Vintage CQ...Flower #27

Needlepunch!
What a great technique it is for creating three dimensional flowers. For Flower #27 of the Vintage CQ I decided to try needlepunch with 4mm silk ribbon.

Because I couldn't ''punch'' directly onto one of my blocks (you have to keep the punching surface very taut in a hoop and the block was too small for that), I punched into a tightly woven cotton black fabric that I could then applique onto my block.
The above picture shows three flower centers punched with 6 strand cotton floss...with the needle punch adding the 4mm silk ribbon.

Here is how it looks on the other side of the hoop. Those ribbon loops were so quick and easy to form!

And here is the finished block:

I stitched on some of that pre-fab leaf trim you can buy (after I dunked it into some "Sulpher Green" Dye-Na-Flow and let it dry).
Then I cut out my three flowers, folded under the margin of black fabric around them, and stitched them into place.

This block is so top heavy and wonky! Really, it must have been one of the first ones I made, as the black star is so asymmetrical. I tried to compensate for that with the shape of the flower...I just didn't want to redo the whole block at this stage of the game! (My bad....)

My dear friend Freda B has lent me the use of her "Dancing Needle". It is a needlepunch tool especially designed for using WIDE 7mm and 13mm ribbon.

This tool looks positively lethal, doesn't it? We used to give our cows IVs for milk fever with needles that were not nearly this big!
But it could make a really awesome Vintage Flower #28.... We'll try that next!

Vintage CQ...Flower #26

California poppies are a favorite around here, the way they reseed themselves everywhere and are one of the earliest sources of bright color in the spring.
I've been making this flower for a few years, too....but never tried it on this small a scale. It was fun!

I started by creating the leaves on water soluble stabilizer, just using embroidery thread in a straight stitch on my Juki sewing machine with the feed dogs down.

For the petals I fused two pieces of silk together with some heavy weight Steam A Seam fusible web. Fusing the fabrics does tend to reduce fraying along the edge when you cut it.
See how nice the leaf came out, after I washed the stabilzer away?

And here they are blooming.
I added a little shading to the leaf with some gel pens.

Four more flowers to go! Then I get to sew them all together....

Vintage CQ...Flower #25

A quick post before getting to cooking in the kitchen. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I've been making this flower for a few years now, and wanted to include it in the quilt as a memento.

A cornflower for my Mom, who loved them so....

This little block has hand dyed silk, hand painted silk, antique obi cloth, rayon jacquard, quilters' cotton polka dots...it's good to remember that crazy quilting is just as much about the juxtaposition of fabrics as it is about the stitching...at least, to this fabric lover it is!

Hope you all have a loving and safe holiday...

Vintage CQ...Flower #24

We're back in the rainy and cold Northwest, so making some cheery yellow flowers seemed just the thing to do.

I broke my own rule of ''no flower beads'' for this quilt--I do want to emphasis stitching--but I love these vintage yellow Lucite beads so much that I had to include them. Rules need to be broken once in awhile...
The stems are simply twisted 4mm silk ribbon; the fly stitch is Krienik Soie Gobelins (which I love), and the little clumps of flowers and leaves at the base are from some trim I cut up. The calyxes behind the flowers are little silver beads, and the center beads are pressed glass.

So then I had to see how the blocks all look together.....

...so I laid them out on the kitchen table, sharing the space with some of Robert's innumerable squash. You can see it is pretty dark and rainy out there....

How about a better look?

In classic blogger fashion, I stood up on a kitchen chair to take this...so it's not the best photo...but it gives an idea of how things are shaping up.
Only six more blocks to go!