If you're looking for something inspirational and different for needlework projects, here are a couple resources!

Tricia Wilson Nguyen of Thistle Threads (and of Plimoth Jacket reknown) has recently published a new Needlework Nibble that makes good use of Gilt Sylke Twist and some of the stitches used on the Plimoth Jacket. Tricia's Needlework Nibbles are tiny projects - usually only a couple inches in either direction, size-wise - that employ some interesting threads and techniques, so that you can get a taste of these without launching into a big time-consuming project. I love the idea!



Her latest Needlework Nibble is a bunch of grapes worked with Gilt Sylke Twist. She sells the little kit for a reasonable price - less than $20 - and offers the embroidery pattern and instructions for free on her website. Now, this is really generous! For those of us who might have some GST in our stash, this is a great little project to try with it, and we can do it without purchasing any supplies. But, if you don't have GST in your stash, her kit is a wonderful way to try many colors of this gorgeous thread, at a reasonable price (less than the cost of a spool of GST). Among the instructions for the project, you'll also find a Gilt Sylke Twist Primer (PDF), which details very clearly how to work with GST.

Another interesting tidbit from Tricia is a great little video on the sparkle of Gilt Sylke Twist. Yep, that alone should get you drooling over those threads!

And speaking of historical threads and so forth, recently, I've become quite avidly enchanted with the Needlprint blog and all the goings-on with the Mary Wigham samplers all around the globe. It really is fascinating to read the interesting stuff on that website! Recently, Jacqueline featured a beautiful border from a Scottish sampler, which is available for free to download, if you have the right design software for cross stitch. You can get the software through her website - look for the Infinity Beatrix Potter deal, where you get the software and all the Beatrix Potter design motifs for $20.

I think these Infinity charts that Jacqueline sells on her website are super-duper interesting, and would make a good resource especially for designers. They are counted thread designs, but I can't help thinking that many of them can be adapted to other forms of surface embroidery, too. I like the Quaker and antique-type sampler motifs that are featured on Needleprint. Have you seen them? What do you think? I did something with one of them the other day, and I'll share it with you soon. Hopefully. (I haven't actually finished it. In fact, I'm not finishing much lately. Argh.)

Now, on to the excuse... for those of you who were expecting the second-to-the-last Long and Short Stitch Lesson today, never fear - it's coming! It'll be up tomorrow! I got tied up yesterday and couldn't finish the lesson! Sorry about that!

Have a terrific Thursday!

Labels: embroidery resources, Gilt Sylke Twist, historical needlework, needlework websites

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, September 17, 2009
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I've been doing this monthly embroidery stash give-away for 12 months now, and it's kind of fun - I'm thinking about making it a regular feature, rather than a yearly resolution! On top of the monthly stash give-aways, I've sent out many books this year to stitchers and crafters around the globe. Now, I'm giving away two of my favorite things. Perhaps to some of you, this will seem rather limited, in comparison to previous stash contests --- I assure, it's not! The pain of separation is already acute!

The month's give-away is geared towards those who love embroidery, whether you're at the beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. For the beginner, though, the prize requires you to take your embroidery to another level. That is, go beyond "craft." Move towards art. If you have fallen in love with embroidery, then you probably want to take your needlework a bit beyond basic. To do this, materials make all the difference. And, in embroidery, the primary material used is thread.

So I'm giving you some thread in this give-away, but not just any thread.

Gilt Sylke Twist is a relatively "new" thread on the market, brought about by the folks at Plimoth Plantation who are recreating a 17th-century embroidered lady's jacket. If you haven't read about this project, you may wish to visit the Plimoth Plantation blog, The Embroiderers' Story, to see what's going on there. It's fascinating.

Gilt Sylke Twist is a unique thread in today's thread market. It's made up of a core of flat silk wound with a real gold wire. It's a very fine and tiny thread. And it's beautiful! It is suitable for all kinds of embroidery applications. I've worked chain stitch, satin stitch, buttonhole stitch, and others with it, and it's worked fine. So whether you are interested in historical embroidery, crazy quilting, or just regular decorative surface embroidery, you will find this thread versatile enough to suit your style of stitching.

