January 26, 2012
January 25, 2012
Setting up Silk Gauze for a Little Stitching
In stitching talk, silk gauze is not exactly what it sounds like – it isn’t gauzy, light silk that might be used to make a filmy, floating scarf. In the stitchery world, “silk gauze” is a kind of canvas – a miniature canvas, in fact, onto which you can embroider (usually in counted techniques) little things. Silk gauze is made out of filament silk, which makes a very strong, very fine canvas, and while it comes in lower holes per inch (as low as 18), it is probably better known in its higher holes-per-inch counts, as it is prized by those who love to do miniature work.
Silk gauze is similar to a needlepoint canvas, in that it is measured in “holes per inch” rather than “threads per inch” (which is how most counted embroidery fabric is measured).
Silk gauze can be found in Very High thread counts – as high as 112 holes per inch. (No matter how good your eyes may be, I suspect you’d have to use magnification at 112 HPI!) The more commonly used sizes of silk gauze range from 40 HPI (holes per inch) up to 72. 40 & 48 HPI silk gauze is fairly easy to come by. 60, 72, and higher require some serious hunting for specialty suppliers.
On silk gauze, especially higher count silk gauze, the recommend stitch to use is the tent stitch.
January 24, 2012
A Tiny Bit of Long & Short Stitch
Today, just a wee progress picture on the Medallion Project.
January 23, 2012
Kitting Up!
I spent the past weekend kitting up embroidery projects. I love doing this! I’m not exactly sure why I love it, but I do find great satisfaction in separating out supplies, counting things, fixing up little bags of thread, poking a variety of needles into felt squares – call me nuts, but I think it’s fun!
January 21, 2012
Needlework & Travel: In My Dreams
For those of you who like to combine needlework and travel, and whose travel dreams might be turned towards Europe this year, there are a couple nice events coming up worth taking a look at. And, of course, if you live in the general area where these events are taking place, you don’t even have to travel to get there!
This happens to me once a year, by the way. In January, when my warped notion of what the seasons of the year should be overrides the reality of Kansas winter, I start getting the itch to travel. I think it’s because, now that the year is underway, I expect it to be spring. (Shouldn’t it be spring?!)
In any case, I’m not going anywhere! But if you are traveling this year and these would be a good fit for you, you might check out these needlework-related events.
January 20, 2012
Cutting Felt Shapes for Embroidery Padding
This is how I cut the felt shapes to use for padding under long & short stitch filling on the monogram in the middle of the Medallion project. There are various ways and products you can use for cutting clean shapes from felt. Those of you who do a lot of appliqué are probably familiar with all kinds of ways to go about cutting shapes, and you’ll find that this particular method I’m using is not anything new!
But what I’ll point out here is why this method works well for padding for hand embroidered objects, whether you’re doing goldwork or working regular embroidery stitches in floss on felt.
January 19, 2012
Long & Short Stitch Filling with Felt Padding
Yesterday, we mused over the stitching of the central monogram on the Medallion project. I was considering padding the monogram with felt, and working long & short stitch over the felt to fill the monogram. But the felt that I chose was a very dark blue, deeper in color than the silk thread I am using for the stitching. And this presented a problem: I couldn’t see the stitching well enough against the dark blue felt.
