One thing I've found as I've progressed on this hand embroidered lettering sampler is that, while there are lots and lots of hand embroidery stitches out there, not all of them are wholly suited to lettering. Since lettering demands clarity (after all, you want your reader to be able to read it!), it's important to select stitches that will produce clear text.

In this tutorial, I'm combining herringbone stitch (for the thick part of the initial letter) with split stitch for the rest of the lettering. For thread, I'm using Stef Francis silk, which is a first for me. I've got quite a few skeins of Stef Francis silk, but to tell you the truth, I've never used it until now. I wanted a rich purply color, and I wanted a thread with a bit more texture, so this thread suited my needs.



The thread is variegated, and, although it's silk, it has a bit of fuzziness to it, kind of like a soft wool. I like it a lot!



Between the two parallel lines that form the backbone of the L on "Lazy" I'm working a closed herringbone stitch. Basically, this is just herringbone stitch worked close together, so there isn't any space (or at least, not much!) between the stitches. So, first you go down in your fabric - a bit away from your last stitch in order to give you room to come up right next to your last stitch.



When you come up, you come up right next to your last stitch, to close the gap you left when you took your needle down into the fabric. To understand this clearly, it helps to know the movement of the herringbone stitch - if you're unfamiliar with it, check out my herringbone stitch video tutorial, which may be somewhat helpful.



When you cross over to the other side of your stitching area (to the opposite parallel line), you'll take your needle down into the fabric a little bit away from your last stitch. You can see the gap in the photo above. Then you come up inside that gap and cross back over to the other side, working in this manner down between the parallel lines.



As you get to the base of the spine of the L, where things narrow up a bit, just move your lines closer and closer, filling in as best as you can, keeping your stitch movement the same. It'll fill right in to a narrow point.



You can see pretty clearly where the variegation kicks in on this thread. After I stitched it, this block of color change was rather disappointing, but I've gotten used to it now and I don't mind it too much. I'm not really keen on variegation, when it happens in such segmented blocks of color. But, still... I liked stitching with this thread!



After finishing the spine of the L, I jumped down to embroider the base line of the L, using split stitch. Since I've already covered split stitch in a previous lettering tutorial, I won't bore you with the details - I'll just show you how the letters progressed from this point!



Here's the base line of the L. A hint on this thread: After stitching a bit with the same strand, it gets fuzzy just like wool does, so it's helpful to start a fresh piece, if you want a really nice looking split stitch. I am not quite satisfied with this base line. (But no, I didn't pick it out!)



I liked the curl on the top of the L much better. It was stitched with a fresh strand of thread.



Here are the rest of the letters, all worked in split stitch, too.



And here's the sampler so far! It's growing on me, the more I work on it. I like the variety of colors and stitches, and I think it would be fun to do a much more meaningful phrase (or saying, poem, proverb, etc.) in the same mixed-up manner - it'd make a great little gift for someone, to stitch up something like this, but with something a bit more profound, personal, or pertinent.

If you're just joining in on these lessons on embroidered writing, I've posted all the previous lessons in under the Hand Embroidered Lettering Index. You're welcome to check them out!

Next up in this series is a really bright and crazy word - with combined stitches and a few added touches to liven the word up a bit.

If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, and the like, don't hesitate to leave a comment below!

Enjoy the weekend!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, November 20, 2009
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Well, after my post the other day about my "mad" purchase of a rather pricey needlebook kit, I felt pretty good after reading all your comments! Nothing like getting a group of people together with the same interests in order to justify the occasional splurge, I say! Thanks for the shot in the arm! I'm pretty excited about the little needlebook, now that the project is underway. Don't expect to be amazed - I've only made a tiny bit of progress - but I thought I'd share it with you and make a few comments about the experience so far.

Before beginning any embroidery kit, it's helpful - I'd almost say "essential" - to read through the directions before jumping in. So that's the first thing I did. It wouldn't do to start stitching along, only to run into a problem that could have been avoided by reading ahead.

The next step is generally set-up work. It took me a couple days to get the set-up done, due to numerous interruptions and a general lack of embroidery time.



Remember that the kit is designed for counted techniques, so it makes sense to grid things off so that the placement is correct. You may also remember my determination to go Surface Embroidery on this kit... and I am sticking with that plan! Still, the lines are necessary to mark off the edge, and to mark off the various areas for adornment on the needlebook. These are just basting lines, and they will be pulled out while I stitch.



This is the monogram I'm stitching. It's from an old Sajou pamphlet (I think?). I had scanned it into my computer and cleaned it up a while ago, with plans. So I shrunk it to fit the needlebook, and altered the flowers (which were daisies) to round circles, which will be bullion roses.

It's kind of hard to see. I traced the monogram on using a .005 (super-duper fine) micron pen and a very light touch. I used a light box to make the tracing possible, and even then, on this fabric (which is slightly darker than a flax or natural colored linen), it was still difficult to trace. Still, it's on there, and that's all that matters.



When the fabric's held at a slant, it's easier to see the marking.



I intend to do the decorative bands that run down the sides of the needlebook covers in hand, without a hoop, but since I'm stitching the monogram in satin stitch, I definitely wanted to use a hoop. I find I get better results with satin stitch when the fabric is taut.



And here's the first bout of stitching. I was surprised at the color. I decided to keep the color scheme for the original design, but I didn't realize just how grey this is. It's really grey!

It's a difficult color to stitch on this color of fabric, when working tiny split stitches around the outline of the monogram. I had a difficult time seeing where I was going!



The color at first did not seem too attractive, and I was worried that I would not be very happy with it. But I decided to stick with it, anyway, and I found it grew on me. It really does match the reproduction fabric that lines the needlebook perfectly, so it's a good choice of color.

This is the padding for the satin stitched monogram. I worked a small, single-thread split stitch around the area, and then filled in with longer stitches.



Starting in the middle of the area to set my stitch direction, I stitched to the top part of this area in satin stitch, over the padding and the outline.

Now, this isn't as easy as it could be, and that's because this fabric, which is well-suited to counted work, is not so well-suited to surface embroidery. There's too much space between the weave, and it requires splitting the weave quite often, in order to get the stitches to lie comfortably next to each other.



This is the finished section, satin stitched. I've managed to pad the top section and I've started outlining the middle area of the letter, but this is as far as I've gotten.

I think I'll be pleased with the result, but we'll have to see. The whole monogram - due to the outlining and padding under the satin stitches - is going to be a bit thicker than I first imagined, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We'll see how it works out!

I'll definitely keep you posted!

And once again, thanks heaps for your input on the kit purchase. I knew you'd make me feel better about it!

Labels: embroidery kits, Embroidery Projects, Hand embroidery stitches, monograms, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, November 19, 2009
PermaLink  |  5 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Moving on to the next word in the hand embroidered lettering series, today's tutorial concentrates on a satin stitched initial letter, with the rest of the word worked in chain stitch. After all, who says the whole word has to be embroidered with the same stitches?!

I'll be working with wool thread in this tutorial, embroidering the word "Fox." If you're a beginner at hand embroidery, you may wish to check out two videos: padded satin stitch and chain stitch. If you're just joining in on these tutorials, I've got an up-to-date index of all the hand embroidered lettering tutorials, if you want to check out some of the previous concepts covered.



For this tutorial, I'm using Simply Wool from Gentle Art, Inc. This is a fine wool embroidery thread, and I really liked working with it. It's a beautiful color of red, first of all, and secondly, the wool itself is slightly finer and softer than Appleton, while still retaining the typical look and feel of wool thread. If they had a broader color range (they only offer about 36 colors right now) and if it weren't quite so expensive, it would be my wool of choice. Compared to Appleton, though, it's really expensive - between $3-$3.50, depending on where you buy it, for 10 yards. (Appleton's about $1.30 for 27 yards, and they offer 421 shades right now).



The spine of the F in Fox is thick, and I'm going to satin stitch it first. I could satin stitch it without padding it, but for this letter, I want it to lift up off the fabric a bit, so that it is definitely bolder than the rest of the letters in the word. So, I'm padding the satin stitch along the spine of the F. To begin, split stitch along both parallel lines.



I stitched down the left line of the spine and up the right. Now, I'm going to add the padding between the two lines. I jumped over the left of the right split stitch line, and now I'm just going to fill that area between the two will very long split stitches - so, only about 3 or 4 split stitches straight down in lines.



You can see I ended up with 3 filling lines between the two outside lines, and again, those inside filling lines are made up of a few long split stitches. That's the padding - now it's time to start the satin stitching.



I'm working the satin stitch horizontal over the padded bar. On a shape like this, you can also stitch your satin stitch on a diagonal, but I used the horizontal on purpose. When you begin the satin stitch, don't begin right on the edge of the bar. Begin around half-way up the bar, and then stitch to one end. Then go back to your starting point and stitch to the other end.



The arrows in both pictures above demonstrate this idea of starting in the middle and working to each end.



For the small bar on the F, I worked two long straight stitches side by side over the drawn line. They were obviously thicker than the drawn line, but that's ok. I'm going to satin stitch over these straight stitches, in a manner similar to what is called "trailing." Trailing is basically an overcast stitch (like a small satin stitch) worked over a long thread or group of threads used for padding. With this little bar on the F, I stitched one straight stitch out from the spine of the F to the end of the little bar, then went back to the spine and stitched another straight stitch right next to the first. Then, starting at the end of the bar - not next to the spine - I worked the overcast stitch over the bar. An overcast stitch is technically the same concept as a satin stitch, but, again, much smaller. I think it's called overcast, because it is just going "over and over." In some old books, you see it called "over and over stitch."



There's the small bar.



For the longer bar at the top of the F, I did the same exact thing - worked two long straight stitches side-by-side, and then worked the overcast stitch over them, beginning from the outside edge and working towards the spine of the F.



When I finished overcasting the top bar, this is what it looked like.



But I didn't like this.



So I just added two more satin stitches at the top of the spine, to get it to look like this.



There's the completed F. It's nice and bold, and I really like the color!



For the other two letter - O and X - I'm using chain stitch. I began the thread on the O in the same manner discussed in the previous lettering tutorials, so that I started stitching the chain stitch at the top of the O.



I've arrived here back at the top of the O, where it is practically time to end the thread. I have room for one more stitch here.



And, in taking that last stitch, it slightly overlaps the first stitch. To end, anchor the last chain stitch in the middle of the first chain stitch. To end off your thread, turn your work over and run the thread under the stitches on the back of the O.



And there you have the F and the O.



I chain stitched the small bar of the X first.



Then, turning my work over, I worked the thread under the stitches already there, to the cross on the X, as indicated by the red large arrow. Then I brought my needle up to the front of the work and took some tiny "stepping" stitches over to where I wanted to begin the chain stitch on larger cross of the X. These stitches are indicated by the smaller red arrows. The purpose here is to keep my thread from traveling across the back of the work where it might be seen from the front. This keeps the back of the work nice and tidy.

Then, I chain stitched down the cross to the intersection of the X, stopped at the intersection (I didn't stitch over the other arm of the X), and then picked up the line on the other side, and continued to the tip.



And that is FOX.



And here is the sampler so far!

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
PermaLink  |  5 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Today's tutorial on hand embroidered lettering focuses on combining buttonhole stitch and stem stitch, on letters that have thick and thin lines. The word I'll be embroidering on the sampler is "over."

If you're just joining in on this series of tutorials, you might want to check out the tutorial on stem stitched lettering. Additionally, it is necessary to know how to work the buttonhole stitch.

For the word "over," I'm using is DMC's Alsatian Twist (size 12). It is a super-nice thread to stitch with, very smooth and it doesn't twist up much at all when you're stitching. I really like it!

Anyway, on with the instruction!



Begin your thread with the tacking stitches I described in the first stitching lesson. You can tack these stitches in the middle of the thicker part of the letter, since they will be covered up with the buttonhole stitches.



After starting the thread, I came up with my needle and working thread at the top of the O, and turned the hoop so that the O was resting on its side and I was stitching from left to right, as in the photo above.



I buttonhole stitched the side of the O, from left to right, down to the base.



When I arrived at the base, I moved from buttonhole stitch to stem stitch (an easy transition, as the outside "rope" of the buttonhole stitch is simply stem stitch), and I stitched the narrow part of the letter O, across the base, in the direction of the arrow in the photo above, turning my hoop to accommodate my stitching direction.



Now, with the O resting on its other side, I moved back into the buttonhole stitch up the side of the O.



When I got to the top of the O, I reverted back to stem stitch to close the gap at the top of the letter.



And there's the O.



To end the thread, take the needle to the back and run it under the stitches on the back of the O.



For the next letter, V, I started as I did with the O, making the anchor stitches in the wide part of the letter.



I began with a straight stitch first, from the outside of the thickest part of the V, towards the inside, then bringing my needle back up on the outside of the letter, where the rope-like edge of the buttonhole stitch will be.



Then I began the buttonhole stitch down the side of the V, keeping my work turned so that I was stitching from left to right.



As I moved towards the base of the V, where the letter became narrow, I switched to stem stitch.



The right hand side of the V is worked solely in stem stitch.



For the E, it was easier to turn the work completely, so that the letters were upside down. I began with anchoring stitches on the top part of the E, which is a thin line. The anchoring stitches will be covered by the stem stitch.



The thin line at the top of the E is worked in stem stitch.



In the photo above, you can see where I am moving into buttonhole stitch. The last stem stitch is on the lower line, and my needle is going down on the upper line of the thick part of the letter.



I worked the buttonhole stitch down the thick part of the E...



... and at this point, where the letter narrowed again to a single line, I moved back to stem stitch.



After finishing the base of the E, I had to move up to work the center cross on the E, so the needle needs to come up there. Instead of carrying the thread straight across the back of the fabric to that point....



... I turned my work over and ran the thread under the stitches already there.



And that completes the first three letters.



For the R, begin the same way as for the V, with the anchoring stitches and then a straight stitch on the edge of the letter.



Work the buttonhole stitch down the thick spine of the R, anchoring the buttonhole stitch by stitching directly over the last stitch with a tiny anchor stitch. Then, stem stitch the rest of the thin lines on the R.



And that's OVER.

Visit the index of these hand embroidered lettering lessons for more tutorials!

Enjoy!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, November 10, 2009
PermaLink  |  5 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

To hand embroider relatively small letters, I like to use whipped backstitch. The letters I'm embroidering in this tutorial are approximately half an inch high. Whipped backstitch works really well with them because it provides a fairly smooth, very precise line without much extra bulk.

If you don't know how to backstitch, feel free to check out my video tutorial for backstitch. Then you can check out the whipped backstitch video tutorial.

I'm working the word "Brown" on my lettering sampler in one strand of DMC floss. "Brown" is smaller than the other words so far on the lettering sampler - with the exception of the "B," the letters are just less than half an inch tall.

I should be using a #10 embroidery (or crewel) needle, and I think, in most of these photos, I am. But towards the end of stitching the word, after one of those unavoidable interruptions, I couldn't find my #10 needle, so I switched to a #9. I suggest a #10 - or, if you have one, a #11.



I began by backstitching up the spine of the B. When I finished covering the pencil line with the backstitch, I brought my needle up in the fabric right at the top of the line of stitches.



Working back down the line towards me, I whipped the backstitches by sliding my needle from right to left under each backstitch, all the way down the line.

Now, since I started whipping my stitches from right to left and down the line towards me, I made sure that, as I stitched each letter, I kept the same direction. Yesterday's article demonstrates the importance of consistent stitch direction. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to check it out so that you can see the distinct differences between stitching in different directions.



After whipping down the line, I jumped over to the base of the B and backstitched the lower bump. For some reason unbeknownst to me at this moment, I did not finish backstitching up the top bump. You can, of course - it will save you time and having to travel your thread on the back of the fabric to get to your next starting point.



I turned my work so that I was whipping the backstitches (again, from right to left) down the stitches towards me. To keep everything going correctly in the same direction and avoid confusion, just turn your hoop as you stitch.



So there's the first bump of the B, done.



To get to the next bump without carrying a loose thread across the back of my stitching, I turned my work over so I could run my thread under the backs of the stitches and move up to the next bump.



The backstitching on the second bump of the B is whipped in the same was as it was on the first bump of the B.



And there you have the B...



The R is stitched in the same manner. I began with the spine first and backstitched up it, then whipped the backstitches, moving from right to left, coming down the spine.



Then, turning my work over and running my working thread under the back of the stitches, I moved back up to the top of the R and backstitched the bump and the tail. See where the arrow points? I left a tiny space at the top of the tail, just below the bump, because this is where I will sink my thread after whipping the tail of the R.



Then I brought my needle up where the bump comes in contact with the spine in the middle of the letter.

My backstitching brought me to the base of the tail. In order to keep the stitching direction correct, I turned my hoop so that the letters were upside-down, and I whipped the backstitches on the tail, sinking the thread in the tiny space next to the bump.



Then I moved over next to the spine, brought my needle up, and whip stitched the bump of the R, turning the hoop as necessary to keep the stitching in the right direction.



And there you have the B and the R complete.



Now, it's time to work on the O. Remember that, because these letters are not connected, each time a new letter is started, you have to start the thread again. In the first two stitching tutorials of this series, I discussed how to start your threads with each letter.

Once the O was backstitched, I brought my needle up inside the O, ready to whip the stitches.



Again, to keep the stitch direction correct, I turned my hoop so that the letters were upside-down.



While stitching around the O, just keep turning the hoop to keep the direction.



The black arrow in the photo above indicates where I started whipping the backstitches. As I finished the circle, I sunk my needle on the outside of the O (indicated by the red arrow), opposite to where I started.



I'm sure you're getting the hang of this by now! So let's move quickly through the rest of the letters. Backstitch the complete W, then whip the backstitches down the last leg, towards you, working your needle from right to left.



For the next leg, turn your hoop around so the letters are upside-down again, and whip the next leg, then turn the hoop again, whip the next leg, then turn the hoop one more time to whip the last backstitched line of the W. As you finish whipping the backstitches in each line, you sink your thread to make a sharp finish, then bring your needle up at the top of the next line.



The finished W...



Work the N just as you did the W, backstitching the whole thing first, then whipping the backstitches and turning your hoop as you need to. As you finish whipping each line of the backstitching, remember to sink your thread and start the next line new, to keep the angles sharp.



And here is the finished word, and the lettering sampler so far!

We've now covered plain backstitch lettering, which also focused on how to travel your threads on the back of the fabric to make sure you don't leave loose threads; we've covered stem stitch on lettering, making sure that the stitch direction is kept consistent; we've seen how to dot an I in hand embroidery; and now we've seen whipped backstitch, which is a nice stitch for small lettering.

The next tutorial will cover combining two stitches - buttonhole and stem stitch - on letters that are thick in some parts and thin in others.

All these tutorials are easily accessible under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery in the Editor's Floss located at the top of the right column of the website, and also directly at the Index of Tutorials for Hand Embroidered Lettering.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section below!

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, November 05, 2009
PermaLink  |  4 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Before venturing a bit further on the hand embroidered lettering tutorials, I wanted to show you how the direction in which you stitch can make a difference in the look of your stitches. Here, I'm focusing on whipped backstitch, but the concept applies to any whipped stitch.

I'm starting with a small backstitched line, which I've stitched from the top of my fabric down towards the base.



The arrow in the above photo indicates the direction I stitched the line. This part really doesn't make that much of a difference, but you can see that, from the base of the line, I'm beginning to whip the back stitches from right to left, going back UP the line.