In case you haven't seen it in use, here's my Gilt Sylke Twist Strawberry, which was my practice piece when the thread first came out:



(I blogged about this piece in detail - you can read about it, and the different uses of Gilt Sylke Twist in it - on the Completed Gilt Sylke Twist Embroidery Sample post.)

It's also rather dear, ranging in price from just short of $20 / spool (35 meteres) to about $22 / spool, depending on who's selling it. The cost of the thread may well prohibit some who would like to play with it from giving it a try. The cost certainly limits most stitchers from building a stash of this gorgeous thread.

So whether you've tried Gilt Sylke Twist and just want more, whether you've wanted to try it and simply haven't had the opportunity to purchase any, or whether you have never heard of it, but are a serious budding embroiderer, this stash give-away is for you.

I'm giving away two spools in red and green. Both are the original "redde" and green that came out when the thread first went public. This is the forest green, not the Lincoln Greene available now. I don't know if this green is available anymore. I had heard that it isn't, but that's "needlework gossip," and it may not be accurate.



In addition to these two spools, which are the feature elements of the give-away, I'll include a few other little things, typical of previous give-aways.

But I'm not going to show them to you!



Do you know why?



Because next to this thread, most other embroidery supplies look pretty mundane!

I'm gearing this give-away to stitchers who would actually use this thread seriously - who have a keen interest in embroidery as an art, and who have developed or are developing their skills beyond the basics. That's not to say that beginners can't participate! Sure you can! But if you're really not interested in this type of thread, then do leave the drawing for those who really are, so they have a better chance of winning. Thanks!

This is what you have to do to enter:

Leave a comment on THIS post (on the website, not through the e-mail newsletter), answering the following questions:

Why do you want to win this giveaway? Do you have specific plans for the thread?

PS - (added Friday Evening!) Please be sure to leave your name if you post anonymously!! Thanks!

I'll select the winner on Wednesday, December 10th, at 5:00 am CST, and announce the winner that morning here on Needle 'n Thread. The winner must then contact me to give me a mailing address. If I don't hear from the winner before Friday morning, I'll draw a new winner on Friday.

Participants are welcome from all over the globe - I don't mind international mail!

Thanks for participating!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, silk, stash contest

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, December 05, 2008
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After musing over whether or not I'd apply my Gilt Sylke Strawberry sample piece to the lid of a box, and after reading all the comments and advice on it, I figured what the heck. I took the plunge. Here it is!

One of my concerns about putting this piece on the unprotected cover of a box was the question of "dirt." I was thinking that a piece of good linen and these relatively expensive threads would not fare so well exposed to everyday use. I answered my hesitation on this point with the reality that dirt exists, and things may get dirty, but if you take extra care of your Good Stuff, then it really shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? Besides, at least for me, my hands are never cleaner than when I'm doing needlework. I always wash them well before approaching my needlework supplies. The box itself is kept inside a basket when not in use. How badly could it really get soiled?!

So I positioned the piece of linen on the box lid, put the "window" piece over it, and marked out the outline of the outside of the lid. I cut the fabric away, and pulled off the paper covering the glue strips on the lid. These strips don't really hold the fabric or the "window" piece well enough, so I applied a light coating of glue. I stretched the fabric gently on the glue, and then pressed the window piece over the fabric piece. After wiping off any excess glue, I stuck a stack of heavy books on top of the box and left it to dry.

Here's my new supply box:



I like it, you know, I do!!



Right now, I've got threads in the box. In fact, I think I will use it as a thread box, exclusively, for threads of whatever current project I'm working on.

I've since emptied the box, picked out all the whitework threads I'm using on my current project, bagged up the spare skeins, and filled up the box very tidily. I keep all my good thread rings and keeps in the bottom of the box, too.

The only disadvantage to the box itself (which comes with a Bucilla silk ribbon embroidery kit for the lid) is the magnet. The box is magnetized so it shuts securely (I like that feature), but the magnet is so strong that I find I have to get my fingernails in there to pry the thing open! My scissors come out magnetized, which is great when it comes to picking up needles - but rather annoying when you don't want to pick up needles!

