Picking out a palette for the flowers on my crewel rooster project wasn't so easy. I wanted colors that coordinated with the rooster at least a little bit, and that had enough shade options to keep the flowers from being too flat. This is where I dropped my original intention to just use threads from my present stash (at the time I started the rooster). Last week, when I received that order from Hedgehog that had all that luscious floche in it, I also received a small range of colors of Renaissance Dyeing Wool, so I dug into those for the flowers.

I like the Renaissance Dyeing wools, and they embroider really well. So I have duly justified the alteration in my original stash-only intention! At first, though, I thought perhaps these colors would not work for the flowers, especially once I started stitching. But I have resolved that they WILL work. My plan is to use the same colors on both flowers, but I'll stitch them in different locations on the flowers, so that the flowers aren't identical.



These are the shades - a deeper red (the same used in the tail of the rooster) to a lighter salmon. I think they'll work well together?



They're beautiful - like a gorgeous Kansas sunset. (Really - we have stellar sunsets in Kansas!)



I'm going back to the buttonhole scallops around the outside of the petals, and then filling the inside with French knots.



Around the outside of the darker petals, I'm working a row of detached buttonhole stitches in the loops of the previous stitches.



I didn't think out the order of stitching before I began. It's true that I want the detached buttonhole edges to rest over the petals beneath - which means they have to fit over those French knots - but I think it makes more sense to stitch the detached edges first. Since I didn't do that, I had to work the buttonhole over the French knots in the first petal I worked. To transport the needle without catching the knots, I find the fingernail on my little finger to be the perfect transport tool. If you do this carefully, it works great! Just slide your needle onto the tip of your fingernail, which is covering the stitches underneath, then transport the tip of the needle on your fingernail beyond the stitches, so that the needle doesn't catch. Now, if you don't do this carefully, you're in for a shocker. Needles sliding under the nail and into the skin are not pleasant. So if you stitch this way, be careful. (I do this all the time....)



I think I'm going to like the flowers!

Oh, trust me. I AM going to like the flowers, because there's no more picking out from this point on. It's time to finish this guy! And I can't wait to see the flower complete, so hopefully, today I'll make some headway on that.

For further posts on this project, feel free to visit the following links:

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
Stem Stitch Filling on Flower Stems
Scalloped Feathers on the Rooster's Body
The Beginnings of the Rooster's Tail
French Knots on the Wattle
Adding the First Blue Feather using a Raised Backstitch
The Rooster Tail, Finished for Now
The Wing - Three Attempts
Adjusting the Tail Feathers One More Time
The Rooster's Head, Neck, and Comb
The First Flower Attempt Comes Out

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

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Thursday, January 28, 2010
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Working on the Crewel Rooster project, I've had the opportunity to play around with seven different crewel wools currently on the market. Today, I want to show you those threads up close - just the threads. In looking at just the threads, though, out of context, I will admit there's not a lot to learn from them. You might get an idea of their structure, but other than that, you can't tell much from them unless you see them in context, in stitching. That's the way I see it, anyway!

So my plan - and I'm slowly working on it - is to show you some stitch samples with each of these threads, and to put the samples side-by-side so that you can see them and compare the outcome of the stitching with the various threads. In the meantime, though, let's look at the seven different threads I've been working with.



These are the threads I used, in alphabetical order: Appleton crewel (100% wool from England), Bella Lusso (100% merino wool from Italy), D'Aubusson (100% wool from France), Gumnuts Poppies (a 50/50 silk/wool blend, from Australia), Heathway (100% merino wool from Wales), Renaissance Dyeing crewel wool (100% merino wool, vegetable dyed, from France, but the wool is from England), and Simply Wool by Gentle Art (100% wool - company is located in the US, but I don't know where the wool is from).

With the exception of Gumnut Poppies (which is a wool / silk blend), all the threads are wool, and you'd think they'd all pretty much be the same, since they're all wool, but they aren't. And even though several of them look the same, they stitch differently.