I'm going to whip each stitch, going in the same direction - up the line - and working my needle in the same direction, from right to left, as the curved arrows indicatel



After whipping the first line of backstitch, I stitched another line right next to it, and as you can see in the photo above, I began whipping the backstitch at the top of the line, working DOWN towards me, and still whipping the stitches from right to left. The difference here is the direction in which I am traveling, which is down the line instead of up it, as I did with the first line.



Though the whipping of the stitch is done in the same direction (from right to left under the backstitches), the direction in which I stitched (from the base to the top on the left line, and from the top to the base on the right line) makes a difference in the way the two lines look when they are whipped. The left line is smoother looking, and the right line is a little chunkier looking. This is because, when I worked the left line, the working thread was untwisting while I whipped the stitches, and when I worked the right line, the working thread was twisting itself as I whipped the stitches.

My point here is not to say that one way of whipping the stitches is better than the other. Rather, the idea is that, when you are working a whipped stitch, if you want all your stitching to look the same, you have to be consistent in two ways: 1. in the direction your stitching is traveling (here, up the line or down the line); and 2. in the direction in which you whip the stitch (from right to left or left to right).

It helps to work two parallel practice lines before you start whipping your stitches, to see what look you like better, so that you can be consistent in whipping your stitches in the same direction.

SO - when we move on to the next hand embroidered lettering tutorial (tomorrow's post), you'll see that I made an effort to be consistent with the direction of my stitching and the direction in which I moved my needle to whip the stitches.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 04, 2009
PermaLink  |  7 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Stem stitch is a beautiful rope-like hand embroidery stitch that works great for writing with a needle and thread. There are two real difficulties with stem stitch: stitch direction and curves. I'll try to eliminate both of those difficulties in this tutorial.

Before venturing into the tutorial, you might want to take a look at my stem stitch video to get the hang of the motion of the stitch, and you might find it useful to read this article on stem stitch vs. outline stitch.

The best way to keep your stem stitch always looking right as you embroider words is to first establish your stitch direction. Now, with stem stitch, whether you are right handed or left handed is an important consideration, so let's first clarify some stitching directions for both types of stitchers.

Right Handed Stitchers

Stitching Direction: For righties, stem stitch always travels left-to-right. It is true that you can move your hoop around and work the stitches vertically, but for right handers, whenever you consider the line you are stitching as horizontal to the floor, you will notice that, if you're working stem stitch, the direction of your line is going to be from left to right.

Needle / Thread placement: For right handers, when looking at your horizontal line that is moving from left to right, the working thread always hangs below the line, below the needle.

Left Handed Stitchers

Stitching Direction: For lefties, when you stitch a line horizontal to the floor, it will always travel from the right to the left. Even if you are stitching vertically, if you "turn the hoop" in your mind's eye, the line should always be moving from right to left.

Needle / Thread placement: For left handed stitchers, the working thread should always be above the needle, above the stitching line.

Now, these principles of stitching direction and thread placement hold true, even when traveling around curves. To change the placement of the thread as you round a curve in order for the stitches to hold themselves in the curve will mar the look of your stem stitch.

[I have to throw this note in, because it does put a wrench in the works, but please consider these directions to be written for s-twisted threads only. If stitching with z-twisted threads, the directions must be reversed. But let's forget that consideration for now, and assume that we will mostly be working with s-twisted threads - your typical DMC stranded cotton, pearl cotton, floche, most stranded silks, etc. If you want to see a close-up picture of what I mean about Z-twist and S-twist on threads, check out this post on The Silk Mill threads. There is a close-up picture of threads half-way through the post that show the difference in twist direction. Additionally, if you really want some in-depth reading on thread twists, this PDF on knowledge of sewing threads is somewhat interesting.]



To begin, I'm going to anchor my thread just as I did in the first backstitch lettering lesson. I will be traveling from the base of the circle on the "q" around to the top of the circle, down the long tail, and then up and around the curl on the tail.



To keep the stitch direction from left to right (I am right handed), I turned the work over. As I progress around the curve, I'll simply turn my hoop, so that I can keep the same direction with ease.



As I round the curve and come to the top of the head on the "q," I am back to working right-side-up again.

Now, I could make a sharp "corner" here where the loop runs into the back of the "q", but instead of doing that, I'm going to make a smooth, tight curve here. To do this, I am taking my stitches very small in the corner, but I'm still keeping the correct placement of the working thread.



Now, I've turned my work again, keeping the left-to-right direction of stitching, and heading down the back and the tail of the "q". Coming right out of the curve, I resumed a stitch length that is slightly longer than the stitches I used in the curve, but not so long as to look thinner or out of proportion with the other stitches on the "q" so far.



Approaching the point where the tail curls back over on itself at the base of the letter, I'm going to keep right on going with my stem stitch, crossing the intersection of the lines, and moving into the tight curve of that little curl.



As I start into the curve, I'm going to start decreasing the length of my stitches.



After I worked around the curve in shorter stitches, keeping the working thread below the needle and turning the hoop to keep the left-to-right direction, I started to lengthen the stitches again slightly coming out of the curve.

Now, keep in mind that this shortening and lengthening of stitches does not have to be mathematically accurate or anything! You just want your stitches to "take the curve" while keeping the closed-rope-look of the stem stitch, so just adjust your stitches slightly if you need to, in order to get them comfortably and neatly around the curve.



Now it's time to cross the curl over the back of the "q" and this is quite easy. As you approach the already-stitched line, simply jump your next stitch over the line. Work the stem stitch as you normally would - only cross over the stitches already there.



Return back to the end of the previous stitch, just like you would with any stem stitch, and cross over one more time, to complete the stem stitch.



And there's the finished letter.

The techniques for rounding curves and crossing over already stitched lines will remain the same throughout the rest of the tutorial here, so I won't go in as much detail with each letter.



The next step is to travel your thread on the back of your work up to where the next letter starts.



Whip your thread around the stitches on the back of the letter, taking the most direct path to the spot where the next letter begins.



Here, I'm stitching the connection between the q and the u, stopping at the point where the connection meets the downstroke of the u. If I were handwriting this, I would not lift my pen off the paper at this point, but when embroidering letters, I don't double these lines.



Now, I've turned my work so that I can continue working left-to-right. I've ended the last stitch where the connection meets the downstroke of the u, and then I've brought my needle up at the top of the downstroke. I did not need to "travel" my thread at all here, because this spot is pretty much directly above where my last stitch ended, and only a very short distance away. I'll be stitching through that carried thread on the back - it will line up with my next stitches and not show through to the front of the work.



I continued down the downstroke, then around the curve, then up the other side of the u.



Then I moved back down and stitched the connection between the u and the i.

Again, as a reminder, as you stitch your letters, always look ahead and work out a sensible path to follow for stitching. On this u, two paths presented itself, and both would have been fine: the first path is the one I took - down the downstroke and up the other side of the u. Alternately, I could have gone down the downstroke, around the curve, and stopped where the curve met the second downstroke on the u, then worked the downstroke and the connection. Either way would've been fine, and perhaps the second way would have been more consistent, as it would have matched the first half of the letter better. But it really doesn't matter in this case - the letter is clear, and the stitching is tidy. And that's really what you want to achieve.



Here, I've stitched the downstroke of the i, and the connection with the c.



Now you can see I'm in a situation where I can't carry my thread across to the next beginning point, nor can I "travel" the thread on the back through any stitches already there. Yet I have a long enough thread to keep stitching... so, what to do?

I could end my thread and start again, but why bother, when I can "start" without ending??



Just as I start a thread by taking tiny anchoring stitches, here, I'm taking tiny stitches along to the next starting point. I will cover these stitches up with the stem stitch, and I've avoided having to end my thread and start a new one and having a thread carrying visibly across the back of the fabric.



To keep the left-to-right direction of stitching, and to keep my working thread in the correct place in relation to the needle (below the needle), I started the c upside-down and turned the hoop as I progressed through the curve.



Continuing from the c, I worked my way up the top loop of the k.



I turned the work to accommodate the direction of the line, taking smaller stitches around the top of the loop of the k.



Then, coming down the back of the k, I stopped here for one main reason: I was out of thread. This was a good place to stop. If I had had more thread, I probably would have continued down the whole back of the k, but I will pick that part up with the new thread, and move up the k here, instead of down.



When you get to a point where two lines converge to make a sharp corner, as happens here in the middle of the k, it is necessary to end one line of stitching and start a new one. End the line of stitching around the loop right in the corner, as you see in the photo above. To start the next line of stitching (the downstroke of the k here), bring your needle up in the fabric a stitch length away.



Then take the needle down into the fabric right in the corner, to make the first stitch. Basically, I'm beginning this stem stitch line with a backstitch, if you want to think of it this way.



Now, bring your working thread up halfway the length of that backstitch, on the line, but above the stitch, to continue on with the stem stitch.



And the last stroke of the k is finished!

So, there you have the stem stitch worked on cursive lettering, using two strands of DMC stranded cotton.

If you're interested, feel free to check out my other tutorials on hand embroidering text. The next tutorial will focus on smaller text using a finer line.

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 23, 2009
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Remember when you learned penmanship and your teacher had to remind you to dot your i's and cross your t's? The same thing holds true when writing with your needle and thread - dotting the i's and crossing the t's are important, but dotting the i's is the part that's tricky. The dot floats above the lettering, presenting the problem of traveling up to it to stitch the dot. You don't want your thread to show through the front, so how do you get up there to the dot, without traveling a thread on the back of your work? Here's one way.

When hand embroidering your lettering or text, by the way, it doesn't really matter when you dot your i, not like it does in penmanship. With embroidery, you already have your lettering mapped out for you. You know exactly where that dot on that i is going to be. So while it may seem to be out of sequence to talk about dotting an i before we've even written the word, the fact is, it doesn't really matter! Besides, since you might be writing a completely different text on your sampler, I thought it a good idea to address this question, in case you already have some i's to dot!



Start by bringing an unknotted thread to the front of the fabric, right where you want your dot. The thread does not connect to any other lettering - you're just starting out with a new thread, and bringing it to the front of your fabric. In this particular tutorial, I'm using two strands of DMC cotton, but the technique applies equally as well to stitching with any kind of embroidery thread, really.



On the back of your fabric, leave about an inch-long tail, so that you can easily get ahold of it to snip it, later.



Now we're going to work a couple anchoring stitches. Going back to the front of your fabric, take one tiny straight stitch over only one or two threads of fabric. If you're working with a larger text on muslin or a high thread count cotton, you can certainly take the stitch over two or three fabric threads. It depends a bit, too, on what size you want your dot. If you want your dot to be relatively small, then take this anchoring stitch over as few threads as possible in your fabric, making the anchoring stitches as small as possible. After you take your first tiny stitch, bring the needle back up right next to that stitch.



Now, take your second anchoring stitch straight into that first tiny stitch.



Now your thread is anchored sufficiently to stitch the dot. Turn the fabric over, pull your working thread out of the way, and snip off the one-inch tail that you left on the back. Snip as close as possible to the fabric, but don't pull up on the tail with any force. Just try to snip right next to the fabric.



On the front of your fabric, this is what you'll have - two tiny stitches, worked perpendicular to each other, the second stitch stitched into the first.



Now, stitch over those anchoring stitches with two straight stitches, side-by-side, that cover the anchoring stitches. Bring the needle up right above the anchoring stitches and go down right below them, then bring the needle up again in the same exact hole above the ancoring stitches, and go down in the same hole below them, arranging the two straight stitches to lie right next to each other over the anchoring stitches.

If you are working with a single strand of thread, you might have to take several straight stitches to cover your anchoring stitches. The trick is always going up and down in the same hole above and below your anchoring stitches, and making sure your straight stitches are lying side-by-side. This is what will make the dot look round.



Now, turn the work over, and take the needle through the stitches on the back, running through them twice, once in one direction, and once perpendicular to that. If you can't manage a perpendicular stitch, then run the needle under the stitches twice, going in the same direction each time.



Cut your thread close to the fabric, but don't pull up on it before cutting. Just get as close as you can, without risking cutting your stitches or your fabric.



And there's your perfect little dot, floating by itself above the text.

Next up, we'll cover the lettering on that word, using stem stitch and focusing on connecting cursive text and keeping the direction of the stem stitch right.

For more tutorials on hand embroidered lettering and text, visit the Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text Index of tutorials.

Any questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer them!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 19, 2009
PermaLink  |  7 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

To keep this series of embroidery tutorials a bit organized, I'm going to stash all my tutorials for hand embroidered lettering and text on this page, and then I'm going to list this page in the top right column under "Editor's Floss" while the tutorial series is on-going. I'll also have a link on the Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery page (which you can also find listed under "Editor's Floss" in the top right corner.

Hand embroidery is an excellent way to personalize gifts, household objects, momentos and so forth. Text and lettering is an excellent way to personalize, but sometimes, writing with a needle and thread can be kind of difficult.

I've put together a series of tutorials to help stitchers improve their embroidered lettering. As the tutorials progress, I'll index each one here so that you can have easy access to it.

I hope you find these tutorials useful and fun!



Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 1 - This tutorial covers setting up the lettering sampler. In this particular article, you won't learn much about stitching your letters, but there are a few tips and tricks for design transfer discussed, if you want to take a look! You can also get a good look at the text sample that I'll be using in this series.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 2 - This tutorial features lettering in backstitch, but it focuses mostly on how to "travel" your threads in order to achieve a clean, finished look from the front. I discuss the path of the embroidery, noting that the path you would follow for hand writing is not necessarily the same path you would follow for hand embroidery.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 3: Dot Your I's. In this tutorial, I focus on one method of dotting I's. You know how the dot floats so far away from the text? Well, how can you dot, without carrying your threads? I'll show you how, and then the technique can apply for a variety of different dotting stitches.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 4: In this tutorial, the focus is on stem stitch, especially how to travel in the right direction to keep the stem stitch looking like stem stitch, and to keep the working thread in the right place in relation to the needle. This sample is in cursive, so we will also look at how to travel the threads to achieve a nice cursive text, without bulky double lines. Finally, this tutorial also addresses the question of crossing over previously stitched lines.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 5: This tutorial will focus on a suitable stitch for very small text - whipped backstitch - and how to keep the whipped backstitch smooth and consistent in its twist. We'll look at the difference between whipping the stitch while traveling in different directions, and discuss how to avoid changing the direction of the stitching. Also, check out this article on stitch direction for whipped backstitch - it'll show you the difference in the look of your stitching depending on the direction.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 6: Did you know that you can combine your stitches on the same lettering for very nice results? Well, you can, and this tutorial is going to look at using a combination of stitches on the same lettering, specifically buttonhole stitch and stem stitch.

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 7: Working the initial letter in padded satin stitch makes it really stand out! The rest of the lettering in this tutorial is stitched in chain stitch. I used embroidery wool for this, in a beautiful red, and I've written up a little review of the thread (Simply Wool) within this tutorial.

I'll be adding links to the individual tutorials as the tutorials are posted. The series will cover more than five tutorials, but so far, I only have samples embroidered for these!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 17, 2009
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's the first stitching instruction installment for hand embroidered lettering. Yesterday, I showed you the lettering sample I'll be using for these tutorials, and how I set it up to start stitching. Today, the stitching begins...

The first sample of hand embroidered lettering is on the word "The" at the beginning of my sample sentence ("The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"). I'm using two strands of DMC cotton and a #8 crewel needle, and the stitch I'm using is backstitch. Fabric and hoop were discussed in yesterday's post.



To begin stitching, I started at the base of the T. With knot in the thread, take your needle down into the fabric about a half an inch away from the base of the letter. Take two small straight stitchs in the fabric, towards your starting point and away from the knot, ending at the back of the fabric. Then, bring your needle up at the very base of the letter, so that you're ready to travel up the line of the T, covering up the small stitches en route.

I've already posted a picture tutorial on beginning your embroidery threads in this manner, if you want to take a look at this technique in detail.



Using small stitches evenly spaced, I'm embroidering the base of the T with backstitch. I stitched all the way to the top of the line.

Now, at this point, if you were hand writing, you would probably pick up your pen and take it to the far left of the top line on the T, put the pen down, and draw a straight line to cross the T.

However, we're not going to do that here. Our last backstitch ended a whole stitch length below the cross line. If we were to take our thread to the left side of the cross line on the T, we'd end up trailing a thread across the back of the embroidery, where it could be seen.



Instead, I started my next stitch on the cross line right in the middle of the line and worked the backstitch all the way to the left end of the cross line.



To return to the center and finish the right side of the cross line, turn your work over. Wrap your working thread around the back of the stitches by "whip stitching" around the back of the stitches. You'll only need to whip the back of the stitches about twice to return you to the center of the cross line.



Finish backstitching the cross line all the way to the right. The next step is to return to where the H crosses the cross line of the T.



To do this, turn your work over and whip stitch around the back of the stitches, to the point where the H crosses the cross line on the T.



You'll only need to whip around the backs of the stitches once or twice - and make sure you don't pick up any fabric! Just take your needle underneath the threads, wrapping them.



I'm working the top of the H that extends above the cross line on the T. This way, I don't have to travel back up here later to finish the H. It's important to look ahead when you're embroidering text, to see the easiest (and "cleanest") path to follow for your stitches. In this case, stitching this little stem here will get it out of the way. Then, I can move back down and do the rest of the H.



Once you get to the top of the H, turn your work over and "travel" your threads back down the back of the stitches by whipping them as you did above.



Continue backstitching down the downstroke on the H. If you were hand writing, once you reached the end of the downstroke, it is likely that you would not lift your pencil or pen to bring it back up to the bump on the H. However, when embroidering text, you don't want to double different parts of your lines - they'd end up looking bulky.

So, just as you traveled your threads on the back before, now you'll turn over your work and wrap the back of the stitches up the point where the bump on the H begins.



The "traveling" on the back (by wrapping your thread around the backs of your stitches) is indicated by the dotted line here. When you travel to the right place, come to the front of your fabric and backstitch the bump of the H.



When you finish the H, turn your work over, and wrap the working thread around the stitches on the back. Cut the working thread.



This is what the back of your embroidery will look like about now. The E in "The" is separate from the other two letters, so I'm not going to travel my thread from the H to the E. The most obvious reason for this is that the thread will be seen from the front, through the white linen. Even using white thread with white fabric, your thread would be seen. And even if you were using DARK fabric with a light thread, carrying your thread across an empty space could still be visible, because the thread can form a small ridge in the fabric, especially once the fabric softens with time. Even though it is (admittedly) a pain in the neck to constantly be changing threads, it is best to get into the habit of changing them rather than carrying them across open spaces. If it's a habit, it won't seem like such a big deal when you have to start and stop often.

If it really bothers you to start and stop your threads often, when working up your text, consider arranging it so that each letter in every word touches. Then you can travel your threads on the back by wrapping them through the back of your stitches, and you won't have to start and stop for individual letters.



Begin the next thread the same way the first thread was begun, by a series of tiny stitches that will be covered up with the backstitch.

Considering the E, I decided to start from the base and work up around the loop, rather than starting at the inside of the loop and working down to the base. My reason for this was that I wanted a neat join, where the loop and the back of the E met, and I figured I could achieve that better by stitching the back of the E first, and then meeting the back after traveling into the loop.

