Thursday, August 30, 2007

Manipulating satin cords

Léonie's Square for the 2007 Art Bra Quilt

There has been a discussion on the Crazy Quilt Embellishers list regarding the use of satin cord ( commonly called rat tail) as an embellishment in crazy quilting. Victoria Adams Brown, http://ribbonsmyth.com/ a dear friend and Grand Mistress Poohbah of the Art Bra calendars and A Way to Women's Wellness Foundation has kindly asked me if I would post a picture of the square I did for this year's Art Bra quilt ( see above).
You will see in the upper right hand corner, I have manipulated the chartreuse satin cord into a shape that I thought complimented the brass buttons - almost a Celtic type of design. The holes in the buttons were large enough that I could carefully draw the cord through them, which helped in stitching them more securely to the fabric. I also made a loose knot with the cord at the bottom centre of the design and then added a cloisonne bead and a couple of shell star beads to offset it. On the upper left side, I made a snake like design back and forth across the seam line with the purple cord and then simply couched it down with a lighter shade of thread. Round metallic chartreuse beads set into the loops created the finishing touch. Now, Vic has taken this technique and run with it - twisting and knotting it and adding wonderful vintage button clusters http://www.flickr.com/photos/ribbonsmyth/on her crazy quilt vests . Ooh I LOVE the overall effect and that lavender with the vintage buttons is to die for! Allie Aller, another talented art bra designer and stitcher extraordinaire, has a tutorial on her blog showing us how to attach satin cording to a quilt border http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/2007/08/adding-cording-to-border.html . It really offsets the borders and adds a touch of class to her already exquisite work. There should be enough inspiration here to get you all going!

5 comments:

allie aller said...

You are too kind, Leonie.
One of my favorite parts of doing the finish work on the ArtBraLadies quilt was getting to work with your beautiful block...!

prairieknitter01 said...

Now I must get some satin cord! I think I have put raised interlocked stitch on everything I can think of, and should add a new tool to the arsenal! I love your blog -- now on to read the article about the wedding dress!

prairieknitter01 said...

I was looking at the royal wedding dress exhibit - Leonie, did they do the pearl embroidery as appliques or did they embroider those panels directly onto the satin? I would give anything to flip that dress over and see the back -- although it certainly has boning and an undergarment that would obscure the back of the work, I suppose. I can't begin to imagine how they did the veil. The weight would tear the fabric, much less dragging it across a floor. Thank heavens it didn't have to travel across much carpet!

Leonie said...

Hi Andrea:
Nice to see you here! I think you would enjoy manipulating the satin cords and using your favourite stitch to boot! The cord is so versatile and you can drape it, twist it, knot it etc. It comes is lovely colors too. Allie, above, gets a lot of hers from a friend who hand dyes them in gorgeous shades. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future Andrea. Thanks for dropping by! L

Leonie said...

Andrea if you go to this link, you can magnify the dress and it is plain to see the pearls are stitched to the dress:

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/royalwedding1947/object.asp?row=0&exhibs=WEDDINGDAY&grouping=

Often, beads, pearls etc. are stitched onto appliques that can be removed for cleaning purposes but for a one-off like this I am not surprised they are stitched to the actual fabric. Also as this is a Hartnell couture item, the inside is probably all hand finished with silk. Haute couture items are usually exquisitely finished. Tambour beading is used a lot by the couture houses but I somehow think this veil has been hand stitched. L