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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, November 05, 2009
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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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, November 04, 2009
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Ilke, a reader from the UK, worked the following piece in order to compare different types of flat silk. She has written a comprehensive comparison between five flat (or "semi-flat" - if that's an acceptible term!) silks available on today's market: Eterna, Au Ver a Soie's Soie Ovale, Piper's (which is also the same as Helen Stevens's True Embroideries Sleave Silk), JEC flat silk from the Japanese Embroidery Center, and House of Embroidery's Fine Flat Silk. She also includes Pearsall's Filofloss, which has been discontinued. For her impressions of these different silks, and a close-up look at them stitched, read on...

First, we'll begin with the stitched piece that Ilke uses to demonstrate the various silks she is comparing in this "experiment." I've left the photo rather large so that you can click on it and look at the stitches fairly close.



Now, I'm going to let Ilke tell you all about her experiment. You'll find some very useful and thorough information here - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This is a comparison experiment between the flat silks I've got. There are quite a few, but for the moment I will ignore the ones which either come in very few shades (like Erawan Thai silk), or which come in variegated shades only (like Stef Francis), because they aren't suitable if you want to build up a collection with a good range of shades for ordinary charts (as opposed to monochrome designs, blackwork, Assisi designs or charts which are specifically designed for variegated threads).

Five flat silks remain: Eterna Stranded (ES), Au Ver á Soie Soie Ovale (SO), Pipers 90 Floss Silk (P), JEC Flat Silk (JEC), and House of Embroidery Fine Flat Silk (HE) (which is strictly speaking variegated, but has quite a few shades which are only very softly shaded). I've added a sixth silk, Pearsall's Filofloss (PF) – it's a flat silk which came in many different colours, but it has unfortunately been discontinued and replaced with Filoselle, which is a twisted silk.

All six silks are filament (reeled) silk (with the possible exception of HE); this means that the very fine filaments that make up the thread were reeled in one continuous strand from the silk moth's cocoon, and not spun from short pieces and leftover odds and ends. Because filament silks are built up out of continuous filaments, they are stronger and less prone to fuzziness than spun silks. On the other hand, they do tend to snag quite easily, on anything that isn't smooth – the edge of your fabric, rough skin, anything. Fortunately, it is also easily smoothed back into shape again, and can then be used again without looking any the worse for it.

ES and PF are stranded silks, 12 and 6 strands respectively, but because ES strands are so fine, the threads come to roughly the same thickness. ES strands are about 1/2a strand of DMC, PF strands are a little heavier than a strand of DMC.
SO, P, JEC and HE are single-stranded silks. SO is about 2 strands of DMC, JEC a little less than 2 strands, HE about 1 strand, P is about 1/2 a strand. SO and JEC, being thicker than the others, are a little less versatile in playing with different amounts of coverage, although they can be divided by very carefully separating the filaments (up to 16) which make up the threads – this is rather a fiddly job, though.
Each of these flat silks actually seem to give better coverage than their thickness would make you expect, because the silk lies flat and has a higher lustre than stranded cotton.

ES comes in 545 shades, in 5m skeins at $1.05
SO comes in about 50 shades, in 15m reels at $2.20
P comes in 224 shades, in 80m or 150m reels at $1 or £1.65
JEC comes in about 250 shades, in 60m reels at $7 or £4.70
HE comes in about 100 shades, in 30m card bobbins at £2.25 (100m reels are available direct from H of E, but I don't know the price)
PF is no longer available; I don't know how many shades it came in.

The amount of "coverage" you get per skein or reel compared to DMC stranded cotton is approximately as follows:
ES equals about 5m of DMC ($0.21/m)
SO equals about 5m of DMC ($0.44/m)
P equals about 6 1/2 or 12m of DMC (£0.15/m or £0.14/m)
JEC equals about 18m of DMC ($0.39/m or £0.26/m)
HE equals about 5m of DMC (£0.45/m)

Of these, I have read that only JEC is a truly flat silk. In practice there is little difference with P and OS, but ES, HE and PF are indeed a little less flat. In the case of ES and PF this may be because they are stranded, and have a slight twist to combine the strands, even though the strands themselves are flat. P and HE will usually have to be combined to get the required thickness, and so need occasional smoothing with the needle to get it to lie fully flat when stitched.

The project is stitched on burgundy 28ct Lugana over two.

I started with Eterna Stranded (the darker part of the rose). For good coverage, 5 strands are required. The strands lie quite flat without much help, although occasionally it needs a little smoothing with the needle. The silk snags fairly easily, but is as easily smoothed back into shape again. On the whole it is quite easy to work with, and it has a strong lustre. Drawbacks to this silk are that occasionally a skein may have some unevenness in some of the strands which cannot be smoothed out, and sometimes even broken strands; there are also occasional irregularities in the dyeing, leaving white spots. Even when this happens, however, only a very small part of the skein is rendered unusable, and as it is one of the cheapest flat silks around it is no great burden to buy a little more than you need, just in case.

The second part was stitched with JEC Flat Silk (the lighter part of the rose). In order to experiment with coverage, I stitched the left-hand petals using one thread, and the right-hand ones using a double thread. For good coverage, the double thread is needed; a single thread gives a more lacy effect. The thread lies perfectly flat without any assistance, but it does snag on absolutely everything, so it is essential to make sure that the edges of your fabric are smooth. As with the Eterna silk, however, this snagging has no lasting effect on its smoothness or its lustre, which is very strong with a slight haziness to the shine. In spite of the snagging, I found this a lovely silk to work with simply because it feels so smooth and looks lovely the moment you've laid a stitch; the sheen is very visible even when only one thread is used, but even stronger with a double thread (as there is more surface).

I then used House of Embroidery Fine Flat Silk for the top left-hand leaf. This silk surprised me, as it looks as though it has a very slight twist which might affect its sheen, but it stitches up beautifully with a lovely strong lustre. A double thread gives good coverage, and it is easy to work with, hardly snagging at all. It feels a little more springy than the other silks, and needs good tension and railroading to lie nice and flat.

The next leaf down is done in Pearsall's FiloFloss. Two strands give very good coverage, and apart from some slight snagging it is easy to work with, although it does need "dangling" occasionally to make sure it doesn't tangle, something none of the other silks seems to need a lot. This has a moderate lustre, and when stitched does show a slight twist, although only when compared to other flat silks.

The top right-hand leaf and the stem are stitched in Pipers 90 denier Silk Floss. This is the thinnest of the silks, and needs four threads to get satisfactory coverage; in some cases five or six threads may be needed. Although it is a bit fiddly to cut all the threads to the same length and smooth them together into one thread, once you're stitching with it, it behaves beautifully. It needs a bit of smoothing and/or railroading to lie flat, but it doesn't snag, and it has a good lustre.

Finally the lower right-hand leaf was done in Soie Ovale - the left-hand "leaflet" using a double thread, the other two using a single. On the reel, SO and JEC look very much the same thickness, but when stitched there is a clear difference, with SO giving much better coverage; so much so that the double thread was really a bit too chunky for my taste on this 28ct. This silk is the worst for snagging after the JEC, but it is also one of the flattest, and lies flat without needing much encouragement beyond an occasional smoothing stroke of the needle. It has a strong but subtle lustre with the same slight haziness that JEC has - both are reminiscent of vintage silk in their look.

So which is the best silk? It's very difficult to say because so much of it is a matter of taste, and it will also vary with the project you are choosing your silk for. Personally, I like the strong but soft lustre of the absolutely flat silks Soie Ovale and JEC. The difficulty with both is the snagging, which can get a little frustrating if you've been too impatient to bind your fabric and haven't been looking after your hands so they're all rough :oops:... Simple care for the fabric and the hands should reduce the snagging greatly, though, so no real reason to steer clear of them. Another slight disadvantage is that for finer work, or for more control over the thickness of your thread, you have to separate the actual filaments, which can be done but is a bit fiddly. JEC beats SO here because it is a little thinner and so separating threads should only be necessary for things like miniature embroidery. JEC also wins hands down when you compare the two in range of colour and price.

So what of the next flattest silk, Pipers 90 Silk Floss? I liked this more than I though I would - it is so thin I feared it wouldn't "gel" into a nice plump thread with a smooth surface, but it did; it also snagged very little. Other advantages are that it comes in a wide range of colours, is relatively cheap, and because of its thinness it is easy to combine into whatever thickness of thread you need. The combining is a little fiddly, even when you use a loop start and so have to cut only half the number of required threads, but I think you would quickly get used to it. One disadvantage is that the delivery times can be quite long, and emails don't always seem to get through, although when you actually call them and speak to them they are very helpful indeed.

Then the two "odd ones out" - FiloFloss because it is no longer available, and House of Embroidery because it comes in shaded rather than solid colours. Both are easy to work with, and HE actually had a much flatter look than I expected from the reel. HE is a good choice if you like the effect of subtle colour variation without going for full-blown variegated (although they do those as well). Most of the other silks which come in shaded colours (like some of the Dinky Dyes, Gloriana, Waterlilies, Belle Soie and so on) are not flat silks, and Stef Francis' flat silk tends to be bolder in its colour variations.

And finally the first flat silk I ever tried, Eterna Stranded. This has an awful lot going for it: it is inexpensive (even with a weak pound only Pipers comes close), comes in a staggering range of colours, and divides into thin strands so can easily be combined to any thickness. For snagging, it is average - better-behaved than SO and JEC, worse than P, HE and PF. For flatness and lustre, again average - it does not lie so naturally flat as SO and JEC, but needs less encouragement than P, HE and PF. The irregularities in the silk and the dyeing are a definite disadvantage, but this is compensated for by the price.

Final verdict:
For special projects I would go for SO (if the colours were available) or JEC, but they are too pricey and labour-intensive for "everyday" use. P is a very good alternative, although being so thin they are a pain to wind on bobbins (voice of experience there ...). I will certainly be expanding my collection of them over time. But if you want to use a flat silk almost in the way you would use your ordinary cottons, ES is probably the best choice because it has the widest colour range, is the least fiddly, and comes at an affordable price. HE are lovely for flat silk projects that need a little colour variation.

Thank you SO MUCH, Ilke, for this informative article! I'm eager to try House of Embroidery's thread - I haven't tried their silk! And I'm really grateful for your insight to the rest of these threads!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures, silk, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, November 02, 2009
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Happy Halloween, everyone. I've never really embroidered for Halloween before, but I do have two pumpkins I'll (re)share with you - resurrecting an old project that I had a lot of fun stitching!

These are embroidered pillowcases, and the theme for them is "opposites" - so I embroidered one black and one white pillowcase with faces. On the white pillow case, they're all awake and having a blast, and on the black pillowcase, they're snoozing away comfortably.



The pumpkin was easy enough to embroider while he was awake...



... but sleeping pumpkins pose a slight problem, when it comes to closing their eyes. When I worked this project, I think I embroidered those eyes two or three times, trying to get a "sleepy" look.



Yep, I can safely say this was one of my Just for Fun projects that was really fun!

I hope you have a fun day, that you get out and enjoy the autumn weather (if you're in the same hemisphere - spring, for the rest of you!), and that you have a terrific weekend!

Labels: embroidery for fun, holiday stitching, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 31, 2009
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Laurie Latour of Future Christian Homemakers is quite an enthusiast when it comes to hand embroidery on gingham. If you have not seen her Gingham Museum on her website, it is worth taking a look at, especially if you are interested in elaborate "chicken scratch" embroidery that is unique and really beautiful. She has quite a collection of embroidered aprons, and they're all detailed with close-up photos and commentary.

Laurie's been experimenting with gingham lately, coming up with several Christmas designs that are really attractive. I especially like this series of Christmas trees she's been working on, so I was very happy when she said I could share them with you.

Traditionally, embroidery on gingham is worked in white or in the color of the darkest square on the fabric. Laurie played a little with this, but found that contrasting colors worked best on this series of trees.

The trees are embroidered on 1/8" homespun fabric (available online through Jubilee Fabric), and their finished size is approximately 3.25" tall by 2.75" wide - the perfect size for an ornament or a Christmas card.



This first tree is worked with a combination of dark green and sparkly white thread - although I like it, I have to admit I like the trees worked in colors that contrast with the fabric better. Laurie used two strands of DMC 890 (green) for the tree, and two strands of Treasure Braid Petit High Gloss (P410) for the circles and x's.




I like this tree a better, with the green stitched on the red homespun. She used the same color green as on the tree above, but instead of the white braid, she used Treasure Braid Petite (PB68), a multi-colored sparkly thread. It's hard to capture the sparkle in the picture, but you can imagine how nice it looks if you're familiar at all with Rainbow Gallery's Treasure Braids (pictured down below).



This tree, I really like. I like the kelly green floss on the red, with the gold braid! It's very pretty, and oh-so-Christmassy.



This tree, however, is my absolute fave. I love the contrast of the bold red stitches, and I like the dark geen with the gold braid.

Which is your favorite, of the four trees above?



Although this isn't a full tutorial, if you are interested in working up some similar trees, in the photo above, you can see the "skeleton" pattern for the design. For further directions on gingham embroidery, you can check out some tips for embroidering on gingham at the Future Christian Homemakers website.



This, by the way, is Treasure Braid. You can find it at most local needlework shops that carry cross stitch or needlepointing supplies.



While wandering through Laurie's website, I came across this little book that Laurie publishes, Classic Prayers for Children. It is a sweet book of prayers and poems for children, beautifully illustrated. It struck me as a perfect stocking stuffer or First Communion treasure for little kids.

I love the work of preservation that Laurie is doing with gingham embroidery. She is building quite a collection of vintage gingham embroidery and documenting them so that we can see the unique designs and stitch combinations used in the technique. If yuou get a chance, make sure you check out her website!

Have a terrific weekend!

Labels: Christmas, embroidery for children, Embroidery for the Home, embroidery tips and tricks, gingham embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 30, 2009
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A couple weeks ago, I posted a hand embroidery pattern for a Quaker sampler design, converted for surface embroidery. I haven't had time to stitch it myself, but Jan Miller has. Using the bird in a tree design, Jan made a beautiful Christmas ornament - and she sent pictures. Thanks, Jan!

My first thought when I finished converting this design into a surface embroidery pattern was that it would make a pretty Christmas tree ornament. So I was delighted to see Jan's rendition.



Using simple stitches that suit the pattern very well, Jan stitched the ornament on white velvet, I think. She finished it with a matching hand-made tassel.



I love the dark green and the deep red - they suit the design. One reader suggested that simple color tones were best, rather than a variety of shades, since plain color choices would work best in keeping with the simplicity of the Quaker design.

I still want to stitch this pattern up, and hope to one of these days! Has anyone else tried this design? I'd love to see what other people do with it!

Thanks again, Janice, for sending along the pictures!

What are you working on? If you want to share photos of your recent needlework adventures, drop me a line!

Labels: Christmas, needlework pictures, pictures, Quaker designs, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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Sometimes, photos of needlework can be the best source of inspiration for me. When I see a beautiful piece of needlework in a photo, it makes me..... well. It makes me want to DO something - to make something beautiful! But the fact o' the matter is, there just aren't enough hours in the day, days in the week, weeks in the year to do all the needlework things I'd like to do! Do you ever feel that way? So, often, I content myself with looking at pictures. And along those lines, here are some photos of magnificent examples of Schwalm whitework embroidery.

These first two pieces belong to a friend, Joey, who helped Luzine Happel with the translation of two of her Schwalm embroidery books, Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework and Fancy Hems.



This first piece is a teacloth embroidered by Luzine. Isn't it gorgeous? You can click on the photo for a closer view of it. The stitching is so stunning! Check out the variety of filling stitches!



This second piece is a decorative pillow, with the Schwalm work covering a red pillow - which makes the whitework stand out beautifully. I had not considered finishing a whitework pillow this way, with a contrasting fabric behind the whitework, but it makes all the sense in the world if you really want to show off the whitework. Again, you can click on the photo for a larger version.



The books above are published by the Museum der Schwalm in Germany. The books are a kind of photographic journal of the pieces that have been featured in the museum's displays. Talk about inspiration!



Here's one piece featured in one of the books. Pretty, isn't it? I don't know if it's exactly "traditional" Schwalm embroidery as far as design goes - the design seems a bit more contemporary. I like it a lot!



A lampshade! I think I would love to have this in my house... but I can't help wondering if it would stay this pristine? I'd feel obliged to put it under glass to keep the Kansas dust off it!

Yep, I do love to browse through these types of books!! They goad me into doing something with my needle and thread.

A Give-Away!

Now, speaking of Schwalm work (again), I'd like to give away another book. Joey sent me a copy of Fancy Hems, but since I already have one, I thought it would be a good opportunity to put this excellent book into some other keen stitcher's hands.

You can read my thorough review of Fancy Hems here on Needle 'n Thread, to see what the book is about. Note that it's not just for stitchers interested in Schwalm whitework. Anyone interested in drawn thread or pulled thread embroidery will find this book useful and instructive.



If you'd like to win this copy of Fancy Hems, here's how the give-away works:

Leave a comment below (on this article, on the website - not via e-mail or on other posts), answering the following question:

If you could launch into a Schwalm project right now, assuming you have the materials and instructions at hand, what would you make?

Make sure you leave a name, even if you use the "anonymous" feature when posting your comment. I'll draw for a winner on Wednesday, October 28th, by 5:30 am.

Best of luck!

Labels: Book Give-Away, needlework pictures, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, Schwalm, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 26, 2009
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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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, October 23, 2009
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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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, October 19, 2009
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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.

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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, October 17, 2009
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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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, October 15, 2009
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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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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This past weekend, I finished up a little project - some hand embroidered name cards for my nieces' birthday gifts. After a little trial and error, and a wee bit of "I'm-in-a-hurry-and-am-going-to-pull-my-hair-out" frustration, they finished up fine and I was happy with the results.

About a month ago, I reviewed a book on embroidery on perforated cardstock. The book focuses more on the decorative, lacy look you can achieve by cutting the perforated cardstock a number of ways, but it also shows a variety of hand embroidery motifs (mostly in tent stitch or cross stitch) that can be worked on the perforated paper.



Working at night, I found out that this kind of paper-cutting can be addictive. I don't suggest picking up your Xacto knife when you're supposed to be heading to bed! Though I enjoyed the late (late) quiet evenings cutting away the cardstock and watching the patterns emerge, I paid for it the next morning...



The first small pieces came out pretty well, so I decided to embroider my nieces' names on these cards and use them for gift cards.



Before embroidering the names, I had to decide on how I wanted them to look. I charted the names in cross stitch and also in backstitch. At first, I thought it would be fun to try different stitches on the cardstock. Chain stitch would work, I figured, so, using the backstitch design, I set out to work chain stitch on the first card.



I got through the first letter (a capital C) and immediately began taking it out, without even photographing it. Half-way through the take-out, I realized I needed a picture. The chain stitch simply looked too heavy for the paper. I was working with two strands of floss, and didn't like the look of the chain stitch At All. Switching to one strand of floss didn't help - it didn't show up well enough.



One major point of frustration while stitching these was the ability of the thread to snag up on the lacy points of the paper. I knew I had to be careful - I knew this would happen! But my gosh. It happened All The Time. And I swear I was being careful!

Part of my problem, too, was that I was racing the clock. It's never good to work on a delicate project when you're in a hurry!



I ended up cross stitching the names, and was pleased enough with the results. Clare Elizabeth got a middle initial on hers for two reasons: 1. Her first name is short, and it didn't cover much of the center card; 2. (and much more to the point!) I didn't center her first name correctly, and there was no way on God's good earth that I was going to take the whole thing out!

The cards are very light and lacy and pretty. They could be mounted on colored cardstock for a good effect, but I think the gals will appreciate the look of them like this. And since we're talking a 20 and 21 year old, I'm not really worried about the cards being torn to shreds!

I like cutting the paper, but I've learned that it's easier to stitch first and cut later, even though this requires very careful planning and counting.

These would make nice tags for Christmas gifts, for the Very Special people in your life. It's a time-consuming way to go about making a gift tag, but again, for special people or special occasions, I think it would be a really nice touch!

If you're interested in this technique, you can read my review of the book, Broderie et Dentelle sur Carton Perforé, where you'll find purchasing information. This particular cardstock is 22 squares per inch, while most other perforated paper available for stitching is 14 squares per inch. Personally, I like the higher count. The book, by the way, is also available on Amazon France.

Labels: counted thread embroidery techniques, embroider on paper, hand embroidered cards, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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Just to convince you that I do still pick up a needle and thread now and then and do some stitching, I thought I'd give you an update on the Schwalm embroidery project I'm working on. The project comes from Basic Principles of Schwalm Embroidery by Luzine Happel, and although it seems as if I began the project a hundred years ago, I haven't gotten very far on it! So, to make up for the lack of noteworthy progress in stitching, I think I'll throw in a give-away!

First, the Schwalm whitework project! I've managed to get through the first two steps on one side of the square in the middle of the teacloth.



Woe is me! I know that looks just awful - a wrinkled mess! I don't want to iron it until I've finished the stitching and washed it because the transfer marks might set.

So far, I've outlined in coral stitch and I've done all the buttonhole scallops and wheels.