You see, then, that it's a good idea to think ahead along the path that you want to stitch. Notice where the various parts of the letter meet.



When the E is finished, turn the work over and run your working thread under the backs of the stitches, then snip the thread.

And there is the end of the first word, stitched in a simple backstitch, which works well for this style of lettering. Though there are some curves in the lettering, there are not many tight curves, so the backstitch looks smooth and not too blocky with the simple printed lettering.

Next up, we'll work cursive in stem stitch.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and that there was a little tip or two that was helpful for you!

Other Posts on Hand Embroidered Lettering

Hand Embroidery: Lettering and Text 1 - setting up the sampler

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, October 15, 2009
PermaLink  |  10 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Using lettering and text in hand embroidery can be a great way to make personalized needlework items. But sometimes it's difficult to know what types of stitches, threads, and stitching techniques to use when writing with your needle and thread. In this series of tutorials, we'll look at stitches and threads suitable for embroidered lettering, along with little tips and tricks for producing neat embroidered writing.

If you want to follow along with this series of hand embroidery tutorials, you're welcome to join me!

You can choose whatever text you wish. The idea here is to learn techniques and to get the feel of stitching lettering, so really, any text will work. If you are the type of person who likes to create "samplers" that can be used for decorative purposes, I suggest picking a quote, short poem, saying, Bible verse or something of that nature that you like, and setting it up in an attractive way using a variety of writing styles, so that you can practice using different stitching techniques and threads on the sampler.

For this series, I sat down with a piece of graph paper and pencil and wrote out a sentence using a variety of handwriting styles. Then, to expand the canvas a bit so that I have plenty of samples, I repeated words and filled out the space with lots of lettering.



Because the sentence covers all the letters used in the alphabet, I chose "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Before I started writing out the letters, I determined the space I wanted to fill, using my hoop as a gauge. I'm working with a 10" hoop to give plenty of room for the text, with extra room to work out some small tutorials on the side. You might want to work within a smaller space, and that's just fine.



After writing out the text in pencil, I traced over it with a micron pen so that the lines were clear and dark. Fine tipped Sharpies or micron pens are essential tools in my tool box - perfect for this step in any embroidery project.



I'm using a piece of white linen for this project. It is a plain weave (not even-weave) medium weight linen with a relatively close weave. You'll want to use a close-weave fabric - for practice, pretty much anything will do (though you'll find a natural fabric like cotton or linen easiest to work on).

Because the linen is light enough and the lettering on the paper is dark enough, I didn't need a window or light box to trace. I ironed the fabric smooth, laid it on top of the lettering, and traced the lettering onto the fabric with a regular pencil.



With the fabric hooped up, I picked out a few colors of DMC stranded cotton to start with. I'll also be using pearl cotton and floche, and any other threads that come to mind during the series here.

If you plan to join along with the stitching, you'll also want a variety of sizes of embroidery needles (crewel needles) in sizes 3 - 9 or 10. I'll be using size 10 (for tiny text with one thread), size 8, size 5 and probably a size 3 for pearl cotton #5.

So, now I'm ready to stitch! I'll begin with the word "The" (why not?) using a very basic stitch, with a focus on starting and ending threads and "traveling" with your threads so that they are invisible from the front.

Labels: beginner embroidery, hand embroidered lettering, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
PermaLink  |  17 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Frequently, e-mails show up in my inbox requesting pointers on how to hand embroider text or lettering. Here are a few of the questions on this subject that have shown up in the last couple years:

What stitches should I use to embroider a name?

I'm hand embroidering a poem on a quilt. What type of lettering should I use and how do I stitch it?

How many strands of thread should I use to embroider text on a baby blanket?

I want to hand embroider a baseball cap but I don't know what stitches to use. Can you help me?

I'm using stem stitch to embroider a poem, but my stem stitch looks bad especially when I go around corners. Any ideas how I can fix it?

To answer all these questions and more, I've developed a plan...

... and I plan to work on the plan over this weekend. In the upcoming weeks here on Needle 'n Thread, I'll be presenting some short tutorials on embroidering lettering or text by hand.



Not to be confused with stitching monograms, embroidering text or lettering - especially multiple words - so that it looks good and is clear to read can be daunting. I want to address the subject so that beginners especially can get the hang of hand embroidered lettering without suffering too much grief along the way.

Do you have any questions about the subject that you would like to see particularly addressed? If so, now's your opportunity to bring them up, so I can address them in the tutorials!

If you've embroidered lettering before, I'd love to know what your favorite stitch is for lettering!

What do you think? Will this be a worth-while series of short tutorials? Any thoughts or suggestions?

Labels: beginner embroidery, hand embroidered lettering, hand embroidery information, Hand embroidery stitches, miscellaneous embroidery musings, needlework tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 09, 2009
PermaLink  |  42 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I'm still playing with the idea of translating Quaker motifs (that are normally worked in cross stitch) into designs suitable for surface embroidery. Here's a free hand embroidery pattern of a bird-in-tree Quaker motif suitable for surface stitches.

Now, this is a pattern I really want to stitch. The first Quaker pattern I posted for surface embroidery stitches looked fun, but since I had already stitched it on paper in cross stitch, I find I'm a bit more eager to try a different design. I played again with some of the Mary Wigham designs offered on Needleprint, and this is one that I like a lot. I think it could be fun.

I "updated" the bird a bit after finding it a bit difficult to translate the gridded bird into something smoother for surface work. If you don't particular like this bird, you can always sketch your own into the design, I suppose! (Don't worry - I won't be insulted!) In considering the bird, I wanted something suited to more than just an outline stitch. The wings, tail, and crest give some room for playing with fillings.

Here's the pattern:



The double lines around the outside of the pattern would be a good place to practice composite stitches, like the raised chain band, or double herringbone stitch. Ladder stitch would work well there, too.

I'm thinking about filling the trunk of the tree with stem stitch in several shades of brown, working the branches in stem stitch in brown, and working the leaves in a couple of colors of green using daisy stitch. The small berries would be worked in red French knots, and I think the bird would be worked in a variety of stitches in red, though I'm still contemplating that one.

I was thinking this might a good design for a Christmas ornament, too. What do you think?

Here's a PDF of the pattern:

Quaker Motif #2 for Surface Embroidery Stitches

Enjoy!

Labels: free embroidery patterns, Hand embroidery stitches, Quaker designs, sampler

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, October 07, 2009
PermaLink  |  16 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The Long and Short Stitch Shading Lessons here on Needle 'n Thread are drawing to a close! Lesson 9 is the final lesson for the sampler, featuring a shaded leaf with a turned tip.

For those just joining in, you can find the rest of these lessons listed under Long and Short Stitch Lessons in the "Editor's Floss" in the right hand column.

I've really enjoyed putting together this series, but I have to admit, this last lesson is not everything I wanted it to be. My stitching skills seem to be a bit "off" lately, and I feel as if I'm rushing everything I do. Long and short stitch is a technique that shouldn't be rushed. This leaf demonstrates this point really well!

So I'd like to encourage you to play a bit with the shading. You don't have to follow my instructions to the letter. If you've been following along here for the last eight lessons, then you are ready to play a bit with shading, to try to get the effect you want.

All that being said, let's move on to the lesson!

Materials: You'll need your sampler in a hoop or frame, focusing on the center section of the left side of the square, where you'll find element #8, a leaf with a turned-up tip. Small, sharp scissors are a must in all hand embroidery, and you'll probably want a pencil nearby, too, for drawing in your stitch direction lines. For needles, use #9 or #10 crewel, and finally, you will need the following colors of DMC stranded cotton: 469 (dk green); 471 (med. green); 472 (med-lt green); and 613 (pale green).



Begin by marking in your stitch direction lines. Just as we did with the other leaf lessons, your stitch direction points to the "growth point" on the leaf, towards the base of the leaf (which is at the top of the image) and the stem.



Split stitch only around the sides of the leaf using 613, leaving the turn-over part alone for now. Don't outline any part of the turn-over at all at this point. Then work long and short stitch on the right side of the leaf, using 613. Notice that, at the base of the leaf, by the stem, a larger area is filled in with long and short stitch. I've actually worked two layers of L&S stitches in that area, using 613.



Using 472, fill in a small area of medium-light green at the base of the leaf, working into the layers of color already there. Notice that I haven't taken the medium-light green all the way up the side of the leaf - it fills part of the base, and ends about half way up the side of the leaf.



Switch to the medium green (471), and continue filling the leaf. Work the color into the 472 layer, and up to the center vein. Then moving up the side of the leaf, work a layer of the color into the palest green (613).



You can see here how the medium green (471) fills the remaining area at the base of the leaf, near the stem, up to the central vein, and then works into the pale green at the top of the leaf, leaving some space towards the center vein.



Now work the darkest green (469) into that empty space on the right side of the leaf, filling to the center vein of the leaf. Fanning the stitches around to keep your stitch direction consistent, continue filling with the dark green across the base line on the turn-over.



At this point, I switched back to the medium green (471), and began to fill the left side of the leaf.

Here's where you can play a bit with your shading. If you want, you can mirror the other side of the leaf, keeping the layers of color the same on both sides of the leaf. You could also continue with the darkest green on the left side of the leaf, and then work a layer of medium, then light. Be adventurous!



After stitching that much of the medium green on the left side of the leaf, I began to notice that I did not much care for my color placement. However, the only way to overhaul the whole leaf would be to take much of what I had already done out. I decided not to do that.

Still, in looking at the leaf at this point, I could see that there was one spot where I could make a minor adjustment without much effort - the corner area on the right side of the leaf, just under the turn-over. I did not like the drastic change from pale green to dark green, and I didn't like the pale green covering that corner.

What to do?



I brought the dark green up, just outside the corner of the turnover, and just beyond the end of the pale green stitching.



Angling my needle very low, so as to slide under the stitches already there, I put it between the stitches there, and drew it through. The needle was almost lying down directly on the fabric - just about horizontal to it - so that the thread would slide into the fabric at a long angle, rather than simply going straight down into the fabric and stitches already there, which would be very noticeable.



In this way, I took the dark green around the corner below the turnover, on the right side of the leaf. You can't really tell which are the properly done long and short stitches here and which are the "tucked in" stitches in dark green, can you?



After that was corrected, I moved back over the left side of the leaf and finished the medium green. (In the photo above, I have the leaf turned, so it actually looks like the right side of the leaf....)



Next, I switched to 472, and layered in some medium-light green.



Finally, I filled the rest of this side of the leaf with 613, the pale green.



Taking the darkest green (469), I worked a stem stitch vein down the middle of the leaf, and along the right side of the stem. Again, above, my work was turned so that the right side of the leaf is actually in the lower part of the picture.



I left the stem at that point, to finish it up later. Now, let's turn our attention to the turn-over.

The turn-over is going to be satin stitched, using the medium-light green (472). Begin by split-stitching all around the turn-over. You can also draw in your stitch direction lines if you wish. The stitches are going to span the width of the turn-over, just slightly pointing down towards the leaf, as you can see in the photo above.



After outlining the turn-over with split stitch, fill in the center with some long straight stitches, going perpendicular to your stitch direction lines. This will serve as a very light padding under the satin stitch, and will help to lift the turn-over up above the rest of the leaf.



Beginning in the center of the turn-over, satin stitch over the split stitch outline, from the center to the right side (towards the leaf).



Then move back to the center of the turn-over, and satin stitch up to the tip of the turn-over.



I finished the stem with medium green (471), filling in the remaining area of the stem with stem stitch.



Then, picking up the dark green (469) again, I worked a small straight stitch at theh tip of each of the little points on the sides of the leaf.



You can see the dark green straight stitch tucked under the points on the left side of the leaf...



... and also on the right side of the leaf.



Congratulations! You've finished the final element on the Long and Short Stitch sampler!



This is the finished sampler, as far as the long and short stitch elements are concerned.

If this is a sampler you want to keep, you could stitch around each box in your favorite line stitch, and then fill the center area with your own long and short stitch motif. How about a monogram? The first monogram alphabet on this page would look terrific in long and short stitch!

If you're looking for the rest of the long and short stitch lessons, please check the index for them. They're all listed there!

You can find the PDF for this particular lesson here:

Long and Short Stitch Shading, Lesson 9: Leaf with a Turned Tip

I hope you've enjoyed this series on long and short stitch shading! Now... any suggestions for a new series?!

Labels: embroidery lessons, Hand embroidery stitches, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework tutorials, stitch along, stitchalong lessons

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, September 25, 2009
PermaLink  |  15 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Right now, Quaker motifs are very popular for counted cross stitch, and I really love the look of them. When I was working on this perforated paper embroidery project last week, I couldn't help wondering if Quaker motifs would 'work' with surface embroidery stitches. So I'm going to try an experiment.

I've drawn up a hand embroidery pattern based on the Quaker motif I used on the paper project. It is, in shape and layout, pretty much the same design, but the use of surface embroidery stitches, I suspect, will change the look of the design quite a bit.

Here's my line version of the motif:



Here's a PDF of the same pattern:

Hand Embroidery Pattern: Quaker Motif for Surface Embroidery Stitches

Ussing the PDF, the pattern should print at approximately 4.5 inches square. It can probably be taken smaller, but for this test run, I thought a medium-sized medallion would work best.

I'm going to combine a variety of stitches on this piece, sticking with the notion that the Quaker motifs generally come from samplers. My plan so far includes the following stitches:

Palestrina Stitch
Mountmellick Stitch
Satin Stitch
Long and Short Stitch
Fly Stitch or Fishbone Stitch (haven't decided which on that one yet)
Daisy Stitch
French Knot

I'll be working on this project over the next few weeks. I'll be stitching on a sturdy linen (Thank you, Méi! I can't wait to use some Portuguese linen!), but I haven't decided 100% on the threads yet. I think it will take some playing to figure out the best options.

What think you? Will this come off, or should I leave the Quaker motifs in their regular form, as counted cross stitch pieces? What's your take?

Labels: Embroidery Projects, free embroidery patterns, Hand embroidery stitches, Quaker designs, sampler

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, September 23, 2009
PermaLink  |  14 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Aha! I bet you thought I'd given up on expanding my video library of hand embroidery stitches! I finally managed to re-video (if that's a word) turkey work!

Turkey work, also called ghiordes knot, is an embroidery technique that creates a plush pile. It's great for dimensional embroidery, stumpwork, and the like. I've seen many a bumblebee embroidered using Turkey work, as well as thistle tops and other grass / flower motifs.

The term "Turkey work" has nothing to do with the bird, by the way. It's from Turkey, the country - it's a rug stitch commonly used there, and the technique has been adapted into surface embroidery. This is a fun technique - not so much in the stitching, which is rather bland (more or less, just a backstitching technique, where every other stitch is left in a loop), but the trimming and fluffing is Great Fun!



This is a clump of Turkey work from the top. It's four rows of loops. In the video, I only stitched two rows, to show you the technique.



This is the pile from the side. Pretty, fluffy stuff, isn't it? I used a whole piece - all six strands - of DMC stranded cotton. You can use any kind of thread for Turkey work, but I like stranded cotton, and as many strands as feasible, because it separates into a nice, thick carpet when fluffed.

A couple points:

1. The closer you work the rows and the smaller your "locking" stitches - and the closer together your loops are - the thicker your pile will be.

2. An eyebrow comb is a handy thing to use for fluffing, but if you don't have one, just run your needle through it until you get the fluffy look you want.

3. In the video, I worked both rows from left to right, but you can work the rows in either direction as you return on each row. Just reverse the way the stitch goes. Once you get the hang of the movement of the stitch, you'll be able to figure that out, no problem!

By the way, I'm back to considering whether or not I should script these videos before I actually open my mouth and start yammering...

Here's the video:



For more hand embroidery stitch videos, check out my Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, April 18, 2009
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I've managed to get at least one of every element in the Spring Garden Corner design embroidered so you can see what stitches I'm using, in case you want to embroider the design yourself and don't know what stitches to use. Keep in mind that there are really no absolutes on this kind of project - you can use whatever stitches you want, and whatever stitches will work!

I didn't plan out my stitching before I started - I pretty much worked whatever embroidery stitch came to mind as I got to any particular part of the motif. This has worked well overall, except in one area that I picked out. I'll tell you aaaallll about it...



Here we are so far - the colors are pretty bright and cheery...



Here's one of the "tulips" up close. I'm doing the two end tulips in pink for the outline, but the middle (corner) tulip has a purple outline.

Concerning the buttonhole scallops on the edge, I suggest penciling in the shape of the inside of the scallop - it'll help keep your scallops a bit more even. I didn't bother, but I probably should have.



In order from left to right, you'll see two backstitched rows in yellow, with a green running stitch between them.

The next line is a purple fly stitch following the zig-zags on the pattern, and between the zig-zags, three straight stitches kind of fanned out to fill the valleys of the zigs and zags.

The next line is chain stitch in yellow, interlaced with green.

Then you see another green running stitch - that line's not on the pattern, but I stuck it in there while I was stitching...

And finally, at the tip there, you'll see some buttonhole scallops worked far apart at the base (where the scallops are on the design), but closed at the top.



For this little guy, work the buttonhole wheel first, leaving a large-ish hole in the center. The center is filled with French knots. A chain stitch line is worked around the outside of the buttonhole wheel, and the little petals are daisy stitches.



This is the larger flower, and this is the one I tried something different on and then picked out. I was going to satin stitch the round petals, but it takes too long and it's too solid, and so I changed my mind. Start with the inside - the buttonhole wheel. The center is filled, again, with French knots, and outside the buttonhole wheel is another chain stitch circle. Next, work the petals, and then work the single French knots (they're the yellow ones) last.



I ended up working the petals in a chain stitch spiral, starting on the outside and spiraling in. I didn't work the spirals really close and tight - I didn't want it quite that solid.



Ok, this thing is really weird. I don't know what I was thinking, but this is what it ended up looking like. The easiest way to do this bud thing would be to work large daisy stitches for the flower buds and leave it at that. I worked bullion knots for the two side bud petals, then the middle one is fly stitch, worked vertically and close together. The stames are long straight stitches with a French knot at the end. I couched over the long straight stitch with the same thread, to secure it. On towels, it's not a good idea to have longish stitches floating about...

The green part of the bud is satin stitched in three sections. The two outside sections slant down towards the middle, and the inside section is stitched vertically.



The large leaf is worked in stem stitch, just like the rest of the stems. Stem stitch the longer parts of the leaf outline, but where the leaf juts in to the middle, just use a little straight stitch. The veins are also stem stitched.



All the other leaves are worked in fishbone stitch.

So there it is!

Thank you all for your very kind birthday wishes yesterday! I had a nice birthday, and your good wishes made it even better! Thanks! If you haven't signed up on my birthday give-away post yet, please check that out and join in the fun! I'm going to send one lucky commentor a surprise birthday package to help me celebrate!

Also, just a reminder that The French Needle is running a 10% off special for readers of Needle 'n Thread through April. Check out their kits and charts! They have some really beautiful stuff! (By the way, I'm not affiliated or paid by The French Needle - I'm just pointing out a good resource for embroiderers!)

Hope you have time for your needle & thread today!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures, stitch along

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 09, 2009
PermaLink  |  13 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Yesterday, I set up a grab-and-go embroidery project. "Grab and go" projects are those "quick" projects that can be taken anywhere or can be picked up for a few quick stitches when you're on the go. I know this week is going to be hectic, like last week, and admittedly, I'm going nuts without simple and quick to work on.