Simple Wool (lower) and Renaissance wool (top): fine, two-ply wool, kind of hairy. These two look a lot alike - they feel completely different when you stitch with them!



Heathway is a two-ply merino wool, but the plies twist around each other with a closer twist - not a tighter twist than the others, because the thread isn't tightly twisted. But the "spring" shape of the twist is definitely closer. This makes the thread a bit stretchier and springier. It also makes it very smooth when stretched out in stitching.



Gumnut Poppies: The presence of silk, I think, is obvious. The strands look smoother, more lustrous, and they hold together in their twist, thick and soft.



D'Aubusson's twist is a bit shorter - it looks like Simply Wool, which has a slightly shorter twist than the Renaissance wool. But the twist is much longer than Heathway's.



Bella Lusso (lower) was difficult to photograph (red threads are always difficult to photograph, for some reason!), but you can see that its twist holds together more than the other threads - it is softer, and the fibers are longer. It reminds me more of a cotton-floche-gone-hairy than of wool. And Appleton (top) is again a two-ply twist, but notice how the plies are really separated from each other? They are long twists, but very loose, and the fibers in Appleton wool are also kind of loose and all over the place.

So, although the threads (except Poppies) are all wool, and though they look alike at a glance, they have subtle differences, and these differences come across in the way they stitch. What makes them different? The way the wool is processed, the way it's combed and spun, even the dye process, I suppose. You can read quite a bit, actually, on wool threads in general on the Renaissance Dyeing website. It's a nice site with interesting information for those interested in wool threads, thread dyeing, vegetable dyes, and so forth.

I'll be finishing up some stitch samples to show you how these threads perform. So stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I'm planning on getting the rooster finished over the next few days! Wish me luck!

Labels: crewel work, embroidery tips and tricks, hand embroidery information, threads, wool

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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You probably have realized by now I'm a thread junkie. I've said it before, and I freely admit it. But I've never actually gone so far as to purchase a whole set of a specific embroidery thread (you know, one of every color!). Granted, I've come close. Last year, a certain hankering crept over me: I longed to purchase the whole available range of cotton floche! And I resolved, at that moment, that if I ever did buy a whole set of one type of thread, the first set would indeed be cotton floche. It took a while to do it - a whole set of an embroidery thread isn't cheap, if the set is somewhat extensive, so I had to save for it. When Hedgehog Handworks launched their January sale (15% off everything) this year, I jumped!

Cotton floche is a beautiful embroidery thread, perfect for monogramming, for all kinds of surface work, for folk and ethnic styles of embroidery, for cross stitch. It works great for long and short stitch shading, as you can see in this beautiful piece worked by Jeanne of Just String. It makes beautiful little flowers for surface work. It's wonderful to smock with. And some stitchers love it for needlepoint on higher count canvas...



Me? I love it for.... everything!



I love its softness, and its vivid colors.



I love its range of shades within colors.



I love that its easy to stitch with.



I just downright love the stuff.

And I love the fact that I now have the whole range! (Well, the whole range available at Hedgehog - 89 colors!) *Sigh*

Pure ... Thread ... Bliss!

(The next question: what am I going to do with it? I suppose you'll just have to wait and see!)

If you're not familiar with floche and want to do some reading on it, I've got a couple articles here on Needle 'n Thread:

Thread Comparison between Floche, DMC perle cotton, and DMC stranded cotton
Floche, Danish Flower Thread, and coton a broder
Floche vs Danish Flower Thread - comparison
Miniature Flowers Sampler using Floche

Labels: embroidery resources, floche, hand embroidery information, supplies, threads

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, January 26, 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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Oh, golly. Picking out threads for an embroidery project is Hard Work! 'Course, as work goes, it's the kind of Hard Work I can really get into. It isn't quite the same as cleaning bathrooms, is it? Here's my thread-sifting adventures for the Crewel Rooster project.

