NEW VALDANI THREADS ARRIVED

In search of the perfect sage green 60 wt. thread, I came across a company called VALDANI out of Alberta, Canada.  They offer an incredible line of beautiful, hand-dyed threads made in Romania.

All I can say is WOW.  The colors are stunningly beautiful.

It's hard to order thread over the internet.  You just know that some of the colors are not going to be right because the color charts on the internet are always a bit "off" on color representations.  So I put in a small order and hoped for the best.  The only color that surprised me was the peach skein -- the name of this color is Soft Banana, and it looked more like a soft yellow on the internet.  However, the soft peach color is so gorgeous I'm still loving it, so no problem there!  All of the other colors are wonderful, and the large green spool shown here (Gray Juniper Very Light) IS the perfect green I was searching for.   If you work with the 50 wt. DMC thread in your embroidery machine, this 60 weight thread is also 100% cotton and compliments the DMC thread wonderfully.  I will very soon be completing a small project with this thread to test out the new tiny bullions I've been digitizing.  Can't wait to get to it.....right after that blouse!

Working With More Lavender

. . .  a soft, sweet, feminine, summertime time blouse -- the perfect project for the new Moda fabrics I'm working with.  It will be small size for a very young girl, but this type of blouse pattern would work just as well for a teenager or adult.  Great resort wear, or for any warm evening.  I will be placing this original design which I digitized from scratch  on the front of the blouse. Here's the first test sew:

These are not the colors which will be used on the blouse.  I spent a bit of  time this week re-digitizing the lavender bullion set in the center of this design.  There was nothing wrong with the original bullion -- it looked beautiful.  But it was too large for the more delicate design I was aiming at.  And I have some new, thinner 50 wt. and 60 wt. threads that I'm working with recently, so I did a lot of "test sews" trying to push the envelope on the tiniest size I could manage.  What you see in this picture is pretty much a reflection of the actual size of both the small and large bullions.  In order to make the center bullion small enough, I had to break it down into sections as I originally digitized it, and from there lower the density and adjust the underlay so that the the final design would not be overly dense.  I'm very happy with the results.  It was well worth the effort.   Next, I will be making the blouse pattern -- I'm going to use a very simple blouse I got at the goodwill as the basic pattern and add a few finishing touches of my own.  (Although I have two huge drawers full of patterns, some new, some vintage and some antique, I love making my own patterns from old clothing.)  Then, a test sew of the blouse (in muslin) and another test of the embroidery placement.  So far so good.  I will post the next pictures as soon as I can.

P.S.  It's August now, but Labor Day, Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Winter will bring about a color change.  Look for some red, white and blue.... and a tiny bit of quilting.

WELCOME TO QUILT WITH GABRIELLE

Hello!  Welcome to the Quilt With Gabrielle blogspot.  It's been a long time since I set up this blog and in between then and now I've had more than a few guilty moments wondering if I was ever going to find the time to "MAKE IT WORK".  Well, the good news is it's  finally happening.  And although I do admit to having a several vintage-style scrap quilts under my belt, I have to say that since starting this blog I've discovered I just don't seem to have that wonderful drive and ambition the more serious quilters seem to thrive on as they finish their large masterpieces.  Their finished products never cease to amaze me, but I'm more of a tiny quilter ... I  need smaller projects, and plenty of them, to feed my creative spirit.  As a result what you will find here in this "quilting" blog are various other things related to quilting.  Lots of hand embroidery, machine embroidery, and other projects.  So I hope that any of the serious quilters who happen to find themselves on this "doorstep" will step inside and be able to use some of the things I've posted for a bit of inspiration with their own projects, without feeling too "duped" by the quilting reference in my title.  I've kept this title so long, it just doesn't feel right changing it now. This blog is officially a "work in progress" now.  I will be posting often.  Please say hello if you find anything you really enjoy.  I would love to hear about you and what you are doing.
Best wishes,
Gabrielle

Beautiful Buttons

Here are better pictures of the Czech glass moonglow buttons used on the pastel gem pillowcase shown further down this page. More shots of the these pillowscases and other items can be seen at http://www.sentimentalrose.com



More Lavender

Nothing like another shabby embroidered pillowcase.  I got inspired to create this pillowcase (and the original embroidered pansy design) by the pastel themes popular in bedding and bedwear back in the 20's and 30's.  I like to refer to these small pastel pillowcases as "Pastel Gems".  I wanted to try something different so I left each end of the pillowcase open.  I like the way the long ends on each side drape off the smaller size pillow inside; however, it would also look very pretty with a much wider pillow which would peek out from each end, provided of course that the pillow ends were also covered  by a pretty contrasting fabric -- perhaps I'll give that a try on my next set of "Gems" I create.  I do have a couple of other  hand embroidered gem cases I did long ago.  I'll try to remember to pull them out soon and post some pictures.

The lavender glass moonglow buttons are somewhat vintage, from the Czech Republic.  I don't know the exact era, but I'm guessing perhaps the 70's.  



Cabbage and Roses by Moda

After several weeks of glancing at the fabric swatches, I've decided it's time to start my project with the new Cabbage Rose fabrics by Moda, beginning with the embroidery design.  The colors here are deceiving.  The blue thread is a very lovely, extremely pale blue called Christy Blue.  The lavender thread photographed pretty close to its actual color.  The medium green used is a soft olive, but it photographs a touch darker than it actually is.  Haven't decided yet what floral arrangement (or initials??) I'm going to embroider here or what item I'm even going to turn these fabrics into.  Looks like a pillow might be in the works, and maybe a couple of pincushions with the left over???  Actually, these 3 fabrics combined into a soft, simple blouse sounds even better -- well, results will be posted when finished!

P.S.  Thank you Moda,  for another group of great fabrics!



All Things Lavender

 Pansies and violets, the color lavender.  Can't ever get enough...