Not very impressive. *sigh*



I worked this mostly in hand (without a hoop). I think this lends to the general wrinkled appearance of the linen!

When working the buttonhole scallops, at first I progressed without a hoop, and it went ok, but I found it wasn't so easy to manipulate that much fabric while trying to work the scallops. I ended up wadding the linen up in one hand while stitching with the other.



Eventually, though, I decided to hoop the project up for the rest of the scallops and wheels. Stitching the scallops with a hoop seemed much easier!



I enjoyed stitching this part of the project. If I had all four sides of the square done, it would've been nice to keep going and going on buttonhole scallops and circles. It's a fun stitch! But my design has faded too much on the other three sides of the square, so I can't really do anything on those parts until I re-transfer the design.

So that's my progress right now on this project.

Now, for a give-away!

Thanks to Joey, who sent me an extra copy of Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework, I am offering this book to an interested reader who wants to try (or improve upon) techniques of Schwalm embroidery. Schwalm is a beautiful form of whitework, and the stitches learned in the technique can be widely applied to other embroidery styles.

If you're interested in owning your own copy of this superb book, leave a comment below (on this post, on the website) letting me know you're interested in the book. Please make sure you sign your name to the comment, even if you use the "Anonymous" feature.

The give-away deadline is Monday, October 12, 2009, at 5:30 am CST.

If all goes as planned tomorrow, I'm going to spend Friday evening making some serious progress on this piece! I want to get to the point of drawing out the threads for the center fillings - wish me luck!

Labels: Book Give-Away, needlework pictures, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, Schwalm, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, October 08, 2009
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This past weekend was busy with a magnificent wedding, and to top the weekend off, a friend stopped by to show me her great-grandmother's hand embroidered wedding dress. I thought I'd share some photos of it with you - it's a magnificent dress from a by-gone era!

Made from a gorgeous silk Crepe de Chine, the dress and "court train" are completely hand embroidered in silk perle with a pattern of chrysanthemums, ribbons, and shamrocks. The shoulders and sleeves of the dress are made of embroidered tulle, and the waste is accented with a rhinestone and bead bow.



The dress, unfortunately, was not carefully packaged or preserved over the last century, so it shows some serious marks of deterioration. The tulle on the shoulders and sleeves has turned a dark brown, and although feeling somewhat brittle in some places, it can still be gently handled. The lining of the dress is decaying in shreds, but the silk crepe of the dress itself is still in lovely shape (despite discoloration and some spotting that looks like rust). The embroidery is immaculate, with the exception of an occasionally broken thread here and there.



The bodice of the dress is covered with an abundance of embroidered chrysanthemums and shamrocks. The lustre of the silk threads is amazing - only silk thread could withstand the test and ravages of time and still look practically brand new!



Here, you can see the waste sash and the edge of the train running down the length of the skirt. The train, which is relatively small by today's standards of fancy trains, is made from the same fabric as the dress. It is relatively narrow and falls not too much longer than the length of the gown. The sides of the train wrap just barely to the front of the dress, so that the beautiful embroidery that adorns the edges of the train can be seen from the front and then down across the lower edge where it trails on the ground.



The large chrysanthemums are made of sweeping petals, embroidered in satin stitch, and their centers are embroidered with French knots.



In the close-up above, you can see that the clusters of French knots and the satin stitching are still in perfect shape - absolutely lovely!



The tulle that forms the caps of the sleeves is browned with age, but the embroidery on the tulle is still in excellent shape, and though the tulle seems somewhat brittle, it is actually quite soft. I love the leaf designs on the edge of this sleeve cap.

This particular tulle forms a kind of cap at the top of the sleeves - it is a larger-holed tulle in the typical hexagon shape. The sleeve itself is made from a very fine tulle which is slightly more brittle and had tiny holes, making it a bit more opaque. At the edge of the long tulle sleeves is a ruffle made of a diamond-shape netting, delicately embroidered:



I am not certain if this particular lace that forms the ruffle at the edge of the sleeves is hand embroidered or not. The little flower designs are made of what looks like bullion knots, but they may actually be satin stitch (or overcast stitching). The very edge is lined with scallops topped with a little picot.



This is a closer shot of one of the smaller embroidered chrysanthemums, ribbons, and shamrock. It's beautiful from the front, but what's amazing is that it is equally beautiful from the back:



Do you see the row of "dots" at the top of the embroidery? That is a strip of tiny weights sewn to the edge of the train.

The dress is stunning - and so light and airy, despite what looks like a heavy embroidery design. The whole dress is petit in size - I would say it's equivalent to about a size 4 - and holding it up to me, height-wise, the length would fall about to my mid-calf - and I'm only 5' 3". The bride was certainly a petit little thing. The article accompanying the dress indicated that her veil was adorned with an orange-blossom crown and she carried a bouquet of roses.

Labels: historical needlework, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, October 06, 2009
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Some of the earliest articles that featured photos of my own hand embroidery here on Needle 'n Thread were two posts that examined a project worked with silk threads on silk fabric. The two articles focused on one half of an embroidered stole worked predominantly in satin stitch and stem stitch filling. The first article featurs close-up pictures of the stole, and the second article featurs a photo of the whole stole.

This past weekend, at the request of a friend, I pulled the embroidery project out again, including the second half of the stole, which has been laced up on a scroll frame, neglected for many years.

In revisiting this project, I've had the opportunity to rethink a few things about it.



This is the beginning of the second half of the stole. In my mind, I remembered being about a third of the way finished with this half of the project. I'm not sure why I thought I was so far along. It's discouraging, actually, to see that I finished so little on the second half!

What slowed me down on this project? Why did I resign it to the shelf?

The first thing that happened was that Life got in the way. I remember frantically applying myself to the first half of the stole, and, after about 3 months, finishing it, setting up the second half, and making a start on it. But it was the middle of the school year by then, and things just got busy. So the project was set aside for a time.

Then, one day, I had visitors, a lady and a little girl. And the lady wanted to see my current embroidery project. The little girl - about six years old - was playing outside when I took the piece down. I looked at the piece with the lady, and had just turned away from it, when the little girl came in. I didn't think to pay close attention to her - her dirty hands were wet and sticky and a little muddy. And she made a bee-line for the frame. Before the thought could formulate in my head (I don't think I got beyond the internal "Noooooooooooooooooooooo!"), she had applied one particularly grimey finger to the fabric and threads, leaving a big, wet, dark spot on both the embroidery and the ground fabric.

Do you know how it is, when you have a "big" obstacle to overcome in a needlework project, and the obstacle kind of takes the wind out of your enthusiastic sails? This was the case for me. At the end of that day, I wrapped the frame up in a cloth, and tucked the whole thing away on the highest shelf, in a box. And it has been there ever since.

But in taking it out again this past weekend, I discovered several things.



First, I discovered that the way in which I originally transferred the design had been a good idea, for the image has withstood the test of time magnificently. On the soft gold silk ground fabric, I had used white dressmaker's carbon. The white, once embroidered over, is not visible at all - even if a little fringe of it is left beyond the embroidery. And yet, it is clearly visible on the silk ground fabric, due to its light white-ness and its matte finish against the shiny silk.

Dressmaker's carbon can be an excellent way to transfer a design on smooth fabric. You can find transfer paper in the sewing notions section of fabric stores. Saral Transfer Paper is a good brand to use if you can find it. The variety packs come with a sheet each of red, white, yellow, blue, and graphite (greyish black). The sheets can be used many times over. If you can't find Saral, Dritz also makes a wax-free dressmaker's transfer paper in five colors. It is probably more commonly available at sewing stores, and the size is actually perfect for a project like this stole, which is long and narrow. It comes in 5.5" x 19.5" sheets.

Though the frame for the stole was wrapped in fabric that rested against the design, and then packed again in a box with other stuff, and put on a top shelf for several years, the design is still crisp and fresh and hardly smudged at all. I'm glad to see that.



The next thing I learned is that I tend to exaggerate in my mind how serious a "flaw" is on a piece of needlework. The wet, dark smudge (that I thought could never be cleaned away) was right here, between these two "petals" on the embroidery. Where is it now? Did time take it away? Or was the flaw not quite as bad as I had worked it up in my mind to be? Whatever the case, that excuse for shelving the project is now completely gone. There was only the slightest sign of a bit of dirt on the silk threads in the top petal. A little scratch with the fingernail, and it was completely gone.



I've learned a lot more about embroidery in general, ecclesiastical embroidery in particular, and individual stitching techniques since I embroidered this piece. In my mind, I recall this piece as being a "beginning" step in my pursuit of serious embroidery. As a beginning step, I somehow had adopted the impression, over the years, that I didn't do a very good job on the piece. But in looking at it (and this isn't to honk my own horn - just to make a point), my satin stitching was actually pretty darned good. Had I convinced myself that it wasn't up to par, as a further excuse not to return to this project? It is Certainly Possible!



I can't help thinking that I might be hard-pressed, now, to replicate this satin stitching!



Finally, there is the question of this frame. When I first started this project, I would've killed for a slate frame (not literally, but...). I looked high and low, here and there, and absolutely everywhere for one. I settled for a scroll frame, because it was the only thing that could accommodate the silk, keep it relatively taut, and roll up the excess fabric.

But in looking at the framed up piece now, I can confirm that I was right about my lousy lacing job. And, on top of that, using masking tape to "finish" the edge was probably just downright stupid (though there is actually about 6" of excess fabric on each side of the design).



In my mind, whenever I thought of this project (because it does still hang over my head now and then, and I think on it with regret...), this lousy lacing job and the tape fiasco were obstacles to completing the piece. But are they, in reality, obstacles? Not really. It would be nothing, now, to take this frame apart, remount the piece on a slate frame using proper fabric edges, and tighten it up to work on it.



Going back to the original first half of the stole, I took some photos of it again. Since that first post on the subject oh-so-long ago, I've had two different cameras, each progressively better, and I've learned a bit about light, and also a bit about photo editing programs.



I can't help looking at images of the original finished half of the stole and asking myself if it would be worth revisiting this project and even finishing it.

But now that some serious time has passed since I shelved the project, some serious issues have arisen that are truly obstacles. Of course, obstacles exist in order to be overcome!

The greatest obstacle is that of thread: the original piece was worked with Au Ver a Soie's Soie d'Alger. Though I had, at the time, purchased enough of the same dye lots for both sides of the stole, over the years, I have used those threads. Can I match them closely enough in order to finish the second half of the stole? Maybe. It is worth looking in to, but can't be done until I visit a shop that carries the threads.

There are several - actually, many - things that I would do differently now, if I were making this stole from the beginning. And this is another obstacle for me! It is more of a mental obstacle, though - which are the worst types of obstacles, because they require overcoming self, rather than overcoming something tangible outside of one's self.

I can't guarantee what I will do with this - whether I will finish it or not. Most of the trivial barriers that I had built up in my head regarding the whole project are gone, but a few serious ones still linger.

So, those are my musings on this project from the past. What would YOU do at this point? How would you come to a decision about whether or not to finish such a project?

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, Embroidery Projects, miscellaneous embroidery musings, needlework pictures, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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Last week, I took it into my head to make use of this book on embroidery & perforated paper. I thought I would make a card. You know - one of those "I'll-just-whip-this-up" sort of projects...

As it turned out, it wasn't a quick project at all. I always underestimate things like this. ALWAYS. It used to be that I thought I was an optimist - and being an optimist is a good thing, right? But now I realize it's not optimism at all - it's a gross under-estimation of the speed at which the hands on my clock move. And this gets me into trouble.

The occasion for the card came and went.

And yet, I went ahead and finished the embroidery for the card. Some day, I'll cut out the lacy edge for it.

The design is one of the Quaker motifs available on the Needleprint blog. I picked the colors to match the cardstock I was going to mount the piece on. For thread, I used regular DMC stranded floss, mostly two strands. The count on the perforated paper is about 18 squares per inch, and three strands is too much for the holes - which was evident after I finished stitching the central "flower" in three strands, and found that the paper was trying not to warp. Two strands were perfect.



I like the blue / yellow scheme, and I think the design is neat. But you know what was going through my mind the Whole Entire Time I was stitching this? Any idea?

I was thinking.... "How can I translate this design (and similar designs) into surface embroidery?" And so, I played with it. And later on in the week, if all goes according to some kind of Plan of Sanity, I will share with you my version of the above design, re-structured for surface stitching.



I tried to get a shot where you could see how the three strands of floss started to warp that center area a bit, but I don't think you can really tell in any of the photos.

Sometimes, I kick myself for starting "quick" projects like this, because it takes away from making headway on larger projects that are already starving for time. But in this case, I made a couple discoveries along the way and came up with some ideas that I'll be sharing with you in the upcoming days and weeks. So I don't count this particular "quick (slow)" project as a complete waste of time!

Coming up this week on Needle 'n Thread: the final lesson in long and short stitch shading, a book review for a nice iron-on transfer book (really nice!), some thread talk, TWO give-aways to celebrate the end of the long and short stitch shading lessons, and any other tidbits that may happen to pop up! So do check back in during the week!

Have a jolly Monday!

Labels: counted thread embroidery techniques, embroider on paper, Embroidery Projects, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, September 21, 2009
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Moving along in the Long and Short Stitch Shading Lessons series, we've arrived at Lesson 8, which is a very simple flower.

If you're just joining in on this series of lessons on long and short stitch, you can "catch up" by checking out the index of long and short stitch shading lessons, where you'll find links to each lesson so far.

The lessons are arranged incrementally, going from basic filling with long and short stitch to filling more complex shapes. The entire series is for beginners in this embroidery technique, and once you've worked your way through it, I'm hoping that you'll have a bit more confidence in using long and short stitch as a filling technique in your embroidery projects.

For Lesson 8, we'll be working on the small flower located in the center of the base of the sampler. Note that the point is not necessarily to achieve a "dimensional" effect - this is a simple, flat flower - but once you've stitched it, you should have no trouble translating the lesson into more challenging flowers.

For your materials, you'll need the sampler in a hoop or frame, scissors, #9 or #10 crewel needles (embroidery needles), and the following colors of DMC stranded embroidery floss: 471 (medium green), 469 (dark green), Ecru, 225 (light pink), 223 (dark rose), and 814 (dark burgundy).

As in the previous lessons, the stitching is done with one strand.

Most of the procedures in this lesson do not need to be explained in thorough detail, as you have already experienced them in the previous lessons. Also, the flower is a series of five repeats, so the lesson will only focus in detail on creating one petal and one leaf, although you will see photos of the flower develop.

NOTE: There are different ways to approach stitching something like this. I went one petal at a time, in order to show you a complete petal. You can also stitch each layer of the all the petals at one time, progressing from the outside of all the petals, to the middle layer of color in all the petals, and finally to the inside tip of all the petals. Following such an approach may help you on two accounts: 1. it may save you time by not having to change back and forth to different colors of threads; 2. it may help you keep your layers of color shading uniform as you move from one petal to the next.

Procedure:



The first parts of the flower that will be stitched are the little leaves that jut out between the petals. Feel free to draw your stitch directions inside these little leaves. Your stitches should point towards the "growth point" of the little leaves, which will be the center point where the flower petal lines merge together.



Using one strand of 471 (medium green), split stitch around the outside of the leaf.



Beginning in the middle of the leaf (the tip), over the split stitch line, fill the leaf in color 471, stitching long and short stitches from the center to one edge, then from the center to the opposite edge of the leaf. This is the same long and short stitch technique we have been using all along.

Your stitches should fill most of the leaf, leaving only a bit in the center and down at the tip empty.



Switch to 469 (dark green), and, coming up into the first layer of medium green, fill the rest of the leaf with the dark green.



The first leaf will look something like this. Following the same procedure, finish all five leaves.



The leaves are relatively tiny, so it won't take too long to stitch them all.

A note here about beginning with the leaves. In this type of needlepainting, it is common to begin with the part of the design that is farthest away from you or that is tucked behind other parts of the design. While some books and some designers don't always insist on this point, I think it does help to achieve a more dimensional and realistic effect in needlepainting, to start with the parts of the design that are farther away and behind other parts of the design. In this way, the "painting" seems to build up, one layer on the next.

In this little design of this flat and simple flower, it probably does not make that much of a difference, but as you progress to more complex designs, it will make a difference! Especially with elements like hair, feathers, animal fur, etc., it is important to work the layers from the farthermost layer to the closest layer, in relation to viewer.



For the petals, begin with Ecru and split stitch a line from the inside tip of the green leaf, around the top of the petal, to the inside tip of the next green leaf. Essentially, you are stitching only the arch of the petal, not the area where the petals are touching.

Draw in your stitch direction as shown above. Your stitches will slant towards the inside tip of the petal.



Following the same techniques learned before and still using Ecru, begin in the middle of the arch of the petal, and work the long and short stitch from the middle to one side, then from the middle to the other side of the petal. You will fill up most of the petal - about two-thirds the length of the petal, leaving only about a one-third arch area empty.



Switch to the light pink thread (225), and fill in practically all of the remaining petal, fanning your stitches out in the same fashion you learned in previous lessons.



Leave a tiny bit of space just at the tip of the petal.



Switching now to the dark rose (223), work in a few small fanned stitches right at the tip of the petal. It's easy to work one in the center and one at each side, then to add a tiny stitch in the spaces between - five stitches in all.



Continue to fill the petals in the same manner. Remember that you do not have to end every thread. When you're finished with a color but still have plenty of thread left, bring your threaded needle to the front of the fabric, away from your stitching area. You can then pick up the color on the next part of the design, when needed.



Continue working your way around the little flower...



... until all the petals are filled.



Now, using dark rose (223), stitch one long stitch, bringing your needle up at the inside tip of each green leaf, and taking it down in the center of the flower. The stitch should lie in between each petal. This will help distinguish the individual petals.



Now, you can switch to dark burgundy (814) and work a few random French knots in the center of the flower. If you want to use a different color - like yellow - feel free to do so! The darker yellow (3855) might look better than this dark burgundy.



It was hard to get a good shot of the flower with the French knots.



Here's a shot of the sampler up to this point! And only one more lesson to go!

Enjoy stitching your little flower, and next week, we'll tackle the final leaf.

Here's the PDF version of Lesson 8:

Long and Short Stitch Shading: Lesson 8, a Simple Flower

As always, feel free to leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this lesson!

Have a terrific weekend!

Labels: embroidery lessons, embroidery tips and tricks, long and short stitch, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, September 18, 2009
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Adhering madly to my philosophy that a little time for needlework is better than no time for needlework, I've made some progress lately using the 15-minutes-for-stitching approach.

I'm still plugging along with the Long Dog Sampler I started last year, and since my last 15-Minute Stitching Update, I've made some ok progress, I suppose. It's time for me to switch this project out, though!

I was supposed to switch it out last week and take up my Schwalm whitework project again, but the truth it, it is much easier to sit down and drop in a few stitches on this sampler, than it is to situate myself with the Schwalm project when I'm in a hurry. I just haven't had time to do the switch-out and set stuff up for easy access with the Schwalm work, so I've stuck with this project so that I'd have something to do here and there, now and then, when the opportunity struck....

... which is, of course, the basis for this whole 15-minute-session idea.

But let me tell you - time management has its drawbacks! Take a look at this:



Determined to adhere strictly to the timer one day, I sat down to spend 15 minutes on this bit of the sampler. I only had one white blotch left that needed to be filled in with the green, and when I set the timer, I was confident that, when it went off, I would have this block finished. (And then some, or so I thought!)

When the timer went off, I had three stitches left.

THREE.

Three tiny, insignificant stitches.

But they were significant enough to bug me!

That session was a serious Only-15 15-minute-session, as a minute longer and I'd be late for work. So, the timer sounded, I dropped the frame, picked up my books, and headed out the door. I was not "relaxed" or pleased at the end of that session. Three Silly Stitches! For heaven's sake!

When I came back an hour and fifteen minutes later, the timer was still going off. Hmmmm. I decided I would have to take a much more relaxed approach to these 15-minute things if I were to retain (regain?) my sanity. Rushing through the minutes, trying to beat the clock, isn't precisely the best approach.



For the next 15-minute session, I managed to finish those riffemrackemfrickemfrackem three stitches....



.... and to get out the colors for the next little square I wanted to stitch...

... and to work Nine Whole Stitches on it.

Twelve stitches in 15 minutes?

Perhaps that day, I was a bit tooooo relaxed.

Virtue lies in the middle. Next time, I will be relaxed, but at the same time, I am determined to accomplish a bit more than this!

How are your 15-minute stitching sessions coming along?

Labels: 15 minutes, counted thread embroidery techniques, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, September 14, 2009
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It's time for Lesson 7 in the Long and Short Stitch Shading series here on Needle 'n Thread! In this lesson, we'll be working element #6, the leaf in the center right side of the sampler.

If you've just popped in, you can find the rest of these lessons on long and short stitch in the Long and Short Stitch Lesson Index. We're working incrementally through a small sampler in order to practice filling and shading with long and short stitch.

