Terry Dryden’s Flower Diamonds Done!

What a fun project to work on! Beautiful colors and luscious threads. And don’t forget all the beads that Terry included as well.

This project used a lot of threads I’ve never used before so I made some discoveries along the way. There were four kinds of silk including ribbons. The ribbons were new to me and were used to make the flowers down the center of the piece. I love flowers but I’ve discovered I’m not good with real flowers or silk flowers. The silk ones are fun to play with, but I need more practice on them. I love that Terry gave me so many different threads to play with. Some of the flowers combined ribbons with other threads to add more dimension to them. The centers were done with french knots in several different threads and lots of beads, some a single color and some combinations of different beads.

The close up shows a few more details. The central flowers are done with buttonhole stitch – one layer on the right and two layers on the left. The centers were done differently. The multi-color flowers are done with a thread that varies as you stitch, fat at some places, thin in other places. That was fun to stitch with. You never know what look you’re going to get. And Terry included more than enough thread and beads to complete the project. I have lots left over and will have to think about something special I could create and use all those luscious threads. In the meantime, I’ll need to get this made into a neck roll pillow to display it properly. Thank you Terry for a wonderful design. 

Be sure to check out Terry Dryden’s webpage in the Blogroll on the right.

Terry Dryden’s Flower Diamonds – Update

I just finished the first of the three panels on this beautiful pattern! All the different colors blend together so well and I love the look of this first panel. The other two panels use the same colors, but the colors are used in different areas of the design. There will be more yellow in one panel and more of the lavender in the third panel. I can’t wait to get started. Here’s how it looks today.

I have now used all the different threads in the kit, some of them new to me. The only thread I’m not wild about is the Ty-Di Cotton+ which is a very knubby kind of thread. I’ll keep working on it and maybe my feelings about it will change. When you get to the large flowers in the middle, Terry gives you a list of what she used for the original. Then lists a lot of other threads, beads, etc. that you can use instead. Let your imagination go at this point and have fun. I’ve never done silk flowers before, and while I enjoyed learning to do them, I definitely need to practice a lot more on them before they look good. I did one of the flowers a second time to make it look better. This morning I decided I hated how the beads looked in the yellow flower and took them all out and did them again. Mine are passable and I hope practice will make them look better. I’ll continue with the other two panels in between working on the Ant Atlas rug. Another post will go up when this piece is finished.

Terry Dryden’s Flower Diamonds

I love to play with colors and threads when it’s time to start a new project. But sometimes it fun to see what another designer is doing with color as well. I’m a ghost stitcher for Terry Dryden’s Flower Diamonds piece. She’ll be teaching it at the ANG Seminar in September. It’s on her website under Teaching Portfolio.  http://www.terrydryden.com/teaching-portfolio/    Scroll down toward the bottom of the page to see Flower Diamonds.

When the kit arrived at my house, I dumped everything out on the dining room table. I can’t believe all the beautiful colors and the many kinds of threads that are included! And all the beads too! 

There are four kinds of silks, silk ribbons, Kreinik braid and 1/16 ribbon, cottons, and linen. Terry says she doesn’t expect everyone to stitch it exactly the same. There are places where you can personalize it. That’s one of the reasons there are so many beautiful threads to work with. Some of the threads are new to me, so I will enjoy learning about them. I’ve never made silk flowers before and look forward to learning some new things. I’ll put up one post along the way and a photo when I’ve completed the piece. I really want to thank Terry for letting me participate in the Pilot Stitching for this piece. I’ve loved it from the first post she did on her blog when she was designing it.