I'm going to be working this crewel embroidery project much like a sampler - a kind of off-the-cuff sampler. There's a dual purpose behind this project. The first point is to play with different wool threads that are available on the market and see what they're like, and especially, what they're like in comparison to each other. The second point is to play with stitches that are typical of crewel embroidery.

All of my threads for this project are coming from my stash. So, unlike the designer who designs a project, works out the colors on paper, then picks out suitable threads to carry out the project, I'm sort of winging it on the color choices. For the sake of this particular project, it's the type of thread more than the color choice that is moving me in my selection. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm going to try to coordinate things so that the poor rooster doesn't end up looking like a blob of discombobulated colors. But my choices are limited entirely to what's in my stash.



Ok. Admittedly, there's no dearth of Appleton crewel wool here. I have some hundreds of skeins. I've never counted them. I really don't want to know how many are there. They stuff into a medium sized plastic garbage bag. I haven't taken very good care of them. I wouldn't be surprised if one day, they just up and decided to felt themselves.



Besides the Appleton, I've got the leftovers from a couple of the crewel smalls kits I've been working lately. These are Heathway wool threads and Gumnut poppies - mostly Heathway. And not a lot of either.



I have these skeins of Fine D'Aubusson, made for Au Ver a Soie and distributed by Access Commodities. These threads will be available in the States this month, I think.



Then I have this kind of odd-ball collection of threads. The hank in the back, I think, is crewel-weight Paternayan wool. It's only marked with a color number and price tag, but I'm pretty sure I bought this off the wall at a needlepoint shop under the Paternayan wool sign. But I could be wrong. Oh, the disadvantages of not writing things down!! Then there's a Bright Red skein of Bella Lusso, which is 100% merino wool from Italy, and then three cards of Gentle Art Simply Wool, which is a rather fine wool embroidery thread that comes in a very limited range of colors.



These are the colors I chose out of the Appleton pile.

In addition to the above threads, I'll also be using some Renaissance Dying crewel weight wool, if the colors work out. I need to dig those out - I think I have at least a couple colors of these threads. These are wools made from vegetable dyes, by the way. Kind of neat process and interesting website, if you want to visit Renaissance Dying and read a bit about what they do.



So I picked out all my threads, and assembled the framed fabric ready to embroider, the threads, my tool box, and a little "doodle hoop" into a smallish basket to house the whole project while I make my way through it.



What's a doodle hoop? It's a very handy item to have in your work basket when you're making your way through a project. I've hooped up a small scrap of the linen twill, so that I can test out different threads or stitches before I use them. When you're working with a thread that's unfamiliar, it's nice to have an idea of how it's going to work before you use it on your project!



And, finally, yes - I started. And boy, do I regret this! I wanted to get blue into the piece, but I thought that it might be difficult working blue into the tail of the rooster (Does it really matter? Probably not...) So I decided to do the flowers in blue. Not just any blue - I wanted a deep, bright blue, like a crisp Autumn sky on a chilly day. I used buttonhole stitch on the flowers, with the darker of the two blues I selected. And then I went through stitching-and-picking-out-hell, trying to figure out what to fill the rest of the petals with.

But more on that later!

That's my color-choosing adventure.

Any comments? Suggestions? Advice? Any ideas for filling those petals?

Labels: crewel work, Embroidery Projects, embroidery tips and tricks, linen, needlework pictures, pictures, stitch along, threads, wool

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Tuesday, January 05, 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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Oh, these tiny crewel embroidery kits are wonderful! They make me feel so accomplished! So on top of things! So capable of finishing something! Yesterday, I introduced you to one of the Tristan Brooks "smalls" - which are literally that: small crewel embroidery kits, that result in a small finished product (about 4" x 4"). Today, I'll show you the finish.

This little crewel embroidery kit is easily finish-able in a weekend, and on top of that, it's really fun to work! One thing I like about crewel work is the variety of stitches used in it. This little project, for example, used a total of eight different stitches, all in about 4" square. You can beat that for variety!