In today's lesson, the leaf that we're working is pointind downwards, and it has some little spikes on its outer edge. We're going to be working from a dark edge to a lighter center. Other than the shape and the direction of the color changes, the concepts are much the same as those used in Lesson 6, where we stitched a simple flat leaf shape. We'll be cutting in a bit of color for shadows on this leaf, but I think you'll find, overall, that this leaf is fairly simple if you've already worked the flat leaf in Lesson 6.

For this lesson, you will need the following colors of DMC stranded cotton: 469 (dk green); 471 (med. green); 472 (med-lt green); 613 (pale green); 3012 (med. olive green) and 814 (burgundy)



Split stitch the outline of the leaf. To do this, you can use 469 (dk green). I used 613 (pale green) because I was planning different color placement, originally. If you are afraid you won't cover your split stitch line completely, use the dark green because it's the color on the outside of this leaf. If you don't generally have problems with the outside edge, it really won't matter which green you use for the split stitch outline.



Draw in your directional lines and your shade spaces. I'm afraid I made another mess with my pencil lines, so here's a cleaned up version so you can get a better idea of where to sketch in your lines!



The dark purple lines are stitch direction and the green spotted lines indicate shade changes.



Beginning with the darkest green (469) and working on the left side of the leaf, stitch in directional lines for the outer edge of the leaf. Fill in between the directional lines with long and short stitch, in the same manner covered in previous lessons.



As the stitch direction changes, the stitches "fan out" a bit - that is, they are closer together on the inside of the leaf, and slightly farther apart on the outside of the leaf. Notice that there is some tiny space there between the stitches next to the split stitch line. This won't be noticeable at all, because the "fanning" out of these stitches isn't that extreme. If, however, you notice that, in fanning your stitches out so that they lie in the correct direction, there is a noticeable space between your stitches at the split stitch line, take a small stitch over the line (forming a "short stitch") to cover up the split stitch line. Tucking in a little stitch here and there to fill a gap is not only fine, but it's often quite necessary!



Work long and short stitch in dark green around the outside edge of the leaf, filling it in completely. Your long stitches may be as long as a quarter inch here.



On some parts of the leaf, where the little spike sticks out, you can take one stitch from the tip of the spike and completely cover the split stitch line with it (it will run in the same direction as the split stitch line, so you'll basically be stitching a straight stitch from the tip of the spike on top of the split stithch line to cover it up.



After you've finished the dark green all around the left side of the leaf, change your thread to medium green, 471. This will be your second layer of color. Remember to go deep into the first layer as you stitch, and to alter where you start your stitches, so that the starting points don't create a line on the leaf.



Here's the stitch direction again.



And here's the completed second layer. Once you finish the second layer, switch threads to med-light green (472) and stitch the third shade of color towards the center of the leaf, leaving room for one more shade.



As you get to the base of the leaf with the third layer, you will probably be running into the center vein. That's ok. In this area, which is slightly crowded, you can take the third layer of color all the way in to the center vein. This is the circled part in the photo above.

On this leaf, you want to keep your central vein area as neat as possible, and you want all your stitches to meet, if possible. Although you will be stitching a vein as you did in Lesson 6, the vein on this leaf is not as thick.



This is what the leaf should look like after stitching the third shade of green. Now, switch your thread to the palest green 613. This is the color you will use to fill in the center of the leaf.



Notice in the photo above that I "cut in" some small stitches in 613, into the stitches that have already met the center vein at the base of the leaf. This is to lighten up that area, so that the color change does not seem so drastic.



Finish filling the center area with 613, taking your stitches all the way to the vein line in the center of the leaf. Once you've finished filling the center with 613, change your thread again to color 3012. In the very center of the leaf, where 613 meets the vein line, "cut in" some tiny stitches in 3012, to create a shadow along the vein line.

I'm not sure if "cutting in" is a legitimate term. That's what I call it when a few tiny stitches are being added to an area where the color is already stitched in. So, basically, you're splitting stitches that are already there - you don't have any filling space left, so you're just adding these tiny stitches into the stitches already there.

You've pretty much finished the left side of the leaf, so now it's time to move to the right side.



Again, stitch in directional lines with dark green, 469.



Fill in the dark green in long and short stitch on the outside edge, from the tip all the way to the base. Make sure you cover the base split stitch line.



Now, switch to color 471 again, and stitch the next layer of color. When you finish the second layer, it should look something like the leaf in the photo above.



Now, you're going to switch directly to the palest green (613), skipping the light green layer. Fill to the center, with the exception of a small area, as shown in the photo above. Change your thread to medium olive green (3012) and fill in the remaining area.



You can also "cut in" some tiny stitches of 3012, all the way up the vein line towards the tip, as shown in the photo above.

Once you finish filling in a bit of a shadow next to the vein, take your thread to the base of the leaf, coming up in the center on the vein, and work a long split stitch line along the vein in 3012, to help define the center of the leaf. The "vein" you are now stitching should not extend all the way to the tip.



For the stem, I split stitched around the edges in 3012, and then satin stitched in the same color all the way down to where the stem meets the leaf. As the stem narrows, the satin stitches become very tiny.



This is the leaf so far. The stem is a bit too large for the leaf, methinks!



Now, to make the leaf pop out a bit, I took the burgundy (814), and stitched a tiny straight stitch in burgundy on the inside edge of each spike on the leaf. This may look better in a darker brown, but I used the burgundy since it is on our color list. If you have a darker brown on hand and want to use it instead, feel free to do so!



Ta-dum! You've finished Lesson 7! Only two more lessons to go!!

If you want to visit the other lessons in this series, go to the Long and Short Stitch Lessons index, where you'll find the whole list of lessons so far, including one with three videos demonstrating long and short stitch.

If you're following along with the lessons so far, you can add your photos to the Needle 'n Thread flickr group if you would like feedback on your progress.

And, finally, here's a PDF version of this lesson, if you'd like to print it out:

Lesson 7: Long and Short Stitch Shading - a More Complex Leaf (PDF)

Enjoy the lesson! Feel free to ask any questions or add comments below!

Labels: embroidery lessons, embroidery tips and tricks, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitch along, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, September 10, 2009
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Castelo Branco is a city in Portugal just north of the Spanish border in central Portugal. Like many cities and regions in Europe, Castelo Branco has its own unique style of embroidery. Méri recently introduced me to this type of needlework when she sent me a beautiful magazine dedicated to the embroidery of Castelo Branco and featuring many gorgeous projects. Take a look!

The embroidery of Castelo Branco brings one word to mind - it is rich. It is rich in color, design, and symbolism.



This traditional Portuguese embroidery is worked on a linen ground, traditionally with silk threads. The predominant filling technique used is Ponto Castelo Branco, or Ponto Frouxo - long satin stitches with a perpendicular thread couched over the satin stitching to secure it. The technique reminds me very much of Italian stitching, which is comprised of long silk satin stitches couched over with gold passing thread (I used this technique for the sky in my Agnus Dei project). The obvious difference is the type of thread used for couching.



Among the other stitches used in the embroidery of Castelo Branco, you'll find satin stitch, stem stitch, long and short stitch shading, chain stitch, French knot, detached chain stitch, fern stitch, fly and feather stitch, shadow stitch, herringbone stitch, straight stitch, and various fillings. Méri was very kind to translate the stitches for me! The magazine, Belas Ideias, published by tuttirév, includes not only an abundance of designs but also a pictorial stitch dictionary.



The embroidery is by no means "popular" or common embroidery - it was worked, in its day, for those who could afford to pay for it.



It seems the most wide-spread application was in decorating bed coverings, which were often part of the trousseau or dowry of a young bride. Today, the embroidery of Castelo Branco can still be purchased or commissioned, with prices ranging all the way up to 45,000 Euros for a bedspread, depending on size and design.



Have you noticed that the designs are somewhat reminiscent of Jacobean embroidery? The tree of life is a common image, as are fanciful birds, animals, flowers, vines and tendrils, and fruit.



The elements included range from the sacred to the profane, and many of them have symbolic meaning.

I think this embroidery style is lovely! While it is like Jacobean in some respects, in other respects it is quite unique - the abundance of couched-over satin stitching is defintely different, and the threads used are a flat, lightly twisted silk (originally, a filament silk - today, artificial silks are also widely used).

The designs in the magazine are calling my name!! (They're practically screaming, actually!) Méri often teases me for introducing her to embroidery she "must" try (like the Schwalm project!), but I think she has avenged herself! I've added this to my perpetually growing List of Things to Do, and I'm already looking ahead for my next block of time, where I can set up a small project. There's an ideal "little" project in the magazine, which would make a perfect Christmas gift.

Thank you SO much, Méri, for introducing me to the embroidery of Castelo Branco! The book is beautiful! Thanks, as well, for the linens and threads! I will make use them all soon and keep you posted on how it goes!

Labels: Jacobean embroidery, linen, needlework pictures, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, September 01, 2009
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Do you work outside your home? I do. Between the middle of August and the end of May, my real job actually takes precedent over my needlework! (Can you believe I allow that??!) Now, this isn't just because the real job pays the bills - it's also because, if it is to be done well, the job demands it, and I love my job! I like teaching a lot, even though, yes, it does occasionally have its Moments. Needlework, during the school year, becomes my carrot - the thing that motivates me to do what I need to do, work-wise, so that I can enjoy relaxing with my needle and thread. And, as you avid stitchers know, needlework can also serve as a tremendous stress reliever!

But, when the work week is hectic, it's often difficult to find time to squeeze in a needlework project. Often, what ends up happening is that, because no progress is being made at all on the project, it gets side-lined, interest in it gradually wanes, it is finally stowed away, and... The End.

To avoid this, I started "forcing" myself (ok! right! it doesn't take that much force!) to fit in at least 15 minutes a day stitching. Whether those 15 minutes are snatched on a lunch break or between classes, whether they are found at the very end of the day before hitting the sack, or whether they are squeezed in first thing in the morning, before heading out to work (assuming I'm ahead of schedule!) - whatever the case may be, those 15 minutes serve three useful purposes: 1. they provide a momentary "break" doing something I really love; 2. they keep my projects going at least a wee bit and I feel as if I'm making progress; and 3. I don't have that overwhelming feeling of "needing to start," which can make me lose interest in a particular project and relegate it to the shelf.

That's the background of my 15-minute sessions. And here are some results from a few sessions last week.

On a few days, I only barely managed 15 minutes! Other days, I had more time in the evenings, and could make more progress than shown below. But for now, here are three 15 minute sessions that were snatched during the week:



I had two projects out this week - my Schwalm whitework project and this Long Dog Sampler. I started this sampler last spring. My niece wanted to work a counted cross stitch piece since they were covering the technique in home ec, and she really liked this Long Dog sampler called "Angel Pavement." So I purchased two copies, one for her, one for me, and we went thread and fabric shopping, and settled on working the sampler on 28 ct fabric over one thread. She's still plugging away on hers, though she works more sporadically all over the place on the chart than I do!

I haven't made any progress on this since I put it away last spring, but it's out again now, because it is perfect for 15 minute sessions.



In the first 15 minute session, I didn't get very far at all! You would almost be tempted to say, "This is not progress!" But the way I see it is, any stitch is progress! During that first session, I had to dig for thread, cut it, strip it, and thread two needles (which was wishful thinking - I didn't even use one full-threaded needle).



In the next 15 minute session, I stuck the frame on my Needlework System 4 stand, rather than holding it, and I resorted to two-handed stitching, which is a lot faster than one-handed!



And, by the third 15 minute session, I was making good headway. When I ended the previous session, I threaded a new piece of floss and had it ready for beginning, and, with both hands stitching, it went fairly well.

Now, keep in mind this little piece is not quite an inch square - so, in the scheme of things, it doesn't look like much stitching! But really - it is progress! And, as I mentioned before, this really serves as a motivator! I find myself seeking the next 15 minutes, just to see how far I can get in the next session. And, better yet, I find myself getting other things done that I need to get done, with more efficiency, so that I can squeeze in 15 minutes.

Do you use needlework as a carrot? Do you try to carve out bits of your day that you can devote to it? How do you go about doing so? Does it help motivate you in your other daily tasks? I'd love to hear how you deal with limited time and needlework!

Labels: 15 minutes, counted thread embroidery techniques, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, August 31, 2009
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In Lesson Five of this series of Long and Short Stitch Shading Lessons, we're looking at element 4 on the sampler, the ribbon-like swirl and the little swash shape in the top right corner.

If you are just joining us for these lessons in shading with long and short stitch, you can find all the articles related to the lessons listed under the Long and Short Stitch Lesson Index. For those of you who want to know what these lessons are all about, they are merely to help the embroiderer learn the basics of long and short stitch shading in order to feel confident in tackling more complex needle painting projects. The lessons are free and will be kept here on Needle 'n Thread, easily accessible, so that you can follow them at your own pace.

The fifth long and short stitch lesson focuses on stitching around a curve, in order to shade design elements such as ribbon or flowing text.

For this element (the top right corner of the sampler), you will need the same shades of blue that were used on the triangle: DMC 159, 159, 160, and 161.

You'll also need #9 or #10 crewel needles, sharp embroidery scissors, and a hoop or frame to keep the work taut.

For basic technique in long and short stitch, feel free to visit Lesson Two, where you will find three videos demonstrating basic long and short stitch. Reading and working through the previous lessons up to this point will help you as well.



Begin with the small swash next to the ribbon. Anchor your thread and split stitch an outline around the small swash in medium-light blue (160). Begin the long and short stitch (in 160) in the center of the rounded end of the swash, working to the right side of the swash, then going back to the center and working to the left edge of the swash.



When you finish with color 160, if you still have "stitching room" on your thread, take your needle from the back of the fabric to the front, outside to the working area, without cutting the thread. You can leave your thread here until you are ready to use this color again. This way, you don't have to end and re-start the thread each time you need to use the same color.



Switch to light blue (159) and stitch two ore more rows of long and short stitch, to fill the main central part of the swash. As you stitch each row, make slight adjustments in direction in order to ease your way aroudn the turn of the swash. See the phot below for stitching direction:



The red slashes indicate the turning stitches. The green slashes indicate the stitches that extend to the side and over the split stitch outline. As the stitches on the left approach the split stitch line, take them over the line to ensure a smooth edge. Keep gradually moving your stitches around the bend of the swahs, adjust the stitch direction as you grow. Switch back to medium light blue (160) for one row, then medium-dark blue (161) for the next row, and then end the swash at the point in dark blue (158).

The key in getting around the curves gently is to slowly adapt your stitches to the curve. Take small stitches where need be (in fact, your stitches will be smaller going around the curve), in order to "tweak" the stitch direction so that your stitches are working in the direction you want them to go (which is toward the tip of the swash). Remember that, as your space gets smaller, you use fewer stitches (just as you did with the triangles).



When you finish your swash, it should look something like this.



(Mine looks better from farther away!)



Once you've finished the small swash, you're ready to move on to the large ribbon shape. Begin on the lower right tail of the ribbon. Outline in split stitch (159) as demonstrated in the photo above. You do not need to outline the whole shape - just the top edge of the ribbon and about half way down the sides.

Use a pencil to mark direction lines down the length of the ribbon tail, and color-change lines across the width of the ribbon tail, as shown in the photo above. You want four sections of the area "blocked off" to mark approximately where you will change shades.



Working in light blue (159), work the long and short stitch over the split stitch line at the top end of the ribbon.



Begin the next row of long and short stitch in medium-light blue (160). Remember to take your new stitches deep into the first row of stitches.



Work the third row of stitches in medium-dark blue (161). Begin shifting your stitch direction more dramatically in order to accommodate the curve.



When it becomes necessary to cover the split stitch line, bring your needle up outside the line so that you can cover it. You'll take the stitch back down inside the shape.



You'll probably work at least two rows in medium-dark blue (161). These rows will require the most dramatic change in stitch direction. Try to follow the curve of the ribbon, using relatively short stitches and adjusting their direction as you work around the curve.



Finally, switch to the darkest blue (158), and continue working in short stitches, easing around the curve to the point of the ribbon curl, and decreasing the number of stitches in order to fit the design area.



Continue to add subsequent rows of dark blue (158) until you reach the tip, as shown below:



This is the finished first ribbon tail.



At this point, you can mark in your stitch direction lines and your color lines on the main section of the ribbon. Divide the ribbon across its width as indicated above. In the widest part of the ribbon here, the center will be light, and it will gradually get darker towards the tips. The stitch direction will work around the curve of the ribbon.



Now that you've finished the lower tail of the ribbon and marked your stitch direction, turn your work over so that the element is upside-down. The next section of the ribbon is easier to work upside-down. First, using 158 (dark blue), stem stitch the thin line between the curl you just finished and the main section of the ribbon. (The area circled in red in the photo above). When your stem stitch reaches the point where the lines divdide to form the mid-section of the ribbon, you can switch to split stitch for outlining the area. Outline on a little way up into the main curve of the ribbon (also shown in the photo above).



Then, in the darkest blue (still 158), work long and short stitches to fill the tip of the ribbon, working from the narrow point to the wider center.



The red lines above indicate the stitch direction. Notice that I'm not starting in the tip of the ribbon, and fanning out. Rather, I'm starting on the side of the ribbon, and working almost vertically.



Switch to the medium-blue (161) and then medium blue (160) and continue to work long and short stitch to fill the riboon shape.



As you switch colors, anchor your working threads in the fabric above the design so that you can keep using them when you return to those colors on the rest of this section.



In the widest part of the ribbon (center), switch to light blue (159), and stitch two or three rows (depending on the size of your stitches). Alter the direction of your stitches to gradually move them towards the tip where the lines of the design converge.



Keep adjusting your stitches as you round the curve, and then switch back to medium blue (160).



After stitching a row of medium blue, switch to medium dark (161) and continue towards the tip of the ribbon.



If you turn your work right-side-up at this point, it should basically look like this. You can outline the tip in split stitch, using dark blue (158) if you wish. I did not outline at this point - I just continued filling to the tip where the lines of the design converge.



Working upside-down again, continue filling with the darkest blue, to the tip of the large ribbon curve, easing your stitches around the curve by changing their direction little by little.



The tip should look like this.



Continuing with the dark blue (158), stem stitch the line between the main part of the ribbon and the top curl. Again, where the lines separate to form the top curl of the ribbon, switch to split stitch and outline the lower third of the curl.



Mark in your stitch direction lines and the lines to indicate changes in shade, if you wish. Split stitch the very edge of the ribbon (hidden here by long and short stitch) in medium-light blue (160), and then work one row of medium-light (160) in long and short stitch. If it is easier for you, turn your work upside down again.



Following the same sequence as in the lower curl on the ribbon, work a row or two of light blue (159) in long and short stitch, tweaking your stitch direction as you work around the curve. Then switch to medium-light blue (160), then medium-dark blue (161) - one row of each - then to dark blue (158), which will fill the tip.



Congratulations! You have finished the fourth element in the Long and Short Stitch Shading Sampler - the most difficult element so far! If you're still with me, you'll find the next element (the center leaf on the top of the sampler) a breeze! See you in Lesson Six!

Here's a PDF download of this lesson:

Lesson Five: Long and Short Stitch Shading on Curves

For previous lessons, visit this Index of Lessons in Long and Short Stitch Shading.

Labels: embroidery lessons, embroidery tips and tricks, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, August 27, 2009
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Remember those hand embroidered curtains I've been harping on lately? Guess what?

If you said to yourself, "She changed her mind," you are, in short, correct. I have changed my mind. Let me show you why.



After progressing pretty far up the first embroidered line, it suddenly struck me that I should probably hang the curtains in front of a sunny window to test out this whole concept of embroidery on sheer curtains. The room in which they will hang gets a goodly bit of sun most of the day in one window or another, from morning until late afternoon.

Embroidering on sheer curtains that will be back-lighted by the sun most of the time is not quite the thing, methinks. The embroidery stands out, but not in a desirable way. It looks dark - and every warble and wobble in the stitching, every stray peeking thread end stands out in an obnoxiously noticeable manner.

I suppose I should have realized this sooner, but the whole question of whether or not I really should embroider the curtains never occured to me until I hung one set of the (un-embroidered) curtains in the room. They are white and crisp and airy, hanging over wide white slatted blinds, in a periwinkle room with white trim. Very cool and breezy looking! I love them! And while I was looking at them and admiring the overall effect, I tried to picture them embroidered. And suddenly, the whole question of backlighting jumped into my head. So I took the sheer I was working on, stuck it on a window, and said....

Ugh.

This was followed rather closely by...

Ick.

And the subsequent ritual of head banging and forehead slapping was followed up by placing an order for a new panel.

I'll keep the sheer I was stitching on. I think that the voile will make a good foundation fabric for embroidering on velvet. I'll recycle it for some use, anyway.

But in the meantime, I've crossed curtains off my List of Things To Do. Sorry for stringing you along on that one!

On the bright side, I think I'll concentrate on Schwalm for a bit - it'll be my new 15-Minute Project.

School has begun, by the way. To the dear reader who sent me an encouraging e-mail yesterday, wondering how I manage to do what I do - teaching, stitching, blogging regularly, and so forth - my only reply at the end of the first day of classes is this:

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccck!!!!!!!

