Something Special from Peru

In July I took the trip I had been dreaming of for years: an Amazon River Cruise and Rain Forest exploration. I loved it. The weather was perfect, it was less buggy than here in Maryland, the trip leader was excellent and fun, lots of wildlife showed itself and the villagers (riverenos) were friendly.

I had my eye out for embroidery, of course. At a gift shop at an archeological site outside Lima, before we even reached the Amazon watershed, I found my favorite piece. Yes it's a  mountain scene and I didn't visit the mountains, but I had to have it anyway.

You can see it is applique and embroidery with stumpwork. Just up my alley. I will use it for pointers to add figures to a years-old UFO I have, if I ever get back to it.

Below are close ups of some of the stumpwork figures  on it.

 

 

In Iquitos, the headwaters port on the Amazon, there were other embroideries for sale that I wish I had bought. Ah, well.

Green Apple Flutter

Last blog I ask for suggestions for a name of my red orange and apple green block. Susan Elliott went on a roll with suggestions as you can see in the comments on that blog. I didn't pick one of hers, but they inspired me and the new name for the block is Green Apple Flutter.

Flutter refers to the butterfly wings featured on fabric in the block from old komonos. Other butterflies have joined them on the block including two stumpwork ones.

I've been flirting with stumpwork for a while. Sadly, sadly missed our EGA chapter workshop by Jane Nickols because I was sick. Very disappointed. But, I have a new book that gives the instruction I wanted: Royal School of Needlework's Essential Stitch Guides: Stumpwork, by Kate Stinton published this year. Mary Corbet reviewed the book recently. She likes it, too.

My butterfly wings were made as "wired fabric slips." They are attached by piercing the block fabric with a stylus or laying tool, inserting the wires through the hole, folding them back and tacking them down. This leaves the wings free for a 3-D look. This close up photo shows I need to do some more trimming of the basic fabric around the edges. The actual butterfly is 1 1/2 inch across.