Chip work is a wonderfully sparkly filling technique used in goldwork embroidery. I think I'm part crow, because I love sparklies! So it isn't odd that chip work would make its way into my current goldwork project. Today, I'll show you where it's going and how it gets there.

The goldwork pomegranate, when we last left it, had acquired a nice coating of smooth passing thread, a touch of pearl purl, and an outline in wavy check thread. This is what the piece looked like before getting into the chip work:



I apologize for the greenish tint in the photo. I'm longing for sunny days again - goldwork photographs much better in natural sunlight!

Now we're going to address the yellow felt areas on the tip of the pomegranate and on the larger turnovers on the "petals" protruding from the side of the fruit.

I'm working with Gild Bright Check Purl #7 (which I purchased from Hedgehog Handworks). This come in 18" lengths, and, if you're planning on following along with the project and doing what I do, then you'll probably want to order two 18" lengths. This will give you plenty of bright check purl for all the chip work in the design, plus a little left over for future projects (or to make up for mistakes!)



I use a piece of black velvet lining this plastic basket for cutting and holding my chips of purl. A box lid with a piece of velvet in it will work, or you can make your own velvet board for cutting your metal threads by adhering a piece of velvet or velveteen to a piece of mat board. You should use velvet or something with a short nap to cut on, as the nap of the velvet keeps things in place. I have a velvet board as well (in red) but since I had this basket on hand and the piece of black velvet, it served the purpose for this project.



Bright check purl, also called "frieze," is made from a metal wire that is coiled like a triangle and twisted to make a faceted tube of spiraled gold wire that is loose and limp when left in long lengths. When it is cut into small "chips," the chips are a bit stiffer, but still retain the ability to be pulled or stretched out of their spring-like shape. They do not spring back, so if you pull check purl out of shape, it'll stay stretched out of shape.

The purl is cut carefully into small lengths - I usually cut them about 3 or 4 twists long, as in the photo above. They can be cut smaller, too, to fill in small spaces. When cut, they are like beads. You can see pretty clearly in the picture that, when cut, they make what could be described as a hollow, faceted gold wire bead.

To cut them, you can either leave your length of check purl on the velvet and place the tips of your scissors over it and snip, or you can, as I do, hold the check purl down next to the velvet close to the end where you're going to cut it, and then slide it onto the edge of your scissor blade. The purl will separate a bit over the scissor blade and snip without any crimping or warping.

They're pretty, aren't they? And they're a lot smaller than they look!



These little chips are picked up just like beads and sewn onto the gold felt padding in the same manner one would sew on beads. Here, you can see the needle picking up one little chip.

I'm using a #11 crewel needle (you can probably get away with a #10, which is more readily available than the smaller #11) and the same YLI 100 wt thread that I spoke of in article on smooth passing thread. My thread is waxed well, since the abrasion from the gold necessitates protection for the thread!



Here, I'm working on one of the turn-overs on the top petals next to the body of the pomegranate. The chips of gold are sewn on randomly, covering the felt. They should be stitched on in various directions, so that the light catches them well, and so that they fill the space as thoroughly as possible. Regarding filling, though, it is important not to crowd the chips so much that they buckle up on top of each other. They should fit snugly next to each other, but not bulge over each other. Since they have that spiral, springy nature, they will bend and buckle and bulge if they are crowded.

I did my best not to let the chips overflow the felt area, too. I am going to edge the felt with a different gold thread to give it a clean finish, and I don't want the chips to interfere with the outline.



Using the same random sewing-on-of-chips, I filled in the turn-overs on the fleur de lys at the tip of the pomegranate as well. These, I fit into the outline of check thread that was already there, being careful not to cover the outline.

When filling with chip work, there may remain some tiny spaces of yellow felt that aren't covered between the chips. This is ok. The felt, because of its color, won't be noticeable.



Photos don't do justice to the sparkly nature of chip work!



Pulling back a bit, this is the piece so far...



And then I moved over and finished the chip work on the other side of the fruit.

Chip work is fun! It's a bit tedious in a way, due to working with very small pieces of gold and having to take a lot of stitches to fill in an area. But really, it's simple stitching! And the results are worth it! It's great fun to watch an area fill up with chips of gold!

Next time we visit this project, we will look at outlining those turn-overs with one of my favorite edging techniques.