Labels: Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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Lately, you've seen a few mentions of Society Silk embroidery - also called Silk Art embroidery, needle painting, thread painting, silk shading, and ... on and on - here on Needle 'n Thread. The box of vintage needlework supplies (including silk threads and stamped linens from the early part of the 20th century) was, for me, a catalyst for further explorations into Society Silk. I also featured some of these historic needlework items in my give-away a couple weeks ago. Since then, it's been a case of Silk-Art-Embroidery-on-the-Brain.

Needless to say, then, I was super-duper delighted when a reader left a comment directing me to her Flickr page that is jam-packed full of 192 photos of Society Silk embroidery! Oh, wow! I was in Silk-Shaded Heaven.



This particular collection on Flickr includes color plates from books published by silk companies and now in the public domain. The collector has put her images together in one place, so that the rest of us can meander through some really gorgeous examples of silk shading and other embroidery in silk.



Even if nothing else in the collection thrills you to the tips of your toes (a scenario which is highly unlikely!), then this embroidered peacock surely will. It is... it's - amazing.



While you're meandering around Embroiderist's Flickr collection, make sure to click on Embroidery Collection, which will take you to a more general page that includes all her collections related to embroidery. Beware, though - you might spend hours browsing! There are heaps of vintage designs there!



I hope you enjoy browsing the Embroiderist's collections - and thank you, Embroiderist, for commenting on Needle 'n Thread and posting your link! I thought it was far too good a source of inspiration to leave it lost in the comments - hope you don't mind the write-up!

Labels: embroidery resources, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework websites, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, August 24, 2009
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When life is busy and the schedule gets hectic, I try to squeeze in some 15-minute sessions with needle and thread, figuring that if I can manage 15 minutes here and there, I might make some progress on needlework projects that would otherwise sit neglected until I convinced myself that I "have time" to embroider. Now that summer is over and life is returning to the hectic rat race of the school year, I'm back to my 15 minute concept. But sometimes, it doesn't get me very far!

I've got two needlework projects presently going on the front burner. On the back burner, there are two other needlework projects floating, that I have every intention of addressing at some point, some time. Here's a recap on those, and a 15 Minute Progress Report.

On the first front burner, you'll find my curtain project. With a recently almost-refinished bedroom, I thought some hand embroidered curtains would be a nice touch. Unfortunately, my bedroom is not quite finished, but then again, neither are my curtains!

On the second front burner, there's the Schwalm whitework project. Because my bedroom's not finished, my studio is overloaded with ... well, stuff from my bedroom, so I don't have anywhere to work on the Schwalm project right now. When I'm working on a piece of linen that size, I like to sit at a table, so I can spread it out.

On the first back burner rests the poppy kit from Trish Burr. I've framed up the piece but haven't started stitching. As soon as I make a start, though, I'll be good to go on that one. But first, the curtains. And the Schwalm. Well, ok - the Schwalm and the poppy can be simultaneous. But since I've started the curtains and they're part of my decor, I feel almost obliged to get them done first. (Operative word: almost!)

On the second back burner, my Long Dog Sampler is still stewing. I want to get back to this, and I will, as soon as things settle down. This particular project is a great 15-Minuter, because if it's on a stand in the corner, and a thread is started, it's really easy to launch in 15 minutes of straight stitching.

So, on to a project update, in pictures...



For the curtains, I decided to go with a chain stitched straight line in periwinkle, with a stem stitched yellow tendril working its way up the straight line. There are several lines of various heights (from 26" - 40" long) spaced about 6 inches apart, going up each panel.



I'm using three strands for DMC for both colors. Stitching on voile presents its own little difficulties. At first, I wanted to stitch in hand, without a hoop, but it is practically impossible to keep the tension right on this loosely woven, airy fabric. So I'm using a hoop, but the hoop presents other problems. It tends to distort the fabric considerably. Still, once the fabric is removed from the hoop, the stitching looks ok. Even with the hoop, it's a challenge to keep the fabric from puckering, and I'm hoping that the slight pucker that is evident will iron out.

I didn't transfer the design - I just doodled it free hand, using a ruler for the strait (periwinkle) line. It's not as if it's a design that could be messed up! I used one of those fine-tipped water soluble transfer markers from the notions section of a sewing store to draw the design, and I found that, in drawing with this pen on the voile, it was quite helpful to put another cloth (scrap) behind the curtain. This helped keep the ink from spreading.

And that represents my 15 minute session. Finished, it's a total of about 5 inches. At this rate, the two sets of voile panels should be finished in about a year - or two!

Coming up this week, I'll have Lesson 5 of the Long and Short Stitch Shading lessons up for you. You can look for that around Thursday, though I'll try to get it posted before then. I've also got some product reviews, another episode of messing with transfer pens and pencils, and (hopefully, if the US Post Office is on my side) two beautiful books to show you.

I hope you have a Terrific Week, and get to spend lots of time with your own needle 'n thread!

Labels: 15 minutes, Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 23, 2009
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The whole thought of hand embroidering two sets of curtains seemed a bit daunting, once I sat down to really consider the project carefully. With brand spankin' new curtains hanging before me and a roll of tracing paper on the table, I started fiddling, and thinking, and doodling, and ... eventually... despairing! Then, I went back to my e-mail. Do you know what the best thing about hand embroidered curtains is?

The very best thing about hand embroidered curtains is the fact that, when I wrote the last post presenting my plan to hand embroider new curtains for a new room, I heard from many who people who have hand embroidered their own curtains, or who have hand embroidered curtains in their homes.

Many folks sent suggestions on types of stitching and types of patterns, and when I started going back through the e-mails I received on the subject and the comments and ideas that were left on the original post, I felt much more inclined to tackle the project! I was excited again about it, thanks to your encouragement, comments, and suggestions. So, that's the Best Thing about hand embroidered curtains - I heard from a lot of really nice people!

Some readers even sent photos of hand embroidered curtains:



Méri thinks that these curtains were made by her mother. Recently found, when they were unpacked, they were discovered to be in bad shape. But they are beautiful! It looks like the design is made with tapes, like the kind used for making Battenburg lace.



Where the design becomes more intricate is where the majority of the damage is. In this technique, the tapes would be stitched onto the fabric, and then connections would be made between them, in the areas where the fabric is to be cut away. What elegant curtains these were! And I love the natural color, with the lighter design!



Janice hand embroidered the hem of her kitchen valance, in blue flowers. I like the embroidery along the hem. This is something I had considered - a line of flower or something similar, along the hem and down the center edges of the two curtain panels (where they meet). What I like about Janice's design is the "random" look of the flowers, and the way they seem to be kind of ... well... dancing. I love this valance, and it gave me a jolly idea for the kitchen window!



Mrs. Kitty went all out on her curtains! She made them a sampler of sorts, with a wide range of motifs on them. You really must look at her up-close photos of this embroidery project! It took her almost two years to complete the panels, the results of which are a sampler of varied techniques, colors, and motifs - truly an amazing job, and what a conversation piece! Fun!

After pouring over the various e-mails and comments, I went back to the table - literally, the drawing board - and looked at my curtains and my roll of tracing paper.

I knew what I wanted: simplicity. All the doodles I had doodled went into the trash. Too many scroll, too many flowers. I drew straight lines at 4 inch intervals on the paper - varying the lines in length from 24 inches to 40 inches. Then, in one on-going "sweep" I drew my embroidery designs. And they are, to say the least, simple!



Wavy lines with random loops - that's it. I liked the recurring suggestions I received from readers of doing shadow work on the cotton voile, so, where the lines wave (but not where they loop), I'll take the lines a bit wider and stitch herringbone stitches (to create the shadow) on the back, leaving the front looking like backstitch. Where the waves come back together in one line to make the loops, I'll switch to straight backstitch. Then, to finish off the look of the backstitch, I'll whip it with the same color thread.

I might - but I don't guarantee it - add a few random small flowers between the wavy lines, here and there, maybe worked in a combination of ribbed spider web and daisy stitch.

And that's my plan, which brings me to the second best thing about hand embroidered curtains: they can still be hung, until I get to each panel.

I plan to transfer the wavy lines onto one panel today. The room won't be finished until early next week, when I'll hang the curtains until I can get to stitching on them.

I can't wait to get started! And thanks to all who left comments and sent e-mails with ideas and suggestions! I really appreciate it!

Labels: Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, August 20, 2009
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Last week, I showed you my set-up for the Schwalm embroidery project I'm working on, from Luzine's book, Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework Embroidery. Well, after a slight kerfuffle, all is underway again, and I've even begun stitching.

I've just managed to stitch in some of the coral stitch outlines around the motifs on only one of the four sides of the tea cloth design. I've discovered a couple points I'll share with you here. Even if you aren't interested particularly in Schwalm whitework, they may serve you in some other embroidery-related endeavor!



Frist of all, when working coral stitch, it's helpful to work up a bit of a "rhythm" to the stitch. When I first started stitching the coral stitch outlines, I didn't realize how important it is to really concentrate on getting the rhythm of the stitch. I'd stitch a wee bit, then get interrupted, add a few more stitches a bit later, get interrupted, etc. These stitches are uneven and inconsistently spaced. Over all, I don't think this will show up in the finished piece, so I'm not that worried about it. But once I had a stretch of time to stitch, I found that the stitch became quite quick to work and the spacing and tension of the knots evened out considerably.



I'm an avid hoop or embroidery frame user. You probably have realized that if you've been reading me for very long! But - not all stitching is for the hoop! In my mind, some stitching simply requires a hoop or frame. For example, I would not, personally, attempt a nice satin stitch, any kind of drawn thread work, or needlepainting without one. But then, there are some stitches that work out better in hand. "In hand" implies embroidery that is stitched with the fabric held in the hand, without the aid of a hoop or frame or any other device to supply tension. And coral stitch - especially in the quantity on this Schwalm piece - works best in hand.

Not only does the stitch work up a whole lot faster, but the tension is overall better on each knot, when worked in hand rather than in a hoop. That's what I found, anyway!



Another thing I have discovered while stitching this piece in hand: the watercolor pencils I tested for transferring an embroidery design tend to rub off and fade, due to the touching and holding of the fabric. The other three sides of the Schwalm design have more or less faded off, and I will have to retrace them. On the side I'm working on, I'm having to retrace each element of the design as I get to it. C'est la vie!

I've got a couple ideas to test about design transfer - including Papermate Flair Ultra Fine markers - specifically in green. A kind reader wrote and told me that's what she uses, and the green works well (the other colors not as well). I'm eager to try this - I wonder how it will work with white threads on white fabric. (Thanks for that tip, Jean!)

In the meantime, I suppose I'll stick with re-tracing as I go. Though I might just break out the regular water-soluble fabric marker.... we'll see. Those tend to fade, too, a bit. But maybe they would hold up better than the pencils are right now!

Anyway, whichever direction I go with the design transfer, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away with the Schwalm project. I like working on it so far! And I'm looking forward to adding different stitches - I think buttonhole scallops are next.

Oh, and a final thing I've learned: I take rotten photos of white-on-white embroidery. I need to research a bit to find out how to remedy that! Any tips you all may have would be wildly welcomed!

That's my project update. What are you up to? Whatever it is, I hope you're enjoying wielding your needle, too!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures, Schwalm, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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Here's Lesson Four in this series of long and short stitch shading lessons. If you're just joining in, you'll find an index of the long and short stitch shading lessons available here on Needle 'n Thread, where you'll find all the links necessarily to easily access these embroidery lessons.

In Lesson Four, we are looking at how to embroider a circle in long and short stitch, in such a way that it looks shaded. Now, there are a couple different ways to go about this, depending on the type of shaded circle you are trying to achieve.

For me, personally, when I'm looking at needle painting, I'm looking at achieving a realistic effect with the long and short stitch. But for others, the two-dimensional flat effect is what they want.

So, in this particular lesson, I'm going to address two methods of long and short stitch: the "textbook" method (comprised of rigorously uniform long and short stitches) and the method we've been following here in these lessons so far, which, over all, is a much freer and more relaxed approach to the technique.

Instead of writing out the exact same lesson that you will find in the PDF at the end of this article, I'll stick to the bare bones for those of you who just want the gist of it. Then, if you want more detail, you can take a look at the PDF.

Colors The colors used in the circles are 347, 349, 351, 353, and 745.

Begin with the top circle, with one strand of 351 threaded in your needle. Split stitch the outer edge of the first circle in 351. Then draw directional lines in pencil inside the circle, like so:



Once you have split stitched around the circle, begin with your needle coming up in the fabric about one third way down the diameter of the circle, on the middle vertical line, as shown by the green dot in the diagram below:



Emerge from the fabric at this point, then take your needle down on the other side of the split stitch line, following the stitch direction marked by the vertical lines. For the next stitch, bring your needle back up into the fabric to the right of your first stitch, right next to it but not crowding it, and just slightly higher in the fabric, and then take it over the split stitched line. Now you have one long stitch and one short stitch. Continue in this manner all the way to the right side of the circle, beginning your long stitches along the same long and your short stitches along the same line.

To help you determine where to begin your stitches, you might draw two horizontal lines inside your circle, like the blue lines in the diagram below:



Once you reach the right side of the circle, go back to the middle and work to the left side of the circle. You'll end up with a row that looks something like this:



To begin your next row, using color 351, bring your needle up, splitting the centermost long stitch in the first row. You'll want to split this stitch only slight up into it - a good gauge would be to split the stitch next to where your short stitches in the first row end.



Your second row will look somewhat like this.



For your third row, use 353, and work the row in the same manner as the two above.



Finally, for the last row, use 745 and stitch the last row over the split stitch edge.

That's the first circle, worked in the "textbook" method of long and short stitch.

Second Circle

The second circle is the next one down, slightly to the right.



Begin by drawing an elongated dot at the top left side of the circle, leaving a little space between the dot and the edge of the circle. If you look at the circle as the face of a clock, the elongated dot will be at approximately 11:00 o'clock.



Next, draw directional lines radiating from the dot, as shown in the photo above.



Using 353, split stitch the edge of the circle. Then, begin your long and short stitching on the edge of the elongated dot. You don't want to go into the center of that dot - just consider the edge of it the place where you begin your stitches. As you stitch, fan the stitches out to follow the directional lines, and vary the length of the stitches. On the sides, stretch the stitches over to the edge. Don't hesitate to take a few over the split stitch line.



Fill in all around the elongated dot, so that the stitches fan out into the circle, and then begin the second row in 351. You'll want to fill in any gaps left by the first row, and build up a thickness of stitches here. You don't want them to overlap each other, but you do need them to cover the ground fabric, so make sure that you tuck in stitches where necessary to fill the area and cover the ground fabric.



I wasn't really satisfied with the lighter stitches on the left side of the elongated dot, so I went back in with 353 and tucked in a stitch to balance the top of the sphere out a bit. Yet another testimony to the forgiving nature of the L & S stitch, when stitched in this manner!



Your second row will look approximately like this.



Your next row is also worked in 351, filling in the center a bit more and building up a full foundation of stitches.

Then switch to 349, and fill in the rest of the sphere, following your stitch direction lines, and taking the thread over the split stitch line when necessary. You will probably stitch at least two rows of 349.



When you finish filling the sphere, which looks a bit like a berry, you'll have something close to this.



Using 347, stitch a few satin stitches across the elongated dot.

Third Circle

The third circle is going to be stitched much like the second, but the "berry" is turned to the other side.



Place a fat dot on the right side of the circle, about halfway down the length of it, and near the edge, but not touching it. Draw lines that radiate from the circle, as shown in the photo above. You can also draw in "layering" lines, which will help you know where to layer your colors.

When you have drawn your directional lines, you can split stitch around the circle in 349.



Beginning with 353 again, stitch in your directional lines radiating from the edge of the circle on the right.



Once you have the directional lines in, go back and fill in between them, varying the length of your stitches.



Begin the second row in 351, fanning your stitches out to follow your directional lines. Keep varying the length of your stitches, as seen in the photo above.



When you need help setting in a directional stitch, remember that you can pull your working thread in the direction you want your stitch to lie, then put your needle into the fabric underneath your working thread, so the stitch ends up in the right spot.



When you finish your second row, it should look something like the one in the photo above.



The next row is worked in 349. Remember to take your thread over the split stitch line as it becomes necessary to do so.



The final row is stitched in 347, over the split stitch line.



When you finish filling in the circle, using 347 again, add a few satin stitches to the inner circle.

Congratulations! You have now finished the first three elements of the Long and Short stitch shading lessons.

You can see all the other available lessons in this series in the Index of Long and Short Stitch Shading Lessons.

You can print or save this lesson (PDF) from the following link:

Lesson Four: Circles, Flat and Round (PDF)

You will probably notice that, of the three circles in this lesson, the last two are far more realistic looking than the first. The techniques used in the last two circles would be the same technique you would use to work such things as fruit (cherries, grapes, berries, larger round fruit, etc.) or vegetables (peas?!) or any spherical item that you want to look more dimensional.

Have fun with it!

Labels: embroidery lessons, embroidery tips and tricks, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, August 17, 2009
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Before the school year gets underway in a mere week and a half (where DOES the summer go?!), I wanted to get several embroidery projects set up. I'm teaching five courses this semester, so I know my needlework time will be limited once school starts, especially during the first month while getting the routine underway. I'm planning to go back to the 15 Minutes Plan, but I can only do that if I have projects ready to stitch.

With that in mind, then, I set about setting up a project! This is the Schwalm Whitework teacloth that is featured in Luzine's book, Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework.

I began by measuring out the linen to the prescribed 80 x 80 cm. Instead of working in centimeters, I converted everything to inches - which was probably silly. Anyway, I cut the linen to 31.5" square, pulling out threads to make sure the linen was cut on the weave. Then, I zig-zagged the edges on the sewing machine, so that I wouldn't have stray threads falling off the edge of the linen.

The linen I'm using is from Germany (thank you, Joey!) and is the preferred linen for Schwalm whitework. It's called Weddigen Linen, and it's available through Das Handarbeitshaus. (If you don't read German, you can drop that in Google's translator, and get a very good translation.) It comes in two thread counts: approx. 35 threads per inch, and approximately 50 threads per inch. I'm using the 35.

Once all the linen preparation was done, I divided the linen in half with basting lines, vertically and horizontally, then marked off the square for the pattern with basting stitches, too. The book calls for 20 cm in each direction, to form approximately a 40cm square for the design. I converted that to inches, and blocked off a 15.5" square, and then also basted in the diagonals on the square. How to do all of this - and why - is explained in the book.

Anyway, I found that the pattern was a bit small for a 15.5" square, so I took the square in an inch all around, and was a bit more satisfied with the layout. Then....

I started tracing. The book suggests an iron-on pencil or pen for transferring the pattern, and I have to admit, that would be about ten million times easier. But I have an aversion to iron-on transfer pencils and pens, because I know they don't come out all the way, despite the method of removal. I decided instead to use a watercolor pencil, and I traced the design.

To trace the design, I lined it up with all the correct lines on the fabric, then I pinned it on and placed it over a light box. It was "easy enough" in concept, but it took a long time! But, once it was finished - it was finished!



Once the design was transferred, my next step was to assemble all my threads. I took out my box of whitework threads, to find this general mess:



I've been telling myself for a while that I need to inventory my threads. These threads get used all the time, and they're not easy to come by. You generally can't find whitework threads (coton a broder) at your local needlework / sewing / craft or hobby store - or at least, I can't! So whenever I need a particular thread, I have to order it online. Still, it looked as if I might have enough!



I sorted them all out, and grouped them according to size. I had sizes 12 through 40, in the following quantities:

#12 - 3 skeins
#16 - 14 skeins + 1 partial
#20 - 4 skeins
#25 - 11 skeins + 2 partial
#30 - 7 skeins + 3 partial
#40 - 3 skeins + 1 partial

I put them all in individual bags, according to size. I'll probably order a few skeins of #20 this week, since I'm relatively low on it, and it's a popular size for many of the stitches in this project.

In the book, it's very nice to have a thread chart that indicates the particular stitches for which each weight of thread is used. Size #50 coton a broder is mentioned (you can use #50 or #40), but I can't find #50 available at any shops here in the States, so I'll stick with #40, which is also becoming increasingly hard to find.



I also had a pile of loose threads that didn't have tags on them, so I have no idea what size they are. Let this be a lesson! Always make sure you have a way to identify your thread sizes. These won't go to waste, of course. I will use them randomly here and there on little projects, like my fish.



Then, I dug through my needle box, and found I had the right sized needles. The book calls for chenille needles and tapestry needles in specific sizes. I had plenty of tapestry, but no chenille, so I'm substituting crewel needles in corresponding sizes.



With everything gathered for the project, I packed the threads and needles away in a mesh zipper bag.



Everything's together and ready to go - ain't that grand??!

But the best thing was that I still had some time (it was only 9:30 pm - I had to stop at 9:45, for company coming) so I decided to actually start on the stitching!



Before working with coton a broder, it's a good idea to prepare your thread. I've got a little tutorial here on Needle 'n Thread about preparing coton a broder for stitching - how to handle these types of "hanks" of embroidery cotton. Incidentally, this is the same method that Luzine suggests in her book. So I prepared a skein of #16 for stitching by braiding it with the paper tags left on, so that I can identify the size.

Then....

I threaded my needle...



