I used a heavy fabric mesh, buttons, yarn and thread to create a unique brooch that stays nice and firm as you wear it – no fabric stiffener needed here.

image: C Findlay-Harder

Here is part one (the materials)

Part two (the basic outline)

And last, but not least – part three, the finishing details.

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How-To: Embroidered Flower Brooch

image: C Findlay-Harder

It’s a great way to play with the embroidery stitches on your sewing machine.  I’ve also made a variation that only uses plain old zig-zag stitches,  if your machine doesn’t do the “fancy stuff”.

The eggs can be used flat as decorations, stuffed and popped into Easter basket.  You could even make little mini eggs, stitch pins onto the back and wear them as Easter jewelry!

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Easter Crafts from the Archives

Seriously, click on the link!

Now look at the closeups.

Isn’t that the most spectacular free motion quilting you’ve seen!?

Back to practicing my free motion stitching…

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inspirational link of the day: Sharon Schamber

I love making Christmas ornaments, and I ended up creating quite a few original Christmas ornament patterns last year.

Here are some of my favorite Christmas ornament tutorials and how-tos from last year.  As always, these are my own original patterns and are not to be copied or reposted elsewhere without my permission.

Dog paw-print ornament (part one and part two):

 Machine-embroidered Christmas tree ornament:

 Russian punch-needle or Igolochkoy ornament (part one, part two and part three):

 Yo-yo Christmas tree ornament:

 Happy Christmas crafting!

all images: © C Findlay-Harder

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Favorite Christmas tree ornament tutorials, free patterns & ideas

I think this is such an amazing project – and a great way to try out some new fiber art techniques too!

“I am very pleased to announce the next project at hand for the 2008-2009 year for the International Fiber Collective.  The title of this sculpture is called Interdependence. We will create a full sized tree that will be on display in April 09′ at Big Springs International Park in Huntsville, AL.
Much like a live tree is interdependent on it’s leaves/roots for survival, like minded societies are interdependent on the greater whole, family units, communities, countries.

The collective is calling for participants around the world to create leaves to contribute to the creation of the tree. In total I am looking for 30,000 leaves.

Your leaf can be fiber/fiber technique related. Example: you can think about the ecologically interdependence of societies and then think about recycling and reusing of materials. (Plastics, Old Fabric, etc.) You can be as creative as you will for what materials and techniches you use, you can paint, stitch, crochet, patch, quilt, knit, glue (water resistant glue), just keep a fiber twist to it in some way.

Each Leaf should measure roughly 2 1/2″ wide (at it’s thickest point) x 4 1/2″ from end to end. You do have the option to give it shape and dimension.”

Need some suggestions on creating your own leaves?

How about…

• Use plastic needlepoint canvas or cross-stitch paper and embroider leaves (need a pattern?  Here’s several free ones).
• Paint heavy weight, non-woven interfacing in leaf colors and cut them out – this would be a great way to make a lot of leaves!  Heavy weight interfacing is sturdy enough that you can even machine embroider it too.
• Crochet or knit leaves – I did this for an art quilt I made a few years ago.
• Fuse two fabrics together and cut out leaf shapes – this is another method that would work for machine embroidery.
• Paint water color paper and hand-embroider the edges of the leaf – this could be a great family project too.

image: Stock.xchg

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Call for participants – 30,000 fibre art leaves needed

Click the image for the complete tutorial:

Fiber fusion is a great way to use up little scraps of yarn, thread trimmings – or even scraps of fabric left over from fussy-cutting motifs.  You can make fiber art, wall hangings – even clothing or jewelry with it!

image: © C Findlay-Harder

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how-to of the day: fiber fusion with fabric, yarn and silk – how yummy!

Here’s my palette for my next machine-embroidered piece of fiber art:

That’s so yummy I think I could eat it with a spoon   I’ve got sari silk ends, raw mohair, carded mohair (from a farm just down the road from me) silk caps and silk roving.

I love the different textures and hands that you get from using different types of fibers in one piece.  The silk acts differently from the mohair, which has a different shine than the raw mohair does… and then there’s the sari silk…

Next time you’re planning a piece of fiber art, try something different that you haven’t tried before.  You might be surprised at the results you get

image: C Findlay-Harder

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inspirational fibers

Good – let’s get sewing

To begin, we need to interface the back of the fabric with a heavy-weight interfacing.  I find it’s easiest to cut a square of fabric out with the motif in the center, rather than trying to fussy cut the fabric.

 Interface the backing fabric:

 Now fuse a lightweight fusible webbing (I’m using Heat N Bond Lite for this) onto the wrong side of the backing fabric, according to the webbing package directions.  Fuse the backing fabric and the front fabric motif together.

Let cool and then cut out the motif:

 We need to finish the edges, so I’m using a satin stitch (a tightly-packed zig-zag) around the edges.  I’d recommend doing some test stitches first, just to make sure you’ve got the right stitch width and density:

 Here’s the butterfly with the satin stitch all completed around the edges & accent lines around the inner wings:

 But I don’t think it’s quite done – I think a little more stitching would be good…

 I’ve used a hot pink metallic thread (remember to go much slower than normal when you’re working with metallics) to stitch over some of the accent lines on the wing.

Hand-stitch a safety pin or brooch back to the wrong side of the pin.  Gently bend the wings to add some dimension (you can also use fabric stiffener, but I don’t think this one really needs it).

Wear and enjoy!

all images: C Findlay-Harder

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how-to of the day – 3-D pins or brooches from fabric motifs

I’m planning on sewing a hobo tote with it – but I was looking at the butterflies and got a brainstorm.

What if I made a 3-D pin or brooch from one of the butterflies that I could wear, or pin to the bag?  It would have to be stiffened somehow, which then of course means I want to embroider it…

Come back tomorrow and bring some heavy-weight interfacing, light-weight fusible webbing and a fabric with motifs that you’d like to turn into something three dimensional!

image: C Findlay-Harder

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3-D pins or brooches from fabric motifs

 To this:

In a few weeks!

• Step one: making the silk paper.
• Step two: adding layers of paint.
• Step three: making cartoons to help visualize the completed work.
• Step four: painting the canvas background.
• Step five: embroidering the canvas.
• Step six: attaching the silk paper to the canvas.
• Step seven: free-motion embroidering the silk paper.
• Step eight: playing with the background colors.
• Step nine: quilting the fabric background.
• The final step – gallery mounting the entire piece.

So there you go – all the links, now go and be creative with them

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how-to of the day – making silk paper – all the links