Helen M Stevens

Recently I have been ordering books again and found Helen M Stevens books from the 1980s.  The first of her books I purchased was "The Timeless Art of Embroidery".  Her first set of books were more like coffee table books.  She explains art theory and shows how to use it to make more realistic embroideries.  When I ordered one of her first books I thought she used mostly needle painting.  However she gets really lovely results using simple shadows, perspective and a stitch called opus plumarium.  You can see a preview of her book "World of embroidery" with stitch guide by clicking on this link www.books.google.com/books?isbn=0715326651
On Amazon they have a preview of the book and offering a good price for the book used.  http://www.amazon.com/World-Embroidery-Helen-M-Stevens/dp/0715309773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386356398&sr=8-1&keywords=world+of+embroidery

She does use other stitches but opus plumarium and directional opus plumarium seem to dominate her embroideries.  Directional opus plumarium is a simplified form of needle painting in this case using fewer colors then other needle paintings.  Another factor that makes her work so unique is the use of colored background fabric especially black.  Helen M Stevens' use of art and stitches make her work very unique.

Then in the 90's her work was released again only this time it contained projects with more detail instructions.  These books were renamed "Master Class Series".  Then finally the "Master Class Series" was remade again in the 2000s to be even more streamlined.  This newer "Master Class" is even more concise in teaching specific techniques and has very specific projects.  I bought the third series "Embroidered Landscapes" which includes 5 lovely projects.

Personally of all of her book series I prefer the first.  Even though the first set of books are a bit rambling they bring out more of the authors ideas and character.  The first series is richly illustrated with the authors embroidery.  Each page has at least one embroidered piece or sketch from her journal.  The first series may not give many detailed instructions, but for someone who already embroiders they can use the pictures alone to make any of the illustrations.

Yesterday I started getting ready to embroider one of her birds.  I simply copied the embroidery onto card stock.  Then cutting out the bird I traced it's outline onto black fabric using a white fabric pencil.  Next I went over the traced lines and sketched in some of the details.  This will be the first time that I've tried embroidering on black fabric and look forward to the challenge.

I hope this little review has inspired someone to look at Helen M. Stevens' books and maybe even buy one.

Burgundy Rose buds and the Brazilian Dimensional Embroiders Guild

 

Finished burgundy rose buds.

The Burgundy Rose buds are finished!  I wasn't paying proper attention to the large leaf and so it isn't shaded correctly. If I had followed the instructions the shading helps to shape the leaf, my leaf looks very flat.  While embroidering the leaves I realized I was still missing colors.  So I chose the greens as best I could.  The mistake I made was using two shades that were so close together that I had trouble telling them apart. So when they were embroidered it all looked the same shade.  But that taught me a lot about choosing colors.  Even with it's problems I am quite happy with the embroidery and I have learned a lot.  The book "Needle Painting Embroidery, fresh ideas for beginners" is a wonderful book, the only problem I had was with amount of thread required to do all the projects.  But if you buy the thread for just 3 or 4 projects at a time it isn't so bad.  I'm looking forward to the other projects especially the birds.  Tomorrow I will make the embroidery into a card.  I'm sure it will be beautiful.  Here are some progress pictures.

 

Filling in the leaf with shades of green.

 

 

Shading leaf.

 

Back of work.

Yesterday I was searching and found this web site http://www.brazilian-dimensional-embroidery.org/  Rather a specialized guild but interesting.  I like doing Brazilian work but not enough to join.  The EGA should give me plenty of inspiration.  The Brazilian Embroidery Guild have a free pattern every month and this months is beautiful!  Here is a link to the pattern.  http://www.brazilian-dimensional-embroidery.org/design_of_the_month.htm  The stylized flower is very pretty and it has some challenging stitches.  I've already copied it to fabric and went through my stash of Brazilian threads.  Not that I need to start another project.

Working the Romanian Point Lace project has been a little more difficult.  This morning I copied the 1/2 pattern doily and taped it together into a complete pattern.  Then I copied the pattern to a heavy fabric and couched the crocheted cord to the inside cord path.  I am having trouble understanding the second crochet cording pattern.  It uses three single crochet groups alternately, but I don't seem to quite get it.  I was thinking that it might be fun to make a more decorative braid and use it on the outside braid path.  If I can't get the recommended braid pattern I may just substitute another edging.  Here are some pictures.

 

Couching crocheted braid.

 

 

Close up of braid couching.

 

Finished couching crocheted braid to the inner braid path.

Needle Painting

 

Needle Painted Roses in progress.

 

When I woke up this morning I really wanted to do many things but decided to try needle painting using the book "Needle Painting Embroidery, fresh ideas for beginners" by Trish burr.  I decided to try the 6th lesson because I had most of the needed colors and because the author explained that she had used this lesson to teach needle painting with.  So with some closely woven white cotton fabric I traced the burgundy rosebuds design using pencil.  Then I reread the basic instructions through again before starting to embroider.  The instructions were very easy to understand and it reminded me of art classes that I took years ago.  Then with my needle waiting to start painting I went to lesson 6.  The author broke the project into sections and gave very clear instructions on how to embroider and what colors to use and the order to work.  The book really is well written and the author is a skilled teacher.  So many hours later I have finally stopped because my hands are so tired.  This technique is as easy as it is lovely.  I recommend both the book and this style of embroidery.  Very different from what I usually do but I can see this technique improving my stump work bugs.  Here are some pictures of the roses in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surprises!

I was asking Lee what he would like to do and he said watch a movie.  When I asked what movie, Lee brought out a Blu-Ray player and "The Hobbit"!  It was a nice surprise!  Then I got my box from Nordic Needle!  I am very happy with my order.  Now that I have a new set of tatting needle I can do more than practise.  The Romanian Point Lace book is very nice, so far I am working on making the crocheted cable.  The cable was to hard to crochet in size 30 thread and learn at the same time.  So I have been using size 10 thread.  If I can make 30 inches of cable I can start making a Romanian Point Lace motifs and practise needle weaving.  I'm really excited to learn more about the whole technique.  Romanian Point Lace will be my first point style lace.  If I can learn I will definitely create a tutorial.

The other book I ordered "Needle Painting Embroidery, Fresh Ideas For Beginners", by Trish Burr, is really lovely.  The lessons are very inspiring and I wanted to start today but I don't have the right colors of floss.  That usually wouldn't stop me but because the book is based on blending colors it makes sense to start with the suggested colors.  I am sure I will enjoy this book, I love just looking at the projects.  Tomorrow I hope to go out and get the embroidery threads maybe even a cup of coffee!