At first, the whitework sampler was providing ok 15-minute stitching "fixes," but the cutwork part is rather tedious, and since it's the same stitch over and over and over again, it does get a bit on the boring side.

For grab-and-goes, I like color and simplicity! I also like cheap materials! If I'm working on this type of project in the car, in waiting rooms, or outside on the front porch, I don't want to be using expensive linen and silk threads. So, cotton on cotton is great!

This particular Spring Towel is a flour sack towel to use as a basket liner for Easter. Flour sack towels make great liners for large baskets that you might serve bread in - or, in this case, that you might arrange Easter eggs and candy in. You embellish at least one corner (I think I'm going to do two on this one), and then you arrange the towel so that the decorative corner hangs over the edge of your basket. If you're putting bread in a basket to serve a crowd, you would arrange the towel so that the decorative corner folds over the top of the bread.

Because it is likely that the towel will come in contact with food and will need to be washed, use colorfast threads (DMC or Anchor work great).



Here's the corner. I've already started stitching. It's a rough and chunky design, and fun to work. I'm not shooting for "perfection" here as much as just a fun, colorful corner. The design extends about 8 inches from each corner.

I transferred the design by tracing it with a regular pencil. All the lines will be covered - and if they're not, that's ok. They'll wash out.



The embroidery pattern is mostly just a series of strange flowers and leaves. The design came from an old transfer I salvaged from some garage sale junque. I altered the design a bit to turn it into a corner pattern.



I was musing a bit over the colors - at first, I thought pretty pastels would be the thing for Spring, but they didn't seem to go with the bold design. So instread, I picked out a selection of colors reminiscent of bright Easter baskets.



I'm pretty sure I'm going to do all the leaves in fishbone stitch. I just love this stitch! I was going to work with two shades of green, but I have a feeling I'll reduce the whole project to as few colors as possible - just bright and bold. We'll see...

This is also my first complete adventure using Q-snaps. I'm a hoop person, personally, but so many people rave about Q-snaps that I thought I should give them a try. I did try them briefly on a piece of linen a while ago, but ... sheesh... no, I didn't like that! Thinking I didn't quite give them a fair trial, I decided to use them from start to finish on this project. I'll let you know my thoughts once I've given them a fair run!

Now, the question is - should we place bets? I'd like to finish this and the opposite corner (same design) by Easter. Do you think I'll get it done?

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, Embroidery Projects, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, April 06, 2009
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Today, I was going to tell you about embroidery scissors. Good embroidery scissors. (Did I ever tell you how much I love embroidery scissors?) But I'll save that for tomorrow. Today, you get Pictures!! Actually, I was flipping through some of my photos from the goldwork / quilt square project, and I started thinking I may as well show some with "real" seam treatments.

I've gotten a bunch of e-mails - thank you! - from crazy quilters who have said not to worry about not crossing over all the seams, and that often, only one half of a seam is treated, when lace or ribbon is used, etc. Thanks for your encouragement! As one pro crazy quilter commented, "Crossing the seams is not what typifies crazy quilting anymore. Unique and beautiful embellishment is!" Well, the truth is, I wasn't really kicking myself too much over it! I did cross some seams...



Here's a herringbone stitch worked in green Trebizond over the seam. Over the herringbone stitch, I stitched long pieces of check purl (in the manner of bugle beads) in a "V" design, alternating with the herringbone. I topped the tip of the "V" in French knots with dark green silk ribbon. In retrospect, I should have used a contrast there - but I didn't want to use red, as it would look to Christmassy, and I didn't want to use blue, as it would look too "preppy," (I don't know why those colors of green and blue always make me think "preppy" - but they do!). So I stuck with the green. Anyway, I topped the tips of the herringbone with spangles held on with off-white, pearly-colored beads, some of which had shifted about. Remember: always check your beads before you take the photos!



Oh, dear. This one doesn't go over the seam. But it's one of my favorite shots, because I like the red flower thing (which I've already shown you) and I like the ribbon in the foreground. And the blue and gold seam that stretches up the piece from here is actually my favorite seam...



This is tiny fly stitch over the edge of a seam. I had to work in some Gilt Sylke Twist! And the seam was just a small stretch that ran into two already heavy-looking seams. So I went with something... well, tiny. The GST is such a fine little thread, but it's so very pretty!



Now, this seam is a bit heavy! It's worked with pearl purl in scallops, with the red spokes worked in long straight stitches, and then little sprays of check purl, and a bead and spangle treatment.



And here's another seam that crosses over. It's made up of half buttonhole wheels worked in red buttonhole twist, between which are worked three daisy stitches out of purl situated around a very large spangle attached with a bead.

You can find more detailed explanations of each seam treatment, along with how-to's and so forth, in my CQMag Online article, Goldwork and Crazy Quilting.

Tomorrow - scissor talk! I'll tell you a bit about scissors and show you some comparative photos....

I'm finishing up a school term this week and getting ready for the next one - so if I slip out unnoticed, it's only to do a little "real world" work!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Labels: crazy quilt, embellishments, goldwork, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, January 20, 2009
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

As a follow up on how to use pearl purl, here's another option for this beautiful real metal thread. It still involves couching, but for this technique, you use a colored embroidery thread.

When you stretch pearl purl, the coils open and it looks even more like a spring. The gold thread (I always have a problem calling goldwork threads "threads" for some reason!) has nice spaces between the coils for couching, and if you couch in every other coil, you can achieve a different and interesting effect.



Although I already showed you this little motif when I was discussing goldwork on a crazy quilt square, I thought it worth while to bring it up again, to demonstrate what you can do with stretched pearl purl, and to show you how it looks next to regular pearl purl.

In the photo above, the last inside circle at the base of the motif is stretched pearl purl, couched in every-other-coil with red silk buttonhole twist. Directly above the stretched pearl purl is pearl purl #3, and above that, pearl purl size #F1.

To use stretched pearl purl, cut about half the length you need for the line you want to cover.

To stretch, grip each end of the pearl purl with your fingernails (well, I find it easiest to use my nails between the last coil or two). Pull gently with consistent pressure from both hands until the pearl purl has doubled in length.



If you have coils on the end that are still closed, either stretch them or cut them off. Make sure that your length of pearl purl covers the line you want to cover, though, before you cut!! Once you've determined that you have the right length (or a little longer, even) than you need, you can thread your needle and get ready to couch.

Silk buttonhole twist worked really well here. You can use heavier threads, too, like Trebizond, or you can use regular stranded floss - but you'll probably need three strands or more for the color to show up well. Thread your needle and anchor it (either using a waste knot, or running it under threads already there). Bring your needle to the front of your fabric at the point you want your line to begin, and stitch over the first "valley" after the first coil. Then skip a valley, and stitch in the next. Continue stitching in every other valley between the coils until you reach the end of the line. Try to end with a couching stitch.

If you need to snip your gold to fit the line, snip it, then take your couching thread to the back and run it under the stitches on the back to secure it.

This is a very simple technique, and makes a really pretty line of gold, accented by whatever color you choose for a couching thread.

Another tip: though I usually will always wax a regular couching thread when I'm working with pearl purl, when I'm using the floss as a decoration (as in this technique) I don't wax the thread. The thread just looks better when it isn't waxed!

So, if you're game for goldwork, here's an easy technique to try!

Have fun with it!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, goldwork, hand embroidery information, Hand embroidery stitches, silk

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, January 13, 2009
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, December 04, 2008
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Yes, well. This Christmas Towel. Satin stitching. Long and short stitch. Sometimes, I could just kick myself!

Originally, I was supposed to be embroidering regular cotton towels with regular cotton thread in regular outline stitches for regular easy embroidered gifts. But darnit, if I didn't start filling in on this one, and now, it's taking me ten forevers to get it done!

Remember the embroidered towel I finished last week? That piece took me less than three hours of stitching. I figured at that rate, I could do (easily) two towels a week and still have time for finish work on other little projects.

But no. I had to start filling in on this one! Did you ever realize what a difference it makes, time-wise, when you start to fill in areas of stitching?

I have duly frustrated myself, but I don't want to give the project up!

So let me show you how far along I am, and then I'll tell you what really frustrates me about the whole endeavor.



The satin stitching on the berries is done - at least, on this clump of berries (there's one more further down the design) - and all the little green satin stitch things are finished, and I've managed only one pine cone so far.



Now, the pine cone was an interesting dilemma. It's worked in long and short stitch. Originally, I was just planning on outlining it, but once I started filling in the berries with satin stitch, it was silly to have an only-outlined pine cone! So I started experimenting with filling. I was going to work a stem stitch filling. Then I thought about a split stitch or even chain stitch filling - something that could be worked fast and somewhat loose, so it wasn't a "full" filling.

Ugh. None of those looked right.

So I resorted to long and short stitch. Then the colors became a problem. If you're just outlining something, shading isn't that important, really. But once you move into long and short stitch, colors become important, and the shading achieved by the stitching and color choices together is what makes long and short stitch look ok.

When I started, I thought I better take a look at some pine cones. What I noticed on larger, older, opened pine cones was that the tips were almost a white-ish grey, curved up, and the rest of the cone was a darker brown, and some almost blackish-brown. But on the small, closed pine cones, they're really brown - a nice brown. Not a lot of color difference in them. Just a nice woody-looking brown.

So I stuck with three shades of brown, to give the cone a bit of depth. I don't like the connection area - I guess it's the stem - up top, but that's the way the pattern was, so I ended up stitching it with two small areas of satin stitch for highlights, surrounded by a split-stitch filling in dark brown.

And that's the pine cone. Two more pine cones, one more bunch of berries!!! Remind me never to FILL IN on a TOWEL. Yes, as I mentioned yesterday when I was talking about the obvious merits of machine embroidery thread for paper embroidery, sometimes, I'm a bit slow lately!

But this is what really frustrates me - and perhaps it's just a problem with the way I'm looking at the stituation. You can tell me what YOU think:

I'm putting all this embroidery time and effort into a cotton flour sack towel.

It's not a linen table runner.

It's not a linen table cloth.

It's not even a pretty little crisp, white cotton Christmas apron.

It's a FLOUR SACK TOWEL!!!

:-) Ah, well. I'm in. So I may as well finish it! But, sheesh. Really. What was I thinking?

Labels: Christmas, Embroidery for the Home, gift ideas, Hand embroidery stitches, needlepainting

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, December 02, 2008
PermaLink  |  14 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I finished the hand embroidery on the corner of this bread basket liner --- well, it's a towel, actually, but it'll be used as a bread basket liner.

I made a mistake on part of the embroidered design - can you find it?



Unfortunately, I tend to be the type of stitcher who gets caught up in the mistakes on my work. I really see them! And perhaps that's the case with most stitchers and crafters. But sometimes, I think it's quite alright to let a mistake go, and that's absolutely what I'm doing in this case!! But I'd be interested to know what you would do... would you take it out and re-do it?



Have you found it yet? Here's a hint:



And here's the other hint:



Would you re-do the little circles? I'm not. If nothing else, they make it characteristically hand stitched. A machine would not have made the mistake of stitching a mirror image using a completely different stitch!

I'm making a series of these towels, with similar, simple corner designs, for my sister for Christmas. She's a cook and an entertainer - she has large crowds at her home often for big meals. In fact, I think her daily meals for her family (and friends - there always seem to be guests at her table) would be considered "fancy" meals for most people. She's the Queen of Hospitality, and a great cook. She always sets a nice table, not just on formal occasions, but for casual daily dinners as well. One of her signature items is bread. A day doesn't go by that she doesn't have bread going - rising, baking, rising, baking - the smell permeates the house. She makes artisan loaves of naturally leavened bread; she makes French and Italian breads; she makes great crusty dinner rolls and melt-in-your-mouth soft rolls and fruit and nut breads; she grinds her own wheat and makes a wonderful, nutty wheat bread as a regular staple for the family. With crowds at the table, she uses large baskets lined with flour sack towels for bread. I thought a set of nicely embroidered flour sack towels to use solely for lining bread baskets would be a good gift.

So, let's see - how far away is Christmas? I've finished one towel. I have a Christmas-themed one in the works. I intended to make six towels altogether. I figured I could make two a week, and still stitch on other necessary items, if I stuck with Really Simple Designs, like the one featured here. But the Christmas one is slowing me down! I wasn't supposed to fill in the designs, but satin stitch seemed perfect for the berries, and the pine cones look better in long and short stitch than they do merely outlined. Aaargh. Six might be a bit ambitious at this rate!

Anyway, I'm still trying to dig up some simple corner patterns. The one I used on this towel above was a lot of fun - I may do it again, in a different color scheme. I may draw up a wheat pattern to use, too, if time allows! I'd like to share this pattern with you, but it isn't mine. I need to check the source (it's from a huge envelope of older patterns that a friend dropped off one day) to see if it's copyrighted.

And, finally, speaking of time - I'm out of time for the day! I hope all you Americans have a great Thanksgiving weekend. Teaching has its advantages - I've got a four day weekend, during which I plan to get some serious embroidery done and I hope to devote a lot of time to the website, too. I've scheduled a filming session for Saturday mid-morning, so keep your fingers crossed for me! If I have sunshine and a relatively quiet day, I should be able to actually finish some of those hanging video tutorials of more embroidery stitches!

For now - I must go bake pies!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Christmas, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 26, 2008
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

On a current project, I'm embroidering some satin stitched red berry thingamabobs. I have no idea of they are accurately depicted as far as Mother Nature is concerned, but, in bright red, they go well with the spray of evergreen and pine cones around them. I had a little misadventure with some satin stitching, so I wanted to show you the problem and the solution.

First, the problem: The berries are not huge, but they're a decent size at their widest point (perhaps three quarters of an inch on the larger ones, at most). Satin stitch is not meant to be used on very wide spaces - I'd say an inch to an inch and a half should be the longest span of satin stitch, and even that might be a bit too much, depending on the thread and what you do underneath the stitching.



Here are the berries in question, relatively close-up. I'm not so keen on those darker centers, but since they aren't the issue, let's just ignore them for now!

So far, three berries are fully satin stitched. The top left is outlined and padding stitches have been worked perpendicular to the direction of the top satin stitched layer that will be worked next.



The arrows point to the berries in question, which, from far away, don't look so bad.



But, when you get really close to the one on the lower right, you can see here some ridges in the stitching. Not too attractive. Besides being ridged, the stitches seem a bit loose. On the berry to the left of this, you can also see a bit of ridging in the satin stitching.



This berry, however, is fine. And it has the longest length satin stitching. Longer lenghts of satin stitch are usually the cause for ridging in stitches - because the stitches are longer, the tension cannot be maintained as well, especially if the fabric loosens in the hoop. And once the fabric is out of the hoop, with long satin stitching, you really risk your stitches flopping apart altogether.

So how is that solved? What's the difference between the two berries on the bottom where ridging is evident and the longer berry on the top, where the stitches lie perfectly smoothly?

The difference is in the padding. For most satin stitching, at least one layer of padding is essential, especially if the stitch is half an inch or longer (using regular floss). The more space the stitch needs to cover, the thicker the padding should be. The padding not only provides lift underneath the satin stitch, but it also provides friction for the satin stitching threads and a stable base for them to rest on.

In the lower two berries, I used one strand of floss for the split stitch outline underneath the satin stitching, and one strand of padding, worked inside the split stitch outline, perpendicular to the satin stitched layer.

One strand on the padding was not enough; it was a weak, skimpy foundation for the satin stitches.

On the top berry, I switched to two strands for the padding stitches, and the increase in density underneath the satin stitches helped them lie better and filled the space in undereath, so that, once the tension is removed (that is, the hoop is taken off), the satin stitching will still look terrific. On the other berries, the satin stitches will shift, because they aren't well padded.



On very small areas of satin stitching, like the light green pod in the midst of these evergreen needles, little or no padding is required. In fact, I did outline the little pod, and I worked a scant filling with one strand of floss longwise down the pod, then satin stitched over it. But on a tiny space like that, I could've gotten away with not filling it at all.

Another tip on the satin stitching: use one strand of floss. Yes, it takes longer, but the secret to nice satin stitch is zero ridges - a perfectly smooth surface. If you use two or more strands of floss, they'll twist on each other and then won't lie perfectly flat, parallel to each other. You could use a laying tool, which would help smooth two or more strands out, but even then, you get a slight bunching in the hole where the threads emerge. Satin stitch generally just looks better when one strand of floss is used.

Many stitchers are intimidated by satin stitch. "I can't get mine to look smooth." "My edges are messy." I hear this a lot! It's not a difficult stitch; generally, it's just a matter of practice while following a few tips:

1. Stitch the outline of the area you are satin stitching in split stitch. When you stitch your satin stitch, take your satin stitches just over the split stitch line. This split stitch line will help keep your edges straight, and will barely lift the satin stitch up off the fabric. Don't angle your needle back under the split stitch line before going back into the fabric. Just go straight down into the fabric just on the other side of the split stitch line.

2. Pad your satin stitches at least lightly. Work the padding stitches perpendicular to the direction of the top layer of satin stitches. If you are doing two layers of padding, stitch the first layer in the same direction as your satin stitch, stitch the second layer perpendicular to the first, and then your final layer (the satin stitch) will be perpendicular to the second layer of padding.

3. Use more padding layers or thicker thread for padding (or even felt, depending on what you're embroidering!) for larger spaces of satin stitch. When you pad the area, you don't have to take the thread all the way across the back - you can come up right next to where you went down in the fabric. However, when you do your satin stitching, the satin stitch should carry all the way across the back of the area you're covering, in order to keep the correct tension on the thread.

4. Use only one strand of floss for the final satin stitching layer. Make sure you carry your thread across the back of the area you're covering.

I hope these tips come in handy for you. Satin stitch is worth practicing! It really is a beautiful stitch!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, November 21, 2008
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

This weekend, I didn't manage a whole lot of embroidery-related tasks, much to my disappointment. Still, I did manage a couple things: 1. to assemble a couple projects into easy-access packages so that, when I can snatch some time for stitching, they'll be ready for snatching; 2. to stitch up most of a towel, thanks to some late night hours...

I'm stitching up a few sets of flour sack towels for Christmas presents. The designs are varied. Some I drew, some I copied, some I adapted. In every case, I tried to keep the designs relatively bold, with clean lines, for quick stitching in a variety of line stitches.



After ironing a couple towels and tracing the designs on to them using a light box and pencil, I selected no more than six colors (but in truth, I think four colors are sufficient), and put the threads and the folded towel into a handy-dandy zip-loc bag. Now, when I have time to devote to this kind of embroidery, I've got everything on hand to start one of these projects. I'm glad about that, because I only have a gazillion more projects to complete before the holidays!!



I had a bit of time later Saturday evening for some focused stitching, so I set out on one of the towels.



I'm just using four colors (two shades of green, a darker burnt red, and a reddish-orange) and two stitches - stem stitch and chain stitch.



I was going to throw two shades of blue in with these colors, but I'm glad that I didn't!



I'm about two-thirds of the way finished on this one. I'm only doing one corner - enough for a splash of color.

Here's hoping that this week presents a few more opportunities to make some headway on Christmas gifts! I'm under a little crunch at work, so we'll see what develops on the home front in the evenings. I still have the front of the goldwork and silk ornament to complete - just a tiny bit more to go! Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can finish it this week!