But I'm not complaining, really, because once the thing was assembled, I was Really Happy with it. And I still am! So - I suppose I'll go use it!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, needlework pictures, organization, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, July 25, 2008
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I had my Gilt Sylke Twist Strawberry piece out during embroidery class the other day for a "show and tell" sort of session. I like to drag out different needlework projects or samplers to show the kids, hoping maybe to fuel a real desire to pursue needlework beyond dishtowels. Well, this piece has just been sitting around, waiting for me to do something with it (or not...).

There I sat, after class, prior to clean-up, absorbing the silence for a moment and staring at the scraps of embroidery threads, the snippets of fabric and felt, the thread boxes that had been foraged through by some kid, the stack of ironed towels equally burrowed through.... and getting ready for the inevitable clean-up that comes from two large classes in a row on the same day.

But still, I just sat there.

My eyes rested on my GST strawberry. I really enjoyed doing that project, and I found myself thinking, "It's really a shame I don't do something with that."

Absently, my brain wandered to the next item in sight.

It was a box - one of those boxes just like the quick silk ribbon embroidery box project I did a few weekends ago - except it was gold and cream instead of purple and white, and it was unfinished.

And I picked up my GST Strawberry, and I thought:


Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

And then I opened the purple box, and I thought:


Ahhh..... Toooooools..... I love toooools.

And then I put both boxes together, and this is what I thought:


Uhhh...? Hm. Ugh. Oh, maybe.

And then I put them next to my basket, and this is what I thought:


They fit nicely in there...

And now, I'm sitting here thinking to myself:

Do I, or don't I? Not just tools and accessories, but tools and accessories in a pretty box....

But then there's this other side of me, grumbling that it might be a shoddy way to finish that piece...

But then there's this other side of me, answering the grumbling side, insisting that at least it would be finished....

And then there's this other side of me whining about .... dirt.

What think you?

Labels: finish work, Gilt Sylke Twist, needlework tools, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, July 18, 2008
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Well, if you liked the first 8 colors of the Gilt Sylke Twist imported by Access Commodities, through the efforts of the folks at Plimoth Plantation, you're bound to be just as thrilled as I am about the new colors out!

I am so HAPPY to see the three new colors of GST that have been released and are now available to the public. The colors are Lincolne Green, Sable, and Black.



I love the bright green - and the sable is a deep dark brown, which looks lovely. Black, of course, is black - but with the gold!! Imagine how this could be incorporated into surface blackwork! Oh gosh. I am just in love with these threads, and these new colors are G-R-E-A-T. I think the two greens out so far will mix well together, too. Just think - leaves, stems... aaah. What bliss!

So - where can you get them? Well, Joady from Hedgehog Handworks e-mailed me earlier, to let me know they had them coming in. All three new colors are up on their website, but it looks like the sable is temporarily out of stock. Of all the online stores I've found so far carrying this thread, Hedgehog is the least expensive. They charge $19.80 / spool. You can find Gilt Sylke Twist online at other spots, though, too - like Needle in a Haystack, where it runs $22 / spool. It looks as if they don't have the new colors, though. Both stores provide excellent service and quick shipping.

I'm pretty excited to see the color options expanding on this gorgeous thread, and I hope to see the growth in selections continue!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, historical needlework, supplies, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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As promised, here's the rest of the embroidery project I started last Saturday.

This is an embroidered prayerbook cover I made for my niece for her First Communion, which she made on Sunday. I also posted the pattern for the embroidery, if you are interested in adding it to your pattern collection.



The bud is worked in a light and medium coral-pink. I used silk (Soie d'Alger by Au Ver a Soie) for all the embroidery, with the exception of a little bit of Gilt Sylke Twist around the cross and on the crown.



The flower is worked in three shades of purple, in long and short stitch, with French knots for the centers. (Emma picked out the general colors, by the way. "I think the flower should definitely be.... PURPLE!")



Three shades of green were used on the leaves, also worked in long and short stitch.



This is the complete cross with the flowers. I worked the vine in stem stitch - two rows, one dark and one medium. The little dots at the ends of the curls are worked in satin stitch.