It was time to start stitching!

... and that's when the timer went off. Time was up! But it was a good evening's work, and I'm ready to go at my next stitching opportunity!

*******************************************

Other News:

If you haven't signed up yet for my Historic Needlework give-away, there's still time! Visit the original post and read the information on how to sign up!

Today, I'm moving. Not moving, moving. Just sort of moving. My habitat (cave, hovel, whatever you want to call it) is getting a little facelift, so all my computer stuff is being shifted to the studio. The Internet People (Wamego Telecommunications) are coming today to put in a new internet line out the studio, so I'll still be able to work online while the remodeling is being done. The point of all this unwanted personal information is simply to let you know that, if you don't hear from me tomorrow (?!), it's because something went wrong!

Now, I'm off to make room for Technology, so that I don't have to rest my PC on beds of embroidery thread....

Labels: Embroidery Projects, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures, Schwalm, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, August 13, 2009
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Lesson Three of the Long and Short Stitch Shading series focuses on stitching to a point. I have to admit right off the bat, my stitching on these elements is not as good as I would have liked them to be! I suppose I could chalk that up to some kind of panic to get the lessons done, but really - it's a such a cop-out to offer excuses! I suppose you'll just have to take it as it is! The technique is there, anyway, and I'm sure that some of my "students" here will outstitch me on the finish - which is actually what a teacher always wants, isn't it?

If you're just popping in on this series of embroidery lessons on long and short stitch shading, you can visit the Index of Long & Short Stitch Lessons to find all the back issues of the lessons listed in one place.

Don't forget that I've also set up a Needle 'n Thread Flickr group, where you can post pictures and get feedback.

Our objectives in this lesson are to practice stitching long & short stitch to a converging point, keeping the correct stitch direction, and to understand how to reduce the number of stitches in smaller spaces (without bunching up the stitches) in a way that looks (more or less!) natural...

Materials:

1. Project in hoop or frame, with element two: triangles centered (lower left corner of the design.

2. #9 or #10 crewel (embroidery) needles

3. Small, sharp embroidery scissors

4. DMC stranded cotton (or equivalent) in the following colors: 158 (dark blue), 159 (light blue), 160 (medium-light blue), 161 (medium blue)

NOTE: The technique of the stitch is the same learned in lesson two. This particular lesson presents two challenges: keeping the stitch direction and reducing the number of stitches as the space gets smaller.

Procedure

Begin with the top triangle. Anchor your thread according to your favorite method, or use the method demonstrated in the video tutorial of lesson two, part one.

Work a split stitch line across the top line of the first triangle (the broadest part) in dark blue (158).

Beginning in the center of the top line, draw a vertical line to the tip of the triangle, then split the remaining distance on each side of the top line several times, drawing a straight line from any point on the top line to the tip of the triange, like so:



Triangle 1 - Top left triangle

First Row:

Bring your needle up through the fabric, about 3/8" below the split stitch line, in the top center of the box. Take your first stitch over the split stitch line and back into the fabric. Now, working down the row to the right, stitch in about four directional stitches more or less the same length, dividing up the row. (This is illustrated in the videos in lesson two). The difference here is that your stitches are not vertical - they point towards the tip of the triangle. After placing in your directional lines (which are "long" stitches), go back to the center and work to the right, filling in short stitches of varying lengths, moving down the row.



You want your stitches to lie next to each other, as they would in satin stitch, so make sure that you space them correctly - not too close that they bunch up, but not too far apart that you can see any fabric between them.

Continue working across the fabric to the right side of the triangle, altering the size of your stitches between long and short. Vary their lengths, for a more natural-looking shading. You want the bottom edge of your row of stitches to be jagged, but you still want to keep an overally consistent length across the longest points of your stitches.

When you reach the right edge of the triangle, end with a long stitch on the pencil line. This is approximately what your progress should look like so far:



Now move back to the middle and address the left side of the triangle, finishing the first row:



Second & Third Rows

The second and third rows are worked in 161 (medium blue) and 160 (medium light blue).

Bring your needle up from the back of your fabric into the first row of stitches, in the center. Then take your stitch down into the fabric, following your directional lines.



To help keep the direction of your stitches correct, pull your working thread to the tip of the triangle, so you can always see in what direction your stitches should be pointing.

You may add directional stitches if it is easier for you, or you may simply stitch from the center over to the right side of the triangle.



Go deep into the first row of stitches and vary the entry point of your stitches, following basically the same long and short stitch pattern from the row above. Remember, though, that the second row is not as wide as the first, so you can't fit in as many stitches. You won't be bringing your needle up into every stitch on the first row, so don't try! Try to gauge this as you go. Directional stitches may help you with this!



Continue working to the right side of the triangle...



... then go back to the center and work to the left side.

Follow the same procedure for the next row, working in the medium-light blue (160) and keeping in mind the following:

---- Keep your stitches directed towards the point.
---- Don't crowd them - there will be even fewer stitches in this row!

Work from the center to the right:



And when you finish the third row, it should look more or less like this:



Last Row

The last row is the trickiest. You should be close enough to the tip of the triangle that your first stitch reaches the tip. If you aren't, don't worry about it. Make the stitch shorter. The point is that you want this last row to feed into the tip, but in order to do that without building up a big bunch of stitches at the tip, you're going to have to "tuck in" some stitches.



All the stitches it will take to fill the top part of this row cannot fit into the tip of the triangle. So, you're going to work long and short stitches, but pretty much what's going to happen is that your long stitches will "overlap" the ends of the shorter stitches, which won't be "finished" down to the tip. And, you may find that you have to go back to fill in a gap at the top - to sneak a stitch in. At that point, you'll angle your needle underneath the stitches already there. (This is when you'll really find out how handy good lighting is!)



In the picture above, my needle is angled underneath the stitch on its left. I'm tucking the new stitch in, so that I don't have a bulky build-up at the tip.

Continue filling in this manner to the right side of the triangle, taking long stitches down to the tip when necessary, eyeing it to make sure your long stitches fit:



Then go back to the center and work in the same manner to the left side of the triangle:



Second Triangle

The second triangle is worked in the same manner as the first, but it is worked from the bottom (the broad base) to the tip, going upwards. Instead of writing out each direction, I've provided some pictures at various stages. You'll see it's the same exact concept as the first triangle, only your stitching direction is going upwards.



So, you have the split stitch line at the base, then you stitch from the center over the split stitch line.



Put in directional stitches if you want. I find they help, but some instructors say not to use them (although others say to use them!).



Fill in the first row in the same method as detailed above. I'm not super pleased with the edge on this first row - a bit too bumpy! You'll do better!!



Fill in all the subsequent rows up to the tip, and there's the finished triangle.



Move on to the triangle with the curved top - split stitch the top curved line in the lightest blue, and draw your directional lines with a pencil.



Fill in the first row in the same manner detailed above... notice that the first row is shaped like an arch. As you fill in the subsequent rows, you want to keep this arch shape by fanning your stitches around in that semi-circle.



Fill in your subsequent rows, fanning the stitches out in an arch as you stitch.



As you fill in the last row in the darkest blue, you may find you have to sneak some stitches in, but "tucking" them in.



The finished little element.

Congratulations! If you're with me to this point, you've finished element two and are ready to go on to element three, the circles, which are... a challenge! But a fun one!



And there's the sampler so far.

Here's a PDF version of Lesson 3: Triangles

Long & Short Stitch Shading, Lesson Three: Triangles

For all the other lessons in this series, check out the Long & Short Stitch Shading Lesson Index!

Labels: embroidery lessons, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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Today's article is the continuation of yesterday's Long and Short Stitch Shading, Lesson 2. We'll be looking at the larger box in Element 1 on the Long & Short Stitch Sampler. This box is stitched on the diagonal, so it's a little more difficult than yesterday's vertical stitching.

If you're just joining in on the Long and Short Stitch lessons, you can visit the Long & Short Stitch Lesson Index to see a list of already published lessons and articles in this series.

Once you've worked through the first box in Element One on the sampler, it's time to move to the second box, which is the larger of the two boxes. This second box is set behind the first. Often, in needlepainting (long and short stitch shading), the elements farther back in the design are embroidered first, but we'll make an exception with these boxes! The first box was easier to stitch, so that's why we started with it.

Materials:

1. Project in hoop or frame

2. #9 or #10 crewel (embroidery) needles (I'm using #10)

3. DMC Colors: 814, 347, 349, 351, 353, 745, Ecru - note that 3855 (darker yellow) isn't used on this box

4. Small, sharp embroidery scissors

Procedure:

Begin by stitching a split stitch line around the box. Start on the left side and stitch up the left side and across the top of the box in the salmony-red 351. Stitch down the right side of the box and across the base line in yellow 745.



When you've finished split stitching the lines, go ahead and draw in your diagonal stitch direction with a pencil. Take a look at the diagram below:



The pink lines in the boxes above indicate the direction of stitching. Notice that on the second box, the direction is diagonal instead of vertical.

The first row will be stitched in the top left corner of the box, just underneath the smaller box. The first row is worked in dark burgundy (814). In the diagram below, you can see the basic shape of the first area to be filled:





Following the same directions from yesterday's post - the first part of lesson 2 on basic long and short stitch - work from the center point (just under the corner of the top box) towards the top line. Mark in your directional stitches before you begin - this will help keep you on the diagonal.



Then stitch from the center point to the left side of the box, following the direction of your diagonal lines and filling in between your directional stitches.



The second row is worked in dark red (347). Bring your needle up in the center of your first row, splitting the stitches as you learned in yesterday's lesson. Work from the center to the top line of the box, marking in directional stitches and filling in between them.



Move back to the center and work to the left side of the box, filling in the second row.



The next row is worked in bright red (349). Begin in the center and work to the top line and then back to the center to the left side of the box. Here, I began in the center and worked first to the left side of the box. (You can work in either direction first...)

When you get to the point that your long stitches would cross over the split stitch line at the base of the box, cross over the split stitch line and fill in the rest of the corner with satin stitch.



You can see that the last few stitches in the corner here are worked in satin stitch. You may not arrive at this point working the third row - you might not get here until the fourth row of stitching - and this is fine. It depends, you see, on how deep you stitch each row of stitches. But whenever you arrive at the point where your long stitches are going to cross over the corner, go ahead and cross the split stitch line, then finish the corner off with satin stitch.



This is the completed third row.



The fourth row is worked in the salmony-red (351). Again, as you come to the point where your long stitches want to cross the corner, go ahead and cross the corner and fill the rest of the area by working over the split stitch line toward the corner.



The fifth row is worked in the lighter salmon (353), and, as you work, notice that you will be filling quite a bit over the split stitch line on the right side of the box and on the base line of the box.



Work the sixth row in light yellow (745) in the same method.



And, finally, work into the corner of the box in Ecru.

Voila! You have finished stitching inside the boxes!



Next lesson - filling in an angled area that begins broad and works to a tip (triangles).

Long & Short Stitch Shading Lessons - Related Posts

Supplies

Lesson One: Setting Up

Lesson Two, Part 1: Inside the Box - Basic Long and Short Stitch (with three-part video tutorials)

INDEX of Long & Short Stitch Lessons

Labels: embroidery lessons, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, August 07, 2009
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Continuing with the series of long and short stitch shading lessons, here's Lesson 2: Inside the Box. In this lesson, we'll be stitching element one on the sampler, the two boxes in the top left corner.

If you're just joining us for the long and short stitch shading lessons, be sure to check out the previous posts in this series: Supplies and Lesson One: Setting up.

At the end of this post, you'll see a series of three videos on the basic long and short stitch. (I couldn't quite cram it all into one 10-minute video!)

Materials:

1. Project in hoop or frame, with Element One: Boxes centered in hoop (top left corner of the whole sampler)

2. #9 or #10 crewel (embroidery) needles (I use a #10)

3. Small, sharp embroidery scissors

4. DMC stranded cotton in the following colors: 814, 347, 349, 351, 353, 3855, 745, Ecru

NOTE: There is a difference between the step-by-step photos and the video tutorial for this lesson. In the step-by-step photos, I began the top of the box with bright red (349). In the video tutorial, I began the top row in dark red, (347) and worked six rows of color. The directions, however, are written with the bright red (349) as the first color, with five rows working to the lightest yellow (745). You can work the box either way, with five or six rows. If you work five rows, start with bright red (349). If you work six, start with dark red (347).

All stitching is worked with one strand of floss.

To Begin

1. Begin with the smallest box.

2. Anchor your thread according to your favorite method, or use the method demonstrated in the video tutorial, part 1.

3. Work a split stitch line across the top of the small box in bright red (349).

Draw vertical lines, from the center to each side of the box, to mark your stitch direction. Use a regular pencil for this. The vertical lines will help keep your stitches straight up and down. (This is demonstrated in the video, part 1).

First Row

1. Bring your needle up through the fabric, about 3/8" below the split stitch line, in the top center of the box. Take your first stitch over the split stitch line and back into the fabric. Now, working down the row to the right, space about six directional stitches more or less the same length all the way to the right edge of the box. This is illustrated in the video, part 1. after placing your directional lines (which are "long" stitches), go back to the center and work to the right, filling in "short" stitches of varying lengths, moving down the row.

2. You want your stitches to lie right next to each other, as they would in satin stitch, so make sure that you space them correctly - not too close that they bunch up, but not too far apart that you can see any fabric between them.

3. Continue working across the fabric to the right side of the box, alternating the size of your stitches between long and short. Vary their lengths. For a natural-looking long and short stitch (less formal and rigid-looking), stagger the length of your stitches between several lengths - some long, some a little shorter, then a bit longer, then shorter again, then shorter yet, then a little longer, then long, then short, then slightly longer, etc......! You want the bottom edge of your stitched row to be jagged, but you want ot keep an overall consistent length across the longest points of the stitches.

4. When you reach the right edge of the box, end with a long stitch on the pencil line. This is approximately what your progress should look like so far:



5. Now, move back to the middle of the box and work from the center to the left side of the box, doing the same thing.



6. If you're like me, one side will look better than the other. I don't know why this is! For me, the second half that I stitch always looks better than the first, even if I switch directions and stitch from the center to the left first.

Refer to the Long and Short Stitch Video, part 1, below, to see this technique worked out.

Subsequent Rows - up to, but not including, the last row

1. After the first row, each row is worked in the following sequence of colors:
---- Row 2: 351
---- Row 3: 353
---- Row 4: 3855

2. For subsequent rows, after the first row, bring your needle up from the back of your fabric into the first row of stitches, in the center:



3. Stitch some longer directional stitches from the center towards the right edge, dividing up the stitching area as you did with the first row (demonstrated in the video, part 2).

4. Stagger the entry point at the top of the stitches, so that some begin higher and some lower than the others. Work into the long stitches of the first row, about one-third the length up into the long stitches.

5. Work the short stitches of the second row high up into the first row of stitches, bringing the needle back down into the fabric to make a "short" stitch in the second row. Again, stagger your stitches, varying their length by varying where the stitches emerge in the previous row and where they go down into the fabric.



6. Continue from the center to the right edge, and then work from the center to the left edge of the box. You can find this technique demonstrated in the Long & Short Stitch Video, part 2, below.



You'll work each row in this manner, filling in the square, until you get to the last row.



Make sure that you're taking your stitches deep into the previous row, so that the colors blend well. Again, the video will help with this!



The Last Row

1. Split stitch the base line of the square in light yellow, 745.



2. Finish the last row in the same manner of the previous rows, but working the base of the stitches over the split stitch line, as you did with the beginning of the first row.

To help reduce "information overload" in one post, tomorrow I'll post the rest of Lesson Two, which is the second box, worked on the diagonal!

You may print, if you wish, a PDF of the entire lesson (including the second box):

Long and Short Stitch Shading, Lesson Two: Inside the Box (PDF)

Long & Short Stitch Shading Video Tutorial - Part 1



Long & Short Stitch Shading Video Tutorial - Part 2



Long & Short Stitch Shading Video Tutorial - Part 3



If you have any questions or comments, need clarification on anything, or have any suggestions that I'm able to implement concerning the lessons, don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Additionally, you can subscribe to the e-mail newsletter (right hand column) or my RSS feed to ensure you don't miss the next lesson! Advantages of the newsletter include that it's in a better format for printing (compared to the webpage) and you can reply directly to it to send me an e-mail (and attach pictures, if you wish).

Long and Short Stitch Shading Lessons - Related Posts

Supplies for Long and Short Stitch Shading Project

Lesson One - Setting Up

Long and Short Stitch Shading Lesson INDEX

Labels: embroidery lessons, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitchalong lessons, video tutorials

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, August 06, 2009
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A few weeks ago, a reader contacted me to ask if I would be interested in a box of "old" stamped linens. They had been given to her, but she knew she wouldn't use them, so she kindly volunteered to send them to me, or to Good Will. Some linens, she said, still had the original embroidery threads with them. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity, and Freda very kindly sent me the box.

I've had similar things happen before: neighbors cleaning out their garage or their storage area and coming across old craft stuff and not wanting to go through it; people contacting me from afar, after the death of a family member, and asking if I wanted the box of their mom's embroidery supplies, as they weren't interested in them; a lady dumping (yes, dumping) a worn out box full of children's crafting supplies on my front porch.... and the list could go on. In most of these situations (the exception being the dumbed box on the front porch!), it has always been a real pleasure to go through the boxes.

Each box tells a story of sorts - what the person's tastes were; how much they loved their hobby; what things in life were important to them; whether they were very organized and meticulous people, or whether they were more like... uh... me. Going through old needlework supplies, you can learn a lot about people!

You can also learn a lot about the history of needlework, which was the case with Freda's box.



The contents of this box undoubtedly date to the late 1800's - early 1900's, during that era of "Silk Art Embroidery" or "Society Silk." Well, certainly some of the threads date from the mid-1800's up to 1917 (I'd guess closer to 1917).

Inside the box, I found a heap of unworked, stamped linens, featuring tea cloths, doilies, and the like. The majority are printed with "natural" looking floral designs, typical of the "Silk Art Embroidery" style (or "Society Silk"). Very few of them are partially worked, and none are completely worked. I'll show you the linens a bit later.



Tucked inside some of the linens were skeins of silk floss - in different degrees of disarray. Some will need attention to get them back in order; others are neatly braided.



Regardless of their current situation, all the threads are gorgeous! The sheen is incredible - the silk is just beautiful! I am looking forward to the challenge of separating and straightening out the different colors and weights of silk!

When I removed the linens from the box, I discovered more silk! Someone had already tried to organize this bunch, using small plastic bags.



The majority of the silk was manufactured by M. Heminway & Sons:



Merrit Heminway was the first manufacturer to spool silk in the US. From the mid-1800's through 1917, his company (formerly Bishop & Heminway) was called M. Heminway & Sons Silk Company. In 1917, the company was sold to Hammond Knowlton & Co, and the name was changed to H.K.H. Company. So somewhere between the establishment of of M. Heminway & Sons Silk Company and the selling of it to H.K.H., these threads were made. An expert who's studied the subject in-depth could probably look at the label and be a bit more precise as to the age of the thread, but there's no doubt that the era is certainly the "Silk Art" or "Society Silk" era of embroidery.

The popularity of this style of embroidery, which is essentially needlepainting flowers and other natural florals on linen and other ground fabrics using fine silks, lasted from the around the 1880's through about 1915 - 1920. According to Donna Cardwell in her book Silk Art Embroidery: A Woman's History of Ornament and Empowerment, the term "society silk" comes from the organization (The Society of Decorative Art) that taught the skills of this type of needlework all over the country and in Canada. Silk Art Embroidery has an interesting history and is worth reading about. Don't be too put off by the title of the book above - I was afraid it was going to be entirely a "social history" book, but it isn't. It contains interesting history and lots of technique information.

While it is evident from this box of goodies that the stitcher was definitely stitching household linens, I can't help wondering if they were for her or if they were being made to sell as a source of income? Was she just dabbling in the new embroidery rage? Or was she seriously trying to learn the technique in order to supplement income? These things, I will probably never know - but it's fun to wonder!

Incidentally, this type of thread was not used solely for "Silk Art Embroidery." This was the silk embroidery floss available in the US at that time, and you can see it on a multitude of ecclesiastical work from that time period, as well. I've always wanted to see the threads they used in ecclesiastical work from the early 1900's, up close. When looking at different pieces, it's evident that the pieces were stitched with lightly twisted filament silk. And finally, here's a whole box of it!

I'll be sorting through this as I have time, and I'll also be showing you the linens, in case you're curious!

Thanks, Freda, for thinking of me!

Labels: historical needlework, needlework pictures, pictures, silk, threads, vintage embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, August 05, 2009
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To keep things organized for the upcoming series of long and short stitch shading (needlepainting) tutorials, here's an index of all related links.

List of Long & Short Stitch Lessons and Links



Flickr Group for Sharing Photos and Receiving Feedback

Supplies

Lesson One: Setting Up the Project - includes design, materials list, instructions on transferring the design, etc.

Lesson Two: Element One - Inside the Box - basic long and short stitch technique - Includes Video Tutorials!

