Ricing

                                                                  Ricing

Here is a simple, but effective, way to add texture and filler to your backgrounds. The stitch is about the size of a grain of rice, hence "ricing" and can be stitched in a random pattern or a planned pattern. Thread weight will change the look of the stitching; heavier threads are more pronounced and noticeable, use lighter threads for a more delicate look.


Ricing - Donnie
Donnie has employed several approaches to the use of ricing, with a random pattern, straight lines both vertical and horizontal, as well as straight diagonal lines to show different ways to enhance your quilt.
 

 

 

Ricing - Annette

Annette used a wide variety of threads in this technique, including metallic thread to see what the effects would be. She set her ricing stitches in a stained glass framework and tried different patterns of her stitching.

 

Annette

 

Ricing - Claire
I tried stitching with different weight threads and included a variegated thread in the lower center section. I liked the look of the heavier threads (3 strands of embroidery thread and a perle cotton), but could see a use for the lighter weight threads when looking for a more subtle effect. I added buttons and a cascade of narrow ribbons for embellishment. I finished with a traditional binding but added a narrow trim inside the binding and randomly quilted the border.

Claire

Ricing - Candy

Candy created a setting for her ricing and shows us another use for this very effective stitching tool. Her ricing stitches become the rain falling on and around her umbrella.

Candy

Ricing - Kathleen

Kathleen made patterns with her stitching and created new designs on the darker fabric while using the ricing as a good background on the lighter fabric, showing us that ricing doesn't have to sit in the background. It can take front and center with planning and embellishments.

Kathleen


 

 

Wool Beads & Silk Petals

                        Wool Beads & Silk Petals

A quick and easy way to add texture, depth and movement to your quilt is by playing with wool beads (which are available in several sizes or you can make your own) and silk petals, which are available in craft stores, and creating your own designs using these elements.


Beads and Petals - Annette
Annette stitched fabric triangles to a background and then created motifs or designs using petals to make flowers with beads as a center and leaves to place on these triangles, embellishing further with a decorative machine stitch.



Annette

Beads & Petals - Sandy

Sandy created two flowers using the silk petals, and completing the flowers with wool beads for the flower centers.

 

 

                                                                                   Sandy

Beads and Petals - Donnie
This is the start of Donnie's piece using silk petals and wool beads. She constructed a four-panel piece and made a flower with Bella Nonna petals in the upper left corner and regular silk petals in the lower right corner. Wool beads finished the centers of these flowers,

                                                                                             Donnie

 

Beads and Petals - Joyce

Finished in a day! I used the silk petals (both kinds) that Claire sent me and the little round wool beads also. A slightly different format than the book because of the size of the flower. No leaves for that flower so I painted some of the white petals. I cut down inner petals, and all are attached with a few stitches and centered with a silver button. Small flower is centered with a wood bead to which I added a few glass beads. Top left has felted wool leaves stitched down, with wool berries held in place with glass beads. The wool bead collection on upper right contains round beads held in place with a small sequin and French knot. There are also 3 larger felted wool beads that I made in the felting section. Some quilting was done before adding embellishments, some after. Bead section is surrounded with couched yarn. It is finished with traditional binding.

 

 

                                                                                  Joyce

Beads and Petals - Kathleen
Kathleen used a variety of silk petals on her piece, using both the Bella Nonna petals that Annette contributed and the plainer silk petals from the craft store. Because we could not find green plain silk petals, Kathleen painted some white ones green to use as leaves. She has little star-like beads or buttons in the upper right corner as her flower center and the lower left corner to add interest. The wool beads in the upper left corner has a small glass bead sewn to the top of each wool bead and there is a wool bead in the center of the lower right corner flower. The edging is a pleated ribbon we found in a funky sewing store in Pittsburgh.

                                                                                Kathleen

Needle-Felting

                                                        Needle-Felting

This technique requires the use of a barbed needle to mesh fibers together, commonly using wool roving through fabric, felt or even batting to create designs or landscapes or..., and you can use it to make dimensional embellishments such as felted tube beads. It's fast, fun and easy to do. Equipment is simple - a barbed needle, a dense foam block to punch into and your roving and fabric base.

Needle-Felting - Annette
Annette chose to create a daisy-like flower, stem and leaf using this technique. She then added a ribbon bow and hand embroidery. She has button-hole stitched her light green background to a navy base which is then finished with a buttonhole stitch.

Annette

Needle-Felting - Sandy

Sandy translated her fascination with snowflakes into a needle-felted version of these snow crystals. She started with white felt as a base for the felting, then added her sky full of snowflakes in different sizes and shapes.

 

                                                                                               Sandy


Needle-Felting - Claire
I was inspired by a needle-felted landscape that Donnie had shown me that she had made sometime ago. I decided to make a landscape myself and started with a piece of Hobbs Heirloom Cotton batting as my base and felted three trees with shaded trunks to it. I added a grassy area littered with rocks and flowers and placed some wisps of blue in my sky. The piece needed to be stabilized and framed, so I fused the felted batting to a layered brown batik quilt. After stitching around the edges of the felted batting to firmly hold it in place, I stitched around the outer edges of the brown quilt which was then pinked and the piece is finished.

                                                                                                  Claire



Needle-Felting-Sue

Sue built her needle-felted butterfly on a background of muslin which was then mounted on green felt. Her small butterfly in the upper left corner has gossamer wings made from sheer silk petals and the body is a wool tube. The wool bead in the upper right corner is surrounded by embroidered rays.

 

Sue

 

Needle-Felting - Donnie

Donnie has three layers of fabric to her piece. First, she did her needle-felting through a piece of muslin (top layer). She layered her felting in the larger circles which adds more depth to the circles. Then she hand stitched the felted muslin piece to a black wool border (second layer) and finally secured it all to a layer of white felt (third layer/backing)

 

Donnie

This is the first of the two pieces that Donnie has felted. She created this needle-felted landscape of trees growing from a tumble of rocks with a patch of sunny sky in the background before our group started on this project and it needed to be included here.

Donnie

 Needle-Felting - Joyce

These are supposed to be "pods" of some sort. I drew a pattern on paper, then stitched through the paper with thread nearly the same color as the background so I would know where to felt what color. Then tore off the paper. Several colors of wool roving make the outer parts of the pods while the center is black. The long black line running through is wool needlepoint yarn felted in. The light part around the black was left un-felted and I put ricing stitches in to resemble seeds in the pods, some are straight lines, some are random. The black seemed very stark, so I added a few French knots in the thread used for ricing. I think I don't care for the ricing, but the felting is interesting and may have other uses.

 

                                                                                     Joyce

 

Needle-Felting - Candy

Candy started with a sunshine yellow background and laid her sand in the foreground and added blue water. Now she could "grow" her tree trunk and sprout her leaves felted with a few colors of green roving. The coconuts add dimension and color and her sandy beach is scattered with beach grasses.

                                                                                   Candy