The date is worked in tiny stem stitch - it's smaller than it looks here. The largest letters are about half an inch high. In order to keep your stem stitches looking neat on text this small, you need to make very small stitches, and it really helps to use a laying tool to hold the thread up and ease it in place, especially when working tricky spots like tight corners.



Here's the finished, assembled cover. It's assembled just exactly like your typical text-book covering technique: folding the long sides in, then the short sides, and slipping the cover into the sleeve that's formed. Then I used white thread to stitch the edges together, so that it fit snug on the book.



I was going to make a hand-made twisted cord out of matching floss, but I didn't have enough floss, and it was too soft, anyway. I was afraid a loop of the cord might get snagged, with would pull the whole thing out of whack. So instead, I used buttonhole stitch all the way across the top, creating a kind of stem-stitch looking line right on the outside edge.



At first, I thought buttonhole would look a bit casual, but I like the look of it. You can see the sewing on the flap. Not ... so ... neat!



And the little kiddo herself (minus her head - gosh, I wonder what I was focusing on?), in her hand-embroidered First Communion dress. Speaking of floche (well, we were a few days ago, weren't we?) the embroidery on this dress is worked in floche, with little pearls as accents. The dress has been used now by 5 girls in the family over 16 years - it's just as beautiful as ever, and the embroidery is flawless! I'll give you some close-ups later on, if you're interested.

So, there it is. Success. Now, onto other projects.... as soon as I catch up on incidentals! It's amazing how much can slip when we get engrossed in an embroidery project, isn't it?!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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Last week, I did indeed manage to cram in this embroidery project and complete it with fairly good success! Mind you, it took all blinking day Saturday to get it finished, but, come 9:00 pm, it was actually delivered! I take back the comment I made about wishing I had done something more complicated. Uh. No. My new motto: the simpler, the better.

Today, I'm going to show you how I embroidered the crown - I left my camera behind at the festivities yesterday, so I can't unload the finished photos yet. (It was one of Those Weekends. I'm lucky I didn't leave my head behind...)

When I started thinking about how to do the crown, my first thought was to fill it in like I did the cross, with long and short stitch in various shades of gold. But that didn't seem very interesting, so I did this instead:



First, I fetched a ball of yarn from my goldwork supplies. I use this yarn to couch gold purl over when doing goldwork. I ran a piece of the yarn through a cake of beeswax a few times, then I ran the yarn through my fingers to smooth it out and distribute the beexwax.

One string of yarn, by the way, was a perfect fit between the two lines on the crown. I was glad and rather pleased with myself for coming up with the idea! But don't worry - I still managed to make a mistake! Mistakes keep one humble, and they're the best of learning tools!



I took a Very Large Needle with a Very Large Eye, and threaded an end of the waxed yarn into it, then sunk the yarn ends at each edge of the crown.



And then, oh joy! oh bliss! I took out the GST (in the yellow - which is a beautiful soft gold, really) and started satin stitching over the yarn, which created a very nice raised band across the crown.



But as you can see, it isn't so smooth. Rats! In stitching down the sunk piece of waxy yarn end on the back, I didn't realize how badly it would tug things on the front. I did what I could to prod the stitching back into smoothness, but it never did look quite the same again.



After overcasting the yarn with the Gilt Sylke Twist, I outlined the crown in a dark gold (the same dark gold I used on the cross) using heavy chain stitch. I used the light gold that runs down the middle of the cross on the inside of the crown, stitching tiny seed stitches in there to add a dusting of color and a slight hint of texture.

A couple very good lessons I learned on this little crown: 1. Be conscious of what's going on on both sides of your fabric when tacking down loose ends; and 2. do the raised work last, after finishing the other stitching around it. I really had to manipulate my needle to get the stitches in around the GST without jabbing it. I jabbed it quite a bit!

I'll share the rest of that project later!

Coming up, I've got some super interesting information from Trish Burr! She's the author of Redoute's Finest Flowers in Embroidery and Long and Short Stitch Embroidery, and she has a new book coming out this summer in the US (already out in the UK and Australia, apparently!). She's also featured in this month's Inspirations Magazine. She sent me some notes on the path to publishing her books, along with some personal insights on her books, some gorgeous (and I mean STUNNING) photos of her work, and some information about her upcoming title. So I'll be putting that together into a worthy article this week! Look for it!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, May 05, 2008
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Tonight, I'm going to embroider. I know that sounds strange, because I embroider often. But tonight, I'm embroidering with a purpose!