If you haven't signed up for this month's stash give-away, don't miss your opportunity to win some really good threads and stuff!

That about covers my weekend as far as embroidery goes - I hope you had the opportunity to spend more time with your needle 'n thread and were able to accomplish everything you wanted to!

Enjoy your Monday!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Christmas, Embroidery for the Home, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, November 17, 2008
PermaLink  |  4 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I can't help it. It's October 31, and for some reason, my thoughts have turned to jack-o-lanterns. I think I've only ever embroidered two jack-o-lanterns, and although you may have seen these two guys before, I thought I'd dig 'em up for today...

Both of these fellows came from a set of pillow cases I embroidered last year - they were called "Opposite Faces Pillowcases." The awake pillow case is full of laughing faces, and the asleep pillow case if full of sleeping faces.



Here's the wide-awake fellow - somewhat shocking to the little guy next to him.



And the snoozer.

Have you ever seen such a peaceful pumpkin?! Completely out of character...!

So there's my contribution to the day's doings. I'm not sure if I should say "trick or treat" or "boo"....

Or boo hoo.

It's been quite a hectic week on my end of things, but never fear. I'll catch up this weekend! I think yesterday (Thursday) was the first daily post I've missed in a while! Sorry!!

Have a great weekend!

Labels: embroidery for fun, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 31, 2008
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

A while ago, I started a random embroidery project on a piece of felt. My original plan was to use it as some kind of book cover, or needle book, or ... something. But the truth is, initially, it was a spontaneous project that I grabbed just to have something to work on while on a short road trip. The piece developed, and then sat neglected for a long time. I've finally done something with it.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with this bit of embroidery. Really, I couldn't picture it as any certain thing! When I wrote about the piece a few weeks ago, I got a lot of excellent suggestions for how it could be used. I ended up going with a large-ish needle case / tool holder.

The reason I dug the piece out recently to finish is that I had some threads and needles to test. If you read my posts on the Spiral Eye Needles and on Soy Luster thread, you saw parts of the finish work for the piece.

The first thing I did was determine how I wanted to make a cover. Fortunately, when I cut the felt, I left long sides that would turn in to back the two finished panels. This worked out well. After trimming, I folded the felt to the back of the embroidered panels and fused them closed.



And yes, the back is MESSY!!!!

I trimmed a little more, then buttonholed the edge of the cover all the way around.



Then, I had to think out how I would finish the inside. I cut out a piece of left-over blue wool felt to cover the inside, and then started laying tools on the piece to find out how I could arrange things.



I noticed that, with scissor or tool slots, I would have to either put a loop or a flap on them to hold the tools in, should the book be turned upside-down. So instead, I decided to face the tool openings towards the inside fold of the book.

I made two tool holders - one for scissors and the other for either another pair of scissors, or tweezers and a laying tool (I haven't really decided what, exactly). I figured I could put three flaps for needles on the other side, using some other scraps of felt. The whole inside of the book, in fact, is done in felt scraps. I had to rummage a bit to find pieces that would work.

There was still a bit of room between the needle flaps and the center fold, so I decided to attach a large thread ring there. The mother-of-pearl thread ring doesn't really match the "rustic" look of the book, but it'll do.



I cut out the shapes of the tool holders - a V-ish shape for scissor (in the sheath) and a rectangle for tweezers and laying tool. Incidentally, the rectangle was a scrap from this past summer's bookmark project in my kids' embroidery classes, and it worked out just fine.



Then, I began embellishing the tool holders.



I stitched free-hand, whatever occurred to me as I went.



I used a combination of threads - perle cottons, DMC stranded, Soy Luster, floche, and silk. Most were taken straight from a tub of stashed threads that are somewhat disorganized, with the exception of the Soy Luster and Baroque Silk, which were both new and which I was trying for the first time.



I had fun embroidering these little things. Because they are small, I wasn't stuck doing any one thing for very long, and because they were completely free-handed, I could do whatever came to mind.



I liked working with the variety of stitches and threads.



After finishing the tool holders, I attached them to the blue felt using buttonhole stitch all around, facing the openings (as previously mentioned) towards the inside fold to keep the tools from falling out.



Then I embroidered on the needle flaps, using a few different stitches to secure the flaps - herringbone stitch is on the top flap, chain stitch on the middle flap....



And fly stitch is used to attach the last flap.

I attached the thread ring using a tiny scrap of ribbon I just happened upon in my floss box.

Once I had everything attached to the blue felt that would serve as the background to the inside of the needlecase, I attached the blue felt to the book cover using buttonhole stitch all the way around. I found that the blue felt needed to be attached to the cover in the middle of the case as well, to help it fold better, so I ran two lines of running stitch down the center. I worked these through all the layers of wool felt (three, total), so that they are visible on the outside cover as well, just at the border of the embroidered panels.

Unfortunately, I didn't draw the lines and measure things out before I started stitching, so the lines are actually not quite parallel. They run away from each other towards the bottom! After working the running stitches, I whipped them to give the line a more finished look. Anyway, with the stitched lines in the middle and the and the top and bottom edges secured with the buttonhole stitching, I was left with an unstitched edge on the outside of the blue felt, which created the perfect opening for pockets that can hold extra thread or other flattish things:



In fact, it's nice having these two pockets on both sides of the case.



Then, once all was done, I had to have a way to close the case. I was out of ribbon, so using two strands of a coordinating perle cotton #5, I twisted the threads until they were suitable for a cord, and then made little ties out of them, which I attached at the edge of each cover.



In retrospect, if I were doing something like this again, I would not make a needlebook or tool case that closes in this manner - I'd make a flap that can button over the whole thing. The one thread in the middle seems somewhat chintzy, but, still, it ties the thing closed, and for this project, that will do.



Overally, I had a lot of fun working on this little project, though after a while, my fingers were killing me from working through multiple layers of wool felt and a layer of fusible interfacing.

I actually don't know if I'll ever USE the case. I'm thinking about giving it to one of my embroidering nieces for Christmas.

It was a fun project, so I'm not opposed to making another modified version with a different closure and a different layout on the inside. We shall see, we shall see! What think you about it? Any suggestions for a better way to close the thing up? I'm all for pointers, so point away!

Labels: Embroidery Projects, Hand embroidery stitches, needlecase, needlework pictures, pictures, threads, wool felt

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, October 28, 2008
PermaLink  |  25 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Oh golly. I'm just speeding along on this Christmas ornament (! not quite !), but I do at least have the surface embroidery well underway - maybe tonight I can finish that part! That's the plan, anyway. I've managed some satin stitch and some shading, and have developed a dilemma, if you want to take a look...

When I first designed this Christmas ornament, my plan was that it would hang on point, so it would be diamond-shaped. Then I started stitching, and a lot of things happend.



First, the embroidered red things - originally, they were going to be shaded long and short stitch, raised on felt. But I started that, and I thought... you know, I'm going to see what satin stitch looks like first. I have a real thing for satin stitch - I just like it a lot. So I tried the satin stitch, and I found I liked it, so I stuck with that. The red diamonds will be outlined with an edge of gold, to finish them off.

Then, I thought a lattice might look nice over the top of the satin stitch, in a lighter shade of the same colors. These colors will be repeated on the border, in an Or Nue bit. So, I did the lattice couching. I like sparkly Christmas ornaments. There's going to be stuff on here, aside from the embroidery - and in the middle of the red things, I want to put a little gold pailette. So that lattice forms the framework for a tiny pailette. If it looks ok, I'll leave it. Who knows, I might change my mind!

Now, in the longer, petal-looking areas (where the green shading has been started), I was originally going to trim down some beetle wings to fit right in there, and surround them by pearl purl.

But - I didn't like the color of the beetle wings with the color of the reds. So I scratched that altogether, and decided to do the green shading. I think I'm going to like it better!

This is the dilemma, though. On point - diamond-shaped, that is - see the direction of the red diamonds and the lattice? It's looking rather square, isn't it?

But if I turn the ornament to be hung squarely, look what happens to the red diamonds and lattice:



I think I like the red diamonds better this direction!

So here's my question: Which direction should the ornament hang? Perhaps it's a little early to decide - maybe it will be easier to decide once all the green shading is finished. But I want to make a "final" decision on this dilemma before I begin the layers of goldwork around the outside, since I think the direction the ornament is to be hung will change the approach I take to the various colors....

What do YOU think? Any preference? Any insight to the look of the design, or to the way it will hang if hung as a square instead of a diamond?? Let me know your thoughts!!

I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Labels: Christmas, goldwork, Hand embroidery stitches, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 17, 2008
PermaLink  |  13 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I knew it. I knew this would happen! But I can't help it, and I think it's Much Better this way. I've gotten to the half-way point on a project, and, after much serious contemplation, I have made the decision to scrap it and start over!

You probably know how it is: you've set out on a needlework venture, excited to get going and see how the project works out, but unfortunately unhappy with your materials, or color choices, or threads.... Something is Not Quite Right, but you're determined to get going on the project, because you're excited about it!

And you know what happens, don't you? You stitch with slight misgivings, never Quite Comfortable with the project, but still pushing to a point where you can at least see it - that point where you know, for sure, that you were right and no matter how much optimism to try to pour into it, you aren't going to like it, and it just isn't going to work! You realize, at that point, that it isn't worth putting in the time and effort on the other half of the project.

I arrived at that point this weekend with the baby booties. I pushed to finish one booty, so I could sew it up and see for myself.



In fact, I didn't even "finish" the bootie. I just quickly stitched the seams (and did a rather poor job on the easing around the toe) so I could see it put together. On the turned-down sides, I did not do the buttonholing to finish the edges, and I didn't put the eyelets in for the little cord and bow.

I like the concept of the embroidery (though perhaps I'd modify the abundance).

I like the shape of the shoe. In fact, I can safely say I love the shape of the shoe - I think it's cute, and it looks so darling on Adele's foot.

I like the accents - the eyelets and the buttonholing on the edge.



But I just can't stomach the color problem.

Or the overkill. If I had stuck with straight pink, I'd be in Baby-Bootie-Maker's Heaven right now. But oh good golly, Miss Molly. The mismatched color, the polka dots, all the embroidery - on something barely 2.5 inches long? No, no. It won't do. It suffers from OMSS. Overabundant, Mismatched Sugar Shock.



But in concept, it's a sweet little bootie. So I'm going to start completely over and fulfill my Bootie-Making-Dreams before Adele decides to sprout farther.

This is what I've learned:

1. If I'm going to line it, I'm going to line it after I've done the embroidery, and in either the same color or a very subtle color, with no print on it, that I can easily match to available thread colors.

2. I'll use a larger awl for piercing the front eyelets.

3. Floche is perfect for embroidering on flannel like this. I like it a lot.

4. Before stitching the shoe up on the machine, baste the toe ease, then set the stitch length on the machine for very small stitches, and pivot every few stitches to get a smooth curve on the toe. In any case, take time with the sewing part!

Please understand I'm not crying over this!!! I'm glad I got to this point so I could see it, so I would know whether or not I wanted to put effort into the second bootie, or just start over. I'll just start afresh! And I'm a lot happier about that!

When you're in a similar situation (do you ever find yourself in such stitching situations?), how do you handle it? At what point do you scrap it? Or do you never scrap it, persevering to the end? Any pointers you want to share on this?

Happy Monday!

Labels: baby booties, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 06, 2008
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I like these little booties - they aren't finished yet, but here are some photos so far. I'll tell you what I did, and then didn't do, and then did again....

I've got the embroidery finished on half a baby bootie - it's not really very complex embroidery, as you can see! Just lazy daisy stitch, French knots, and tiny straight stitches.



They look Humungous, don't they? More like whomping Baby Boots! Keep in mind that the cuff on top folds down (see below), and all the area that isn't stitched (around the base and up the back) is the seam allowance. I kept folding the seam allowance in, because I had to convince myself they were little, teeny tiny booties, not massive toddler whomping moon boots.



This is the cuff pinned down, so you can see the contrast. The red dots will be eyelets.

Ok, what I did about the violet:

I didn't like the match of the purples - I thought the floche was just "off" - so I matched and bought a skein of DMC that I thought I would like better. It seemed ok in the store. I picked out all the violet flowers. I started stitching with the new DMC color.

I cringed.

I picked out all the new DMC color.

I started stitching again with the floche.

And in the scheme of things, I like it much better, even if it's not quite the same color - it's close enough!

My favorite part so far, though:



I'm quite taken with the little eyelets. They look like nostrils.

Labels: baby booties, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's another video tutorial for a hand embroidery stitch to add to your repertoire. The Vandyke Stitch creates a decorative band between two parallel lines. It's a fairly easy stitch to work, so let's see how it's done...

The Vandyke stitch can be worked vertically or horizontally (I'm working it vertically in the video) between two parallel lines, and it can also be worked on gentle curves. The characteristic look of the stitch is long horizontal arms, with a raised chain-like stitch down the middle, on top of the bars. You can vary the look of the stitch by changing the length of the arms, or by increasing or decreasing the space between the side lines, even while working down the line.


Vandyke Stitch

Here's the video:



For more hand embroidery stitch videos, visit my Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches Index, where you'll find instruction for over 50 hand embroidery stitches presented in video format.

Also, just a little reminder: I'm giving away one of Trish Burr's books this week. If you haven't joined the drawing, it's not too late! Just add a comment to the post announcing the drawing, answering the question posed about YOUR topic preference for Trish's next book.

Enjoy!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
PermaLink  |  4 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The trellis stitch is a filling stitch used in hand embroidery. It's detatched from the fabric, like the detached buttonhole, but it makes a fuller filling than the buttonhole. It can be worked closely packed, with a firmer tension on your stitches, or you can pull the stitches out a little bit to give your embroidery the trellis look, with larger open holes between the stitches.

The trellis stitch is used in stumpwork quite a bit. It's a good stitch for adding dimension, especially when stitched in a circle. An excellent example of trellis stitch worked in a circle (spiral trellis stitch) can be found on Just String, where Jeanne worked up a gorgeous photo tutorial, using an amazing sampler she's working on, to show you how to do the spiral trellis. She even shows you how to make your circle stand up from your fabric, or lay flatter. It's really a terrific tutorial and her stitching, as always, is minutely perfect, so do check that out when you get a chance.

Another great source of information on the trellis stitch can be found at The Embroiderers' Story, the blog associated with the recreation of a 17th-century embroidered jacket at Plimoth Plantaion. There, you'll find several posts about the trellis stitch, and if you take time to stroll through the website, you'll probably find even more, as there are lots of photos of motifs worked with trellis stitch. You'll also find, in PDF form, some photo instructions for trellis stitch, worked out by Tricia Wilson Nguyen. The stitch method is slightly different from the method I'm showing you below, although it is the same stitch. If you check out Tricia's directions and look at her up-close photos, you'll see a difference in the way the threads set up - the loop on mine stays more or less vertical, while hers cross into each other a little more. They look more distinctly like a trellis. But you'll notice on the lower right hand section of her finished trellis stitch photo (in the PDF) that the stitches look vertical there. I think it has to do with the wrapping and pulling of the thread. I lay my thread on the fabric and pull the stitch down. In the Plimoth Plantation directions, the needle points upwards, and the working thread is wrapped around the needle for each stitch.

I learned the trellis stitch through Erica Wilson's Embroidery Book, which is no longer in print, but can be found used through Amazon and other used book sources. Although the book is mostly in black and white (including the illustrations), it is an excellent resource for learning stitches, especially if you are interested in historical embroidery. The stitches are shown through drawn diagrams, but they are very clear, and have lots of good explanations along with them. I think this is one of my favorite older stitch dictionaries. BUT - be warned - it doesn't have the same kind of "eye candy" as the new books today have.

Here are some photos for you - they're super-up-close...



This is the little rectangle worked in the video. The stitches are kept pretty close together, and you can see the vertical direction on the loop.



These stitches are pulled a little apart, so you can see more of the ground fabric, as the holes between the stitches are bigger.



Here, I started building a circle. The "wall" goes pretty much straight up at this point, because I hadn't begun to decrease, by leaving out a stitch. If you vary where you begin your decreasing, you can get different dimensional effects.

Before you watch the video, a few notes:

1. Let it buffer a bit before playing. The video is almost 10 minutes long (sorry)! And ... yes ... I do manage to prattle most of the time (sorry!). Oh, and do ignore the end - "That's pretty good!" What was I thinking?? But having just managed to record almost 10 minutes of audio instructions off the cuff (well, ok - it was about the fifth time through it, after making all kinds of silly blunders and starting over!), I just couldn't re-do it, just because I sound like a dork at the end.

2. Try to ignore my ever twisting thread. The disadvantage of filming, especially long sequences, is that I can't drop my thread to let it untwist!

3. I'm using perle cotton #5. Trellis stitch works well with all kinds of threads, though, and the results can be a lot finer and "airy" looking if you use a lighter thread - it just depends on the look you want.

4. It's not a hard stitch, and it works along pretty quickly once you get the rhythm going. Don't be intimidated by it!

5. Have fun with it!

Here's the video:



For more video tutorials of hand embroidery stitches, please feel free to visit my Video Library of Stitches, where you'll find about 54 stitches listed now!

Enjoy!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 05, 2008
PermaLink  |  11 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 03, 2008
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's your opportunity to help me with a project! I'm testing new video hosting for my hand embroidery videos. I thought I'd try Blogger's video upload feature for my Knotted Diamond Stitch video that I posted this morning, to see if it works out better than Google video. My embroidery stitch videos are "ok," but I've always been a little disappointed with the compression, so I want to try different ways of posting them. So - if you want to leave me some feedback, I'd love to hear your opinion!

This morning, I posted the Knotted Diamond Stitch video tutorial, going about it the same way I have for all my hand embroidery videos. The reason I use Google is simple: You Tube has little "ads" for more videos at the bottom of each video, and, since I don't think I can control those, I am wary of using them! But I found out (yes, I'm slow) I could post video through blogger, thanks to my brother, who pointed that out to me. Since I haven't used blogger before for this, I want to do a test run, and, if you see a big difference on your side of the screen, I'd love some feedback! So the purpose here is a kind of comparison, between this video below, and the knotted diamond stitch I posted this morning.

You can check out the original post, where you'll find tips and tricks on working this stitch, as well as a photo of what it looks like when completed.




I really value your opinions, so don't be shy! Let me know what you think! If it's clearer, and it looks like blogger might be a better option, I may convert.

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 28, 2008
PermaLink  |  14 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Knotted Diamond Stitch is the latest addition to my video library of hand embroidery stitches! It's a decorative band stitch that's easy and quick to work, and looks great!

The knotted diamond stitch makes a decorative band of diamond shapes between two parallel lines. It can be worked horizontally or vertically. It would make a great seam treatment in crazy quilting, it could be used as an edge treatment on a towel, or for lines in band samplers. I was thinking it would make a neat edge border around the outside of a card, for paper embroidery, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet!



You can build on the stitch, too, by adding other elements to it - like French knots or colonial knots in the centers of the diamonds, or daisy stitch petals coming off the points of, or placed in the "V" between, the diamonds.

Some hints which I touch on briefly in the video:

I find the stitch faster to work if you lay your thread on the fabric in the correct arrangement, rather than wrapping the thread around the needle for each knot.

When you work from the right to left (forming two knots, one on each side - you'll see it in the video), lay your thread down in the shape of a "C" (equivalent to wrapping your thread over and around the needle counter-clockwise).

