create the small leaves at the base of the buds using a ribbon stitch with that same ribbon.
Using wool thread, do small feather stitches randomly around the buds.

Two bullion stitches top the smaller bud, but you could also use the twisted ribbon, if you choose. Finally, attach size 15 red seed beads randomly within the chain stitches around the rose petals.

We had a great time making our roses bloom in our class at
Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks...

...and we were excited to see what next month will bring to our gardens!

If you would like to join us In the Garden, all the patterns for the first five months are now available on our website: needleseyestories.com. Any ribbon needed to complete the patterns is included with the pattern. Our newest addition is, of course, the Rose.

Rose

Past posts in the BOM series:

• Introducing "In the Garden," A BOM Series: Cornflowers
• "In the Garden"—Oak Leaves and Acorns
• "In the Garden"—Violets
• "In the Garden"—Cardinals and Holly
• 
  

Pattern Sale!

Everyone loves a sale, right?! Well, we are having one!

We are having a wonderful time teaching our Block of the Month quilt, In the Garden, at Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks. We are about halfway through the second round, and these ladies are inspiring us with their choices and skills! Each month, we share our progress, and I (Teri) am amazed by their beautiful work. It is fun to watch them get ideas from each other, and I may be learning as much from some of them as they are from me. (And Kara, who got to come to the shop for our March session when she was home for the Academy of Appliqué.) 

In the Garden

We thought you might enjoy a few photos of our progress. Perhaps you, too, will be inspired.

Stacy, Beth, and Janie show off their Cardinals and Holly blocks.

We all loved Beth's wool choices for her second Rose block.

Working on our Hydrangea blocks—one side of the room...

...and the other!

Cutting a pile of petals

Stitching the petals with beads

Stacy added more dimension to both her rose and her hydrangea.

My favorite part is the enormous encouragement as we study each other's blocks, taking pictures for inspiration and noting the different approaches to the blocks.

A table full of fabulous work!!

This was Lisa's first class, and she had her block finished and sent us a picture within a couple of days. It doesn't look like beginner work to me!

SOOOO . . . about that sale. 

Kara and I both have birthdays in June, so we decided to celebrate by offering you a gift! All of our patterns can be purchased for a 15% discount for the entire month of June, beginning today. Just type in the coupon code JUNE2019 when you check out, and your items will be discounted.

So hop on over to our shop at needleseyestories.com and stock up on some summer stitching projects!

Note: Act now if you want hard copies, because in the month of July, I will be traveling across the country, so only digital copies will be available. Plan ahead—and get a discount!

Happy stitching!

Long Island Road Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I (Teri) went to Mineola on Long Island to visit the Evening Star Quilters. They had invited me to do a lecture at their meeting, followed by a class—this Eight-Pointed Star with Sprigs of Berries (above), from Elly Sienkiewicz's book, Spoken Without a Word. This was the very first block that I taught, so I was thrilled that they had chosen it; the star has such a simple elegance to it.

I asked my friend, Kristy, to join me for the road trip. Not only was she an invaluable help to me, organizing and working my sales table, but she loves to drive and hates to be a passenger, so she was also my chauffeur. Lucky me! I was able to make a ruched flower while she drove north on I-95. And we made such good time that we were able to scout out a quilt shop on our way.

When I am on a road trip, I am always searching for fun places to stop. Yes, that usually means a quilt shop. As we crossed the New York state line, I opened my search app and typed in a q. My phone is now smart enough to know that what I want is a "quilt shop near me." We were delighted to find one in Brooklyn, not far off of our route to the hotel. Brooklyn General Store did not disappoint!

The store was once a general store, but it had been turned into a general fiber store, with so many scrumptious goodies to see and stroke. Yarns, threads, and fabrics galore! I bought some needles, a wooly pincushion ring, and some stunning wool thread for leaves. 

 

 Isn't this knitted tree awesome?!

As we continued our route to the hotel, we enjoyed the Manhattan skyline and caught a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge. 

My contact from the guild, Cathy, called us and asked if we wanted suggestions for dinner destinations and kindly sent us several restaurants from which to choose. Neither of us had ever been to a Portuguese restaurant, so our decision was easy. Kristy chose bronzini, and the fish arrived smiling at her. I selected a goat stew, because it sounded intriguing. Both meals were absolutely delicious—as was the New York cheesecake, of course.

Of course, food is part of the adventure of any road trip. We knew we needed to get some New York bagels during the trip, so we set out to find some for breakfast the next morning. Why do they taste so much better in New York?! 

 

Cathy also suggested that the Clark Botanic Garden would be a fun visit during the day, as we would not be meeting the ladies for our pre-meeting dinner until 5:30. Again, her input was superb; we both enjoyed our wanderings through the gardens, still full of flowers and stitching inspiration.

Mr. Bee posed politely while I took his picture.

I love autumn asters!

Doesn't this look like an appliqué design?

 Mr. Monarch was enjoying the lantana.

I haven't stitched a coneflower. Yet.

Oh, those roses were stunning, ...

 

... as were the dahlias!

 

These magnolia seed pods would be fascinating to stitch, with those shiny leaves and velvety red pods. This was a perfect way to spend our afternoon!

We met some of the ladies for an excellent Italian dinner before heading to the meeting to set up for my lecture. The quilts shared by the Evening Star Quilters were fabulous. They were busy preparing for their quilt show the following week, and had a lot to show and tell about.

 

After my lecture, The Stories in Our Quilts, it was fun to see my quilts all lined up on display.

The day of our class, we arrived to see an eager group who were ready to stitch!

I loved seeing this finished block from our past Academy class, Zierblumen.

Didn't she do a stellar job? 

There was some serious stitching going on around the room. We learned back-basting appliqué,  several stem techniques with bias silk ribbon, and a variety of ways to make those tiny berries. We explored using wired ribbon to create the star, though most chose to stay with the fabric choice that they had initially made. It was fun to see the creative approaches around the room: one lady used a velvet ribbon to make her leaves (below), which she fused and would later stitch. 

 

Hand-dyed silk ribbon cording created this stem (above), with two leaves beautifully stitched. The day flew by too quickly, and many agreed that another day to sit and stitch would be ideal. Hopefully we might see a few of these ladies at the Academy of Appliqué next March, where they could have three-day classes to enjoy nothing but stitching! 

Kristy and I had a fabulous trip to Long Island, and we were honored to visit the Evening Star Quilters. Our hostesses were gracious and fun, and so excited about stitching and quilts. We were warmly welcomed and felt that we were surrounded by old friends, though we had only previously met a few of these lovely ladies. I was honored and grateful to have been invited. I am certain that their quilt show the following weekend was a smashing success; I wish I could have seen it. 

Thank you for a terrific time on Long Island, Evening Star Quilters!

We may have stopped to get a few (dozen) bagels to take home.
You know they must be good when the line is out the door and down the sidewalk.
And they were!