I'm making a gift for my sister, and I've been so slow about it. I can't seem to concentrate on the piece, because I'm in the middle of doing heaps of bullion knots. I know when I get the bullions done, I'll be more enthused about it!

The current project I'm working on is called "Breath of Spring" - it's a large striped linen bag with an outside pocket that's embroidered, and it was featured in Inspirations Magazine #56. If you follow the link there, you can "flip" through the magazine and find the striped linen bag. Strangely enough, in the photo, it looks like there are blue flowers on the piece, but there aren't!

This is the first Inspirations project I've ever done as a whole. I like to take ideas or patterns from Inspirations and use them on little things, but I've never actually worked a whole project. So this is a first, and I have a month to finish it.

That's what I'm up to, project-wise. Here are some photos of the parts I've finished, which, as you can see, isn't a whole lot. I've taken liberties on some parts...



Some embroidered butterflies...



Some embroidered bugs...



And some shamefully MESSY bullion knots...

Aside from "embroidering with purpose" tonight, I'm also reveling in the fact that I got the rest of the Gilt Sylke Twist colors: dark blue, purple, and yellow.

Hedgehog Handworks carries all colors (but they don't have the green in stock right now), and they're charging $19.80 / spool, which is the least-expensive price I've seen so far. Admittedly, they get you a bit on shipping (almost $15 for 6 spools of thread?), so it all evens out.

The yellow is actually a VERY nice, mellow gold, and with the gold wrapped around it, it really gleams. It will be perfect for ecclesiastical embroidery. I'm generating ideas and will probably be turning them over in my head the whole time I'm stitching. I'm thinking wheat. And that brings to mind the bullion knots I must finish tonight. Aaack.

I wonder how GST will do, stitching bullions?

Labels: Breath of Spring, ecclesiastical embroidery, Embroidery Projects, Gilt Sylke Twist, Inspirations Magazine, needlework pictures, personal, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, April 18, 2008
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I had so much fun embroidering this little strawberry scene. There's nothing super-fancy about it, and certainly there's nothing accurate about it as far as nature is concerned, but the embroidery was fun! I learned several things along the way.

First, I learned about embroidering with Gilt Sylke Twist - some things work, and some things don't. Well, I should qualify that: they didn't work for me. They might work better for someone with a little more skill and a little more patience!



For example, long and short stitch and variations, worked on an arch, are probably not ideal with this thread. For one thing, the thread can't be split, so you have to come up between the previous stitches - which nudges them aside. Because of the stiff nature of the GST, they tend to stay nudged aside...



It doesn't look horrible, but it doesn't look that great, either!

For the blossom, I settled on long and short stitch in ecru and pink, with some highlights of the pink GST in the middle.



I like the way the blossom came out. I used some slightly darker brownish-pink in there, too, and between the petals for a bit of separation.



The leaves behind the blossom are worked in three colors of green: I satin stitched the whole leaf in a medium green, then I embroidered a few "shoots" of dark green up from the edge of the petal. Finally, I worked in a very light green at the tips, using just two stitches over each tip, in stem stitch, to give it a kind of curled look.



Another thing I learned: oh, yes, we all know it, but do we do it??? Think things through before beginning to stitch. I wasn't thinking when I stitched this stylized leaf (right - that's my excuse: it isn't supposed to look real!). I meant to do the long and short on the edge, exactly as it is done, and I meant to stitch the green GST on the edge as well. I even meant to work a stem stitch filling on the top section of the leaf. However, I did not mean to break the stem stitch scallops where I did! I should have drawn a line, slanting down in the direction of the scallops on the edge, and broken my scallops of stem stitch filling along slanted lines, so that those lines followed the direction of the long and short stitch.

But I wasn't really paying attention, and I didn't notice it until I was finished!

Another way I could have avoided those scallop-lines in the stem stitch filling altogether would have been to alternate the placement of the stitches in each row, not ending at a point each time I came down the scallop hill.

