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
Contact Mary
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
Contact Mary
October 26, 2010
Continuing with some basic embroidery tips here, today we’re going to look at taking a sharp corner with stem stitch. While the technique applies to stem stitch specifically, you can look beyond stem stitch and apply the idea to many stitches.
In the photos, I’m stitching scallops, but this tip applies to any sharp change in line direction where an angle is involved (so, squared corners, tips of stars, and so forth).
October 25, 2010
A couple weeks ago, we looked at how to join up a circle when working chain stitch. Today, here’s a similar tip for stem stitch.
The idea here is how to join up with a line of stem stitch “from the rear” – that is, when you’re stitching towards another bit of already-stitched stem stitch, whether it’s a circle or any other shape, and you want to make a seamless join in the stitching.
October 23, 2010
Floche – ya gotta love it. It’s fine and soft, it’s got a beautiful sheen, it comes in lots of colors. It’s a great thread for stitching! Floche is a 5-ply mercerized cotton thread with a loose twist. A while ago, I compared floche to other better-known cotton embroidery threads so that you can get a sense of what floche looks like. It’s a fine thread – not much thicker than 2 single strands of regular embroidery floss – and it’s non-divizible (in most cases – I have divided it before and stitched with it successfully, but it isn’t easy to divide, as it’s not meant to be divided).
Floche comes in a good number of colors, and lately, a few more colors have been added to the collection:
October 22, 2010
After we added a bit of blackwork to our spot samplers, the next step for the Needle Arts class was to look at some other stitches – aside from cross stitch, backstitch, running stitch, and Holbein stitch – that could be used in counted techniques.
There are LOTS of stitches that can be used in counted thread embroidery, but what I wanted to accomplish with my students was to get them comfortable with working more complex stitches, following stitch diagrams, and working out variations. For this exercise, we focused on the herringbone stitch, which can be worked effectively on either even-weave or plain-weave fabric.
October 21, 2010
A couple months ago, I worked up a tiny Assisi Embroidery motif, so that I could demonstrated what a “voided” area looks like in embroidery. I picked a bunny for the voided subject in a little medallion, just because I like bunnies.
I thought I’d show you the little fellow, which is stitched in tiny cross stitch that covers the background completely. Often, in Assisi work, the cross stitched area is not quite so compactly filled, so that more of a lacy look is achieved. But with this piece, I’m stitching on 25 count fabric, over one, with one thread of stranded cotton, which pretty much fills the background pretty solidly.
October 20, 2010
About a year ago, I wrote a post about Colbert Embroidery, which is a technique that combines surface embroidery, counted stitches, and voided areas on even-weave fabric. The technique interests me, because it provides a nice balance of color with bold, voided (blank) areas. As I mentioned in the last article on the subject, it seems like it would be a great technique to combine with Wessex-style stitchery.
October 19, 2010
The design for this pall, which I’ve embroidered several times, has always been a favorite. I’ve had lots of requests for a copy of it, so finally I managed to drum up a tracing. I’ll share it here, with some ideas on different ways to stitch it.
