What Embroidery Style Should I Learn?

I don’t get any results back from this, but I’d love to know what your results are! Feel free to post in the comments. I got “freestyle” which is funny, since I started with and design cross stitch and crewel designs before I expanded out. But I guess we all change over time!

If you know how to create a quiz I can post IN my blog – please give me a heads up. My google-fu is failing mightily on this subject! And I’d rather not make you all click more than necessary!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!