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! 
Permalink
11.13.09
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly
- Use the best materials you can afford.
- If you can, use a hoop or frame that’s big enough for the entire design.
- If this is not feasible, try to use a slate frame or other framing method that rolls the embroidery rather than crushing it. Or remove your hoop when you stop stitching for the day.
- Use SHORT lengths of wool. I can’t stress this one enough, though I often forget it myself. Wool stretches as you stitch with it, no matter how careful you are with your tension. Just the friction of drawing it through the fabric will stretch it. If your wool thread gets thinner this way, it just doesn’t look good when it’s stitched.
- If you are transferring a design to your fabric, try to use either a removable ink, or a transfer method that can create a line thin enough to completely cover with your stitching.
- Did I mention use the best materials you can afford?
- Make sure your needle is the correct size — it should be large enough that the wool doesn’t “drag” when you pull it through the fabric, and small enough that the hole in the fabric will close back around the yarn when you are done.
- Use a needle that isn’t discolored or worn out! Discoloration can sometimes rub off on your fabric, and burrs on a worn needle can wear the fabric or the thread, or both, depending on their location!
- Clean hands = clean and not grungy final project. Washing and blocking will still do amazingly wonderful things for your project, but a black grimy fingerprint is a LOT harder to remove than just doing a cursory wash. Especially since wool can felt if you rub it too much! ask me how I know this one. I may not admit to it, but I’ve done it.
- Always use the best materials you can afford!!!
Yes, I know I listed this three times, but it really is that important, especially if you are just learning. The inexpensive kits often have yarn that is inappropriate for the fabric or the size of the design, and sometimes just poor quality materials in general. This all adds up to a really frustrating experience. And stitching shouldn’t be frustrating over the long term (we all have our moments!), it should be relaxing!
Permalink
09.08.09
Posted in General at 7:00 am by deRomilly
And so little time to play with them!
Just offhand, I can think of bargello, berlin, broderie anglaise, hardanger, mountmellick, stumpwork, cutwork, punto in aria, zardozi, bunka, japanese embroidery, wessex embroidery, counted cross stitch, band samplers of every ilk, canvaswork, goldwork, shisha, macramé, blackwork, or nué, crewelwork, schwalmwork, Dresdenwork, Assissiwork, and so on…
My problem, of course, is that when it comes to thread I am a glutton. I want to learn everything and try every technique, no matter how complex. Of course, this isn’t feasible, especially when you realize that I include all thread work in that desire – including knitting, crochet, bobbin lace, needlelace, sprang and any number of other techniques that escape me at the moment, including plain sewing. (I have made a conscious decision NOT to try naålbinding — knitting on TWO needles was confusing enough for me. I don’t really want to try knitting with only one, however historical it is.
There isn’t, of course, enough time in the day to explore everything I want tot do. I try not to let that stall me, and just keep going. I do find myself back at three in particular that I love: cross stitch, silk shading, and crewelwork. I’m sentimental, and these are the three that my mother and grandmother taught me. Somewhere I still have my first cross stitch sampler — the one that took me four years to finish because I kept getting bored. When I find it I’ll post it. I have some sort of idea of charting it (it was stamped on cheap muslin) and doing it again in my current ability level and then framing them side by side. I think it would be cool. Will I make the time? Who knows.
Permalink
05.22.09
Posted in Free Patterns at 7:44 pm by deRomilly
The finished flower
This is the beginning of a series of designs in various stitch styles. They will all use the basic 4X4 inch design and adapt it for the different styles of embroidery.
Crewel is one of my favorite embroidery styles. There is just something about the softness of the wool and the variety of stitch texture that makes me smile as I’m stitching. It doesn’t hurt that once you get familiar with the stitches, crewel wool covers the ground fabric quite quickly and is therefore very quick to work, relatively speaking. (I am VERY slow when it comes to counted work, so it is a pleasant change to embroidery something I can finish easily.)
