EMBROIDERY WITH CELESTE

For those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the August 14th Zoom workshop on how to embroider on paper, it was a terrific experience. Celeste Chalasani provided us with a set of great worksheets that we could print out and use to practice various stitches. She also gave us a lot of useful tips including which end of the DMC folded thread package to pull out the end of the thread (the side with the color number printed on the label). The best part is that we now have these great little sample sheets that can be put together into a book for handy reference. Here are a few examples of completed books.

Margaret tied her individual sheets together with kite thread.

Dianne pasted her examples into an accordion book.

Bonnie also used an accordion structure and added a cover
 with additional decorative stitching.

Here are a few screenshots of Celeste's embroidery.

These examples show embroidery onto photographs
to add a three-dimensional quality.

Can you find the embroidered bees and caterpillar in these photos?

The photo on the left has embroidered ladybugs.

Many thanks to Celeste for a wonderful workshop. Hopefully we'll soon see more examples of embroidery on paper in upcoming exchange books.

EMBROIDERY ON PAPER

Our August workshop will feature Celeste Chalasani showing us the basics of how to embroider on paper. Celeste has been teaching Stumpwork, an embroidery technique that produces three dimensional work, for ten years. She has recently begun exploring embroidery on paper and will take us along on her journey.

These photographs are examples of Celeste's embroidery.

French knots enhance the waves along the shore.

Celeste will begin with a slideshow presentation showing us different forms of embroidery on paper. Next she'll demonstrate some basic embroidery stitches that we will be able to use to embellish book covers and pages. The actual project that we're going to be working on are 4" x 5" pages with stitch diagrams. Celeste's idea is to work the stitches on the cardstock to create a small stitch reference. She made hers into an accordion book to refer to later when working on future projects.

Celeste's accordion style reference book

Materials needed:

• Two size 8 embroidery (crewel) needles
• A wine or beer bottle cork to use to make a very fine pricking/piercing tool
• A thick acrylic pad, mouse pad or paper to protect your table surface
• Cardstock (8 1/2" x 11"), white or ivory
• Stranded cotton embroidery thread such as DMC or Anchor, any color
• Single sided Scotch or masking tape

*Before the workshop, you will need to create a pricking/piercing tool using one of the size 8 embroidery needles and the cork following the directions provided once you RSVP. Celeste will also provide a pdf for you to print on cardstock so that you can practice embroidery stitches as she demos them. Please RSVP to Dolores (contact information is in the newsletter) by August 9 to receive the instructions for this workshop. To learn more about Celeste and her classes visit her website at www.celestechalasani.com.

What:   Embroidery on Paper workshop

When:  Saturday, August 14 at 10 a.m. Pacific time

Where: On your computer, tablet or smartphone via Zoom

RSVP:   YES to Dolores Guffey by August 9 to receive password and Celeste's pdf

Workshop questions: Celeste Chalasani

Zoom questions: Bobbie Hayes

Contact information is always in the newsletter