For previous posts on this goldwork embroidery project, please visit the following links:

Stylized Pomegranate Pattern used for this project
Setting up the Project on a Frame
Preparing the Ground Fabric with Felt Padding
Selecting Colors of Silk for the Project
The Stitching Begins - SIlk Shading
Continuing the silk shading - the left side
Finishing the silk shading
The Goldwork Begins: Smooth Passing Thread
Check Thread for Outlining

Labels: Embroidery Projects, embroidery tips and tricks, goldwork, needlepainting, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, silk

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, March 13, 2010
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A few weeks ago, I posted a free hand embroidery pattern that I'm currently using as a goldwork embroidery project. For those of you who are new to goldwork, it is a form of surface embroidery that employs real metal threads. When it's mixed with silk shading, I think it's possibly the richest of all surface embroidery techniques. I mean, really - silk and gold! What more could you want?

So here begins a series on goldwork, wherein I'll take you step-by-step through this project with me. I'll try my best to give some clear instructions so that those interested in goldwork can give it a try!

Last week, I showed you the set-up of the goldwork project on the frame. I use Evertite stretcher bar frames, but if you have a slate frame, it is always considered the best choice of frame for goldwork. With goldwork, don't use a hoop! (My opinion, anyway!) You want your fabric to be drum tight, and you want it to stay that way, or at least to have the option of tightening it (hence, the Evertite frame or slate frame) without warping your fabric while you adjust it in the hoop. Another point: you won't be able to iron out hoop rings! Just trust me on this - goldwork is much better done on a frame than in a hoop!

With the project set up on the frame, the preparation for stitching can begin. All the areas where the gold will be applied to the design are going to be padded with yellow felt. This accomplishes a few things: it lifts the gold a little bit above the rest of the stitching and gives it a more finished look, I think, and it also provides a color base behind the gold, so that the white fabric, should it show through, will not be as visible.

For the felt, I'm using a regular craft felt which can be purchased in small pieces at your local fabric or craft store. I prefer a slightly thicker wool felt for this step, usually, but I didn't have any on hand. So this will do!

Besides the felt, I used a light fusible interfacing (similar to Wonder Under) for this step.



I took my pattern, and numbered each piece that would be cut out of the felt. This way, I wouldn't confuse which little piece of felt goes where on my project.



Then, I inverted the design (very important!) and traced out all the pieces where the gold would go onto the paper of the fusible interfacing.

I numbered each piece as I went, to make sure nothing got confused. And I traced out some extras of certain parts of the design, because I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to pad some areas more than others. (As it turns out, I didn't use these extra pieces.)



After ironing the fusible interfacing to the felt, I cut out each individual piece and left the paper on the back. Remember, the paper has the numbers on it. Then, I took my pattern and laid out all the pieces on it. Now, I'm ready to stitch the felt to the ground fabric.



First, peel the paper from the back of the felt. The fuzzy side of the felt goes up - not the side where the interfacing is. The interfacing merely makes it easier to cut the felt in accurate pieces.

Then, place the piece on the fabric and thread up a needle (I'm using a #9 crewel needle) with whatever thread you like to use for couching your gold onto your fabric. I'm using either Tire silk (50 wt) or Kreinik gold couching thread.



Knot the end of your thread and take your needle down into the felt, stitching some anchoring stitches into the felt, and then cutting the knot off the top there. (You may want to look at this photo tutorial for using anchor stitches to start a thread, if you're unfamiliar with the technique.)



I'll generally stitch some straight stitches down the middle of the piece of felt, to hold it in place while I stitch up the edges. It makes it easier to stitch the edges without the felt shifting.

The felt is sewn onto the ground fabric with small stitches all around the outside perimeter of the shape. To do this, it's easiest to bring your needle up into the fabric and take it down into the felt.



The process is repeated with each piece of felt, until all the areas where gold will be used as a filling are padded and ready to go!

So, that's the second step in the set-up process, and now I'm ready to stitch. I'll actually be stitching all the silk work first, and the goldwork last. This way, my silk threads won't get caught on my goldwork threads.

Next up - color selection, then silk shading!

For previous posts on this project, please visit the following links:

Stylized Pomegranate Pattern used for this project
Setting up the Project on a Frame

Labels: Embroidery Projects, embroidery tips and tricks, goldwork, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, March 01, 2010
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After coming to a screeching halt on the flower on my Crewel Rooster project, I moved on to the stem. Stems deserve stem stitch. Maybe that's a bit narrow-minded, but it really is the first stitch I think of when it comes to stems. Because the stems on the Rooster project are thick, they needed to be filled, so I embroidered the first stem with a stem stitch filling, using D'Aubusson wool in a dark and a medium green.