Lesson Two, Part 2: Element One - The Large Box (stitched on the diagonal)

Lesson Three: Element Two - Triangles - Shading at an Angle

Lesson Four: Circles - from flat to three dimensional on round elements like berries

Lesson Five: Ribbon - Shading around curves and to a point

Lesson Six: A Simple Leaf

Lesson Seven: Another Leaf - slightly more complex

Lesson Eight: Small Simple Flower

Lesson Nine: Leaf with a Turnover

There is a direct link to this Index under "Editor's Floss" in the right hand column.

Labels: embroidery lessons, long and short stitch, needlepainting, needlework pictures, pictures, stitchalong lessons

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, August 02, 2009
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Last week, I told you about the iron-on transfers from Mani di Fata, which I purchased at Lacis while on vacation. Here's a little towel I worked up, using one of the corner designs in that package. I'm also going to show you (gasp! shock! horror!) the back of the embroidery.

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite way of transferring an embroidery pattern - even if it's an iron-on - is actually by tracing. That's what I did with this particular towel. I taped the iron-on to my little light box and traced the design on using a regular mechanical pencil with #2 lead. There are other ways of transferring designs, of course! I've got a bunch of them explained in the articles under Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery, if you're looking for some other way to get your embroidery design onto your fabric. For me, though, for this type of embroidery, I prefer just to trace with a pencil. It's easy, it doesn't require special equipment (you can use a sunny window instead of a light box), and it's really fast.

After transferring the pattern, I picked out colors. Generally, on towels, I stick with no more than four colors, and often only three. In this towel, I used four: green, red, a lighter orangy-red, and yellow.



The design is pretty simple, but bold.



The entire thing is stitched in stem stitch, with the exception of the satin stitched dots around the outside of the flower and the satin stitched center of the flower.



Stem stitch is an absolutely delightful stitch. It's my favorite for line patterns, because it's easy, quick to work, and its rope-like appearance is pretty. Despite arguments contrary to the fact, there is a difference between stem stitch and outline stitch, by the way! If you choose to use outline stitch for lines, you won't get that rope-like appearance.



The Back of Embroidery is generally a subject that comes up either in hushed tones or apologetic tones... I received a funny e-mail from a reader, asking Very Apologetically if I would mind showing the back of my embroidery some time. She was worried because, especially on the towels she was making, the back is not covered up. "Slugs" where the end of the thread is anchored were a concern.

You can see the "slugs" where I wrap the ends of my threads around the backs of the stitches to anchor them. I either wrap (whipping around the backs of the stitches), or just pull the threads through the stitches, taking one extra backstitch around the back of the threads to anchor the thread. You can read about this under Ending Embroidery Threads, if you want. In any case, this is generally how I end stitches in a line on the back of towels.

In certain types of embroidery (needlepainting, goldwork, etc.), if I'm filling an area and I haven't filled it all the way yet, and I need to end a thread, I'll end my thread by taking it into an area that will be filled with other stitches and working several tiny backstitches that will hold the thread. It's the same concept as beginning with anchor stitches, only, in a filled area, you can work the little anchor stitches perpendicular to (and into) each other (without building up a lump!). I've shown this technique on the video tutorial on bullion rose buds, if you want to take a look.



But, on line stitches on the back of a towel like this, where I don't have anywhere to hide little anchoring stitches, I wrap the end of the thread through the stitches on the back. Yes, it makes a bit of a slug. But it's the back! So I think it's ok! Just trim your little fuzzies, and clean it up as best as you can, and I think it'll look fine for the back of the work!



Decorated flour sack towels are useful for a number of purposes besides just drying dishes, hanging on the fridge, wiping the countertop, or sopping up messes. They make terrific basket liners, for one thing. We use them to line bread baskets for serving bread in at the dinner table. You can fold the corners up over the bread to keep it warm, and if you put your embroidered corner on the top, it's very pretty!

Additionally, you can line gift baskets with them. This is great for wedding showers! Instead of wrapping the gift, put it in a basket lined with a towel, and fold the towel over the gift, with the embroidered corner on the top. A nice personal touch!

I like embroidering flour sack towels when I'm in the mood for relaxing, easy needlework that doesn't require any kind of thinking or planning. I usually keep a couple towels "kitted up" in my work basket, ready for moments when I need something to do with my hands, but can't afford deep concentration on needlework.

PS... Great source for flour sack towels: American Chair Store. I use their Deluxe Flour Sack Towel. They're nicer than any I've found anywhere else, and, so far, they've been consistently nice, which is good. They're cheaper by the dozen, so if you plan to decorate many towels with hand embroidery, consider getting them by the dozen...

Labels: beginner embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, July 20, 2009
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Ok, that's a dumb and punny title. Still, I was on the ball - I actually completely something! One of the best parts of creating anything is actually completing it and enjoying that sense of accomplishment. I don't always complete everything I begin, needlework-wise. (Have you noticed that? Think: whitework sampler, silk shading sampler, Long Dog sampler... the list could go on!) My excuse list, by the way, is just as long! However, Temari balls are small enough to finish in just a couple sittings, and this makes embroidering these spheres extra fun.

The beginning of my first attempt at Temari went pretty quickly. After selecting the right threads and a pattern, all told, I think I worked for a bit less than an hour.

The next chance I got, I went back out to the studio to finish up the Temari ball, and this took about two hours, with a few interruptions in there.



I worked the other side of the ball exactly like the first, although I tried to loosen up my tension a bit and not crowd the tips so much. That's going to take a little more practice, methinks. I wanted both sides to come out even, as far as the spacing from the tips of the "star" to the middle band, or obi. I added to both sides one more row of light blue and one more row of dark blue, to try to bring out the pattern a bit more.



The obi, or band across the middle, is worked in the same threads. I had plenty more yellow and pink, but I don't like the yellow, so it ended up being mostly blue with a little bit of pink and only one row of yellow in the center I think double herringbone stitch would normally be worked over the top of the obi, but I only had two strands of dark blue left.



The pattern called for gold braid for the herringbone, but since I didn't use gold anywhere else (except the original marking threads on the ball, which I tried to cover up as much as possible), I figured the blue would be fine. I've got the impression that, pretty much, you can do whatever you want to with colors.



The final test of whether or not I got the process right was passing the ball off to Adele, who inspected it for me. I figure if Temari were originally presented as baby gifts, I might as well see how a baby liked this one. She approved, though I had the impression she would have liked it better if it had a bell or something inside. Next time, I may just have to make my own core and add a bell!

So that was my first experience with Temari, and I found that I did like making it (a lot), and will probably delve into the craft again. Hm... they'd make good Christmas gifts, baby gifts, housewarming gifts, and even just regular decoration. I like the idea of a decorative bowl filled with different sizes - a good conversation piece, if nothing else.

For books, I like Barb Suess's Japanese Temari: A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft best for beginners. The instructions were really clear.

If you take a look at any Temari book and feel intimidated by the angles and markings on the ball, start with Barb's book, and once you get through the first ball, your intimidation will vanish, even if you're working with the pre-made and pre-marked cores. Actually working with the marked ball helps dissolve that befuddlement of looking at all those angle diagrams in the books - you'll suddenly "get it" without too much effort!

If you're looking for pre-made and pre-marked cores, you can find them available in three colors (red, white, and black) at Nordic Needle, for $10.99 each. (Lacis charges $14.95 for the same thing, and theirs only come in black or white.)

Working on a pre-made and pre-marked core has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages. For example, the pre-marked balls are divided into a simple 6 division, which limits your pattern choices to 6 or 12 division patterns. Most of the patterns that catch my eye are 8 or 16 division patterns. So there's a bit of a limitation there. BUT - on the other hand - if you want to try Temari, and you are intimidated by the idea of making your own core, or you simply don't want to put the time, effort, and expense into making the core until you know if you like the craft, then starting with a pre-marked 6-division ball is a good idea.

I'd love to hear your Temari adventures. If you want to link to your photo page, blog, etc., that features your Temari, leave a comment with a link below. If you know of good resources to share, feel free!

Labels: needlework pictures, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, temari

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, July 18, 2009
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It's true. Temari is addicting. I haven't discovered yet if it is addicting as a craft - I don't know, for example, whether or not I'll be desperate to start another one once I finish my first attempt, because I haven't finished my first attempt yet - but I do know that, in the process of creating one ball, it is addicting. I didn't want to stop. And my First Attempt Temari is ugly. And I still didn't want to stop!

Yesterday, the itch to try to make a Temari ball finally overcame me, and in the later afternoon when I should have been doing a dozen other things, I slunk out to the studio, furtively planning to to give in.

The first thing I had to do was gather threads.

Oh.

Darn.

Threads.

Never start a project until you have at least a goodly bit of the supplies actually in your possession. I know this rule, but I really had to make a Temari ball yesterday afternoon!

I had some partial skeins of DMC perle cotton #5 leftover from the kids' embroidery classes I taught last summer. Let's see... a pink, a light blue, a very little bit of dark blue, and a rather vibrant yellow. There was also a skein of bright orange, but that didn't seem to fit the bill, quite.

Sticking with an overall baby-colored scheme, then (with the exception of the yellow, which was too bright to be baby), I launched into embroidering the outside of one of my thread-wrapped balls from Lacis.

The ball was already divided into a simple 6 division, so I found, in Barb Suess's book Japanese Temari, A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft, a pattern for a six division ball and launched in.

I wasn't sure of the needle to use, so at first, I started out with a regular crewel needle (#3), but quickly switched to the only large darning needle that I had in my needle box. I have no idea what size it is, but it was the longest needle I had, so I stuck with that.



It isn't exactly my favorite design that I've seen on Temari balls. So many of these embroidered spheres have caught my eye lately, but this particular design didn't, exactly. Still, it was a six-division pattern and looked fairly simple (which it was).



Because the ball I had was so huge, I had to add extra rows of thread, so I expanded the original pattern a little bit.



My spacing and tension were not exactly what they should have been. I found I crammed the stitches into the end-points, instead of keeping them a bit farther apart and well-spaced. This caused some of the threads to bunch up against each other, and, in some cases, to overlap, covering up other threads.



Some of the little arms of the "star" came out better than others, but there's still a tension and spacing problem going on here.



As I altered the pattern a bit, I jotted down the alterations in the book. Yes, I write in my books. Not in all my books, but in many of them!

Barb Suess's book is really excellent for beginners. I recommend it highly! The other book I ordered was Temari: How to Make Japanese Thread Balls, by Diana Vandervoort. Once I got the hang of what I was doing, I liked the second book, too. It's not as nice a book, though, as Barb Suess's, if you're one who judges content by appearance. The pages are that rough news-printy type paper, and, except for a couple pages right in front, there is no color throughout the book. All the diagrams look hand-sketched. But the information is really good, and there are some neat designs in there, though you don't get to see them displayed in color.

As far as the pre-wrapped ball from Lacis goes, by the way, I find them rather large. I don't know if this is the standard size, but it "just" fits in my hand - it's like a softball. It feels large. I can see why making your own thread-wrapped core would be more enticing, since you can then determine the size of the finished product.

I'm eager to finish this ball. Once I see it completed, I'll know better if I want to invest in some specific threads for the black core.

Anyway, that's it - my First Attempt Temari.

Labels: needlework pictures, pictures, regional embroidery techniques, temari

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, July 16, 2009
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While visiting San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel, California, last week, I enjoyed looking at their display case of old embroidered vestments. One in particular caught my eye, because it was very similar to another vestment I had seen several years ago on display in Clyde, Missiouri. I thought I'd put the two similar elements up together here so that you can see the similarities, too.

Both vestments were certainly hand embroidered. I know for a fact that the vestments in Clyde, Missouri, are hand embroidered, and, looking at the ones at San Carlos up close, it is obvious that they, too, were worked by hand.

Both vestments are "Roman" in style - that is, they are oblong rectangles - and in the middle of the back of the vestment (the part that, in the traditional ceremonies of the Church, face the congregation most of the time), there is a round medallion featuring the face of Christ, with a small bit of text surrounding the face. The medallions are centered in an elaborately embroidered cross. The surrounding embroidered cross is not really the focal point here, because, except in size, they aren't similar at all.

The following medallion is on a vestment at the Benedictine convent in Clyde, Missouri:



The colors are a little surprising. The photo was taken inside, in regular lighting, and the piece was behind glass. Still, these were the colors, more or less - predominantly blues and pinks.



The vestment at San Carlos in Carmel featured much warmer colors - golds, reds, deep bluish-greens.

The overall look of the two vestments reflect completely different "eras" of art. The top piece, for example, has a somewhat art-nouveau look to it (this style of art being popular from the late 1800's through the early 1900's, with the peak of popularity being between about 1890-1905/10 - about a 15 to 20 year spread of time). The second piece, from San Carlos, is more conservative in style and color selection. But the similarities between the faces is what is intriguing.

The points of similarity that strike me especially are:

1. The arrangement - the circle, the text, the face.
2. The nose and eyebrows
3. The cheekbones
4. The eyes
5. The lips - though dissimilar in color, the are similar in structure, including the space just below the lips.

The hair and beard on the two pieces are different, too - the stitching on the beard on the second piece is much "lighter" and fuzzier looking. The top medallion features very dark lines under the edge of the moustache, which draws the mouth down. Yet, essentially, the two moustaches are the same shape, even to the point of the left side looking less angled than the right.

It is pretty clear that the two pieces were worked from the same image as a pattern, but the interpretations are slightly different. My guess? That a line of patterns with this image of the face was available from the late 1800's through the early 1900's, but that, though the face was the same, the embroiderer could select from a series of patterns that featured different styles of text, wording, etc., and that the individual embellishment of the cross and halo and the surrounding edge were left to the embroiderer's imagination and skill. Probably, a catalog of embroidery patterns was available at the time, and convents, houses of embroidery, or individuals selected their patterns from the catalog.

That's just a guess. I have a couple other images from different vestments in different parts of the country that support the notion that common patterns were used (probably ordered from catalogs) in ecclesiastical embroidery found on old vestments. One image in particular comes to mind, so when I find those photos, I'll put them up for you to see.

I thought it was kind of neat to find two such similar images in hand embroidery, some thousands of miles apart, but both in museums that reflect the religious heritage of the area in which they are located. I also like the fact that the choice of colors and the arrangement of design on the back of the chasuble (the embroidered cross) reflect both the individual embroiderers' tastes and the location / use of the vestment. The second medallion above, for example, is perfect for San Carlos, as far as colors are concerned. The vestment belonging to the first medallion would look entirely out of place in the sanctuary at the mission in California, but it probably worked great in the chapel in Clyde, Missouri.

Any input or observations?

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, historical needlework, needlework pictures, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, July 11, 2009
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Ashley, of Oooooh, Silk!, though relatively new to embroidery, undertook to embroider, in Holbein stitch, a coif. She is going to tell you all about the adventure...

I was inspired by history to learn blackwork (Holbein stitch, double running stitch). I play in the SCA (a medieval/renaissance reenactment group) and have slowly come to dabble in the beautiful fashions that were present in the mid to late 1500s (about that time that Holbein was painting his lovely portraits featuring blackworked cuffs, collars, and clothing). I thought they were gorgeous pieces, but I didn’t really see myself doing it until I looked through Janet Arnold’s newest Patterns of Fashion book. Her meticulously researched book of patterns, illustrations, research, and pictures of 16th century costuming made me realize that if I ever wanted to take myself seriously as an Elizabethan enthusiast, I had to learn embroidery. The full color photos of blackwork, pulled work, and insertion lace beckoned to me, and I had to have some of my own.



The pattern was created by Laura Mellin, part of a series of headwear patterns from museum or other 16th century sources, usually dating between 1590 and 1620 (when Elizabethan and early Jacobean embroidery was most popular). While several of her patterns have beautiful and (to my eye) highly complicated botanical and animal designs, I was struck by the “Genevieve” pattern, a fairly simple grid work of lines and fleur-de-lis surrounding isolated flower motifs. Thinking that it would be a good starter piece, I purchased the pattern at a local SCA function.

For the fabric, I used a rather unusual source at our local thrift store. My husband and I are still going through our Poor Newlywed phase, so I really didn’t have the budget for the really expensive linens for the project’s ground, and I didn’t want to use the discount linen typically available through the internet, since it tends to be very low quality. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to spend so much time working on a project and end up with something substandard and incorrect to the time period I was going for. It was a magical day when $5 men’s shirt appeared in front of me at the local DI, and I was so impressed with the quality of the fabric (not perfect, but certainly better than I’d seen commercially) that I immediately knew it would be perfect for the coif.



After ripping out the seams, it was a simple matter to stabilize the fabric with wax paper (applied with a hot iron, another tip from Laura Mellin) and transfer the pattern using a micron pen. I congratulated myself for finding a garment that exactly fit the pattern, with just enough room for hoop space and seam allowances!

I am using two strands of RG Splendor silk floss for the embroidery, conditioned with beeswax. I find that the Splendor shreds a bit more than the DMC cotton floss I was used to so the wax goes a long way to keep it smooth and workable. The size of the coif meant I could not easily mount the project on a scroll frame, and while I would have loved to get a good slate frame and even tried to build a simple wood frame, in the end, a simple (and cheap) plastic hoop became the best and most economical option. I was worried at first that it would damage the blackwork or cause odd stretching, but so far it seems to be fine. It also makes it highly portable – I carry it in a gallon size zip lock bag with the thread, wax, scissors, and spare needles, so I can work on it any spare moment I have.



In working on it, I’ve come to love seeing the design appear as I work. The curlicues and loops of the flowers have become some of my favorite parts to work. The one thing I haven’t liked, I have to admit, is the grid work. I’ve found straight lines in double running stitch to be one of the hardest portions of this project, especially in places where my transfer might not have been the greatest (a ruler would not have been amiss in the transfer phase, I realize after the fact). It’s much easier to do the flowing naturalistic designs, and flaws in the stitching are far less noticeable. Sometimes I have to ‘reward’ myself with flowers after one or two passes at the grids. Couching might have been a better option, but by the time I realized that I was already committed to doing them in double running stitch (i.e. I didn’t want to pull out what I’d already done and start over).

Even with the difficulties, I’m really enjoying this style of embroidery. I love the idea of making a project better than the sum of its parts (in this case, about $15 in materials and a whole lot of time), and ending up with wearable, historical art. If I keep up my current progress, I hope to be able to finish it by the end of the year.

If anyone is interested in Laura Mellin’s embroidery patterns, they are available through Reconstructing History (reconstructinghistory.com).

Labels: historical needlework, needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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Yesterday, I posted Part I of Nita's explorations of applique, embroidery, and other textile techniques in her aquatic sampler, which she finished into a gloriously vibrant banner. Today, I want to show you the rest of the photos and the finished piece!

I really think there are few scenes in nature that provide such color and variety for the artist or embroiderer as the coral reef does. Though I can rarely look at such scenes anymore without automatically wondering where the heck Nemo is, I can't help being drawn to them! Perhaps it's because I live in Kansas, and the only water we ever see is a half-empty muddy river, or an occasional flooded, murky field. I grew up, though, on both coasts (West and East, chronologically), with my high school years being spent in Florida. We were never very far from the ocean wherever we lived, and this is the only thing I ever really miss living in Kansas. *Sigh* Water sure is likeable stuff.

Anyway, on with the aquatic sampler!



This big fishy fellow is worked in a foiling technique using Misty Fuse. He has that scaly irridescent look, doesn't he? What a perfect combination of techniques to achieve the fish look.



Here you've got some of Nita's gazillion French knots highlighting the green coral. Note the variety of colors of green and blue-ish green...



Stepping back a little so that you can get the effect of the stitching, notice the ripples in the water and the different types of bumpy coral.



Turkey work was used to create this bunch, which looks as if it's swaying in the water. The shading on this is perfect!



Woven picots are featured here in the front of this shot, and on the right, you can see the single feather stitch.



Here, felt beads are used to make clumps of coral. The felt has been sliced open to reveal the colorful insides.



Bullion knots add dimension to this piece of appliquéd coral.



And absolutely my favorite part of the sampler - the rippled water, created by a combination of cast on stitch (the ripples in the water) and beading (the edge of the water). Beautiful effect!



And finally, the masterpiece!

Thank you so much, Nita, for sharing all these gorgeous pictures with us and telling us about the techniques you used! It's a stunning piece!

Labels: needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, June 26, 2009
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Nita's Aquatic Sampler is just about everything you would expect an aquatic sampler to be - and then some. A combination of applique and embroidery, this colorful banner is, to say the least, bedazzling! I have always been drawn to aquatic landscapes (I even went through a phase in my life - I think 11th grade? - when I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist!), and I love the vivid life of the coral reef. To see it come to life in stitching and embellishment is pretty exciting!

I'm going to let Nita tell the story behind this textile sampler. I've divided the project into two posts in order to include all the pictures...



I used this project to practice embroidery stitches I wanted to learn as well as other techniques, eg. trapunto, foiling with Misty Fuse and Bonash, Angelia fibers and applique.

I started with a scrap of a fabric panel from Michael Miller, called "Scuba Time" which had various fish fussy cut out of it. My Mom got this piece from a scrap bin somewhere. I also used a fat quarter of the water bubble material that I got from the Sarasota Quilt show and a little over a yard of a beautiful batik fabric for the back and for water stripes that I got from my favorite fabric store in my area, Fiberologie, in St. Petersburg, FL.