Supplies
- Linen or cotton twill or cotton canvas (NOT needlepoint canvas).
- 6 inch embroidery hoop or 8 inch Q-Snaps — something to stabilize your work.
- Paternayan tapestry wool in the following colors — your choice of shades:
- green
- red
- blue
- gold or mustard
- Chenille needle, size 20
Steps:
Note: Since this is such a small design, work everything with one strand of wool unless otherwise noted. Links are to Sharon Boggin’s online stitch dictionary, which has the best instructions for stitches that I’ve ever found on the web.
Click on any of the images for a larger view.
-
Pattern - click for full-sized printable version
Transfer Design to center of fabric. Use your favorite transfer method. I used a heat transfer pencil, which reversed the design, something I wasn’t worried about. Note, though, that these work better on fabric that has a bit of polyester in them… Since mine was 100% cotton, it took a lot longer to transfer, and wasn’t completely clear.
- Center design in hoop.
- Begin stitching the stem of the flower at the end furthest from the flower. Work in Reverse chain stitch with green wool. If you prefer, start at the flower end and use chain stitch. I prefer reverse chain stitch in this type of design area because it’s easier for me to judge how large the stitches are and make them even.
- Whip the chain stitch from the flower back to the stem.
Whipping the chain stitch
- Work the tendril in outline stitch or stem stitch with of green.
- Work the large petals in laid filling work in red. Work outline stitch around the outside area (that isn’t part of the small petals).
Laid filling stitch - lay long stitches in a grid across the petal and then “tie” them down where they cross with a small diagonal stitch. The direction you lay the grid and how uniform you make it is up to you, and can help define the character of the embroidery.
Laying the grid
Tye the grid at the intersections and stitch an outline stitch around the outside edge.
Finished laid work.
- Work the smaller petals in satin stitch, radiating from the sepals out to the point in blue.
Blue petals added.
- Fill the flower center with French knots worked with two strands of gold. I used one wrap on the knots, rather than the two I usually use. You could probably get the same effect with one strand and two wraps.
Center finished.
- With green, outline the top leaf with buttonhole stitch. Because of the curved edges, the lines will bend toward each other on the inside of the leaf.
Buttonhole stitch around leaf.
- Again with green, outline the bottom leaf with four rows of outline (crewel) stitch.
Stem stitched leaf - 4 rows of stem stitch around outline.
All done! And ready for a frame, to be made into a pillow, or used as part of a quilt block. I’m considering using all the different samples of this series each as the center of its own crazy quilt block… a sampler of sorts. Hopefully similar colors and the design will unify them. We’ll see.
Permalink
10.14.08
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:59 pm by deRomilly
I love crewel. I love the designs. I love using multiple stitches, and I love the feel of the yarn moving through linen twill. I don’t, however, love the current trend of the big design companies to print their designs on evenweave (tabby) fabric. It makes it really difficult to make edges smooth, as they must be to look correctly. And the fact that the fabric is usually 28 count or lower doesn’t help, either. Next thing you know they’ll be printing them on aida.
I’m currently sorting threads from a kit like this. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just masochistic, but I really liked the design! And it fit in my budget… I may hate it by the time it’s stitched.
As with many things, you get what you pay for, and the nice kits with quality supplies are going to cost you. Many of these are imported from Britain as well, which also raises the price point. So I suppose that the lesson I am trying to teach myself is that no matter how much I like a design, it just isn’t worth it if the materials are second rate: I should have saved my pennies and bought my coveted Jacobean Lace pillow design in a month or two, rather than succumbing to immediate whim driven by a sale to buy the inexpensive one. Not that it will keep me from stitching it, but I’ll probably whine a lot while I do.
And yes, this does mean that I have bought cross stitch kits for thirty dollars and then gone out and spent the same amount on linen to replace the aida to stitch them on. And I think the result was well worth it, too! 
Permalink