Compared to stitching with the Appleton wool, I liked the D'Aubusson better. First, it's a finer thread, and second, it seemed to me to be a bit smoother. I like the look of the stem stitch with this thread, too.



I began by stitching the lower line of the stem with the dark green, and the upper line of the stem with the medium green. Unfortunately, this shade of green doesn't work so well with the blue, I thought. Maybe something a little brighter and greener? But not a grass or kelly green? In any case, I stuck with it, because this is the thread I have!



The two lines converge in the same hole at the tip of the stem.



After working the outside lines, I filled the inside by taking turns doing a row on the left, then on the right, then on the left, and I changed out the shade of green now and then - keeping most of the darker green towards the right side of the stem and most of the lighter green towards the left side (which is the top of the stem, where the light would hit, if I were worrying much about realistic lighting.... which I'm not. But at the time, it struck me as the way to do it....)



Here's the first stem, then, and the first flower.

You can see that the green is a bit muted for the blue in the flower. I can't wait to see what shades of D'Aubusson going to be available! I really like stitching with this thread. As wools go, it's a nice wool to stitch with!

After finishing the first stem, I jumped again to another part of the design, the body of the bird.

Now, you'll have to bear with me when discussing the belly of the rooster, because I have started and stopped and picked out, and re-worked this a number of times. (Is this process beginning to sound familiar?) Even at this point, I know I will pick it out AGAIN.



If you're stitching along with me on this - or planning to eventually - you do not have to work any part of the design (and especially the Rooster Belly!) the same way I decided to. At first, I started with some lines of fly stitch down the contours of the bird, with a stem stitch outline around the body. But oh me, oh my. I didn't like it. I want a Bold Rooster. Roosters, after all, are generally pretty bold. So I decided he had to be filled. I drew scallops all over him and went at him with the buttonhole stitch, and you can see the beginning of that in the photo above.

However, the thread I was using - which I think is Paternayan crewel yarn - was awfully persnickety.

When working with wool, it is essential to use short strands to stitch with. If you're used to getting just about every stitch out of an 18"-20" strand of cotton (or even some silks), you may be in for a surprise when you try wool. I am cutting my wool lengths at about 14", and I can't use it all. I find I have to change threads even when I want to squeeze out several more stitches. This is more the case with some threads than others. I'll try to illustrate this for you in an upcoming post.

But, back to the rooster fellow. I picked out these stitches. I like the idea of the scallops - a lot - but they need to start from the bottom of his legs and move up, so that they can overlap each layer nicely, like feathers. Also, I don't like this color brown for the whole body. So I picked out a lighter golden wheat and a medium golden wheat color for the bulk of the rooster's body. And now, I'm scalloping away with buttonhole stitches!

That's where I am! I'm always open to comments, suggestions, questions, advice! Feel free to let me know what you're thinking about this so far, especially if you have any ideas for me! I LOVE ideas!

I'm off to make some headway on this guy!

Previous Articles on The Crewel Rooster:

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern for The Crewel Rooster
Setting up The Crewel Rooster Project
Choosing Threads for The Crewel Rooster - and the first flower
Crewel Design Books

Labels: crewel work, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, stitch along, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, January 07, 2010
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The first step in a crewel project, once you've selected your design, is to get the project ready for stitching. The set-up of any embroidery project may seem ho-hum, but it is in these initial steps of setting up that the finish (good or bad) is often determined. If you take the time to set up an embroidery project correctly, then despite other mishaps along the way, the finished product can still come out very well. If you skimp on the setting up, though, you may very well doom your project from the start.

Here, I'm showing you my set-up process for the Crewel Rooster. This process can pretty much be applied to any surface embroidery project, so even if you aren't working a crewel embroidery project, you can apply the process to your own projects.

I'm working the Crewel Rooster on Legacy Linen Twill. Crewel embroidery is traditionally done on a medium-weight plain weave linen or on linen twill. I like linen twill, and I find I really like Legacy's linen twill, now that I've been working with it. It's a nice crisp medium-weight twill, made specifically for hand embroidery. Unlike other twills that are woven for upholstery, this twill is finely woven and tight. The weave does not loosen and separate as you stitch, which is often what happens with inferior twills that are great for upholstery and regular sewing applications, but are not made to support hand embroidery stitches.