But like I said, I wasn't paying attention!



I also learned another thing I already know, but it served as a good reminder: line up your threads and the quantities thereof before you stitch. I ran out of the green I was using. You can't really tell, but it made the little turn-over at the tip look a bit different than I intended.



But, despite all the lessons, I'm still pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Oh - I learned one more thing. I will no longer be a fanatic over not wanting people to touch my embroidery. Usually, as a finger approaches, I spaz out - "Don't Touch!" When people see something like this strawberry, with the raised leaves and the sparkle of the GST, they can't resist it. They MUST touch it. So I learned that, sometimes, you just have to sit back and not get weird over people wanting to touch your embroidery. After all, they're learning, too!

Hope you liked my GST Strawberry Adventure! Now, on to other projects!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 10, 2008
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My Gilt Sylke Twist playtime is rapidly coming to a close. Here, I've got pictures of the embroidered leaf to the left of the strawberry, and the main stem, which is worked in heavy chain stitch.

I've actually progressed a lot further on this little embroidery adventure, but I've fallen behind with taking pictures. The good thing is I'm almost finished. The bad thing is I haven't taken step-by-step photos of every part of the process as I planned. I need to remember to store my camera in my embroidery basket!

Anyway, I really like working the heavy chain stitch with the Gilt Sylke Twist. I think the stitch and the thread go together perfectly for creating thicker stems.

This is the main branch of the strawberry project:



I mentioned before that I re-worked the stem stitch on the original little branch running left of the strawberry down through the first leaf. Here 'tis:



The stem stitch works fine with this thread! I worked it up the middle of the leaf to the main branch, and it came out much better than the first time I worked the stem stitch with the thread.



The leaf is worked in long and short stitch, except the turn-over, which is worked in satin stitch. I'm not so keen on the leaf. I think it was a mistake to outline the whole thing in the dark green stem stitch. I wanted it to stand out a bit. Well, the turn-over's too big and thickish looking, anyway. But oh well - it was practice... and overall, I like the whole piece.

It's kind of weird to see three different-looking leaves on one stem! But I guess that's part of the fun of embroidery - you can pretty much do whatever you want!

So that's the latest on the strawberry, but I'll get some shots of the finished piece as soon as I complete that top leafy thing that doesn't look like a leaf.

As far as the blossom goes, I tried three different approaches. I did manage to take a photo of the attempt at a kind of long and short variation with the GST on the blossom - right before I clipped it out! Then I thought I'd use a padded satin stitch and work the petals in coton a broder, like you would for white work. It looked terrific - if it were on a piece of whitework, that is! It just didn't blend with the rest of the motif. So I snipped that out, too (I don't think I photographed that...) I finally settled on typical long and short stitch with regular stranded floss, in ecru and pink, with some shoots of pink GST up the center of each blossom. That turned out better! So, photos of that later!

And, finally, today is my birthday, and I got the greatest gift from my dear, darling sister.... which I will photograph and tell you about as well! Of course it's embroidery related!

I hope you all have a jolly day, and that you get a chance to spend some quality time with your needle 'n thread. I intend to!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, April 08, 2008
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Just a short little post, to show you pictures of the lattice work on the strawberry embroidered in satin stitch with the Gilt Sylke Twist....

I couched the lattice with green embroidery stranded embroidery floss, using one strand and a #11 needle. The lattice is worked in pink Gilt Sylke Twist.



I tried to take photos that would catch the sparkle... side shots work really well, and you can't see the flaws as well, either!!



I like the pink GST with the red. The colors work well together.



This is a head-on shot of the strawberry. The left leaf there is bent up, but it does sit down over the edge of the top, so that white isn't visible.

And that's the strawberry worked in satin stitch with Gilt Sylke Twist. I'm going to remove the stem stitch line I worked first on that leaf stem, then work the leaf to the left of the strawberry, and work the stem stitch up the vein of the leaf and to the main stem. The main stem will be worked in heavy chain stitch. Then I'll figure out the blossom...

