When my friend Catherine gave me the lace Madonna I used in last month's block, she also gave me these two small medals, which the merchant gave her as a gift when she bought the lace medallion. These are images of St. Francis and St. Clare, and I added them to this month's block using shisha embroidery. The medals are surrounded by some fern stitch and French knots, this week's challenge stitch.
The image of St. Francis has birds flying over his head.
These accents fit nicely into the block. I see I'm going to have to step it up a bit to fill the remaining empty space before the month ends.
22 comments:
You still have some time! Great use for those medals. I've been intrigued by shishas--looks like you did a buttonhole type stitch?
That's what I was wondering, too. I like the pink being used for the frame.
Your 2 medallions look great surrounded by a combination of fern stitch and french knots. The pink shisha treatment highlights the pink colour in your other fabrics and your earlier seam treatment and I like the idea of St Francis with birds in flight.
Those medals are gorgeous and your shisha treatment is great.
What beautiful medals. Such a lovely deep relief texture on them. The shisha stitch is a great way to attach them. Love that pink thread.
Great work on the French Knots too. A lovely addition to that area around the medals.
I've still gots loads to do on my cqjp before the end of the month too, so you're not alone there, lol.
The medals will tie this block together nicely with your previous block. Don't you love when things coordinate so naturally. However, I haven't a clue what a shisha stitch is so I will have to do some investigating. This month seems to have flown by. I almost have my block completed and I'm hoping to get a head start on the next months. I would say you have a very good start on your block.
Your medals are a lovely addition to this block, Barbara, and neat that they have a story. I love the stitching you surrounded them with also. Maybe you could teach us all how to do the shisha stitch? (Between quarters when you have more time, maybe?)
I can't come here without seeing something inspirational! The inclusion of the medals--such a great idea!
It's actually a kind of open chain stitch. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken the stitches closer together, but it was hard to manipulate stitches on something this small.
Thanks Connie, I've used shisha before to attach coins to embroidery, but I wasn't convinced it would work on square or rectangle-shaped objects until I saw an example in a book.
That would be an interesting challenge: to write a shisha tutorial. Maybe I can do it before the final exams start to roll in next week. Thanks for the idea Judy.
After I googled it I realized what it was. I've never tried it, but it is on my list.
Anita has a great tutorial on this at artisticfingers.blogspot.com - just click on tutorials on her sidebar.
I see next year's challenge shaping up nicely. A new technique each month for all of us to try. There are quite a few on my list that I also need to try.
Are you making a list of names now or will you wait until later in the year!!! ?
Oh good! I'm off the hook! Actually, there are good directions in lots of embroidery books as well.
Yea, I checked it out too--why reinvent the wheel?
Oh, you are on the list. You can believe that!
Great way to incorporate the medals! What a great story about how you got them, too! They are quite lovely, and your shisha stitching is marvelous. (Heh! my spell-checker thinks "shisha" should be "hashish" NOT!) The green garland with blue French knot flowers is a lovely color combo to offset the pink shisha frames. Very nicely stitched, all of it!
Always a sweet surprise to see what you incorporate into your blocks. The vines meandering throught the medals softens it all and so pulls that area together. I'm on board for your shisha tute, I've always wanted to know how it's done but never took the time to check into it.
Had to Google st Clare as I'd not heard of her, learned that one of my states lakes is named after her, Lake St Clair between Huron and Erie.
I'm with you in needing to push it to get my block done ;)
OK, that shisha stitch is cool!! I found a tutorial at http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/stitches/shisha.html-- but I'll have to try it to see if the tutorial makes sense!
Nevertheless--what a great idea for incorporating small (or large?) objects to the block! This opens up a whole new area of embellishment! Thanks for the idea!
(Also--your colors and composition are lovely!)
It's wonderful the way the theme came together in this block! Thanks for the link to artistic fingers. I haven't experimented with shisha a whole lot, but I do have some silhouettes that would be nice, perhaps.
Post a Comment