Legacy's linen twill is an egg-shell white (not quite white, not quite cream), and it has a beautiful "hand" - that is, the surface feels smooth and ... well, just really nice. I like it a lot. In the US, if you're looking for this particular linen, so far I've found it at Hedgehog Handworks and Tristan Brooks Designs. I am not certain of other sources yet. If your local needlework shop carries any items from Access Commodities (Au Ver a Soie threads, Trebizond, Hardwicke Manor hoops, etc.), then chances are, they can special order Legacy's linen twill.

If you don't have linen twill and you're planning on joining me in exploring crewel stitches, let's talk a bit about alternatives. Second choice: a plain-weave medium-weight linen, which you can line with muslin. The muslin behind the plain-weave helps support the stitches between the weave of the linen. Third choice: cotton twill, or even a satin jean fabric (cotton sateen) - like the kind used for Mountmellick embroidery. Fourth choice: you could use a heavier cotton, such as the type used to make pillow cases or sheets, but probably you don't want to use this type of fabric with wool threads. If you're just following along for the sake of the stitching, you might just skip the whole "crewel" part, think in terms of regular surface embroidery, and use embroidery cotton (DMC or Anchor stranded cotton).



The very first thing to do with your fabric is to iron it to ensure that there aren't any wrinkles or creases in it. If you have bought a cut of linen or other fabric that has been folded and that has a crease in it from the fold, you might have to wet the linen first. In fact, I soaked mine in hot and then cold water twice, then left it to rest in hot water until the water was lukewarm. This shrinks the fabric. On some embroidery, it might not be desirable to pre-shrink your fabric (it is not recommended, for example, for Schwalm embroidery). But since I do not plan to wash this after I stitch it, I went ahead and pre-shrunk it. The good soaking ensured that all the creases were gone. Then, I ironed the linen while it was still damp, which gave me a perfect wrinkle-free surface.

Next, "square up" your cut of fabric. When setting up an embroidery project, it's important that your fabric is "square." To achieve this with linen - whether twill or plain weave - pull out threads from the sides of your cut, until you have a straight edge.



Do this on all four sides of your cut. See the remaining threads in the photo above? Just trim along the straight edge, removing this extra fringe, and you'll have a perfectly squared up piece of fabric.



After cutting your fabric, you'll transfer the design. For this project, I traced my pattern on a light box, using Micron art pens. I chose the 05 size, as the 005 (which is tiny!) snagged a bit on the linen as I wrote with it. You might test the pen or pencil you are going to use on scrap of fabric, to see how well it draws on the fabric you have chosen.

Update: A reader since suggested using sepia colored art pens, and she is correct - the line is much easier to cover for every color with the exception of white. It's MUCH better than using black. The difficulty is that the sepia colored micron pens are difficulty to find at local art / craft stores. You can find them online, however, for an excellent price through Dick Blick Art Materials. Just do a search for "micron pen" and they'll come right up. Besides the micron pen, Prismacolors also makes a permanent fine drawing pen in sepia.



I placed my design on the light box and taped it down. Then I laid the linen over the design, and I taped it on the sides, too, to keep it from moving. I centered my 10" Evertite frame over the design just to make certain that the 10" frame would work without a problem - and it is perfect! So, now it's time to move the frame and trace the design.



When you trace a design onto fabric this way, it's important to draw in long, smooth strokes, rather than short, sketchy strokes. Don't sketch! You want a continuous smooth line. When you have to stop in the middle of a curve or something to adjust your hand position, lift the pen off the fabric completely. If you leave it on the fabric, you risk either jarring it and getting a warble in your line, or you risk a pen blot from the ink soaking into the fabric while it rests on it.



Here's the traced design, ready to go. The next step is to center up the design with the center marks on your frame, and to tack the fabric onto your stretcher bar frames. I have a whole tutorial on setting up stretcher bar frames, if you are unsure of how to go about doing this.

For crewel embroidery, it's important that your fabric is kept taut during stitching. There are several ways to achieve this, and I'll list them here in order of preference (with a few noted conditions!):

1. Slate Frame - slate frames are ideal for larger crewel work projects. If you have one, and are working on a large project, it is worth the time it takes to dress a slate frame. For a smaller project like this, though, I prefer Evertite Stretcher Bar Frames.