When you work the center knot coming back (from left to right), lay your thread down in the shape of a "G" (again, you'll see this in the video) - this is equivalent to wrapping your thread over the top of the needle, and back around, clockwise.

It also helps at first to mark off even spacing for the "X" that's formed by the stitch, until you can judge it by eye.

I'm using perle cotton #5 in the video (and in the photo above). It's a nice thread for this stitch, although it works well with other threads, too.

Here's the video:



You can find more videos (51 of them!) in my Video Library of Stitches, as well as a link for solving playback issues, if you have trouble viewing the videos on your computer.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 28, 2008
PermaLink  |  7 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Slowly but surely, some completed summer embroidery class projects are still rolling in - this one is the kitchen towel with the flowers along the edge. In preparing a photo or two of the embroidery on the towel, I realized it presented a good opportunity to point out some tips on using the stem stitch.

I want to make it Really Clear that I'm not "picking on" the embroidery on this towel. Who could deny that, whether for a semi-beginner (this is done by one of the girls who has taken embroidery class before) or one who's been stitching a lot longer, this towel is really well done? The stitching is very nice, the color choices are great, and I like the way she alternated the colors on the flowers in pairs.



I should have taken a photo of the back of this towel, because it was really impressive - very neat, no straggling threads, very tight lines that kept the threads from showing from the front.



I think she did a great job on the towel! Still, in looking at it, I found a "teaching point" to demonstrate something about the stem stitch. If you ask the embroiderer what stitch she used to embellish the towel, she would tell you "stem stitch." But between you and me... she didn't! She used a combination of the stem stitch and the outline stitch!

And here's the teaching point: stem stitch and outline stitch are not the same stitch - but they're easy to get confused, especially when you're working around curves, or changing directions on your lines.

Take a look at the embroidery a little closer - I wish I had a better shot, but this'll do to make the point!



The red arrows point to the stem stitched lines in this piece. Notice how they retain the visibility of the separate threads, while creating that rope-like overlap of the stitches? That's the signature of stem stitch. Just about all the other lines and curves you see in the towel in that photo are outline stitch. The individual "S's" are not clear - the line is a bit more "solid" looking as far as the thread goes.

So, how do you achieve the "signature" stem stitch - what is required to produce that look? Here are some tips:

Assuming you're working with S-twisted thread (that's just about any standard cotton floss, and most twisted silks)...

1. If you are moving from left to right along your path, always keep your working thread below your needle.

2. If you are moving from right to left along your path, always keep your working thread above your needle.

3. Turn your hoop as you stitch, to keep the direction consistent, so you don't get confused on the whole left-to-right, right-to-left thing. If you turn your work, you can pretty much always work from left to right (for right-handers) and right to left (for left handers).

4. When you take curves, it doesn't matter so much if the working thread is on the inside of the curve or the outside - what matters is the direction in which you're stitching and where your working thread is, in relation to where your needle comes up. So make sure you're applying the rules above - and, if you're worried about the stitch moving into the curve because you don't have the working thread to hold it back (because you're coming up above your stitch), take smaller stitches, and you'll be able to take the curve fine.

So othere are a few quick pointers on stem stitch. The stitcher who worked the towel above just confused the "above the working thread" or "below the working thread" thing as she changed directions stitching. It's funny how such a small difference in placement can change the finished look of a stitch, isn't it? ... well, that all goes back to thread twists (S-twist vs. Z-twist).... but we'll save that for another day!

To see the stem stitch worked out, check out the Stem Stitch Video Tutorial in my Video Library of Stitches, where you'll now find a whopping 50 stitches to learn!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, Hand embroidery stitches, needlework tutorials, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 22, 2008
PermaLink  |  7 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 21, 2008
PermaLink  |  11 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Ahhh. Back to the video tutorials for hand embroidery. This is the first embroidery video I've edited in a long time! This video shows you how to work the Mountmellick stitch. I'll tell you a little bit about the stitch, show you a photo of it, and then ... the video!

Mountmellick stitch is named after Mountmellick embroidery, a form of whitework originating in Ireland. Mountmellick embroidery is traditionally worked on cotton sateen, a heavier cotton fabric with a nice sheen. The stitches are worked in a matte cotton thread, which contrasts with the sheen of the fabric. What characterizes Mountmellick embroidery, besides the fabric and threads, is the textured nature of the whitework. The motifs are generally taken from nature (leaves, vines, berries, flowers, etc.), and are worked in different types of textured stitches, with a good splash of satin stitching as well. For more information, you can read my previous article on Mountmellick embroidery.



The Mountmellick stitch is a decorative line stitch, made up of little pointed triangles. It takes curves very well and is, in all respects, a very pretty stitch. It stitches up quickly, too, once you get the hang of the method.

Enjoy the video!



For more embroidery video tutorials, visit Needle 'n Thread's Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches!

Have fun with it!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 14, 2008
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 07, 2008
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, May 11, 2008
PermaLink  |  13 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Finally, another video tutorial! This is a raised chain stitch, worked down a line of straight stitch bars to form a raised chain stitch band.

This is a composite stitch. There are two embroidery stitches here put together to make the raised chain: the simple straight stitch which forms the bars on which you stitch the chain stitch.

If you wanted to use this stitch as a filling, you would work wider bars (straight stitches) across the area you want to fill and then work multiple lines of chain stitches to fill up the shape.

It's a neat stitch, with good texture and a bit dimensional since it's raised. I'm working it from top to bottom here, but you can work it from right to left (right handed stitchers) or left to right (left handed stitches), or from bottom to top, and along curves.



There's a close-up photo of the stitch, which I worked in two colors so that it would be easier to see. You can work it in a single color, or in two shades of the same color, for things like vines and stems and so forth.

I must apologize for the crackly sound in the video! I'm going to discover what I can do to rectify that (perhaps a new mic) and, when time allows, rework the sound on these. But in the meantime, here's the video:



For more hand-embroidery videos, visit my Video Library of Stitches, where you'll find some 47 videos.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, April 07, 2008
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, March 08, 2008
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I've had buttonhole filling on my embroidery video list for a long time! It's been one of those "unlinked" stitches that's been nagging me. I finally got around to filming the stitch - in two varieties, detached and attached.

In detached buttonhole filling, you don't pass through the fabric as you work the buttonhole filling. In attached, you do. Attached buttonhole filling gives you more scope, I think, for varying the placement of stitches, so that you can create effective filling patterns. The detached buttonhole, though, gives you a bit more room for dimensional effects, since you can take out part of your foundation fillings and fold the buttonhole area back on itself - or make petals or leaves that stand away from the fabric.



Here's a photo of the filling. I worked the edge and the filling in contrasting colors for the sake of clarity.

And here are some in-progress photos of a leaf-shaped area filled with the buttonhole filling.



First you start by outlining the shape.



Then you begin to fill it from the wide part to the narrow part.



You have to decrease the number of stitches in the rows as you work towards the tip.

The stitch begins with outlining your shape to be filled, using either a reversed chain stitch, like I do in the video, or you can regular chain stitch, split stitch, or even backstitch. The advantage of the reverse chain is that it provides you with the loops to catch your buttonhole stitch in, and it tends to be a bit rounder or fuller than a regular chain.

The stitch is not so complicated, but if you aren't familiar with how buttonhole stitch works, you might want to take a look at the buttonhole video tutorial. This will help you get the knack for buttonhole, especially where the working thread goes in relation to the needle.

Here's the video:



For more video tutorials, please visit my Video Library of Stitches.

Have fun with it!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, January 20, 2008
PermaLink  |  12 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

There are many dimensional embroidery stitches that I really like, but I think one of the most fun is the woven picot. You can do a lot with it! It's an easy embroidery stitch - it looks more advanced than it actually is! It's a great stitch for adding texture to your embroidery project, and it doesn't necessarily have to be free standing. To help you get it down, here are some photos and a video!

The woven picot that I'm going to show you in the video, and that you can see in the photos below, is the "typical" shape and size, but don't limit yourself! You can play with this stitch for a lot of different effects. Take, for example, the seaweed in this piece on Valquiria's blog, Qualquer Motivo. She has elongated the woven picot and turned it and tacked it down, to make a really nice interpretation of underwater vegetation.



You can do all kinds of things with this stitch - flowers come to mind right off the bat, as does any kind of leafy greenery. If you like to build up stitches for a dimenstional effect, this is a great stitch for that. If you're into stumpwork, you're bound to come across the woven picot.



I think it's a fun stitch!

In the video, I'm using a tapestry needle and #5 perle cotton. You can use practically any kind of thread with this, but it does really well with thread that has a little more "body" to it.

Without further ado, here's the video:



To learn more hand embroidery stitches, please visit my Video Library of Stitches. You'll find video tutorials for 45 stitches here at Needle 'n Thread --- and more coming!

Enjoy!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, January 17, 2008
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Ladder stitch in hand embroidery can be one of two stitches. There's the surface embroidery technique that creates a decorative band that looks a lot like a ladder, with edges that look like a chain stitch. There's also a drawn thread technique called ladder stitch that produces a ladder-like strip of remaining threads in the design area. The ladder stitch in this video tutorial is the former - the decorative band used in surface embroidery.

Although the ladder stitch involves several steps to get it going, it's not a hard stitch at all. The most important thing to remember if you want your embroidery to look really good is to be careful with your tension! I'll tell you up front, in the video here, the tension is not exactly what it should be - you'll see that for yourself at the end of the video. The right side of the ladder seems to pull a bit inwards. But the technique is there, and, in watching the video, you'll learn to do the stitch with ease.

The ladder stitch works ok on gentle curves, but it's not a stitch that's well suited for circles or tight curves.

You can vary the distance between the sides of your ladder to get a dimensional effect - to set a perspective, for example. You can start small at the top of your ladder and go wide at the bottom (or visa-versa). You can even vary the distance (gradually) between the two sides of the ladder, all the way down (like an hour glass). The changes have to be gradual, though, over several stitches. If you try to change the distance between the sides of the ladder too quickly, you'll lose the look of the chain stitched edge and pull it out of whack.

Here's a photo of the finished sample that's worked in the video:



The left hand side looks fine, but the right hand side is pulling inward and it looks a little whacky! This is just a slight tension problem and is easily remedied by be careful with your tension as you go.

Here's the video:



For more video tutorials for hand embroidery stitches please visit the Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches index. With the ladder stitch, there are 44 videos available on Needle'NThread! When I hit 50, we should do something to celebrate!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, January 13, 2008
PermaLink  |  4 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's another video tutorial for a hand embroidery stitch called Roumanian couching, which is used primarily as a filling stitch.

If you want to read about this type of self-couching embroidery technique, please see my post on Bokhara couching, where you will find photos of both Bokhara and Roumanian couching, and more information on different types of couched filling.

Here's a photo of Roumanian couching, with one couching stitch:



And here's a photo of Roumanian couching, with two couching stitches:



Here's the video for Roumanian couching:



For more hand embroidery video tutorials, please visit my Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches.

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures, pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, January 05, 2008
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Do you have a particular embroidery stitch that eludes all your attempts to master it? I do. It's the plaited braid stitch. I'm sure there are embroiderers out there who may read this and say, "WHAT? She can't do the plaited braid stitch? And she calls herself an embroiderer!?" That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but - still - it is a stitch that I have a heck of a time trying to get "right." So I'm exploring it, searching for resources, help, information, tips, and whatever anyone wants to add to my explorations...

The plaited braid stitch shouldn't be confused with the braid stitch - although they are similar in their beginnings. The braid stitch is rather simple, though, and relatively easy to stitch. The braid stitch looks like this:



The plaited braid stitch is a stitch that was used in 17th and early 18th century to provide heavier scrolling patterns on textiles. It was worked in metal-wrapped silk thread (much like Japanese gold) or stiffer cord-like thread. Unlike the stitch above, which is completed in two steps for the first stitch and one step on the repeats, the plaited braid stitch takes five steps to execute the first stitch, and then the repeats require two steps if you use a "sewing" method of stitching, and three steps if stabbing. So far, I've found stabbing to work better, especially with metal threads.

What piqued my curiosity about plaited braid stitch recently is the awesome project going on at The Embroiderers' Story. This is a blog devoted to the re-creation of a 17th century lady's embroidered jacket at Plimoth Plantation. I've poured over the whole blog and read with delight about their work in recreating this beautiful piece of clothing. Their process of finding thread, their progress on the embroidery - all of this really thrills me! I'm anticipating the information on how they are going to recreate the scroll pattern in the jacket, and what thread they are going to use. Are they going to use the plaited braid stitch (which, after looking closely at their model jacket, seems to be the stitch used for the scroll), and, if so, what kind of thread are they going to use to work the stitch? I'm sure they've got this all figured out, but I can't help thinking that, if they have found the embroidery time consuming so far, how much more time consuming will it be with the plaited braid stitch? It seems to me that all the other stitches used on the jacket work up relatively quickly - detached buttonhole and trellis stitch can go pretty fast once you establish a rhythm. But plaited braid - wow! It's slow, and that's a lot of scroll work!

This is the thing: clear directions for the plaited braid stitch are really (Really!) hard to come by! If you want to find it in a current embroidery book, you'll be hard-pressed. The only book I've found it diagrammed in so far is Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. True, I don't have every book on the market, but I pulled out my collection of standards, and Mary Thomas is the only one who covers it.



Online, there are a couple sites that have the same type diagram for the stitch. The diagram looks like this:



It's the same diagram that's found in Mary Thomas's book, shown here:



On some websites, I've noticed that some alternate names are given to the stitch, such as "plaited stitch" (nope - it's not), "braid stitch" (no, it isn't!), and "rosette chain stitch" (nope, not that either).

I also ran across a website with step-by-step photos of something entitled "plaited braid stitch." But it isn't "the" plaited braid stitch here - it's missing a step, and the braid, if worked following the directions given, looks heavier on one side than on the other. That's because one of the plaiting steps is missing.

The site is Victoria Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers, a good site for some interesting and useful information for stitchers (she has a good articles on finishing a needlebook, for example).

It's her fourth and fifth step that pose the problem with her version of the plaited braid:



If your work up her stitch a little more carefully, this is more or less what you end up with (working with perle cotton):



It certainly works up faster, but it isn't the right look - notice that one side (in the photo above, the right side) has a plaited look to it, but the other side is just the loop that you find in the regular braid stitch.

In the "real" plaited braid stitch, the sides are even - there's a "plaited look" to both sides of the stitched band. Here's a close up of the blaited braid stitch worked on an antique:



Notice how comfortably the threads fit together - they look almost supple in their twists and turns. Of course, the piece is old and the threads have been there for a while. But still - the stitch is tight and neat and even, and the threads look comfortable with their situation!

Here's a close up of one of my attempts at the plaited braid stitch, following the diagram above for the stitch, and using a size 5 imitation Japanese gold and a really big needle:



You can see the strain on the gold already, even though it was passing through a large needle hole. The gold also looks stiff and uncomfortable. The stitch doesn't close up on itself very well, either - although perhaps that's part of the nature of the stitch when worked with stiff threads.

There are some noticeable differences between my sample and the older work above - for one thing, in the thread I used, the gold strip wrapped around the core thread is a lot wider than the strip on the older piece. I think this has a lot to do with the stitches in the top photo looking more supple.

My stitches look decidedly stiffer and "rounder" than the those in the top photo. Notice the obvious downward direction of the stitch line in the top photo - the interior stitches (the "plait" part of the stitch) - angle downward in the stitch direction (especially the ones on the left). In my sample, every part of the stitch seems to keep a rounded, stiff look. In the older piece, these stitches are closer together, too.

Here's a shot of the plaited braid worked with cord, from Mary Thomas's book:



In playing with the stitch, I've learned that once you get the hang of the order of the steps for the plaited braid stitch, it isn't that hard to follow the steps. The tricky part of the stitch is to keep it even and to get into a working rhythm so that you can make progress on your stitching. As mentioned above, when working with a wrapped metal thread (like Japanese gold), I found it easier to use a stab method (that is, taking the needle all the way to the back, pulling the thread through - at least to the point of creating the next loop, and then bringing the needle back to the front).

Now, what I'd like to know from all the embroiderers out there who are familiar with the plaited braid stitch is this:

What kind of gold or metal thread works best for this stitch? What size needle works best - and what kind (sharp or blunt?) - and are there any tips or tricks you've learned while working the stitch that you can share?

If readers have any information on the stitch, or can direct me to further resources, I'd love to hear from you!

Labels: goldwork, Hand embroidery stitches, historical needlework

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, January 03, 2008
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I'm working on a rather silly embroidery project - and I'm having So Much Fun with it! The problem is, I can't "unveil" it right now. I have to wait until it's finished. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share some photos of it underway. Can you guess what it is?

On this particular project, I'm trying to be somewhat diverse in my embroidery stitches. Originally, I thought I could manage at least 10 or 12 different types of embroidery stitches in it. Right now, I'm up to 10 types of stitches, with a few ideas for incorporating some more. So we'll see if I can manage at least a dozen types of stitches, if not more!

Here goes, then:



Nothing too silly about this one: this is Santa's hat underway. I haven't done his face or beard yet. I'm testing my "curly wool stitch" in different applications with regular stranded cotton. So I've just filled the white space with stem stitch, and now I'm wrapping the stem stitch with stranded cotton, in "tubes" to form a wooly kind of ridgy look, if you know what I mean!



These guys are having a good laugh. The top one needs "something" still - perhaps his huge mouth should be filled in with black.... I'll see about that later.



These fellows are a bit more sedate. I used bullion stitch on the clown's hair instead of drizzle stitch.



Hm. I was able to get herringbone stitch in here (the red on the cap).



I still have some clean-up work to do on this pudgy baby. The white dusty stuff on the black cloth is from the silver pencil I used to draw out the face. Originally, there was going to be a pacifier there.... but it looked like a band-aid, so I skipped it!



And a parting shot, since Halloween's just around the corner.

Welp - that's what I'm working on right now! Can you guess what the finished product is?

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 27, 2007
PermaLink  |  9 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

To go along with embroidery video tutorial for drizzle stitch, I thought you might be interested in a few photos of the drizzle stitch "in action."

This is a little project I'm working on which may very well develop into a Christmas present. On it, there's a Grandma whose hair is worked in drizzle stitch.

I never realized what a difference there is in working on black fabric, until I was doing so with predominantly white thread, by the way!



So here's a full shot, and you can see how the drizzle stitch works pretty well for producing curly hair.



And here's a closer shot of the stitches. They're a blue-ish grey, by the way.



I tried to get a photo at a decent angle where you could see the three-dimensional aspect of the stitch.

So there's my Drizzle Stitch Grandma so far. I'll share the rest of the project with you later!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, needlework pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, October 24, 2007
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Finally, another hand embroidery tutorial to add to the Video Library of Stitches! It's been a while... but here's the Drizzle Stitch.

The drizzle stitch is a "texture" stitch. It makes an individual, almost-upright, slightly twisted "tower" on your fabric. It's difficult to explain what it looks like! So here are some photos of it instead:



These are the two purple drizzle stitches from the video. They're worked in a coton a broder. They're not as pretty as the stitch could be, so I tried it with Trebizond, which is a three-ply twisted silk.



I think it's much prettier. The needle is there to give you a sense of size. They're not as big as they look! These are made with five cast-on stitches.



Here they are from another angle. They look rather like a caterpillar.