But in the meantime, I've got a couple videos to edit, so I hope to post a stitch or two this weekend for the video library, and I have the April embroidery stash contest coming up. I'm going to offer a meter of each of the colors of GST that are currently available (red, green, light blue blue, cream, and pink) and another goodie or two. So keep and eye out for that, and have a wonderful weekend!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, April 04, 2008
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Here's my strawberry, satin stitched with the Gilt Sylke Twist. I'm dying to move a little faster on this little embroidery experiment, but time, alas, isn't on my side right now!

I'm hoping to stitch the lattice work couching on tonight. I laid the pink Gilt Sylke Twist on to see how it would look, and I think it'll look pretty good!

My fear is that I will finish the strawberry and loose interest in finishing the rest of the little design!

Here's the satin stitching in progress and finished:



Working across the strawberry did pose some difficulties in the way the thread lays. I like Carol-Anne's suggestion about using two needles threaded with the GST, and taking turns. Although this looks a bit bumpy there in the middle, it turned out ok, and the warbly parts will be stroked into submission before I lay the lattice work on. Actually, the lattice, I think, will help hold the threads in place.



Here's the finished satin stitching. I'm wondering what will happen when I stitch between the GST to couch the lattice threads on. Will it separate noticeably? We shall see. I'll use a very fine needle and only one strand of thread.



I think this thread is really gorgeous! From even a small distance, you can't really make out the individual gold wraps. You end up with a sense of the gold, in the way that it picks up the light, sparkles here and there, and gives off an overall "shimmeriness" (if that's even a word!).

So, that's where I am right now. I'd love to know who else is stitching practice pieces with the GST and if you have any pictures posted... Do share!!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlework pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 03, 2008
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Here's a little progress report on my latest embroidery experiment. I'm working on a strawberry, satin stitched with Gilt Sylke Twist. The leaves are finished, the strawberry is padded, and I've begun the satin stitching. So far, I'm having a blast!

I embroidered the strawberry leaves in detached buttonhole using the green Gilt Sylke Twist. I'll try to explain verbally how I detach the leaf, since I didn't actually take step-by-step photos. Sorry!



I decided I would do the center leaf after all. I was debating about this at first, as I mentioned in the first steps of the Strawberry Project.

I want the center leaf to stand up above the berry, so it has to be separate from the ground fabric. The outline I used for the detatched buttonhole is just a simple backstitch where it's attached to the ground fabric, and a couched line where it will be separated from the ground fabric.

You can see the red couching stitches in the photo above. Once the buttonhole filling is complete, the couching stitches are snipped away, so that the leaf can stand up from the fabric. The only place I actually worked through the fabric on the outline of the leaf was at the very top of the leaf, where I stitched through the other leaves already there. Get it?

It was a leeeetle bit hard working the detached buttonhole in the area above the other leaves. I just had to be careful not to catch the stitches in the leaves below.



So that's the leaf, finished. I whip stitched the edge in a lighter green. I wanted the leaves to have the sort of crinkly look typical to strawberry leaves, but I don't know how well that comes across.



Then I started filling in the padding on the strawberry. For the padding, I'm working with two strands of a dark red DMC cotton. When padding something with multiple layers of padding, you start in the center with a satin stitch padding over a small part of the center. Then you work the padding in layers, changing the direction of your stitches. You want the last layer of padding to run perpendicular to your topmost layer (the visible layer) of satin stitch.

When working the padding stitches, I didn't carry my thread across the back of the area, because I didn't want the back to build up, too. Instead, I jumped sideways for each stitch.



I kept working the padding in layers, until the shape was filled up. Here, there are three layers underneath the layer you see on top.

In both of the above photos, you can see the center leaf turned up. The GST is pretty stiff, so the elements worked with it are somewhat bendable.



For the final layer of padding, since the GST is going to be stitched down the length of the berry, I stitched the padding (using one strand of DMC now) horizontally across the berry. I also worked a split stitch outline around the shape.

Then, for the exciting part!!



I began the satin stitching in the GST. Some things I did differently from normal satin-stitching, because of the stiffness (and the expense) of the thread:

I didn't carry the thread across the back. I emerged at "A" at the top of the berry, went down at "B" at the base of the berry over the split stitched line, and then, jumping sideways, I came up at a point "C" to the right of "B" (at the base of the berry) and then went down at a point "D" to the right of "A" at the top of the berry. After the first two stitches, I didn't like the way that was working.

