Millefiore

Welcome to Stitchery Sunday. 

For the last few months, I've been obsessing over wool. Since I first saw the pieces of hand-dyed felted wool, I've been in lust with the stuff. I love the hand of the fabric and how the color varies in one single piece.  In many pieces, the saturation of color is just unmatched. 

I had a good-sized credit going at Quilted Strait, so I paid them a visit yesterday and picked up some more wool to add to my existing stash. This time I chose bright hues. 

I'm going to attempt to teach myself wool applique. It'll be a good way to learn to use my new machine, plus helpful to bone up on my hand sewing and embellishment skills. I've got a few ideas rolling around in my head. I started collecting photos in my Pinterest account.

Look at this yummy wool!

What do you think about when you see this bundle? 

I'm thinking millefiore.

What's Millefiore? This Italian word is drawn from "mille"(thousand) and "fiore" (flowers). It is a glass work technique using colored glass rods that you bundle together to create a design. Then the rods are sliced or cut and further processed into beads, paperweights, vases, etc.

(Tee hee! Now you see how my warped mind works!)

Are you starting to see what I see? A hand-stitcher's haven!!!!!! Look at all the pattern and color. Think about the play of silk wovens, velvets, and wools set off with beautiful threadwork. Perhaps embellished with colored glass beads. Can you recreate what you see through stitch, fabric and embellishment? 

I sure can! This will be an ongoing project. I've armed myself with several hand stitching reference books -- Brian Haggard's Embroidered Memories book. Also two books by Judith Baker Montano, the queen of beautifully embellished crazy quilts. These authors provide excellent reference sources for hand stitchery and embellishment.

I can't wait to begin!