2. Evertite Stretcher Bar Frames - These are ideal for smaller projects. They are quicker to set up than a slate frame, yet they still give you the option of tightening your work further, after you've set up the project. You can achieve excellent, drum-tight tension with Evertite frames.

3. Regular stretcher bar frames - these don't have the screw mechanism set into the bars, like on the Evertite frames, but they are still quite suitable for small to medium sized projects. Just make sure when you tack on the fabric that you are pulling it enough to achieve a tight tension, without warping the fabric.

4. Hoop - for crewel work, you'll want a good, sturdy embroidery hoop that is somewhat thick. Because of the weight of the fabric, a thin plastic hoop doesn't really cut it as well. On the other hand, if this is all you have on hand, it's better than nothing! Just make sure that you remove your work from the hoop every time you finish a stitching session. Hoops make marks, so the shorter the time the fabric is in the hoop, the better. Additionally, if you're using a good wooden hoop (like Hardwicke Manor hoops), you can bind the inside ring of the hoop to protect your fabric and also to provide better tension.



Here's my rooster, set up and ready to go. The next step will be sorting out the threads I'm going to use. I am using only threads that I have on hand - not buying anything new right now! - so I'll be sifting through my stash to see what wool threads I can come up with. I know I have a heap of Appleton wools, plus some leftovers from the crewel smalls I've been working on, plus the Fine D'Aubusson, made for Au Ver a Soie and distributed by Access Commodities. I'll show you all these in an upcoming post!

Now, I'm off to fix my rooster. Yes, fix him. Well - I'm going to adjust the design one more time, I think!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below!

Have a terrific Monday!

Labels: crewel work, Embroidery Projects, embroidery resources, embroidery tips and tricks, needlework tutorials, threads, wool

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, January 04, 2010
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Here's the last installment of this series of tutorials on hand embroidered lettering and text! Today, I'm going to take you quickly through the end of the stitching on my little sampler. For the final words, I've tried a couple new threads, but the stitches are ones we've already seen. If you're just joining in on the end of this series, you might want to take a look at the previous tutorials in the series, which cover all kinds of ways to hand embroider lettering.

I'm stitching the small filler words here, using three different types of threads for the remaining four words. I have few comments to make on the threads!



I stitched this short little "lazy" at the base of the sampler, using a relatively bright green over-dyed silk from Sassa Lynn. I liked these threads ok for this sampler. They're very soft. I think they're worked best in short lengths. I could see them being very nice threads for crazy quilting.



Here's the sampler after this word was added.



Now I ventured into this Burmilana, which I picked up on one of my shopping stops last summer while on vacation. This is the first time I've stitched with it. It's a wool and acrylic blend.



Oh my. I don't usually knock too many threads. But I don't think this one is made for surface embroidery. It is a pill. And it pills - and it fuzzes - and it's just really difficult to work with. I tried working with a crewel needle, a chenille needle, and even a milliner (thinking the round eye might wreak less havoc on the thread), stitching with short lengths of the thread, but really, what it boils down to is that this is a difficult thread to stitch with.



Perhaps, on a large-holed canvas, it may work better, and indeed, that may be what the manufacturers had in mind for this thread. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't made for surface embroidery.

The whole time I was stitching with it, I was thinking to myself, "Oh. Yuck."

And this brings me back to the whole question of embroidery supplies. If you're going to invest in supplies, do make your investment worthwhile by purchasing items you know are made for surface embroidery!



Here's the sampler so far, on an angle....



Using one strand of Pearsall's in a wheat color, I stitched this tiny "quick" in stem stitch.

Pearsall's is a nice silk. It's a little pricey, but it is a nice thread. It's softly twisted filament silk, so it has a very nice sheen. It also snags on things easily.

My advice is not to stitch with Pearsall's right after you've put up your Christmas tree - or you'll end up with a lot of these:



This is Pearsall's in red (which I used for the very last word on the sampler), after snagging it on my scratched and raw tree-fingers!



And there's the finish of my rather crowded and somewhat colorful and fairly nonsensical lettering sampler.

When you embroider text, remember the golden rule of all writing: The purpose of writing is communication! If writing does not communicate, then what is the point of writing? If your lettering does not communicate what it is meant to communicate, then the effort is wasted! Choose stitches that best communicate to your reader, and arrange the words so that they communicate your thought clearly to your reader, too. If you follow those rules, you'll have no problems with stitching readable text!