To come up right next to the previous satin stitch was difficult, because of the stiffness of the thread. It caused the stitches on top to arch away from each other. I gave them a little pinch on the back to rectify this, but for subsequent stitches, I moved from one side to the other of the previous stitches.

So, here's a diagram of where I went up and down for the satin stitching:



Up at A, down at B, up at C, down at D, then jump to the other side of A, and go up at E, down at F, then jump to the other side of C and go up at G and down at H.

This seemed to work better, but it required more thread to pass across the back. Still, it was a lot less thread than carrying the whole stitch up the back, and it turned out looking ok!

The next update will be the completed satin stitch on the strawberry, with lattice couching over the satin stitching. I'm doing the lattice in the pink GST. I'll couch the lattice down with regular embroidery floss, but I'm not sure what color to couch it with?? Green?

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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One of my goals this weekend was to sit down with the new Gilt Sylke Twist and try it out with different embroidery stitches. I didn't get very far, but at least I started!

First, I mused about what to embroider. I didn't want to work random stitches. The thread is a bit dear to use on random stitching. But then, I didn't want to spend a lot of time thinking up or sketching out a design, either. I just wanted to get to the stitching!

I had a piece of good linen already framed up that I was "trying" a different failed experiment on (more on that later), so I salvaged a corner of that, took a pencil, and drew whatever came to mind straight on the linen.



There's nothing too naturally accurate here - stylized leaves, an attempt at some sort of blossom, and a strawberry. Spring must be coming - I've had strawberries on my mind lately!

My plan was to embroider the strawberry in red GST, in satin stitch, with a lattice over it in pink GST. That's still my plan. I just didn't do the strawberry first, but I'm thinking I should have.



To get familiar with the GST, I thought I'd stitch a line of stem stitch. I began with a #7 hand-made Japanese needle, but I think it was too small. I switched to a #10, which seems a little big, especially when working the stitches in the picture below. But it was ok for the stem stitch.

You can see that the stem stitch is a bit on the wobbly looking side. It took me a bit to get used to the thread. It's quite stiff. I should have been a little more careful and a little more patient.

One you get used to the thread, though, it's great to work with. I don't suggest a "sewing method" with stem stitch. Take your thread all the way to the front, all the way to the back ("stab" method). I like the noise the thread makes passing through the fabric, actually. It's a barely there kind of zipper sound!



I'm pretty sure I'm working this out of proper order. But I wanted to lift the strawberry leaves above the strawberry itself, and to do that, I figured I'd have to stitch the leaves, leaving part of them detached, lift them up, and stitch the strawberry underneath. I now wonder if I've left enough room to manage that, but we'll see.

The middle leaf may be abandoned altogether. We'll see on that, too!



Here's a close-up, so you can see the sparkle. The Japanese #10 is not ideal for the detached buttonhole in a tiny space - it's too fat, in my opinion! I outlined the leaves in backstitch in a matching dark green, and couched the area of the outline of the leaf where I wanted to lift it up from the ground fabric. You can see the red couching stitches in the leaf outline on the right. After filling the leaves with the GST, I took a barely lighter green - one strand - and stem-stitched around the leaves to give them a finished edge. I whip-stitched the part of the outline that was couched, so that I could still lift the leaf off the ground fabric.



And that's a little bit of an angled close-up so you can see the dimension.

My plan from this point: finish the leaves, then do the strawberry (in padded satin stitch with a lattice over it). Some of the leaves will be long-and-short stitch with regular stranded silk, but I will probably edge them and add veins with the GST.

I haven't quite decided what to do with that ridiculous-looking "blossom" yet. I'm open to suggestions!

And the stems and vines will be worked in different line and chain-type stitches. The main stem, I think, will either be worked in chain stitch or in heavy chain stitch - or perhaps just a wider band of stem stitch worked as a filling, so that I can add some shading. We'll see!

More updates later - back to my needle and thread!

Labels: Gilt Sylke Twist, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, silk, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, March 31, 2008
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