I made a few adjustments in the whole plan of the kit, substituting a few stitches here and there. For example, inside the blue flower in the original design there are some scattered French knots. I opted for seed stitch. The yellow tendrils are supposed to be plain stem stitch in Heathway, but the Heathway seemed a bit bland as a plain stem stitch, so on the top left tendril, I whipped the stem stitch with Gumnut Poppies, and for the lower right yellow tendril, I stuck with Gumnuts poppies for the plain stem stitch.

I set up another small right after I finished this one. They're so .... small and manageable! Which is great if you're pressed for time, still want to stitch, and want to enjoy that feeling of actually finishing something!

Some crewel topics that will be discussed in some upcoming posts, thanks to your input:

1. What is crewel work, anyway, and how does it differ from other forms of surface embroidery?
2. Threads for crewel work
3. Fabric for crewel work

I'll also discuss stitches and so forth, and give you some close-ups of these little projects. If you have any additional topics you'd like discussed, leave a comment below!

This week, besides regular blog upkeep, trying to catch up on e-mail, sneaking in some work on these smalls, and finishing up the lingering needlebook (!), I'm working out in the studio, which has been decommissioned for quite a while due to storage difficulties, household rearranging, and so forth. Once things are in order out there in my frigid workspace, I'll be setting up a project, taking pictures for various upcoming posts, and hopefully filming stitches. There is so much I want to do during my short break between semesters - I have to be careful not to turn my vacation into a pressure-cooker! After all, this is supposed to be fun, right?!

Enjoy your Monday!

Labels: crewel work, embroidery kits, needlework pictures, pictures, threads, wool

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Monday, December 28, 2009
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Yesterday, I actually got to do some stitching on a wee little crewel piece (appropriate called a "small") from Tristan Brooks Designs. Ahhh - to be snowed in is not such a bad deal!

I want to show you this piece of crewel embroidery in a bit more detail later. My intention is to compare and contrast some different wool threads available on the market, but I'll await the sun before venturing into detail photos!

In the meantime, I've had a bit of fun with this piece, a tiny bit of which is shown here:



This is from one of the Charleston Smalls available in kit form on the Tristan Brooks website. I had no intention of actually buying kits when I bought these (heh heh - are you with me here? do you know where I'm coming from?!). I went to Tristan Brooks to order some Pearsall's silk floss, which I'm trying out for an upcoming ecclesiastical project. But oh - these little kits! They caught my eye. No, actually - they didn't just catch! They caught, they latched, they tugged. And golly. I gave in.

What I like about these particular kits is that I had the opportunity to use, side-by-side, two distinct threads suitable for this style of embroidery: Heathway merino crewel wool and Gumnut poppies. There are also some little spots here and there worked in Pearsall's silk, for variety - like the French knot center of the flower above.

Heathway merino crewel wool and Gumnut poppies (a silk / wool blend) are quite a contrast. Heathway offers a matte finish when stitched, while Gumnut poppies throws in a very nice sheen. In the flower above, the three similar petals are worked in Heathway; the other two are worked in Gumnut poppies.

So, coming up, I'll be showing you this little project in a bit more detail, and doing some comparisons on threads. If you have any specific questions about crewel work or similar embroidery, or if you have particular resources, threads, or supplies that you like for this type of needlework, leave a comment below and tell us!

In the meantime, being somewhat snowed in has its advantages! No, I'm not "stuck" (thanks very much for the many e-mails asking how I survived the recent storm!), but I don't mind staying inside to get some work done!



This was after the front steps had been cleared a few times. It's not "tons" of snow, but for Kansas, and for Christmas in Kansas, it was a good amount, and in the aftermath, it's very pretty! The wind swept the roof fairly clean, which is always a disappointment when it comes to picture-taking!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend, wherever you are! Hot or cold, snow or sunshine, may you find a little extra time to spend with your needle and thread!

Labels: crewel work, embroidery resources, personal, threads, wool

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Posted By: Mary Corbet on Sunday, December 27, 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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