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Thursday, December 17, 2015

Paula Nadelstern's Opulent Ornaments

Here's a nice mood-lifting and seasonal project - Paula Nadelstern's Opulent Ornaments.  All you need is one of her panels and...  taken from Benernina's Blog "We All Sew."  Enjoy

Opulent Ornaments

Enjoy the Opulent Ornaments by Paula Nadelstern!
Here’s your chance to get in touch with your inner embellisher. These eye-catching ornaments often trigger nostalgic memories of family members who made some type of embellished Styrofoam ball. This version kicks it up a notch. You’ll intuitively rely on the repetitive flow of shapes and colors from a commercial kaleidoscopic or medallion-like print to create this easy-to-make and visually beautiful object, brimming with sparkle and ready to display.
Opulent Ornaments
It’s all done with regular, inexpensive dressmaker pins, not fancy-schmancy silk or piecing pins. The key is to layer luminous beads with iridescent sequins; I pile one sequin on another for interesting effects. It’s a More is MORE moment!
About thirty ornaments—some on candlesticks, others filling a wrought iron basket—spill along the top of a 7 ft. long x 1 ft. wide x 3 ft. high rosewood cabinet in the living room of my New York City apartment. Sitting under a quilt and behind a couch, the unit was built to store rolled up quilts.
Opulent Ornaments
Here are images of the most recent ones I’ve made with my friend Katherine Knauer.
Opulent Ornaments
Opulent Ornaments
Opulent Ornaments
Opulent Ornaments
Opulent Ornaments
Now I get to introduce you to Karen Selva from Colorado Springs, CO. Karen spent twenty-four years in the Air Force before retiring as a colonel.  Her three kids are grown and she works on a variety of craft genres to her heart’s content.
This year, one of Karen’s six Christmas Trees is a fabulous 7 ft. tall tree adorned with twenty-four bejeweled balls. The tree is raised up a foot on a table covered with brown, quilted fabric. Karen started making the ornaments before last Christmas.
Opulent Ornaments - Christmas Tree
Here’s some of what she has to say:
“Making the ornaments was a creative outlet. Following the beautiful designs of the fabric allowed me to make essentially the same things but different every time as the mood moved me. In order to make the balls the focal point, I used ribbon to separate the tree into diamond shaped areas where a ball could sit front and center as the star of the show. I found blinged out poinsettias (think glitter) in the same colors as the fabrics to center where the ribbons cross, keeping the attention on the balls.  There are 24 balls total: 16 six inch balls, 4 five inch balls and 4 four inch balls.  Those smaller eight are at the top of the tree to give it the illusion of being taller. I have another three ornaments on the mantel and another three (one in each size) that will sit on the buffet table in the dining room.”
To attach the ornaments to the tree, Karen glued two long 2″ eye hook needles, putting E6000 glue on the needle which is pushed into anywhere on the ball against a sequin to make it blend in. The glue does not go through into the Styrofoam but does firmly connect the eye hook to the fabric.  Then she used a regular ornament hook, wrapping it firmly around the tree limb to secure it.  To ensure stability, she makes some of the limbs support the larger balls just in case the glue does not want to hold.
Opulent Ornaments on Christmas Tree
Please download the instructions: Opulent Ornaments Instructions.
Here is a list of fabric types you’ll want to look for:
You might even find you already have some in your stash.
Opulent Ornaments on tree
Opulent Ornaments on Christmas Tree

 

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

CHROMOZONE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR PREORDER!

Paula Nadelstern's (The Kaleidoscope Queen) newest lines - ChromaZone and the new Sunstone Collection - are now available online for PreOrders.  Expected delivery is late February 2016/early March!  

There are four different color ways - Red/Green (Christmas), Caribbean (very bright), Multi and Blue for each design.The first is her newest panel - Dragon Medallion.  The one we're showing you is her Caribbean one - yellows, turquoise, pinks.   As with all her panels there are 6 large medallions, 10" in diameter.  Three different designs, two of each.  Then there are 12 smaller ones - 3 designs, four of each measuring 3 1/4" in diameter.  The second piece is Magmatude. In this Prima Donna there are two different motifs.  One is 8" in diameter, and then there's a smaller, 4 1/2" diameter.  The repeat is 15" however a 1/2 yard will give you 8 full repeats of both motifs.  The third is Filigree. Interestingly enough, Paula tells us  that this piece was originally designed to go in her last collection Fabracadabra.  However since that line was huge, it was decided to hold off until the next collection.  This is quite unusual because she uses a white as the "filigree" pattern over the colored motifs - all is bilaterally symmetrical.   The repeat is large, 24".  And it appears that you will need 1 1/3 - 1 1/2 yards to get 8 full repeats of each motif.  The final design is Vox.  Vox does somewhat remind me of a voice recording meter (if you've ever seen one).  This striped pattern runs the length of the selvage. The repeat is 12", however it does appear that 1 yard will allow you to get 8 full repeats of each design you see in the pattern.

What is very different about each of these new bilaterally symmetrical designs is she did not use a black outline in her design.  Therefore each is a bit less defined, though the coloration of each will work with her more recent lines.   Below is a sample of each new design.





The final picture is of the eight new Sunstone colors that work magnificently with the ChromaZone line - very bright in coloration, except for her new black - haha.  This black is unbelievably fabulous, really.