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Mary Corbet

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I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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The First Embroidered Leaf on my GST Strawberry

 

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My Gilt Sylke Twist playtime is rapidly coming to a close. Here, I’ve got pictures of the embroidered leaf to the left of the strawberry, and the main stem, which is worked in heavy chain stitch.

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

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

This is the main branch of the strawberry project:

Strawberry embroidered with Gilt Sylke Twist

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

Strawberry embroidered with Gilt Sylke Twist

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

Strawberry embroidered with Gilt Sylke Twist

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

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

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

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

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

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

 
 

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(10) Comments

  1. Many many happy returns!! Dear Mary,
    May you live loooong..(so that we can learn lots more from you :))
    Regards,
    Deepa

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  2. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday!!! May your dreams come true and you live a long and healthy life.
    Best Regards,

    -Meeta

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  3. We share a birthday and love of stitching in many styles!

    So, Happy Birthday to us, Mary! Many happy returns.

    Your strawberry looks lucious. Must get myself some of that gylt twist. 🙂

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  4. Aw, thanks for the birthday wishes! And Romilly, happy birthday! I do think April is a good month for a birthday!

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  5. Happy Birthday, Mary! I hope you had a wonderful day.

    I am enjoying your GST adventure. When you cut the GST are you using regular scissors or metal thread scissors?

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  6. Hope you had a great birthday, Mary. You too, Romilly.

    I love your strawberry. Thank you for writing up your trials with GST. Since it is a new thread to us all, it is great to share our experiences with it.

    CA

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  7. Happy Birthday to You!
    Happy Birthday to You!
    HAPPY–BIRTHDAY—DEAR—MAAARRRYY!!!
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO…YOOOOOO!!

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  8. Thanks, all!

    Margaret!! I use regular embroidery scissors that I have reserved just for goldwork. All my embroidery scissors look slightly different, so I can tell which ones are which. I like fine, sharp-tipped, little scissors for goldwork, because I can get pretty accurate with them when I snip purl.

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