03.06.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 11:25 am by deRomilly
Oops! It’s Saturday! I completely forgot it was Friday yesterday, even though I knew it was Friday, if that makes any sense. Probably I’m just babbling. But here it is… my stitching on…
Step 4
This week we’re going to finish the flower center. We’re now into the actual raised embroidery part of the piece. Much fun!I’m going to try something different with the images today. I’m adding them at the bottom of the post as a gallery – I’m getting really funky formatting otherwise. You can click them to enlarge them, and please post comments if you don’t like this arrangement and would rather have them in the steps. I’ll delve deeper into fixing the problems then!
- Cut two circles out of your felt. The first one should be the size (and shape, because it’s not really a perfect circle) of the flower center. The second one should be a bit smaller. If you don’t want your flower center to be quite this raised, you can use just the larger piece of felt and leave out the smaller one. I like high relief.
- Tack the smaller circle into the center of your flower first, and then cover it with the larger piece and tack that down around the edges as well. Putting the smaller piece down first means that you’ll have a smooth surface to stitch into later, instead of having to navigate “stairs.”
- Cover the padding with french knots. Be careful not to pull the knots extremely tight in the center area of the circle. You want the padding to work as padding, and it’s easy to pull the felt down almost to the ground fabric, so that you lose the point of putting it there in the first place!
- So that’s that! Next week we’ll get into the REALLY fun part — wired, detached petals and leaves!!!
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Cut 2 felt circles
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Tack the small piece of felt down.
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Starting to add the french knots
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French knots from the side. See how they go up and over the center?
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The center is finished!
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A bit closer image of the finished center
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I’m coming to love viewing needlework at different angles!
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03.04.10
Posted in Finished Projects at 11:46 am by deRomilly
The pillow in question
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have a phobia about REALLY finishing needlework. I’m working on it. But I’m always terrified (and it really is terror) that I’m going to ruin a piece of stitching that I’ve spent hours and hours working on. If it entails more than just lacing it to a back and sticking it in a frame, I freeze.
But I’m taking it gently. I have several pillow designs that I want to release this year. They’re going to include finishing instructions as well as the needlework design. (There, I said it!) So I’ve been trying to get myself to finish the pillows I have half finished around the studio so that I can do it.
I started with this candlewicking piece. I got the kit at a garage sale for about 25¢. The stitching was finished in about a week other than the three months I spent trying to find enough thread that matched for FOUR knots after I ran out. Candlewicking thread is NOT all the same. Ick. But I found it, finished the stitching three years ago and put it in my “Finished Objects to Finish box.” (As usual, click the photos to enlarge for more detail!)
The "scary" zipper... Not so scary after all!
Last week I dug out my Singer Sewing for the home book that my heart-sister the former interior stitcher recommended, teased the instructions out of three different areas in said book (not the best organized, but really good instruction!) and to paraphrase Nike, “just did it.” I’m pleased. I’m not completely happy with the zipper, which I wanted because we always have pets and cats like to bring up hairballs right where you don’t want them: In other words, the pillow cover NEEDS to be washable! But it’s more than serviceable. I’ve made a pillow form for the crazy quilted pillow I posted about ages ago, and now I just need to attack it with the black backing, black zipper and the same book. I figure by the time I get to the models, I’ll have enough stitched that I’m not QUITE so terrified any more.
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02.26.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 10:01 am by deRomilly
The flower as it stands now
This was a difficult step for me. And it shouldn’t have been. The original plan was to stitch the petals in long and short stitch, but for some reason, whether it was an arthritic flareup, or the weather, or the particular embroidery floss I used, it didn’t stitch smoothly. I ripped it out three times before changing stitches and getting to this point!
Step 3
Fill in the larger petals.
- Begin by extending the petal lines down to the flower center. You can draw these in, or just extend them when you outline them.
- Using 2 strands of floss, outline the petals in either split stitch or backstitch. I used split stitch.
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Detail of the stitches - click for closeup
Fill the petals in with one of the following options:
- Using 1 or 2 strands of floss, use long and short stitch from the center of the flower out to the edges of the petals.
- Using 3 strands of floss, fill the petals using Roumanian couching. This is what I did in the end. I came up at the center of the flower, brought the thread down over the split stitch border, and then couched it through the middle with one stitch. Mary Corbet of NeedleNThread.com has a very good video tutorial for Roumanian Couching stitch. Fill in all the petals. I still need to finish the lower two, and then it’s on to the wired stumpwork!
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02.22.10
Posted in Finished Projects at 2:53 pm by deRomilly
The full dragon banner. Has tab hangers at the top.
FINALLY!
My godson/pseudo-nephew turned 13 yesterday. In honor of the event, I made a point of finishing his dragon banner – that he still doesn’t know he’s got, since he spent the weekend at his father’s. After I post this, I shall be delivering it to him.
Dragon Detail
Remember the banner? This has been a LONG year for me. While I finished the stitching back in the summer, I still have a phobia of ruining my embroidery during my attempts to really finish things. So it took me until this weekend, when, in a fit of “I feel much better after a week of being sick, thankyouverymuch” energy, I just went and DID it. I’m proud of the results. The EO says if the kid doesn’t like it, he’ll take it himself. 
Click the images for more detail!
Edited 2/26/10 to add – Well, when he opened it he hugged it to his chest and went dancing around the room with it, so I guess it’s a success! 
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02.19.10
Posted in Free Patterns at 12:24 pm by deRomilly
I want to apologize for not getting comments approved more quickly this week. Sinus infections turning into bronchitis stink. Even more so when your husband gets it at the same time — and his wants to become pneumonia!
We’re both doing much better, thank you. And now for Step 2!
Supply Notes:
I was asked how much floral wire you need for this project. Eep. I haven’t measured yet. Floral wire comes either on spools or in packages of cut pieces. One of either will give you plenty of wire to do this project a couple of times over. About 1 1/2 to 2 yards will be more than enough.
I also neglected the small pieces of yellow felt you will need for the flower center. If you can match the color to the thread you’re planning on using, that’s even better. 2 pieces of felt, each large enough to cut the circle out of. (I’ll edit the supply list with both these notes today as well.)
Step 2
Stem Stitch finished!
Note: When putting this into the hoop to start embroidering, I realized that my chosen fabric really wasn’t sturdy enough to support wire and padding on its own. If you even suspect this is the case, please get a second piece of muslin and when you put the embroidery in the frame, put the muslin onto the back of it to provide more support. I used a piece of polyester/linen blend that I had lying around that was the right size.
Again, you can click the pictures to see more detail of what happens to my stitching when I do it when sick!
And a slightly different angle and light source...
- Once in the frame, use three strands of the green embroidery floss and stitch the stem in stem stitch. (Link goes to Sharon Boggin’s wonderful stitch dictionary!)
- When you have stitched the main stem, use TWO strands of the green to stitch the tendril, also using stem stitch.
Note: Remember when stitching the stem stitch, that the tighter the curve you have to go around, the smaller your stitches need to become.
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