I hope you enjoyed this series! You can find the rest of it under "Tips and Tricks for Hand Embroidery" in the top right column, under editor's floss. There, you'll find all kinds of useful articles for beginners and beyond.

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

Other News:

Don't forget my current give-away ends this Saturday, December 26th. If you'd like the opportunity to win one of Trish Burr's project CDs, don't forget to follow the directions in the original post for leaving a comment!

Speaking of that give-away, if you're in the US and you're looking for Trish's DVD / CD set, you can definitely order it through Nordic Needle, if you call them to place the order. It's not on their website yet, but they do have it in stock.

Today, I'm planning to finish the Nichole needlebook! Wish me luck. I'll share the finish with you in upcoming days.

But speaking of upcoming days, tomorrow is Christmas! Yes, I will still post - a Merry Christmas message for you, done by hand (but not stitched!). Right now, though, I'm not really replying to e-mail, unless it is urgent. If you've written in the last few days with a question, never fear - I will reply! But it may be a couple days yet. If you do have an urgent question, feel free to drop a line and let me know! I'll try to get to you sooner.

Here in the Midwest, we're anticipating a big ice and snow storm starting today, so it will be a perfect day for indoor finish work, wrapping presents, and getting ready for tomorrow.

May you have a peaceful, quiet, not-too-hectic Christmas Eve!

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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Here's a wee word worked on my hand embroidered lettering sampler. I'm working in stem stitch, and since we've already covered the ins and outs of embroidering letters with stem stitch, today I'll just show you an update on the sampler with this new addition.

If you've not read the tutorial on working with stem stitch on hand embroidered lettering, you might want to check that out. All the principles apply here, even when working the S. The trick is just to turn your hoop as you work, to keep the stitch going in right direction.



This is one of the little "extra" words floating at the top of the sampler. I stitched it in a deep red cotton floche. I really like floche!

Remember, as you work around tight curves, shorten up your stitches so that they take the curve well. Actually, when you're stitching letters this small (about half an inch high), all your stitches will be pretty small!



And here's the sampler so far!

You can catch up on all these tutorials by visiting the complete list of hand embroidered lettering and text tutorials.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below!

Labels: embroidery lessons, hand embroidered lettering, needlework pictures, needlework tutorials, pictures, tips'

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Friday, December 18, 2009
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For the next word on my hand embroidered lettering sampler, I'm using a wonderful silk by Treenway Silk out of Canada, and I'm revisiting the whipped backstitch for the letters, because I like the resulting chunky-twistiness of it when worked with this silk.

In the fifth lesson of this series of tutorials on hand embroidered lettering, I addressed the whipped backstitch for producing a fine, tiny line for little letters. If you change your thread to something a bit heavier, though, you can change the look of the whipped backstitch considerably!



Treenway silk "cord" (I don't know why they call it that) is similar to about a #8 pearl cotton. It reminds me a lot of some silk buttonhole twists, but I think it actually may be slightly heavier, and perhaps slightly softer in its twist.



Anyway, whatever the case, it's a beautiful thread. It's a bit boingy, though, so you might straighten it before stitching. I like to do this over the spout of a whistling tea kettle. Just hold the silk in both hands, pulling slightly, and move it back and forth in the steam. It'll relax the kinks almost immediately. As far as "kinks" go, though, this thread isn't too bad - if you don't do anything to it to help it relax, you can solve any twisting problems as you stitch by letting your needle dangle so the thread can untwist itself. None of this is said to intimidate you from trying this thread, though - like I said, it's a beautiful thread!



I'm working on the large "Quick" on the top right corner of the sampler. I wanted to use a thread that's somewhat dark, since this is the boundary of the piece. Since the letters are large, and since this thread is a somewhat heavier thread, the whipped backstitch makes a nice bold letter here. And I like the way the thread twists and untwists with the stitch. I like the very-slightly-wiggly-look.



To keep your thread twisting in the same direction, you might have to turn your hoop and work upside down now and then. All of this is explained in Lesson 5 of this series of tutorials. You can also read my notes about the importance of stitch direction with whipped stitches, if you are curious about stitch direction.



There's a little nubby thing going on with the U there, and I'll probably have to pick that out. With thicker threads, it's sometimes difficult to join the intersections in the letters smoothly. But I didn't notice that, really, until just now!



And here's the sampler so far!

If you're looking for Treenway Silk, you can find it at Nordic Needle, where you'll find the thread accompanied by gorgeous overdyed silk ribbon that matches the various colors. Well, you already know I'm a sucker for threads - but when I see this beautiful thread paired with its ribbon counterpart, I melt! It is Really Pretty.

