The finished embroidery

Welcome back! Hopefully the videos helped those of you trying this who were a bit confused about the needlelace leaves. Now that the leaves and petals are finished, we can put it all together!

Step 7 – Completing the Embroidery

1. First things first. We need to get those detached lace leaves off our muslin and Free!!! Turn the work over so the back is up, and carefully clip the couching threads, gently pulling them out to remove them.
2. Now go back to the front and clip the threads close to the away waste knots. The leaf should now come off of the muslin pretty easily.
3. Clip the dangling green threads close to the stitching. You should have secured them when you covered the wire with buttonhole stitch. You did do that, right?
4. Now clip the fabric around the blue petals. I like to do this in two passes. One to separate the petals, and another with very very fine, sharp embroidery scissors (I use the same ones I use for hardanger) to snip the fabric off very close to the stitching.
   Note: At this point I should have taken my navy blue Sharpie and colored in the white muslin fringe and a bit of the tips of the wire. I didn’t. I KNOW this is going to haunt me. I may even end up going back and re-stitching the petals because of it…
5. Put the actual embroidery back into a hoop. Make sure it’s taut.
6. Using an awl, or the points of your sharp scissors, poke a small hole where two of the red petals come together, right down by the base of the french knot center. The hole should be large enough for the wires to go through, but not easily. We don’t want them swishing around wherever they want to go when we’re done!
7. Poke the wires from one of the blue petals through the hole.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other three petals.
9. On the back of the work, interlace the petal wires together and secure them by stitching over them. I made a cross and then secured each pair of ends with a few whip stitches. Using your wire cutters or the pair of scissors you don’t care about, clip the wires about a sixteenth of an inch away from the stitching.
10. Referring to the pattern or photos below for location, poke holes next to the stem and poke the leaves’ wires into them. These holes need to be even smaller than the ones for the petals, simply because they aren’t going through stitching as well as the fabric.
11. On the back of the work, secure the wires with small whip stitches and trim them as you did the petals.
12. Congratulations! Your stumpwork is finished! You can bend the wires on the raised portions so that they lay the way you want them to, and then you can now frame it, or finish it as you like. (I’ve got a finishing suggestion in mind for these little pieces coming up soon!)

If you have been having problems with the needlelace leaves, I hope that these will help a bit.

This weekend I’ll post the finishing touches for this little piece.

Making the needlelace leaf:

Covering the wire with buttonhole stitch:

Hang tight. I’ll get it sorted as soon as possible. And tomorrow I will try to post the next step for the stumpwork!

Thanks for your patience! Darn technology!

Again, the images are in a gallery at the bottom, with descriptions. Click on them to enlarge.

Step 6 – Wired needlelace leaves

The finished leaf, from an odd angle.

1. Start in the same way you started the small petals: couch the wire down along the muslin pattern. Note: This is where I would have done something different: You will be pulling these couching threads out in step 7. I’d suggest using contrasting thread to couch with, rather than something that will blend in, like the blue I used.
   
2. Using 2 very long strands of green floss and the tapestry needle, secure the thread at the FRONT of the work, a bit away from the leaf, and bring your needle up about halfway down one side. Wrap the thread around just the wire up to the point. This will secure the thread when we are finished with the leaf.
   Note: This is another thing I would have done differently: I would have used one strand of fine perle cotton, maybe a size 12 for the leaves. (and maybe for the stem, too…) Needlelace is much easier to work with a thread with some body.
3. Starting with one buttonhole stitch at the tip of the leaf, work detached buttonhole downward, filling the leaf. This is detached from the muslin, not from the wire. Make sure you wrap each row of buttonhole stitch around the wire at the sides. I can’t find a tutorial for this. Near the beginning of next week I will try to video one and get it posted, if I can figure out the technology!
   Note: I wanted a lacy look to this leaf. If you are just trying out this technique, you might want to work a Corded Brussels stitch (with a returning thread bar for stability) instead of the Brussels (just buttonhole) stitch. The corded stitch is easier to maintain tension and make even stitches with.  I’ll include both versions in the video.
4. When you reach the bottom of the leaf, wrap the thread up around the leaf edge and park it to the side of your work.
5. Start another length of thread, again 2 strands, and as long as you can work with: I find that 24-30 inches is about as much as I can handle without it becoming a mess.  Secure it using the same method, but this time, come up on the left side of the leaf, 1/2 way up and wrap it to the bottom. Buttonhole around the wire and the wrapped threads all the way around the leaf.
6. Secure that last dangling thread by switching to your thinner, sharp needle and running it up under the last few buttonhole stitches you have made, between the stitches and the wire.  Clip the dangly green threads and your leaf is finished.
7. Repeat for the second leaf.