I cut the fabric panel and reattached to eliminate the big holes, I also used some fish and coral sections to applique on to panel.



I started by using "Designs for the Needle" 6 strand cotton floss and then bought some "DMC" 6 strand floss and perle cotton. I used a yellow eyelash fiber and a red fiber I picked up somewhere along the way.



I used felt beads that I bought at Fiberologie and cut some in half to show the beautiful colors inside at the suggestion of Karrie Klement, owner of Fiberologie.



I experimented with a number of stitches, a gazillion french knots on the coral, bullion knots, feather stitch (wasn't 3-D enough) then I played with cast on stitches, drizzle stitch, turkey work, woven picot.

I used your video library of stitches for at least the turkey work if not other stitches. I used the stitch dictionary at In a Minute Ago for the drizzle stitches and cast on. I know there are other on-line resources I used but can't remember which!



I used the Pat Trott book I show in the photo for woven picot, among others. I used a lot of books from the library including Reader's Digest "Very Easy Crazy Patch Work" and Reader's Digest "Complete Book of Embroidery" among many other that have since been returned.



As a beginner embroider I found the laminated pocket guide that I picked up at the Tampa Sewing and Quilt Expo invaluable when I am mobile with my embroidery.

I also took a class with Marlene Glickman, a very talented fiber artist and great teacher at Fiberologie, in which she taught a collage class using various fusing methods such as the Misty Fuse and Bonash with foil. It was by far the most interesting and fun class I have taken. (I also took her silk dye class the same day, great class also)

Aren't you dying to see the completed project?! Well - check back in tomorrow!

Thanks so much, Nita, for the gorgeous photos, the interesting write-up, and the refreshing splash of inspiration!

Labels: needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 25, 2009
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Mabel recently embroidered a beautiful quilt for her granddaughter. It's really a pretty piece of work, with each different heart embroidered in flowers and featuring a little inspirational word - like happiness, hope, friendship.

The "fancy" flowered hearts are embroidered on every other square on the front of the quilt, and in between each of those squares is a simpler square, with four hearts embroidered that meet in the middle of the square.



Mabel used one thread of DMC throughout, and stitched each heart differently.



I think the colors are really beautiful! I love the addition of that little word in each square - a perfect little touch for a little girl's blanket.



Every other square is embroidered with this motif of four hearts, meeting in the middle. The running stitch outline is perfect here - a nice, simple approach to contrast with the surrounding fancier squares.



This is the whole quilt - you can see the layout of the various embroidered squares.



The center square is the L-O-V-E in a Box embroidery pattern available here on Needle 'n Thread. Originally, Mabel worked the letters in running stitch, but she wasn't satisfied with the way they looked, so she laced a darker pink thread into the stitching. I like the somewhat "wavy" effect on the letters that this technique of lacing creates.



On the back of the quilt are embroidered certain inspirational verses. This one reads, "Dance like nobody's watching, Love like you've never been hurt, Sing like nobody's hearing, Live like it's heaven on earth." Mabel asked is I thought she should re-embroider those in darker thread. What do you all think? I tend to think that, if the thread color she has used corresponds well to the threads in the front of the quilt, to go ahead and leave the verses as they are. From up close, they can certainly be read, and that's what matters, anyway, because that's how her granddaughter will see it. But... what do you all think?



On the back of the quilt, what better signature than "Super Grandma"??



And, of course, there's the lucky recipient of this hand embroidered treasure, Sienna-Lee, who will be one in August and is reported to be a very fast crawler! She's cute as a button, that's for sure!

Mabel also mentioned that she has just started quilting, so this is a beginner project for her. The bumps on the quilt, she said, bear witness to this. I'm not a professional quilter, myself, but I have made quilts and went through a phase of reading a lot about quilting techniques. So, for all you quilters out there, here's my question: I'm wondering if, in the long-run, Mabel might be a bit happier with the finished product if she were to quilt the quilt a bit more with a neutral-colored (white) quilting thread, in order to help eliminate some of what she calls the "bumpy" spots. I foresee the filling shifting with use.... It would not take away from the embroidery at all, to quilt a little bit around the hearts, for example, or maybe just another quilted line half an inch in from the ribbons around each square? Even if she quilted, say, another small heart within the hearts, using white thread, that would help secure the batting and anchor everything in place.

I know that sounds like a lot more work to add to the project, but after all this gorgeous embroidery has been done on the quilt, I would hate to see it lump up after a bit of use!

Perhaps some other quilters out there might offer some advice on this point for Mabel?

The embroidery on this project is really gorgeous, and of course, the whole quilt is made with such obvious love! What a perfect gift for a gorgeous granddaughter, and I'm sure she will treasure it all her life (and hand it down to her own kids, hopefully!). Congratulations, Mabel!

Labels: needlework pictures, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, June 22, 2009
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After finishing the embroidery on the main part of the pall, I made a small, square, detachable back for it, so that the back can be removed and washed without having to take the whole pall apart for cleaning. The detachable back of the pall is made from linen, and it is hemmed all around with a small hem with mitred corners. Then the center is embroidered with a tiny red cross.

For the embroiderer, it's handy to know how to mitre corners on a hem. Imagine making a long table runner with a drawn thread line running just inside the hem. Wouldn't it be nice to know how to finish the corners on that hem so that they looked professional? What about a fine hanky, where people will see the back of the work? Sloppy corners just wouldn't do, would they?

So, today I'm going to show you how I created a quarter-inch hem on a small piece of linen and mitred the corners. You can take the concept to any proportion hem around a piece with 90-degree corners.



I began with a square of linen one inch larger all around than the finished piece would be. This allows for half an inch extra on each side of the fabric, out of which the hem (two quarter inch turns) will be made.



Using a stiletto that doesn't have a super sharp tip (it's not like the tip of a needle, more like the tip of an ice pick) and a ruler, I marked off my folding lines by "scoring" the fabric. You can use any tool here to make marking lines on the fabric, though you probably wouldn't want to use scissors or anything that would cut the fabric.

I scored the fabric in two quarter-inch increments on all four sides of the square. Scoring is simply running that tool firmly over the fabric, along the edge of the ruler. It marks the path of the of your folding lines with a slight dent in the fabric, making folding along the measured line much easier.



After scoring two lines in quarter inch increments (from the edge of the fabric) all around on all four sides, I finger pressed the hem in.

First, I folded the fabric from the edge inward on all four sides at the first quarter inch line. Then, I folded these folds (on all four sides) one more time on the second quarter inch line.

I firmly pressed each fold as I made it, using my fingers (not an iron).



Unfolding the folds, this is what the fabric looks like. You can see two distinct quarter-inch lines where the fabric was folded and finger pressed.



Notice the intersections of the lines.



See how the green dotted line passes through the diagonal on the second square in from the corner?



Using the diagonal on that square, form a cutting line by laying your ruler across the square diagonally.



Cut the corner off. A rotary cutter is helpful here, but really, you can just eyeball the cutting line along the diagonal and use scissors just as effectively!



After cutting the four corners off, finger press the diagonal cut an eighth of an inch in. The fold will actually be as deep as the lower tip of the remains of the second square in from the corner (the top of which you just cut off). Finger press this small fold right across the corner...



...and then, using your previous fold lines as a guide, fold your first quarter-inch fold all along the outside hem and finger press it is firmly again...



... and then make your second quarter inch fold all around the hem, finger pressing the turned edge in, and aligning the corners so that they fit up as in the photo above.



Then, pin everything. Since my square is relatively small here (the finished size is 6.25 inches), I didn't use many pins. Pin through the mitred corners to hold them in place, and then pin down the edge of the hem.



You can then do whatever kind of stitching along the hem that you want to do. I just used a regular small whip stitched hem. When you get to the corners, you want to stitch them neatly, either using a blind stitch or even a regular whip stitch.



I stitched inside the fabric in a blind stitch fashion, and then I pulled the thread tightly, to form a slight ridge where the corners meet up. This is actually a mistake - the corner should be smooth and flat - but once I did it on one, I went ahead and did it on all four, so that they match. (That way it doesn't look so much like a mistake!) There shouldn't really be that rounded bulge at the edge of the corner. One of the reasons for this (besides butting up the corners too tightly there) is that the small quarter inch hem is rather thick, in a small space, so it's kind of tight in there when you're stitching. Still, I could have avoided that with looser stitching on the corner, so keep that in mind as you stitch up your mitred corners.

And that is how you mitre corners by hand on the edge of a squared hem!

Hope you find the technique handy!

Labels: finish work, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 18, 2009
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After stitching all the lines on my current embroidery project, the next step was to add some seed stitching. I figured filling in certain areas in seed stitch would accomplish two things: it would add some texture and it would make the prominent parts of the design stand out. And so, I proceeded to stitch hundreds - perhaps thousands! - of tiny seed stitches.

There's nothing at all complicated about seed stitching! Some books show seed stitch as two tiny stitches stitched as a pair perfectly parallel to each other, randomly covering an area. I only use one stitch, personally, stitching tiny single stitches randomly to fill an area.



Above, you can see the beginnings of the seed stitching. I started in the diamond area on the right, which was probably a mistake. Actually, I'm sure it was a mistake! You can see one spot in the center of the diamond that's a bit crowded. See, the diamond is relatively small, so there's not a lot of room there to really get up a rhythm with the stitching and gauge distance and so forth. Once you get the feel for the spacing and all that, seed stitching is a breeze. But starting and stopping in a tiny area doesn't really do it.



Now, you might wonder why I didn't take out the seed stitching in the diamond area described above, and there you have one disadvantage of closely-worked seed stitch: it makes a jolly mess of the fabric if you decide to pick it out. Oh, and the picking! It just isn't worth it! I figured once the whole piece was stitched, that little crowded area in the diamond would not really be noticeable to anyone but me.

In the photo directly above, I've progressed a bit further with the seed stitching, and managed to take a picture in "natural" light as the sun slanted in.

Notice that I didn't seed stitch the main element of the design itself (that's the "M" in the center of the scalloped circle). I thought that seed stitching on the background, around the M, would actually take the background further back, and make the M stand out more, as in relief. That was my plan, anyway, and I think overall, it worked out.



You can really see the bumpy texture of the stitching here. For the outlines on the project, you may remember that I used #20 coton a broder. For the seed stitching, I used #25 coton a broder, for two reasons: 1. I ran out of #20 (which really narrows it down to one reason, I guess - it's not as if I had a choice!) and 2. I figured the finer thread would look better. I had planned on using #25 for the seed stitching, anyway. What's funny is that I ran out of #20 coton a broder for the outline exackitackily as I finished my last few stitches of the outline. I had about 4" of thread to spare when finished. I've never come that close to running out of thread before!



Here's the whole central medallion finished, and one crown (lower left).



My favorite part of the design are these scrolls and fleur de lys tips surrounded by the seed stitching. I think it looks ok, don't you? I mean, I don't want to say, "Golly, am I good, or what?" because that's not what I'm thinking! I'm just glad it came out looking pretty nice. There's quite a bit of chance involved in that, you see - I really had no idea that the seed-stitched background would be successful. It was just a hunch, and once I started, I knew I was in it, so I had to finish. I was glad that it worked out!



From a bit of a distance, here's the whole piece with the seed stitching done. Hm. At this angle and in this light, you do kind of lose the center image.



But this is more what you see without the bright light (Ott light), and here, the central M is pretty clear.



Another disadvantage of seed stitching... not to be negative here!... is the finger hole. The finger hole? The finger hole!

I ended up with one of those tiny little needle holes in my middle finger on my right hand, which is the finger I generally use to manipulate my needle. Oh boy - you know, one of those teeeny holes made by the eye of the needle, and which the eye miraculously finds, no matter how hard you try to avoid it! There's nothing quite like it when the back of your needle slides on into a little hole like that!

You know what my solution is? Oh - I know you're thinking, "Wear a thimble, dummy!" But no, no... Super glue. I put a dot of super glue over the little hole and let it dry. It works great!

Ok, so that's the seed stitching, done! Yippee. I've sewn the pall together already, and made the back - I'll show you that in a future post, along with the finished pall with the lace attached. I'm halfway through sewing the lace right now, and will have it done probably before you even read this post!

Thank you for your oh-so-nice comments on the Blogiversary Post of yesterday! If you haven't signed up for my three year blogiversary give-away, don't forget! It's over tomorrow morning, at 5:00 am CST. Thanks also for the insight into your likes and what you'd like to see more of on Needle 'n Thread. I've got a post planned that will have a permanent link for all 'tags' - which will help make things a bit more searchable, I hope.

And, on that note, I'm off to finish up the lace, then shopping in preparation for my trip (leaving Thursday morning!). Don't worry - I've got some Super Duper articles lined up for you while I'm going, and I hope to be blogging a bit along the journey, especially about any tidbits that might involve needlework shops!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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Here's a wee update on my current embroidery project, a white-on-white ecclesiastical piece. I've finished all the outlining on the design, and now I'm going to seed stitch certain parts of it.

On this piece, I'm using whipped backstitch to form the ridged outlines. I wanted a firm line with a little height to it, but I didn't want to work an overcast or trailing outline around the whole design, because that would've taken ten forevers! So whipped backstitch was the choice, as it's relatively quick to work and I do like the look of the lines created by the stitch.



You can see above the difference between the backstitching and the whipped backstitch - the crown part of the design at the top of the photo has already been whipped, and the line is much smoother than the backstitch line. It's funny - in these photos, which were taken under a bright light, I really like the look of the backstitch, too. Actually, I like to look at the contrast between the backstitched line and the smoother lines of the whipped backstitch.



A couple little warbly problems presented themselves in the whole backstitch-whipping endeavor. Why does this happen? Pretty much, it's because the working thread gets too twisted, and as it twists on itself, it stiffens as it wraps around the backstitches. The solution: drop your thread and let it untwist every so often. In fact, when whipping the stitch like this, depending on the direction you're working in, the thread will often become twisted very quickly, so it's a good idea to drop that needle and let it dangle from your work quite often, in order for the tread to untwist.



Overall, I like the design and the ridged line created by the stitch. My intention was to create a high enough line that it would cast a small shadow, making the design more visible from afar. I wasn't sure how well that plan would work, but at least, with a ridged line rather than a flat outline, I know it will be somewhat more visible from afar.



I tried photographing the piece at different angles in different light to see if I could get a decent shadow from the lines...



... but I'm no grand photographer, and I don't always "get it," when it comes to picture-taking!



But then, just as I was closing up shop for the day, for the first time all day, the sun came out. It was slanting in the western window in my studio, right across my work, and I said, "Wow. Now there's a shadow!"



The linen doesn't look as white here through the eye of the camera, I suppose. BUT ... the relief created by the stitching is much more obvious.

Yes, I'm satisfied so far with this part of the stitching. It's the look I wanted, anyway. Now, on to the seed stitching! I'm trying to optimistically think that I'll be finished with all the stitching by this evening, and able to assemble the pall tomorrow and put a hand-tatted edge on it. Um. Well, there's nothing wrong with optimism! I'll let you know if it happens!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, June 13, 2009
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The other day, I mentioned that one of the most annoying things to me when embroidering is turning my work over after a nice, diligent embroidery session, and finding, in the middle of an expanse of stitching, a sneaky little slip knot. For some reason, they really irritate me! But they aren't that difficult to repair - I'll show you how I do it.

Slip knots generally form on the back of needlework when the working thread has become over-twisted during stitching. One way to help avoid slip knots is to drop your needle and thread straight down towards the floor every now and then, allowing the thread to hang until it untwists itself. Still, even if you do this fairly regularly, you are bound to encounter the slip knot at some point in your stitching career. We all do. It's inevitable.

To remain sane despite these irritating little intruders, the trick is to know how to deal with them.



Here's the slip knot in all its sneaky little glory. Right smack in the middle of a whole length of stitching, it quietly meandered in and took hold.

In some types of embroidery, a tiny slip knot here and there may not be a big cause for concern - especially in framed pieces that won't be handled much, as long as the slip knot has not caused an unsightly bulge, it can probably just be left there. Without regular jostling, laundering, and so forth, it is unlikely that it will loosen and cause any problems.

But on this particular piece, there is the danger of the slip knot loosening in laundering and regular handling. Also, because the embroidery will be stretched tight over a thin piece of mat board, it is likely that, over time, as the fabric becomes softer with use and washing, the knot may be visible from the front. Under these circumstances, I think it's important to go through the effort to get rid of it.



The first thing I did was insert my needle eye-first into the base of the knot, to loosen it and undo it. A slip knot will just "slip" back over the loop and undo itself, most of the time.



Then, using the needle, I pulled the loop out as far as I could from the fabric, to see how much thread was available. This is when I discovered that part of the knot had actually been stitched through, so I couldn't really just "slip" it off.



It was obvious that I would definitely have to cut the thread. I pulled the loop as far out from the fabric as the thread would allow, and cut the farthest distance away, so that I would have as much thread as possible on each side of the cut.

Now, had the knot just slipped over the loop, I wouldn't have cut the thread - I would have have simply continued on to anchoring the loose thread, without cutting.



Once the thread was cut, though, I could dislodge the stitched part of the knot. I was left with two tails of thread - short tails that could not be conveniently re-woven.



As much as I possible, I want to keep the bulk down on the back of this piece. So I threaded a needle with one strand of regular DMC floss, which I used to secure the tails. The single strand of DMC floss is much finer than the #20 coton a broder that I'm working with.



Folding the first tail on the left back to the left on top of the stitching already there, I whipped over it with the smaller thread.



Continuing along the line of stitches, I whipped over the other tail on the right, which I folded to the right on top of the stitches. The whole bit is looking a little messy at this point!



Then, I wove the smaller thread (the one strand of DMC) back under the stitches, pulling snuggly to tighten up the line on the back and pull all the stray bulk in.

There! The line is much neater, the knot is gone - I don't have to worry about the tails coming loose or about any little bump becoming visible on the front over time! And it really took very little time or trouble to accomplish the clean-up job. In fact, it took me a lot longer to explain how I fixed it than to actually do it!

If you notice that a slip knot has formed on the back of your work and you're still within a stitch or two of it, just take out the stitches and remove the knot! You'll be glad you did, even if it is a pain in the neck at the time. Another big problem with slip knots is that the loop of thread can get caught up in other threads as you work, causing an unsightly mess on the back of your work! So, if one sneaks in and you are still relatively close to it while working with the same thread, backtrack and remove it!

To avoid slip knots as you stitch, pay attention to your thread. If you pull through and you notice that your previous stitch doesn't show any sign of tension, chances are your thread is caught up on the back. Also, the more you stitch, the more aware you are of your thread length. If your thread seems suddenly to be much shorter, chances are you've got a knot!

How do you deal with these types of knots, discovered after you've finished a bunch of stitching? Do you just leave them there? Do you whip over them with another thread, leaving the knot in place (I do that, if the thread I'm stitching with is very fine!)? In short, how do you deal with unsuspected knots on the back of your work? Do share your tips and tricks with the rest of us!

Labels: embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 11, 2009
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Eventually, you are guaranteed an in-depth look at my current embroidery project - I promise! - along with all kinds of explanations, information, troubleshooting and whatnot. Today, in fact, besides the little annoying slip knot, I have another problem to fix...

But, given a bit of limited time right now, I'm going to show you instead some of the stitching, and pretty much leave it at that!

Now, I suppose you are probably expecting something grandiose. Something so Complex and Time-Consuming that your sympathy will be aroused as you contemplate my sweating over a looming deadline while having to stitch some intricate technique...

Oh, golly. Please don't be too disappointed!



Yep. That's backstitch, all right!

But don't underestimate the backstitch - it has come through for me before, and I think it will this time, too.



That line on the right is really what I am going to achieve with it - whipped backstitch, to be precise. There are other more complicated ways to make a nice thin, firm line in embroidery, but the whipped backstitch is a fairly quick and painless way to do so while still achieving nice-looking results.

I've never considered backstitch a very "formal" or elegant stitch. At best, on its own, I'd call it clean-looking and sometimes even "cute." But elegant or formal is a bit of a stretch. Whipped backstitch, on the other hand, dresses the backstitch up a bit, smooths it out, and turns it into a precise line stitch that looks good on slight curves and even around tight corners.

Believe it or not, despite its simplicity, whipped backstitch can be a bit more time-consuming than other line stitches (such as stem stitch), only because whipped backstitch takes two steps - first the backstitching, then the wrapping. But the latter part goes fairly quickly.

A hint: when you finish your backstitching and are getting ready to whip the stitches, switch to a tapestry needle with a blunt tip. Much easier!

Once the backstitching is finished, I'll progress to filling up certain spaces with very tiny seed stitching and lots of it. That's the time-consuming part!