If you're looking for more tutorials on hand embroidered lettering and text, you can visit the index for this series of tutorials, where you'll find all 12 previous articles on the topic, full of step-by-step directions on how to write with your needle and thread!

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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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Coral stitch is one of my favorite embroidery stitches, when I'm in the mood for it. When I'm not in the mood for it, it quickly slides to the bottom of the list! You can do a lot with the coral stitch - you can create nubby lines and curves, or you can even fill spaces by working lines and alternating the placement of the knots that the stitch produces. In this little example on my lettering sampler, I'm stitching some small letters - the word "dogs" - with coral stitch to create nubby letters.

If you're just joining in here, you may wish to go through the other tutorials in this series on hand embroidered lettering. At this point in the series, the basics of stitching letters have already been covered, and you can find them in the earlier tutorials.

If you want to know how to work the coral stitch - or any other stitch used in this series, as a matter of fact - you can visit my video library of hand embroidery stitches. That's where you'll find instructions on individual stitches.



On this lettering sampler, I'm stitching the word "dogs" in the lower left corner of the sampler. The red circle in the photo above indicates where this word is on the sampler, though you'll probably notice that there's no S on the end of the word! When I originally wrote out the text for this series, I wrote it incorrectly - it should read "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Since I left the S out, I'm trying to work in a few of them after "dog" here and there.



I'm going to use a reddish-orange cotton floche for this word, and you can see in the photo above (circled in black) that I've penciled in an S.



I ran into two difficulties with coral stitch on this word:

1. I've got my project set up in a bound hoop, with the fabric stretched taut in the hoop. This is not the easiest way to stitch coral stitches - it's much easier to work coral stitch in hand, without a hoop, because you can manipulate the fabric. Since I'm working in a hoop, I resorted to the "stab" method of stitching. That is, I'm stabbing into the fabric and taking my needle and working thread all the way to the back of the fabric and then again to the front of the fabric, with every step of the stitch. Normally, with coral stitch, it's easier to "scoop" your needle back and front again (the "sewing method" of hand embroidery), without actually taking your hand to the back of your fabric to pull the needle through. Still, stabbing works, and that's how I worked the stitch on these letters.

2. The letters are small and relatively curvy. They are no more than half an inch high, which makes the curves in them just a bit tight. And this goes back to point #1 - if I were working in hand rather than in a hoop, it would be easier to maneuver around these curves. The stab method of stitching made it possible to get around the curves.



When "stabbing" instead of "sewing," you have to make sure you're bringing your needle up into the loop of thread, in order to make the knot. Sometimes, I end up with very exaggerated loops!



At the beginning of the top of the D, my stitches are a bit too crowded, so I started spacing them out a bit as I worked down the D.



Coral stitch looks better when the knots are evenly spaced. Still, on such little letters, the overall outcome of the uneven stitches wasn't that disturbing. They ended up looking ok overall.



When you work around the O in the coral stitch, try to space your knots so that your last knot lands in the right spot, so that the beginning and ending point are not noticeable.



The D and the O. DO.



And then the G. DOG.



And finally, the straggling S, which was the most difficult letter to stitch because of the tight curves on an S only half an inch high. I admit it got a little sloppy there!



But, overall, it worked out ok. Here's the sampler so far.

As you can see, I'm starting to stitch the extra words now. Most of the extras will be stitched in many of the same stitches we've already covered in this series of tutorials, but now we can have some fun testing new threads and seeing how the stitches and letters work out, depending on the threads we use. The sampler's turning out to be fairly colorful, and at this point, I've really enjoyed the stitching.

But there's a word coming up, stitched in a thread that was new to me, that I really (REALLY) didn't like, so it'll be fun showing you that word. Wow. It was about the most unpleasant stitching experience I've had, and the reason, I have no doubt, goes back to the materials used.

And that brings me around to a subject I want to write about in some upcoming posts: the whole question of the materials we choose to embroider with. Is this a subject you would be interested in hearing my take on? Or do you get quite enough of that from me already? What think you?

Despite the busy time of year, don't forget to relax a bit this weekend and get some stitching in! It'll keep you sane!

Enjoy the weekend!

Labels: beginner embroidery, embroidery lessons, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidered lettering, needlework tutorials, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Saturday, December 12, 2009
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