And here they are from the top. You can see the shadow - they do stick up off the fabric...

You might wonder how this stitch can be used in embroidery - as I mentioned above, it's a great way to add texture to clusters. So, for example, you might stitch a cluster of them in the middle of a flower, or among any kind of encrusted areas on textured embroidery.

The video takes you through two drizzle stitches, since it's a slower stitch to work. For materials, you may wish to have a needle threader handy, since you have to re-thread your needle while it's still in the fabric (embroidery is always much easier with the right tools!)



I'm trying to figure out a way to provide better quality videos. Right now, I'm uploading the videos to Google video, but they lose a lot in resolution and quality. Anyway, bear with me - there may be future developments along this line!

I hope you have fun with the drizzle stitch!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, October 14, 2007
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The silk work sampler that our embroidery group is working on is coming along. After spending a lot of time on set-up, we're finally stitching! Here are some photos of progress on the embroidery sampler so far.

We started with the middle flower, working it in long and short stitch. This was an adventure! I chose to do my flowers in reds, and first, the plan was to work from light on the outside to dark on the inside. I worked the first petal that way and didn't like it at all, so I picked it out and worked from dark on the outside to light on the inside. I liked it much better!



So, the center flower and the top left leaf are worked in long and short stitch. The idea is to work towards the "growth point" on flower petals, leaves, etc., when working with long and short stitch. Down below, I'll show you some close ups where I messed up!



This is the center of the flower. The image is a bit fuzzy (!) This is how I stitched it: I began with a light gold Soie d'Alger, and backstitched around the circle. Then, inside the backstitch (so, on the inside of the circle), I stitched one layer of loose satin stitch in the Soie d'Alger. Then, I satin stitched the whole circle (going outside over the edge of the backstitch) in a flat silk, in gold. Then, I worked a square lattice in the dark red, and couched the intersections with the lightest coral in the flower. Then I worked a stem stitch around the circle, using two strands of Soie d'Alger in the medium red.



Here's an odd angle on the flower, so you can see the "dimension."



The leaf is worked in long and short stitch in three shades of green, light on the outside, and darkest by the central vein. The whole leaf was first outlined in the light green in a backstitch. The long and short stitches should be directed towards the central vein, and slanting downwards (to the growth point of the leaf). If you look closely, you can see where I messed up! But if you can't see it here, you can here:



The central vein is worked in a stem stitch, in the darkest green. The problem in the leaf is in the lower left-hand corner of this photo. I marked the difficulties in red in the photo below:



The three middle red lines show how the stitches angle too far up. I should have taken that out and restitched it.... but I had too many layers in before I realized how far off it would go. In the scheme of things, it's not "too" noticeable, but it still bugs me! Live and learn!

So that's the progress so far... Next, we'll be working the flower on the left, which is worked in satin stitch, in flat silk. The shades change according to the lines in the pattern, and there's a "voided" line between each shade. The satin stitching will be vertical, without any radiation, so it will be a completely stylized flower. I'll let you know how it goes!

Labels: guild, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, silkwork sampler

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 17, 2007
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

There are many variations on the chain stitch used in hand embroidery. Here's one that produces a "realistic-looking" chain, with a small link between each of the loops in the chain stitch. It's called the cable chain stitch.

This stitch can be worked in lines, around curves, in circles - any way that you would normally use a chain stitch, except perhaps as a filling. That's not to say it couldn't be used as an interesting filling! I haven't tried it, but I would imagine that, worked in rows, alternating the location of the stitches in each row, it would make an interesting filling.

This is what the cable chain stitch looks like when worked:



The stitch begins the same way a chain stitch does, but after the first loop of the chain is created, you wrap your thread once around the needle and insert the needle on the other side of your first chain stitch loop (instead of inside it, like with the chain stitch). Then you make another chain stitch, and continue in that fashion.

Here in the video, I'm working down a line, from top to bottom, but the stitch can easily be worked from right to left (for right-handed stitchers - left to right for left-handed stitchers).



The list of hand embroidery video tutorials is still growing, so stay tuned!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's a video tutorial for the double chain stitch used in hand embroidery. This is a quick, easy stitch which creates a wide decorative band. It looks somewhat similar to the closed herringbone stitch, but it's created with the same (few) easy steps used in the chain stitch.

This stitch would look great as a border. It can be worked on curves or straight. You work on two parallel lines, and you can certainly vary the boldness or delicacy of the result by choosing different weight threads, and working across wider or narrower lines.

In the video, I'm using perle cotton #5 because it shows up better. I've worked this stitch in a single strand of DMC or silk in very tiny stitches, and achieved a kind of lacy effect. If you're embroidering anything miniature that needs trim on it - for example, a little Dutch girl or sunbonnet girl on a quilt square - you can add a nice pretty border on the edge of a dress with it.

It also makes good seam embellishment for crazy quilting, or it looks great as a band on samplers. Some of my students are presently having fun adding it to their embroidered notebook covers.

Here's a close up of the double chain stitch so you can see what it comes out looking like:



In the video, I'm working from top to bottom down two parallel lines. You can mark the lines, or, if you're using an even-weave fabric, you can follow the weave of the fabric. The stitch can also be worked from right to left (for right handed stitchers).

Here's the video:




For more video tutorials for hand embroidery stitches, please visit my Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

I planned to have this embroidered notebook cover finished by the time I went to bed on Sunday, but sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan them! The first kids' embroidery class was Monday morning, and I wanted to show this to them as a sample. Although I didn't finish, I did make progress, so I thought I'd share some photos...

The kids love the thing, by the way, and are excited to make their own. They learned three stitches on Monday: the running stitch (we always start with that one!), the whipped running stitch, and the chain stitch. I jump straight into the chain stitch because it's just a short step to the detached chain (lazy daisy), which is always received enthusiastically because they can make flowers with it.

We also talked a little about needles and scissors, keeping track of supplies, clean hands, and such. They learned how to hoop up their fabric (we use white cotton twill for practicing). Then they picked out two colors of cotton perle, we learned the stitches, and then they picked out the felt for their embroidered notebook cover (four different colors were available) and three pre-cut strands of three different colors of cotton perle, which they rolled up and put in their sewing boxes. I showed them where to stitch the running stitches to mark the sides of the notebook cover, and they practiced their stitches, and that was the whole two hours! Fortunately, I have two gals from our guild helping with each class - so in this class, which had 17 children in it, each of the adults were able to give some one-on-one help with each stitch.

It was fun! The next group meets on Wednesday afternoon.

So this is the notebook cover so far, which I have every intention of finishing today, depending on how long I have to be at work!



The spine is marked by the wavy line in the center, although the spine doesn't really have to be marked at all - the design could continue across the whole space. I realized it doesn't really matter which side is which, either - on this, either side of the spine could be the front cover!



This is what I accomplished on Sunday. The wavy line in yellow down the spine is a laced chain stitch. The stitching on the inside of the waves is a variation on Algerian eye, with French knots at the tips. The fan in the top right corner is worked in whipped back stitch (the ribs), and the two bold lines defining the arch are Portuguese knotted stem. The yellow between the ribs is fly stitch in yellow ribbon. The edge on the outside is fly stitch worked in three strands of DMC stranded cotton, with a little green detached chain between the peaks of the fly stitch.



I added these little hand-painted buttons to the part that I had already finished before Sunday.



The vine here is worked in stem stitch, dotted with little ribbon leaves. The flowers are daisy stitches and French knots, for the most part.



The buds that rest in the vine intersections are actually oyster stitch, covered a little by some ribbon.



There's a little French knot at the base of each bud.



This is backstitch laced with a wide and loose silk ribbon. It's a scrap of ribbon that came from an orts bag from Yodamo silk. These are little $4 and $6 bags of miscellaneous ends of silk ribbon which are great for scraps and such.

You can find pretty much all the stitches used above in my Video Library of Stitches.

I plan on posting exact instructions for making the cover - it's not complicated at all, and it's a great and relaxing project for any kid - no matter how old!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery for children, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 26, 2007
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

This embroidered quilt square of an old-fashioned Sunbonnet Sue was worked in simple embroidery stitches on flannel, using stranded cotton. I've already displayed the complete Sunbonnet Garden square, but I thought you might want to see some close-ups with some embroidery stitch explanations.

This embroidered quilt square is an 8-inch square, in soft pink flannel. I transferred the design by tracing it with a Macro art marker in two stages: first, I traced the Sunbonnet girl, which I had saved on my computer. I sized the pattern in Photoshop, then traced it using my monitor as a "light box." I don't necessarily suggest this practice - but it worked for me!

After I finished the girl, I wanted to add a garden, so I flipped through my copies of Inspiration Magazine, looking for a little inspiration. I found a great pattern for a needlecase in issue #53, and I drew my garden from that. I loved the fact that the needlecase had bees on it - so I had to have a bee, too!



This little bee is worked in the following order: first, a bullion stitch in yellow forms the body; second, using black, I added some stripes and a head by just couching over the bullion; last, a couple lazy daisy stitches make the wings. The flight trail was originally going to be worked in a dashed black line using running stitch, but instead, I decided to use white so the contrast was not so obvious. Unfortunately, the write in running stitch didn't show up too well, so I decided to use a whipped running stitch instead.



The flowers in Sue's apron are a combination of lazy daisy (petals and leaves), straight stitches, and French knots.



The daisies in the flower bed are the same - on some of them, I filled in the centers of the lazy daisy stitch with straight stitches in a contrasting color. The centers of the flowers, for the most part, are French knots.



The hollyhocks are made out of buttonhole wheels, and the centers are satin stitched in yellow. I've posted before about hollyhocks - I think they make great flowers in embroidered flower gardens! The leaves are worked in fishbone stitch.



Sunbonnet Sue's dress was a lot of fun! It is outlined in a medium purple, in stem stitch, using two strands of DMC. Then, I added a horizontal fly stitch border in green. The little flowers that make up the print of the fabric are just straight stitches, worked in one strand of DMC. Then I speckled the background of the fabric with light green straight stitches, randomly scattered all over.



Now, her little sleeve was troublesome. Originally, I planned to work it in white, so I stem stitched a white outline around the whole thing, and then added white seed stitches in the middle. I embroidered the cuff of the sleeve in white, in a padded satin stitch. But the whole thing looked awful, primarily because it didn't show up well. So I decided to go with green, but I couldn't pick all those stitches out, or I would have ruined the fabric. Instead, I whipped the stem stitch with the green, covering up the white completely. Then I added green seed stitches, intermingling them with the white. On the cuff, I worked a series of horizontal fly stitches so that it would look a bit lacy.



The apron is worked in two strands of medium pink DMC, the outline in a whipped stem stitch, then the whole thing filled in with seed stitch. I wanted a contrast between the front of the apron and the turned up hem, so I just worked the seed stitches closer together on the turned up part of the apron.



I was somewhat pleased with the way the bonnet turned out, especially considering that, when I started it, I didn't like it! The blue on the outline was a little too dark. I worked the outline in backstitch, so I was able to whip the backstitch with a lighter blue to lighten the whole thing up. I was going to leave the inside of the bonnet blank, but it looked "too" blank, so I worked double straight stitches of light blue in a semi-pattern over the whole thing. The flowers on the band are straight stitches (two for each petal, worked in the same hole) and French knots.

So there's my little Sunbonnet Garden Girl. I like her! I think the quilt will be darling - and I can't wait to see it, either!

I think this square is a good example of what you can do with random mixed simple stitches. There's nothing difficult about any of the stitches in this particular square. If you want to learn them, please check out my video library of hand embroidery stitches.

Have fun stitching!

Labels: beginner embroidery, guild, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, May 08, 2007
PermaLink  |  1 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's a video tutorial for a rose bud made out of bullion knots. The bullion knot can be used to make beautiful roses and rose buds, and, believe it or not, they're actually really simple to make once you get the hang of it!

The video tutorial for the bullion rose bud is rather long. It covers not only making the bullion rose bud, but also beginning and ending your threads when making little flowers like the bullion rose bud.



This is the bud that I make in the video. The filming was done a bit farther away than usual, but I think you can get the gist of the method pretty clearly. This is the order of stitching:

1. The first center bullion in stitched in dark pink or red. It's the bullion on the left in the picture.
2. The second center bullion is stitched in dark pink or red, to the right of the first stitch. It's a little bit longer than the first stitch.
3. The third bullion is stitched in medium pink, to the right of the second stitch, starting just above and to the right of it, and wrapping down below the middle of the two center stitches.
4. The fourth bullion is stitched in medium pink, to the left of the first center stitch. The stitch actually begins above the first center stitch, and wraps around below bullion #3.
5. The fifth bullion is stitched in medium pink, immediately to the left of bullion #4, and a little bit lower, wrapping around below and slightly to the right of the last stitch.
6. The sixth bullion is stitched in light pink, to the right of bullion #3 (on the right side of the bud). It starts slightly lower than bullion #3, and wraps around below the end of bullion #5.

After the sixth bullion is completed, a fly stitch is used to add the green at the base of the bud.

This may sound confusing, but if you watch the video, you'll see how easy it really is to make perfect little bullion rose buds!

You'll need three colors to make this bud: a dark pink or red, a medium pink, and a light pink. I'm using 2 strands of DMC in the video, with a milliner needle, on a tightly woven, high thread count muslin.

Here's the video:



If you want to learn basic embroidery stitches, check out the rest of the embroidery video tutorials available in my Video Library of Stitches. Feel free to share the link with stitching friends, or people just getting into the art of embroidery!

Have fun with it!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, May 06, 2007
PermaLink  |  14 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont is hosted online by Project Gutenburg. Thanks to Sharon for the link - it's a great learning tool for any level of embroiderer. What will you find in the book?

There are about 600 pages in the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont, and within those pages, you'll find just about any technique related to needlework. Some techniques are covered more thoroughly than others, and, like many old books, the author assumes familiarity with the basics. However, this isn't to deter the modern needleworker! You'll find fantastic patterns, ideas, and inspiration that will enhance your future projects.

Take, for example, the section on Venetian Lace.



While Venetian lace may not be part of your embroidery repertoire, the design is certainly adaptable to other embroidery styles, such as Jacobean or crewel work.

If you like blackwork and other counted thread techniques traditionally worked on linen, you will love the section on patterns for linen embroidery. You'll find an array of patterns that can be modified for all kinds of projects!



The encyclopedia even has step by step instructions on knitting and crochet.

If you haven't perused the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont yet, take some time to browse through it, and add it to your favorites! It's a great resource for any needleworker! Enjoy!

Labels: book review, embroidery books, embroidery resources, Hand embroidery stitches, historical needlework

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, May 04, 2007
PermaLink  |  1 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's another video tutorial for hand embroidery stitches - this one is for the Palestrina stitch. Palestrina stitch is used for outlining or filling and is common in both Jacobean designs as well as in Mountmellick embroidery, the latter because it gives a highly textured line or fill area.

The line produced in Palestrina stitch is bumpy! Evenly spaced along the line are knots that have one little arm that extends slightly, and which, when exaggerated, gives a barbed look to the completed stitch. I like this particular online illustration of Palestrina stitch at Mani di Fata. You'll find there a photo of the stitch, as well as drawn instructions for completing it.



To create a filled area with Palestrina stitch, you simply work rows of it next to each other, alternating the placement of the knots, and creating a highly textured filling. You can work the first row from left to right, then come back from right to left (either turning your hoop over or working the stitch backwards), or you can work all rows from the same direction. One thing I have noticed when using Palestrina stitch as a filling, though, is that the knots do look slightly different when worked from different directions. It doesn't ruin the look of the filling at all, to have the alternating rows also reflect the directional change - but you should practice with it to see which look you like better.



You can also vary the look of the Palestrina stitch by working it on a diagonal (instead of using straight stitches in line, as I do in the video). When you work your knot around a straight stitch worked diagonal to the line you are covering, the effect is much like a buttonhole stitch that has a knot at the anchoring point. You can futher alter the look of the stitch by increasing the length of the "arm" of the first wrap stitch. After watching the video, play around with the stitch to see what you can do with it!

In the video, I'm working on 36 ct. Edinburgh linen, using perle cotton #5. You can work this stitch on any fabric, though, and with any thread, really. The finer the thread, the finer the line. It takes curves well, too, by the way!

Enjoy the video, and please let me know if you want any clarification on anything!



For more video tutorials for hand embroidery stitches, please visit the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, April 16, 2007
PermaLink  |  14 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Finally, a video tutorial for bullion knots used in hand embroidery! I've received heaps of requests for this stitch, and I've finally managed a video that isn't all fingers and no needle and thread! To do this, I filmed a bit further back than usual, so the stitch is not as "close up." Still, the method is visible.

The bullion knot needs a little practice to get it just right, and to be able to vary your technique to get the results you desire. Some useful tips before watching the video and trying the stitch:

1. The needle you use in important. While it is not impossible to create bullions with other needles, you'll get easier results with a milliner (or straw) needle. The difference between milliner needles and other needles is that the entire shaft of the needle is the same diameter, so the eye doesn't bulge. This makes it easier to pull the needle through the wraps in the thread. If you don't have a milliner needle, invest in a packet of various sizes. If you want to try the stitch without one, go for it! Just remember that, when you're pulling your needle through the wraps of thread, you'll really want to make certain that it comes through easily, so you may have to relax the tension on the wraps a little bit.

2. When you wrap your threads around the needle, you want them to follow the natural twist of the thread. So, for most stranded cottons and everyday threads, you're going to wrap your thread clockwise around the needle. The way to tell if you're going in the right direction is this: if, as you wrap your thread around the needle, the strands of thread start to untwist and separate, you're going in the wrong direction.

3. If you're having trouble getting the needle through the wraps, you can roll your thumb over the wraps lightly, back and forth, which will loosen them. Another trick is to roll your needle between your finger and thumb, back and forth in small movements, before you pull your thread through.



In the video, I'm using a milliner needle with two strands of stranded cotton (DMC). I'm working on Edinburgh linen (36 ct) which is set up in a hoop. I prefer working bullions in hand, without a hoop, because, as you pull your thread through, you can gauge the "finish" of the stitch by the little pleat that will form in the fabric. Then you simply smooth the pleat out, and the stitch will lie right down. This doesn't really happen in a hoop, but it doesn't matter - you can get results that are just as good in a hoop!

Also, I prefer working bullions on a smaller weave fabric, like a good muslin or a batiste (for little girls' dresses and such) or on doctor's flannel for blankets and whatnot. But that's just a personal preference.



You can do great things with bullions! The A-Z of Bullions put out by Country Bumpkin publications has so many ingenious ideas for the stitch - besides the typical bullion rose bud or rose, you can create teddy bears, clowns, other flowers, and all kinds of neat texturized accents. It's a fun stitch that, with a little practice, will surely become a favorite.



So, here's the video! Enjoy - and let me know what you think. If you think the stitch requires more explanation, don't hesitate to let me know!



For more video tutorials for hand embroidery stitches, visit the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, April 15, 2007
PermaLink  |  27 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Our embroidery guild is producing some embroidered baby quilts to raffle for fundraising. I didn't have time to contribute to the production of the embroidered squares for the boy's quilt, because I was working on a huge project with a looming deadline. We found we were two squares short, somehow, for the girl's quilt, so, thinking it would be nice to have a relaxing and "fun" embroidery project (that wouldn't really take too much time), I set up the two squares. This particular square I'm working on right now has plenty of seed stitching in it.

