Vertical Quilting Curve

I found this great tutorial about how to cover a donut bead over at Textiles in Time. Marty52 has great close ups of how to cover the bead. Although it shown on an evenweave fabric, you could put this on any quilt project you want to add dimensional embellishment. I’m going to have to go get some of these beads or see if I can do it over other donut shaped items.

quilting, beading, quilt embellishing, embroidery, tutorials

Recently, I wrote an article about wire-edge ribbon for Craft Critique including a tutorial for making a ribbon rose. It proved to be very popular so I thought I would share it with you. You can also check out the article in its entirety by clicking here.

Second, roll the pointed end to the inside as seen in the next photo.
Next, fold the long length of ribbon down as shown. Then begin turning the small end toward you.

Continue to fold the ribbon down as you continue to turn the flower. When you reach the end pinch the bottom to temporarily secure the rose. Most instructions I’ve found say to use floral wire to secure but I find it stays better if you take a few stitches with needle and matching thread through the bottom.

quilting, ribbon, ribbon rose, ribbon flowers, tutorial

Stem stitch is one of those basic embroidery stitches that stitchers either love or hate. I happen to be one of those that loves it. It is one of my favorite embellishments to use on craft projects and quilts. When I do redwork blocks I rarely use anything else. One of my friends who loves the chain stitch wanted me to share how I make my stem stitch so I decided to create a short photo tutorial.

Here in Photo 1, I have brought up my thread to the front of my fabric piece and inserted back through and halfway to where I came up.

Photo 2 shows where I have inserted my needle down and taken a stitch. You can see where the next stitch begins in the middle of the first stitch.

In Photo 3 the needle is inserted and comes up at the end of the first stitch. This completes the second stitch when you pull it through.

Now Photo 4 shows that the stitches continue as in the previous photo until you get the length of the line you are completing.

Photo 5 is a complete line but to finish the line off you will simply take your needle down as if making another stitch BUT you do not come back up.


Hope this helps you try the stitch. For the steps above I used a piece of felt and perle cotton for demonstration purposes. On quilts I usually use 3 strands of embroidery floss and a crewel embroidery needle on cotton and fashion fabrics.

You can see a redwork block using the stem stitch on my other blog, Crazy Crafting Mama. I made this block for an exchange with an embroidery group.

quilting, embroidery, stem stitch, redwork, tutorial

I love the look of needle punch. It’s like miniature rug hooking but much more portable. What’s even better you can use it to embellish quilts. It’s makes a great motif for crazy quilts, the center of blocks or for blocks themselves.

This weekend, even though we were traveling I was able to finish a piece that I started to demonstrate needle punch at a Chicago Craft Collective meet up. I was able to work on it when my daughter was in the hospital as well. For this one I drew up a paisley pattern and chose some jewel tone floss colors.

My second piece I’m showing is the first one I ever finished and decided it would look cute in a quilt block. After that I wanted to show it off so I attached it to a pre-finished tote bag.

I definitely like to do this technique and I will be experimenting with it more in the future. One thing I plan on doing is some spontaneous designing drawing with the needle and thread as I punch. Have you done any non-traditional designs with needlepunch?