Today, I have to deal with an onslaught of high humidity that has taken its toll on the framed-up fabric! What was all smooth and tight yesterday morning is ripply and loose and warped-looking today. I'd turn on the AC to elminate the humidity, but Kansas being what it is, it's only 64 degrees out! Thank goodness for evertite frames. If tightening doesn't do it, though, stay tuned for Plan B!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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Have you noticed that I don't often miss writing a post in the morning, especially on week days? I thought about that this morning, and I really wanted to write something spectacularly engrossing, all about embroidery and all about the great strides I'm making on my current project. Unfortunately, the morning got away from me, and then I had to make frantic headway on stitching and other craft doings (preparing some wedding shower gifts). I only have one thing to say about all of it, and I'm going to say it with a photo....

I mean, really, what's the most irritating thing that can happen while you're engrossed in your embroidery, stitching along, making good progress, thinking all's going well?



Right. You turn it over to finish off, and you see that.

It's called a slip knot.

I hate them.

That's about how my day has gone! Fortunately, these are relatively easy to take care of. I'll show you how I remedy problems like this in an upcoming post!

I hope you have had a much more satisfactory day!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, June 09, 2009
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This ecclesiastical embroidery piece is an icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Lynn, who is an iconographer, has taken to embroidering icons lately, and this one is gorgeous!

You will probably be amazed to know that this is Lynn's first attempt with goldwork!



The Theotokos (Blessed Virgin) was embroidered separately, then appliquéd to the veleveteen background, onto which the text and flowers are directly stitched. The finished embroidery measures 12" x 21".



The figure is worked in silk shading techniques, following the traditional color schemes and definition found in icons. The cloth on which the figure rests is worked in Or Nué and the gold background is made up of couched double gold threads.



The halo or nimbus is also couched gold - very neatly and well done, I'd say! The head of the Virgin rests on a very life-like pillow. You can also see here the neat stitching in red, and a close-up of the white stripes on the background cloth.



In iconography, the art is more two-dimensional. Unlike the realistic shading found in later art (Medieval, Renaissance, and beyond), the Byzantine art and icons tend to look flatter. This was done on purpose, to concentrate the viewer's thoughts on what the art is expressing, rather than on the art itself. (This is also one of the reasons why most iconographers in early history were anonymous, and the same holds true for church art in the West, even into the medieval era just before the Renaissance.) I think this icon tradition is reflected really well here at the base of the gown. It's just realistic enough to give the impression the artist wants to give, but not overly detailed - perfect shading for an icon.



Here are the hands, folded in repose. I wanted actually to draw your attention to the very fine gold line around the red robe. A nice touch!



Lilies are a symbol of the Virgin. These were stitched directly onto the velveteen background, along with the text:



Isn't this piece beautifully done? I think it's absolutely gorgeous. And to think that it is a "first attempt" at goldwork is astounding!

Thanks, Lynn, for sending the photo! Congratulations on a beautiful piece of art!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, goldwork, needlework pictures, pictures, readers embroidery, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, June 05, 2009
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Last time we visited the Long Dog Sampler that my niece and I have been plodding through together, I was saying good-bye to it for a time, due to this commissioned project that I needed to design, set up, and stitch. Well, you know... I'm always full of a million excuses (a negative characteristic that I'm trying to correct in myself!), but the fact of the matter is, I never did quite put the thing away like I was supposed to! A reader asked in one of the comments not too long ago how this project was coming, so I thought I'd show you an update...

Now that summer has arrived, my niece has launched into her sampler with a little more concentrated effort. I haven't seen her latest stitching endeavors yet, though. Hopefully, next week I'll be able to catch up with her on that. She told me she plans to listen to audio books (she's a great fan of Agatha Christie) and stitch away. Sounds like an ideal summer plan to me!

After I told you I was bidding farewell to this project for a time, I discovered that I could slip the whole project into a nice basket and keep it more or less available, regardless of other work to do. It's much easier to take this project out and put a few stitches in when I have a few minutes than it is to go out to the studio, where I'm working on the ecclesiastical piece! So I've kept this thing next to the sofa in the living room, and have managed a few sessions on it here and there, as time allowed.



I've managed to put in almost three whole bocks up there on the right.

Each of these little blocks is less than an inch square, but in each of those little squares, there are 729 little stitches, so they actually take a while to do.



The sampler is pretty colorful, and no two motifs are the same, which is nice. While the actual stitching may get a bit repetitive, the changes in pattern and color make the piece interesting to stitch. It's kind of fun, filling in those little blank squares with color and shape. There's no stress at all involved in this kind of stitching, so it really does make a good, relaxing summer project!



This is perhaps the oddest square I've stitched so far. It doesn't seem to fit the style of the other squares, and the colors are quite bright and almost garish. At first, I didn't like it. I didn't like the zig-zag pattern or the color arrangement. But what's strange is that, just as I was coming to the end of this square, I found I did actually like it, somehow. I liked the way it filled in so tightly, and how all the colors formed their little own zig-zaggedly neat little rows. Overall, I wouldn't call it "me-ish," but I like it!



This top half of the grey and pink square is perhaps one of my favorite elements so far. I like that "carnation" look, typical to 17th century petit point slips and other historical embroideries.

I'm glad we undertook the project. It's given me a better appreciation for counted techniques. And I still do intend to carry the whole project through to then end, which, for me, is a good sign that I'm enjoying it.

I haven't stitched on this for a couple weeks now, but I am still keeping it next to the sofa, awaiting the next 15 minute break that I can devote to it!

Now, this is the thing: two weeks from yesterday, the embroidery piece I (finally) got set up the other day is due. I bet you know what that means! It's the only thing I'll be stitching on now. I must get it done! I have so many other projects, too, that I want to start! I'm also going out of town in two weeks - before I go, I want to set up several "on-the-go" embroidery projects that I can work on while I travel. So, keep your fingers crossed for me, that I actually do get something accomplished! THANKS!

If you haven't signed up for the Trish Burr Embroidery Kit Give-away I posted yesterday, do take a minute to read the post and add your comment!

Enjoy the day!

Labels: counted thread embroidery techniques, needlework pictures, pictures, sampler

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, June 04, 2009
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Last week, between the relative chaos of ending another school year, I managed to get out to the studio and set up this ecclesiastical embroidery project. The project is another pall, this time with a different design on it.

The design for this piece of embroidery comes from a book called Designs for Church Embroidery by Thomas Brown & Son. I'm lucky enough to have an old copy of the book - it was a catalog at one time, actually - but it has since been reprinted by Lacis, and you can find it in their online catalog. Just search the title, and it'll come right up.

I altered the original design a bit. It was originally just a circle with the "M" that you see in the middle. I added the tips and the little fleur de lys to it, to make it a bit more decorative.



The Bohin ceramic pencil came in really handy for the transferring of the design. I used the greenish-blue ceramic lead, and it worked quite well. The pencil gives a crisp, fine line. Before I used it, I tested it on a piece of scrap linen, writing with various amounts of pressure on the linen, then trying out the eraser - which worked fine on the light to medium pressure lines - and I also rinsed the fabric, which took out all but a trace of the heavier pressure lines. I was satisfied that it would work ok for white-on-white embroidery.

Ideally, when you're working white-on-white embroidery, it's a good idea to use blue for your transfer. The dressmaker's blue pencils work fine, for example, as does dressmaker's blue carbon, both of which are available in the notions section at most sewing stores. You see, white absorbs the blue, so even if a trace is left on the linen, it isn't normally noticeable, and with time, it goes away. When you use grey or red for a transfer in whitework, the thread will pick up the color and will be tainted grey or red. But with blue, even if the thread picks up the color, you don't see it - it absorbs into the white, making it seem brighter.

I don't really know why this is, but I'm sure there's some sort of scientific reason!

Anyway, I liked the Bohin pencil. I haven't started stitching yet, but I think the transfer will be fine for white-on-white.



Here's the design, transferred. The pall is a 6.25" square piece of linen, made like a pocket, with the top side decorated. I cut the fabric 16" long and 9.5" wide to give plenty of room for seams and for mounting on a stretcher bar frame. The fabric will be folded in half, to make the pocket, then the two sides of the pocket will be sewn up, and a 6.25" square piece of mat board inserted into it. Then the last side is hand stitched closed. Lace of some sort is generally applied to the edge by tacking it on after assembling the piece. I like to use hand-tatted lace, as I think it looks quite nice on a pall. Tacking the lace on allows for removal of the lace for cleaning purposes, in case of need.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked via e-mail is how to transfer an embroidery pattern after it is printed or drawn. I do have a list of links that deals with this question in various ways under the Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery section. For this project, I'm using a light box to trace the design. You can use a sunny window with equally good effect, though it is sometimes a bit harder on the arms if your pattern is complicated and takes time to transfer!

My next step after transferring was the frame up the piece, which I've already done, and then to pick out threads, which I've already done as well. Now, it's just a matter of stitching! I'm going to use #30 coton a broder on this, in white. I think. I'm oscillating between #25 and #30, actually, though I don't think there's that much of a difference between the two sizes to justify hesitation!

This will be the project I'll be stitching on for at least the next week, I figure. I hope to have it done by the end of the upcoming weekend, if all goes well. Once it's done, I have one more to do, too. Although I like doing this kind of work, I have to admit that I don't normally like making two of the same things in a row, so for the second one, I've chosen a design I've done before, but not for a while.

And then, once these two projects are finished, I can move on to something that involves color - and I can't wait to show you what that is! I'll tell you tomorrow!

Coming up this week on Needle 'n Thread: a special give-away. Once you see tomorrow's article, you'll probably be able to guess what the give-away is!

Now that the school year is officially over, I'll be able to devote a little more time to embroidery projects, tutorials for the website (in various forms), and some other projects, all of which I'll be keeping you up to date on!

I hope you've had a great weekend!

Labels: ecclesiastical embroidery, embroidery tips and tricks, linen, needlework pictures, pictures, whitework

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, May 31, 2009
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This last February, I posted an embroidery pattern for Love, in a Box. I LOVE it when readers send photos of embroidery they've done with my patterns, and it just so happens that Janice worked Love, in a Box, and sent me photos. I thought I'd share those with you!

The pattern for this embroidery project is made up of letters from the flowered monogram series here on Needle 'n Thread. Janice worked the design in blue, on white, then quilted around the outside of the design with a very nice feather design.



She backed the pillow with a pretty blue flowered fabric, to make a really gorgeous finished project!



When I developed the pattern, I had in mind an embroidered pillow, so I was really happy to see this finished project from such a talented stitcher! And hey, I really admire anyone who finishes a project, and finishes it so well! (I'm not the best finisher in the world!) Janice is also the stitcher of the "To Market" embroidered waffle weave towel I posted a little while ago!

Thanks so much, Janice, for sending along the pictures! It's always really encouraging to know that people do like and use the embroidery patterns posted here on Needle 'n Thread!

Labels: needlework pictures, readers embroidery

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, May 28, 2009
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Drawn thread embroidery is not relegated solely to even-weave linen. Today, we generally associate drawn thread techniques with even-weave, and it's true that it's possibly easier and more precise when it is worked on even-weave. But in the past, drawn thread embroidery was worked on all kinds of fabrics, including fine, high-count cottons and plain-weave linens.

A couple months ago, Laurie LaTour of Future Christian Homemakers contacted me about some chicken scratch (embroidery on gingham) aprons that she had collected, with a question on an embroidery stitch employed on one of the aprons. We've been exchanging interesting e-mails ever since, and wow - some of the chicken scratch aprons she's collected are really nice! One in particular caught my eye - a chicken scratch apron worked on cotton, with double drawn thread strips worked on the apron's front and the pockets. Laurie has this drawn-thread-on-gingham apron (PDF) in her gallery on her website - do check it out. It's meticulously worked and really pretty!

Discussing the different stitches with Laurie led me to working up a tutorial for drawn thread on gingham, to show how to twist groups of threads together for a decorative border.



I began with a simple gingham dish towel. This particular towel is available in different colors from All About Blanks. It's a soft cotton towel and hems are squared up with the gingham, so it's perfect for this kind of work. I've washed it once already, and you can see that the colors didn't run, which is great! It's a good towel!



When I first started, I was going to make the drawn thread area only as high as one row of checks on the towel, so I began by cutting a slit right next to the side hem, abotu six rows of checks up on the towel. (Later, I decided to make the drawn thread area twice as high, which you'll see below...)



About every three or four checks, I cut a vertical slit between two vertical threads, so that I wouldn't have to draw out long horizontal threads. When you cut your horizontal threads, you want to use nice sharp, small scissors. Fold the fabric over the blade of the scissors to that you can see the horizontal threads you are cutting and so that you avoid accidentally cutting any vertical threads.

With this weave, it was very easy to draw out the horizontal threads. I used a tweezer and just picked them out. Though it takes a little bit of time, it's not labor-intensive or stressful - the horizontal threads just pull right out, and removing the threads actually goes very quickly.



Once I was finished drawing out the threads, I hemstitched the base of the strip using a #5 white perle cotton, and dividing the threads into two groups per check on the fabric. I didn't count the threads - I just estimated the center of each check, which worked fine.

If you don't know how to hemstitch, check out my photo tutorial for the hemstitch. This is the exact technique I used, and it's really simple. I was working in hand (no hoop or anything) for this, and it went very quickly.



After getting to the end of the first row of hemstitching, at the base of the drawn thread area, I decided to go ahead and increase the height of the drawn thread area by removing the horizontal threads from the row of checks above. Then, I turned the work 180 degrees and hemstitched across the top of the area.



This is what the towel looked like with all the hemstitching done. You can see the two groups of threads for each check - two red, two white, two red, etc.



After I finished hemstitching, I decided to go ahead and buttonhole the edge of the hemstitched area. Up to this point, I had not done so, because the edge was on the seam and I didn't think it was really necessary. It probably isn't absolutely necessary, but in case it would fray, I figured I might as well finish the edge. I don't really like this buttonholing here. It's rather thickish and lumpy, but since the towel has a bit of a "rustic" look, it's ok. If I did this again, I'd probably finish the edges with a simple overcast stitch (like the satin stitch bars you can see in the hemstitch tutorial), and maybe even in a finer thread.



Now it's time to start twisting the groups of threads. This part is really easy, and it goes really fast! There's nothing to it.

First, you'll want to cut a length of thread about 5 or 6 inches longer than the width of the towel. Thread your needle (I'm using a tapestry needle with a large enough eye to accommodate the perle cotton), and then anchor your thread by running it under the stitches on the back of the buttonhole bar. You want your thread to emerge right in the middle of the drawn thread area, which is conveniently marked by the edge of the two checks.

The direction I'm working here is right to left, but to twist the thread groups, I'm taking my needle under the second group of threads from the edge, pointing back towards the edge. The needle goes under the second group and over the first group (which is the thread group right next to the edge.



Once the needle is in position - under the second group and over the first, pointing towards the edge - you're going to flip the needle so that the eye is now next to the edge, and the point is pointing down towards the far left edge of the towel. When you flip the needle, make sure you push the first group of threads underneath the second group.



Now you see that the needle is pointing in the direction that you're working - that is, from right to left. The twist is held in place right now by the needle...



... but once you pull your thread all the way through, the twist will be held in place by the thread.



Continue down the line in the same manner, pointing the needle backwards, under the second group of threads, then over the first, flipping the needle and pushing the first group under the second, then pulling the thread through.

When you get to the end of the drawn thread strip, take your needle to the back of the buttonhole bars right in the center, and anchor your thread by running it under the bars a couple times.



And that's what the finished towel will look like.



I like the way it turned out!

Now, on the apron that I mentioned above, the stitcher used each check as a group of threads, so that the twists were made up of two colors. You can do the same thing, or you can still divide the checks into two groups (using hemstitching) and alternate the twists to make a kind of diamond pattern, as I did below:



First, on this time around, I thought I'd try doing the twisting part with a bit of tension, to see if it made any difference. I used a Q-Snap frame, but left one edge "unsnapped."



Using the same method as above, I anchored my thread in the buttonhole bar and brought it to the front, working from right to left.



Because I wanted to use alternate colors, I had to anchor the first (out of two) group of red threads to the side of the towel. Then I proceeded to twist the threads as described above, but using one white group and one red group.

Pointing back towards the edge, the needle went under the first white group of threads, over the remaining red group...



... and then I flipped the needle to reverse its direction, pushing the red group under the white group with the tip of the needle.



I continued in that manner down the strip, ending by anchoring the last red group of threads against the edge of the towel.



This worked ok, and made an overlapping diamond pattern in the drawn thread area. But guess what? After trying that, I took it out and worked the first method on the towel again. I like the finished look of the first method better, personally. But at least you can see that there are options in the way you go about bunching and twisting your threads.

Concerning tension and hooping and so forth, I found this project very easy to work in hand, without a hoop or frame. For the twisting part, if you can lay your fabric down on a surface and smooth it out, you can work easily without a hoop. You just want to be careful that you pull the center thread firmly enough to keep things from sagging, but not too firmly to where it pulls on the end and makes the towel pucker. In fact, if you lay it out on a cloth surface - like an ironing-board cover (or the top of a footstool, like I did!), or even on your self-healing cutting matter, the friction will help hold the fabric in place (better than working on a slick surface!).

Now, if you really wanted to, you could decorate the towel further with other embroidery. But I like the simple drawn thread area, and I think it would be really nice on a summer picnic tablecloth, with matching napkins. In fact, wouldn't that make a great gift? A matching picnic set and hamper, or something? Hmmm.... I'm thinking summer wedding presents... summer birthdays... just something nice for the family gatherings...

Enjoy!

Labels: drawn thread embroidery, Embroidery for the Home, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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The miniature embroidery piece that I framed last weekend went together pretty well, so I thought I'd show you how I framed it, step-by-step. It was really simple, and very quick! Of course, I'm no professional framer or "finisher" - I've always thought it would be a worth-while thing to take a class in finish work. Either that, or to find someone who wanted to enlist as my "personal finisher." Ha ha. Anyway.... here's how I framed it.

The first step was finding something to mount the embroidery on. Ideally, a piece of archival mat board works great. And, as a matter of fact, I did have a little scrap of mat board left over from another project. I knew I wouldn't need much for this one, so it worked out really well.



Measuring the opening of the frame on the back, I subtracted one-eighth inch from the measurement to give me room for the fabric around the mat board. I cut the mat board to fit the opening perfectly, minus 1/8th of an inch. A regular utility knife or craft knife or X-acto knife works well for cutting mat board, and I just use my sewing / cutting mat for cutting mat board, too. The self-healing mats are great - not only do they serve as my base for cutting with a knife, but they serve as my ruler in practically everything!



To make sure the piece of board and the fabric would fit the opening in the back of the frame, I lined up the design on the little board and pushed it into the frame. It fit fine.



I finger-pressed the edges of the fabric around the mat board so I would know where to line it up as I worked. First, make sure your embroidery is exactly where you want it to be. Then, fold each edge of the fabric over the mat board, and run your finger along the edge, to make a crease in the fabric, marking the spot where you want the mat board to fit.

After doing that, I cut the excess fabric off the corners, straight across.



Then I folded two opposite sides over the mat board, making sure my embroidery was centered where I wanted it. With a double-threaded sharp sewing needle, I "laced" back and forth between the edges of the two sides of fabric, keeping the stitches fairly close together and pulling tightly so that the fabric was taut.

Then I folded over the two remaining opposite sides and repeated the lacing on those sides.



I didn't really like the way the corners turned out - they're so unfinished looking. I briefly thought of tucking in that little edge and re-sewing the whole thing with mitered corners, but then I remembered that no one would see it! There's a good quarter inch all around the embroidery that is hidden by the front lip of the frame. Besides, the tweaker you see there in the photo tucked to the back of the mat board just fine. So I left it.



Next, I fitted the embroidered piece into the frame, and when I was certain that all was lining up correctly, I started working on finishing the back. I should have filled the whole space in the back, but instead, I used a smaller square of mat board right behind the embroidered piece, and then one more square of mat board cut precisely to the size of the opening, so that it fit very snuggly into the frame opening on the back.



You can see there's still a good amount of space there. It would have probably been wise to go ahead and fill that with little mat board squares until the last piece was flush with the back of the frame. Probably, nothing will happen to it - but I still have visions of someone picking up the frame and giving the embroidery a good poke, which would dislodge it.



After fitting in the two pieces of mat board, I selected a pinkish piece of card-stock that matched the pink in the embroidery. It's an "ok" match, anyway - not perfect, but it's all I had on hand.

I cut a square of paper to the size of the back of the frame.



A tiny bit of glue fixed the decorative paper to the back of the frame to give it a finished look.



I suppose you can tell I went about this rather haphazardly, but the finished result is ok, I think. It's nice to have it done, anyway. I think I'd like to find a teeny tiny easel to put the frame on for display. At this point, it's just leaning against the base of a statue on the table in my entrance way. Kind of lost and small and dwarfed. But... I like it!

Now, it's time to move on to other things! I've been experimenting with something drawn-threadish, and I'm hoping to be able to show that to you tomorrow, depending on whether or not I get close-to-finished today! I'm also in the middle of trying to draw a design for an ecclesiastical project I'm supposed to be working on already. I can't quite get the drawing where I want it! Oh, where is my Muse??? And, then, once I get that going for real, I've got a couple other needlework-related ideas brewing (or at least half-way brewing - they haven't come to a complete boil yet!). Now, for the invention of the 36-hour day....

Labels: finish work, miniature embroidery, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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