I found this butterfly embroidery pattern on Needlecrafter, I believe. There are some excellent free embroidery patterns available on that website.

So I started out with this little butterfly, and as I was working on it, I realized I wanted more color. The design is stitched on a pink quilter's flannel. I wanted to go with the pastels that are in the rest of the quilt fabric, but the whole design didn't seem to stand out too well if only outlined. So seed stitch seemed like the perfect option for a light filling.

Here's a photo of the square so far:



One of the little lines in the top wing is squiggling a bit: a good lesson - remember, when you transfer your design, if you draw it inaccurately and don't correct it, it WILL show up in your stitching! So I may take that out and correct it... or not. We'll see how noticeable it is when all is done.

Speaking of transferring designs, being pressed for time, I cheated on this one! I opened the design up in my photo editing program, reduced it to fit within a 6-inch hoop, and, holding the fabric on my monitor, traced it onto the fabric! Now, a word of advice: if you have an LCD monitor, be very, very careful if doing something like this!! You could damage it. I didn't, but I realized I easily could have!

Here's some of the seed stitching up close:



That's the inside of the wing. The lines are stitched in a whipped backstitch, using two strands of purple DMC for the base line in backstitch, and one strand of the green for the whipped running stitch. The whole butterfly wing is outlined in stem stitch.



You can see the medium purple seed stitching here - it's the same color on the head of the butterfly's body, which is worked in satin stitch.



I like using seed stitch for filling this kind of an area - it adds a "light" filling that almost looks as if it's dry-brushed in. Granted, the yellow reminds me a bit too much of cornmeal. But overall, I like the effect! Fun stuff with simple stitches!

Labels: beginner embroidery, guild, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, April 12, 2007
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, March 25, 2007
PermaLink  |  13 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

When I reviewed Floresita's vintage embroidery pattern site, I made the mistake of attributing the Vogart library to Floresita, who pointed out that it actually belongs to Jane Stockton. My apologies to Jane Stockton! I found out from Floresita that Jane also has an embroidery site - come to find out it's one I'm pretty familiar with, as I check it fairly regularly.

The Needles Excellency is a site devoted to historical needlework, and right now, Jane Stockton has updated her latest project, which is a hanging worked in klosterstitch. Check out her progress! It's really fantastic. I'd love to know more about the hanging - the design, for example, and the symbols on it, the choice of threads, and whatnot. It's really quite beautiful so far!



Klosterstitch is a "couch as you go" kind of stitch. It's also called Romanian couching, or Bokhara. "Kloster" meaning "cloister," it has roots in convent embroidery - that is, embroidery done for the Church. While I don't have the opportunity right now to add Romanian couching to my Video Library of Stitches, I do have it on my list of stitches I want to add. In the meantime, you might want to read about Romanian couching and see how it's worked.

Thanks, Jane, for a magnificent and fun website! Good luck on your Klosterstitch hanging! And my apologies for the misdirection on your Vogart Library!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, embroidery links, Hand embroidery stitches, historical needlework

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, March 22, 2007
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The members of our embroidery guild are embroidering baby quilts as a fund-raising project. The quilts are made out of flannel in baby colors and designs. Right now, the guild ladies are finishing up their blocks so that the quilts can be assembled. When they're finished, I think they're going to be really cute! So I thought I'd share a couple photos of one of the blocks for now and tell you a little bit of how we're going about it, and I'll show the completed quilts and other blocks when they're turned in.

The first quilt block is an embroidered Little Dutch Girl, done in pinks rather than blues. The embroidered squares for the baby girl quilt are pink quilter's flannel (with the nap of the flannel on one side, smooth on the other). Most of the ladies used Solvy to transfer the designs, which is better, I think, than using the blue transfer pens, although some did use those, too. I've heard a lot of horror stories lately about blue transfer pens!



The stitching is all done in simple stitches. Here, the majority of the stitching is stem stitch, with a few straight stitches thrown in here and there. You can see a version of Algerian Eye on the skirt (six-pointed). You can see the Solvy in the photo. It'll be removed before squaring up the blocks.



Here's a close-up on her little embroidered cape, which is worked in two strands of DMC in stem stitch. She did a really nice, precise job with her stem stitch!



The skirt is detailed with these little six-pointed Algerian Eyes. You can see the permanent marker on the Solvy behind the stitches. This will rinse out when the Solvy is dissolved.



Here's the waste-line of the little dress, worked in stem stitch. I like the selection of colors - the light pinks and dark pinks for the dress. It's just so... girly!



What embroidered Little Dutch Girl would be complete without embroidered tulips? Here's her little face, with pointed nose, and little purple tulips.



And some blonde hair in a little pony tale to top it off, with a little pink bow.

The ladies are doing a great job on their squares - most of the members of our little group are beginners, but they're starting to "branch out" and take on challenging projects, which is great to see! We're lucky to have a great group of talented and devoted ladies! It's such fun!

We're going to be raffling a boy's quilt and a girl's quilt to raise funds for future projects. I'll let you know how it goes and I'll post some pictures as the quilts go together.

Labels: beginner embroidery, guild, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, wip

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, March 11, 2007
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, February 25, 2007
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Here's an interesting close up on an embroidery stitch. Off the bat, I said it's a bullion stitch, but as I keep inspecting it, I wonder...

It occurred to me that it may not be a bullion stitch after all, although I can't think of how else this look was created. So I thought I'd throw it out here to readers and see if anyone has any other ideas how this wooly look was created. It's obvious that there's a layer underneath of either long and short stitch, split stitch, or stem stitch, and that the "loopy" part is stitched kind of in between and on top of this first layer. Could the embroiderer have looped the thread over the "ridges" formed by an under layer of, say, stem stitch, leaving a loopy space using a laying tool or something of that sort? Or do you think it's really all bullions? Anyone? Anyone??



If you can figure it out, I'm all ears!!

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, February 23, 2007
PermaLink  |  11 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

This week's embroidery stitch introduced on the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge is Algerian Eye. I played with it on blue silk shantung, using various white silks.

The Algerian Eye stitch is simple enough, but there are plenty of variations and creative things you can do with it. If you want to see what I mean, check out the Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) posts on In a Minute Ago.

I didn't do anything spectacular - just played with a six-pointed variation of the stitch, working on blue silk shantung with various weights of white silk thread. The overall idea (in my mind, anyway) was snowflakes.



There's not much contrast between the fabric and the stitches - and it's even more the case in person. They just kind of "melt" into the fabric.



I used the following silks: YLI (one strand of white); Au Ver a Soie 100/3; Au Ver a Soie Soie Gobelins (it's the heavier twisted one); Pearsall's; and finally Soie d'Alger. I worked in an area about 2" x 3" - not a very big snowstorm!

I think this would make a good background for a scene reminiscent of snow - to build on it with other stitches would be fun, adding some silvers and very subtle blues or greys. Some day, some day!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, silk, stitch challenge

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, February 10, 2007
PermaLink  |  1 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Lattice work is used as filling or for backgrounds. Worked on a plain ground (with only the fabric behind the lattice stitches) it can be easily managed by beginners. Adding a colored background (for example, a background worked in satin stitch) kicks the stitch up a notch to intermediate level. Here's a video tutorial on working lattice stitch over a satin stitch ground.

Whether you decide to work lattice stitch over another layer of ground stitches or right on top of the fabric is up to you, depending on what effect you want. The principles for the actually lattice part of the technique are the same: lay down your crossing threads, then couch them at the intersections.

In the video below, I'm taking you through the satin stitching for the background of the lattice work, and then laying the lattice threads, then couching them, and finishing with a decorative border. Here's the result of the piece I'm working on in the video. It's about an inch square.



Since I'm working with untwisted silk threads (flat silk) for the blue background, I cover some techniques of working with these threads in the video.

A few notes about the video itself, before you launch in: 1. It's rather long - almost 10 minutes; 2. The sound is just slightly "off" - after editing the video and sound three times and saving the file to check again and again, I finally had to leave it as it is. It's not too bad, but you'll see me doing things right before you hear me talking about them! Sorry about that!

Although I would classify this as an intermediate technique overall (especially when embroidering the background in satin stitching in flat silk), it is still accessible for beginners. It just takes patience! You can certainly stitch the background with other threads - and you can simply use a filling stitch such as long and short stitch, instead of satin stitch. Experiment with it! And, while this is worked on a square, keep in mind that lattice stitching can be used to fill any shape or background.

Here's the video:



For more video tutorials, please visit the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, silk, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, February 06, 2007
PermaLink  |  3 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The Chevron Stitch is used in hand embroidery to work decorative bands and seam embellishments. It's a great stitch for smocking, too. Chevron Stitch is a lot like the herringbone stitch, differing only slightly by the fact that the stitches on the upwards stroke do not cross over the downward stroke stitches. It also sports a little straight stitch cap at the top and base of each triangle shape.

The stitch is pretty simple. In the video, I'm working on a counted fabric, which makes it even easier, but it can be worked on plain weave as well. I think it's more suitable to straight lines than curves, but you can play around with it to see how it takes curves for you. You can make up composite bands with it (that is, layering the stitches), and get creative with spacing and height.

This is what the stitch looks like:



You can find more images of the Chevron Stitch in my mini-sampler here.

Here's the video:



For more video tutorials, please visit the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, February 03, 2007
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Chevron Stitch is used in hand embroidery in a variety of ways, especially as a seam treatment in crazy quilting or as a decorative stitch in smocking. Chevron Stitch is similar in a lot of ways to Herringbone Stitch, and just as easy to work. Here are some photos of a "mini sampler" worked in Chevron Stitch for the TAST Challenge.

If you are unfamiliar with the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge, you will find it explained on Sharon's Inaminuteago Blog. The whole idea of the challenge is to explore different embroidery stitches. Sharon posts each week's stitch on her blog on Tuesday (Monday evening in the States), and those who are interested "stitch along" with the other participants, exploring a variety of hand embroidery stitches. It's a great way for the beginner to become familiar with a variety of stitches. Each week, Sharon posts a "round up" of sites with photos of the stitch - a great source of inspiration for anyone interested in hand embroidery!

Last Tuesday, Sharon proposed Chevron Stitch. For the first time in many weeks, I've been able to do some casual night stitching, and produced this little sampler, which is about 3 x 4 inches. My own personal rules for participating in the challenge are to use what I have (no buying new materials right now!), to stitch only within a 6-inch hoop (makes it easy for hand-holding), and to post on the weekends during the weeks I have time to keep up with the challenge. These rules help keep me in line and help regulate my time between what I call "casual" embroidery and "work" embroidery. The "work" embroidery has set deadlines, so it has to be a priority!

On to it, then - here's my mini sampler:



I worked it on linen - sold as a "counted" linen, but it's not an even weave, as the warp and waft threads are not even remotely similar! I used a variety of stranded embroidery cotton - DMC, Weeks Dye Works, some hand-dyed stuff, etc. The ribbon is a scrap of YLI silk I had on hand. I don't do a lot of work on "counted" material, so this was fun. I liked the symmetry for a change.

Some close-ups:



This is Chevron Stitch worked in a square of sorts - but, considering that the stitch is isolated and doesn't really move from stitch to stitch, I wonder if it can legitimately be called "Chevron Stitch." Whatever the case, it looks more or less the same.



These are a few stacked little Chevrons.



And a few woven in different sizes along the same line...



A few more stacked and staggered a little differently...



These are literally stacked, one on top of the other. Just playing a bit with the color scheme - I think stacked like this, they'd look great in smocking, to fill in a larger band area.



Couching a ribbon...



And staggering and stacking again.

So there it is!

I've only worked one other week so far in this challenge - but as the year progresses and these little samples build up, I think they would make great additions for a "stitch book" to display different basic embroidery stitches. So that's my plan...

Check out the challenge if you have a chance and are interested! It's fun!

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, stitch challenge

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, February 03, 2007
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, January 28, 2007
PermaLink  |  1 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

Well, I'm sorry to say I missed the round up for the Stitch Challenge, but here are my results of messing around with herringbone stitch. I've always seen herringbone worked mostly in lines. Sometimes, we get creative with it and wave it up a bit by changing the lengths of the "arms" ... but I figured it would be fun to see how herringbone works out in the round - that is, stitched in a circle.

Sticking with my resolutions, I dug for some fabric, and came up with the same old velveteen I've been working on all year. Eventually, I will get rid of this stuff! But I like red, so I wasn't too distraught. I didn't want to use linen or evenweave of any kind. After all, there's little point in evenweave when working around a circle!

Using a compass, I drew several concentric circles on tissue paper and marked off spots at even intervals around the circumference of each circle. I then transferred the dots to the fabric using a pencil. This would at least give me reference points for stitches. After all, drawing a circle free-hand is hard enough - stitching one? I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it!

Here's an overall view of my results with the whole stitching adventure. As you can see, I didn't do anything too wild and crazy with the stitch.



I began with the inside circle, and worked outwards. The interior circle is double herringbone stitch, worked in an overdyed stranded cotton. You can see how working in a circle slightly distorts the shape of the stitch, giving it a larger base on the inside diamond shape, with a narrower tip.



The second circle is herringbone stitch, woven and worked right next to each other in three colors. I wove the right side of the "V" of each stitch (the "up" thread) underneath the one stitched previously, to give an overlapping, folded look to the stitch.





The third circle is double herringbone, worked in #5 perle cotton (pink and blue). I stitched a straight stitch in green stranded cotton over the middle intersection of each double herringbone, and two lazy daisy stitches shooting out from the intersection. Then, for the fun of it, I stitched a single blue bead in the middle. Unfortunately, I didn't have the proper thread in my stash for securing beads, but I kept to my resolution and used only what was in my stash - color-matching as best as I could to a stranded floss, and using one strand to secure the beads.



The last circle is made of two rows of very wide herringbone stitches worked in blue stranded cotton, and then the double part of the herringbone was created using a green silk ribbon. After stitching the herringbone in ribbon, I added a French knot on each tip of the green ribbon. The knots are in an overdyed cotton, the size of #5 perle.



I always like to take shots of my work at or close to eye level, while it's still in the hoop or frame. I don't know - I just think it's kind of neat.

So there's my experiment with herringbone in the round. I'm looking forward to seeing what's up for the challenge this Tuesday, though if I keep missing the round up, I don't think I'll bother with the pressure of keeping up, since I've only got a short few hours on the weekends to work on this, and can't post until Sunday. We'll just have to wait and see!

If you want to check out all those included in this week's round up, check out the inaminuteago blog.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, stitch challenge

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, January 06, 2007
PermaLink  |  6 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, January 06, 2007
PermaLink  |  0 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

If you are a beginner at hand embroidery, one of the first stitches you will probably learn is the chain stitch. The chain stitch has many variations, and one of them is the wheat stitch. This stitch, illustrated below, is simple to work and produces a line that resembles a shaft of wheat. The stitch can be used in all kinds of applications - it would make great background greenery in flowers and gardens, it can also serve as a seam embellishment in crazy quilting, and it can serve as a simple decorative line. Of course, it can also work as individual stalks of wheat.

Below, you can see a tiny example of wheat stitch used in church embroidery, worked in one strand of YLI silk on linen. This example is rather small, but you can see how the wheat motif is simple to execute using the wheat stitch. If you vary the types and weights of your threads, you will achieve a different look.



Experiment with this stitch! It has a lot of potential as a useful stitch in any embroiderer's repetoire.

The video below is not filmed using my new contraption - rather, it's one I've had in the works for a while. Still, it came out "ok" - you'll get the gist of the stitch.

Have fun with it!



For more hand embroidery video tutorials, please visit the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, pictures, video tutorials

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, January 01, 2007
PermaLink  |  2 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this

 

The cover for my needlebook (or, as some may call it, a "hussif") is coming along. I've almost finished embroidering the back of it, and then will only have one more panel. Then I can add the inside layer, embroider the book spines, and start on the little inside accessory spaces.

The whole project is developing according to practically no plan at all, so I don't actually guarantee the finished product! I have an idea in my head of what I want it to look like, so hopefully it will turn out the way I want it to. It's nothing fancy. It started as a road trip project, and I've posted a couple updates, here and here, along the way.

So, here is a photo of the front and back, side by side:



The space between the two panels is about three quarters of an inch. This will serve as a spine, into which I will stitch another "page" in the book, and then I'll cover the spine with some decorative stitches. The left side in this photo will be the back.



Here's a close-up of a good bit of the back panel, and you can see that some of the stitching is not yet complete. For example, I still have to fill in a few of the flowers, add leaves, etc.



This little section is made up of a variety of stitches. The bold blue line is Portuguese knotted stem stitch. On the outside of this, in light blue forming the little pointed outline, is a fly stitch border. Inside the "wave" are a few rows of open buttonhole, and then a stem stitch filled area (in green), and the center of the motif is filled with lazy daisies with French knot centers. On the right side under the tip of the wave is a ribbed spider web wheel, surrounded by chain stitch, with some feather stitching filling in.



Here's another close up of a part of the back panel. The waves or swishes are stem stitch, used as filling. There's a little cluster of French knots filling in down at the base of the photo, and some seeding can be seen above the dark green chain stitch band.

I've been using a variety of threads in the whole thing: regular stranded DMC, variegated DMC, Caron Collection Waterlilies (overdyed silk) and Watercolors (overdyed cotton), DMC Perle #5, Eterna silks - twists and minitwists, some (but not much) Soie d'Alger, and some YLI silk ribbon.



Towards the bottom of this photo, the green band with the blue isolated chain stitches, is a length of YLI ribbon, which I stitched down and then worked the isolated chain stitches over. Directly above that line is a whipped stem stitch, which began with a coral-colored stem stitch, whipped with green. Directly above this is a blue band of heavy chain stitch. Directly above this, I couched some yellow DMC Perle #3 with some pink Perle #5, in a kind of bricking pattern. Some of the stitches have been joggled about a bit, due to carelessness in holding the project (I'm working in-hand, as opposed to on a hoop or frame).

Above the couched line is a buttonhole line in pink, topped with purple French knots, and floating above all that is a random selection of leaves worked in fishbone stitch. The leaves adorn the purple flower, which is made up of two layers of lazy daisy in dark purple and light, and which hasn't been filled in the center yet.

The "V" directly above this is worked in cretan stitch, edged with stem stitch in purple on the bottom of the band, and chain stitch on the top of the band. Another spider web wheel surrounded by buttonhole stitch is worked inside the "V."



This is a close-up of stem stitch used as filling. You can also see, in the distance in a variegated pink / yellow silk, a flower worked in bullion stitch.



And, a final shot, this is back to the front panel, looking at my favorite part of it. I prefer the front panel. I think I got carried away on the back panel, so that things look a bit too thick for me there. The front has a crisp look to it, despite the crowded areas, whereas the back seems to jumble together a bit too much. Still, I'm having fun working on it. I've got a commissioned project, though, that's demanding my attention now and probably into March, so I'll just be snatching a few stitches here and there on this one, as time allows. It may be a while before the project is completed! But I won't relegate it to the deep interiors of the closet just yet!

Again, all these are pretty much what I would call "basic" embroidery stitches (although the bullion stitch takes a little practice), and you can find video tutorials for most of the stitches in the Video Library of Stitches Index.

Labels: beginner embroidery, Hand embroidery stitches, needlecase, wip

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, December 28, 2006
PermaLink  |  8 comments  | Click to Comment

Share this