Step 5

1. First things first.  Trace the  leaf and small petal shapes onto your muslin. Make sure they’re close enough together that you can fit them all into the hoop, but you want them far enough apart that the wire and prior stitching doesn’t get in the way as you move through them. You will need to amend the shapes a little so that they come to points on both ends.
2. Taking one piece of wire and one strand of blue floss, couch the wire down using small tacking stitches. I started the couching thread with three very very small backstitches in the middle of the petal. They will be hidden by later stitches and won’t be an issue. You don’t want to use a knot here because it will leave a lump in your petal, making it look like your plant has parasites! Hide the stitches under the wire, keeping in mind that the back of the petal will show as well as the front. Leave about a 1-1 1/2 inch tail at the bottom of the petal, and when you have completed couching it down, cut the other wire off to the same length.
3. Using one strand of floss, either use encroaching satin stitch or long and short stitch to fill the petal, stitching over the wires as well as the muslin. Remember that the back of this will be seen as well as the front, and be careful while stitching to lay your stitches evenly over both the front and back.
4. Repeat until you have completed all four petals. Leave them on the hoop.

Next week – leaves and needlelace!!! Eeeep!

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!

1. 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.
2. 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.”
3. 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!
4. So that’s that! Next week we’ll get into the REALLY fun part — wired, detached petals and leaves!!!

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.

1. Begin by extending the petal lines down to the flower center. You can draw these in, or just extend them when you outline them.
2. Using 2 strands of floss, outline the petals in either split stitch or backstitch. I used split stitch.
3. 

   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!

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...

1. 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!)
2. 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.

I’m going to start this today, and post the instructions as a stitch-a-long. You can stitch it with me, or wait for the end when I’ll post all the directions along with the crewel work instructions for the same design.

Supplies

1. Tightly woven fabric of your choice, 9X9 inches square.
2. DMC or silk embroidery floss in the following colors:
   • red
   • blue
   • green
   • yellow/gold
3. 6 inch embroidery hoop
4. 9X9 inch square of muslin
5. One package or spool of wrapped floral wire in 32 gauge. You’ll want white. That way if it shows, you can use a permanent pen to color it into the right color – I often use green for the leaves, but we’ll be wiring the smaller petals on this piece as well.
6. Embroidery needle – crewel or embroidery #9.
7. Tapestry needle – #26
8. OLD scissors or wire cutters to cut the wire Do NOT use your good embroidery scissors for this. Or even your not-so good ones!

Edited to add:

9. 2 small pieces of yellow felt to match your yellow floss – about 1 inch square each.

Pattern - click for full-sized printable version

Step One:

Print out the design. Note: the image to the left may be HUGE. If it prints at a full 8.5X11 sheet of paper, you will want to reduce it to 40%. OR, Click FlowerPattern for a pdf version that you can open with Adobe Reader.

Transfer it to a tightly-woven fabric of your choice, with the following exceptions:

DO NOT transfer:

The leaves.

The four small petals

My flower drawn on my chosen fabric. It's centered on the 9" piece of sateen.

I’m transferring it by tracing it onto a piece of polyester/cotton blend sateen that I have in my box (I collect scraps from interior designer friends who are getting rid of them for just this sort of purpose) with a permanent micron pen. You can also use the blue pens ones that wash out with cold water, but they sometimes feather into the fabric. Once it’s on my fabric, it doesn’t look like much, but this will show you what to leave out in more detail. Click the image for a larger version, if you really want the details!

And to celebrate, I’m including a free 5-installment course on getting creative with cross stitch. So many of us think of our cross stitch patterns as sacrosanct. I’m just as guilty. “The designer put these stitches here for a reason, and I like the design, so I’m not going to play with it. This five-part class, including a free design to practice tweaking, will give you 10 easy ways to get a little more creative when you’re stitching.

The first installment of the course will arrive the day after you confirm your sign-up to the newsletter. One more installment every week for five weeks after that. Then I’ll send you sporadic newsletters, including tips and tricks you won’t find here, some you will find here, and a free pattern here and there. Enjoy!

You can sign up here, or from the small signup form in the sidebar!