Garden Path - Jacket - Part XX

Allium Experiments

Today I was able to get into the studio and finish working out all the details for the alliums. There are only two of them in the whole piece, and when there are relatively so few, the details have to be right.

I start first with the stems. I wanted them thin, so applique was out. Since there would be a lot of them I didn't want to couch a thick thread either. I start out with some free motion stitching, which was ok, but not quite right. I then switched to satin stitching which was a bit better. The ends needed some tapering, so I figured that out too. In the photo below you can see the size of the flower I'm working with, outlined in blue. The alliums will be circular in shape, with the stems radiating out from the center.

The red gibberish on the left under the scissors is the machine settings for the large allium stems. It does mean something! I start stitching from the center with a zigzag set at 2.0 width and .6 length, I then change to 1.5 width/.6 length and at the end to 0 width/3.0 length (yes, a straight stitch, but I don't have to change back to straight stitch on the machine). I then turn the piece around and stitch back to the center, covering each section twice and thickening up the thread a bit. The thread is a green Sulky Holoshimmer, which doesn't all give good coverage when satin stitching.

I then worked on the flower template. This is one of the smallest templates I've worked with on any project. I shaved tiny, tiny bits off the current template to refine the petals a bit. You can see how small this flower is below. How many will cover each allium, I don't know at this point. However many it takes to make it look good will be the number I need.

Once the stems and flowers looked good it was time to finalize bead/sequin choices. I started by pulling out all the purples that would work.

I then doubled checked pictures of allium flowers on Google images and quickly discovered that the centers of these little flowers are not purple! They're green! Out came the green beads/sequins:

Thankfully, I have just the right colors already:

I'll probably start work on the first allium in a few days. I need to get some stems appliqued for the next section first and remove a coneflower. The coneflower is in the way of getting the allium in the proper position and will take me 30 minutes or so to replace when I'm done with allium. No big loss. Considering yesterday's experience, I'll be trying to get the allium in the right position the first time!

Parting Shot: Fungus Among Us. We've had so much rain and gloomy weather that the mushrooms are popping up all over our front yard. These are 4" to 5" tall.