Take Chevron stitch, for example. It’s inherently a line stitch, although I could work it in other geometric patterns, it’s always going to have that very triangular look.

I used it in layers for this piece – for some reason I couldn’t get America the Beautiful out of my head this week, so I used it as inspiration! I’m pretty happy with how it came out, though using this stitch for landscapes probably isn’t something I’ll do on a regular basis. I didn’t use a pattern, per se, just started at the top with the mountains and worked down. I thought about using the yellow in an arc at one of the corners for sun, but decided it would just be too much for the design to handle.

Purple mountains are in 2 strands of DMC cotton floss, with the snow in one strand. The “amber waves” are in 3 strands, and the grass/whatever in the front is in 4. AND on the green layers I not only added another strand, but when I crossed the top bar of the chevron stitch I used Stamen stitch for the cross-piece instead of the straight stitch that’s usual. (Stamen stitch: French knot with long tail.)  You can click on the photo to see more detail.

Click to make bigger!

I finished the ABC Deco piece from Broderie.net last week. Even though I actually started it in January (bad Romilly), I’m claiming it as a success in my goal to clear out (preferably by finishing) all of the WIPs that aren’t my designs! I’ve been a bit obsessive about this one, working on it in the early mornings before I go upstairs to the studio. Since I didn’t have a floor frame for it, I used the sewing method, and I have the holes in my middle finger on the right hand where I push the needle to prove it. I only added the thimble after I kept hitting the hole! Again, bad Romilly.

If I can get this obsessive about some of the other work in my box, I’ll have it cleaned out in no time!

And if I can get this obsessive about Tramatina, I’ll have a huge sampler chart available for all of you sometime this year – or at least by next year’s Nashville show!

In the meantime, my model stitcher is working on a square/pillow design from some of the motifs found in Tramatina.

Click for a closer view!

This sampler really IS a sampler in the true sense of the word. It’s a place where I play – I don’t worry too much if my stitching is perfect, though I work to improve it. I don’t worry if the colors end up “going,” even failures have something to tell me, and the fact that they are stitched there for posterity reminds me of why not to do things that way again! This isn’t going to end up on a wall, it’s not going to end up in a gallery (at least not in my lifetime), but hopefully I’ll learn something good in the meantime, and later people can learn something from my fun and games. It *does* go to classes I teach with me.

The first motif on this piece of fabric is an Art Nouveau border from one of the Dover books. I worked it in Vineyard Silks Merino thread. I really like the threads from this company. The merino is soft and nice to work with, and the Vineyard Silk Classics are amazing (more on them later). The merino was designed for needlepoint – I think on 14 count canvas, so it is pretty thick to be working on motifs this small. I might use it again for a larger design that needed to be filled quickly. It’s got a nice hand, and a nice sheen when completed.

And I like my color choices here- the alternating pink/turquoise gives a little variety while still keeping a unified theme. This is a border pattern that I could see stitching around the hem of a skirt for spring or summer… but in a different thread, or in a bigger size.  We’ll see if I actually DO something like that with it!

As I recall, the motifs are about 2 1/2 inches tall (I’ve re-framed the work, so I can’t go measure it. I’ll try to remember to do it and edit this when I unlace it to move to a new motif!).

Twin sized embroidered & tied comforter

I say “almost first” because I remember three embroidery pieces prior to this, other than my two first forays into counted cross stitch… This IS my first big huge project that actually got finished (with the exception of my first fisherman knit sweater…).

This project was finished in about 1988, and I’ve used it almost constantly since then.

The motifs were iron-on transfers from a huge book of them that I still have, from the only section that appealed to me! I fit them on a twin-sized cotton flat sheet that I bought on sale and then started embroidering.

Stitches are very basic – mostly stem, with some satin, french knots and a little bit of couching in the central motif (I’d do that differently now!).

It’s backed with another sheet – cotton flannel this time;  filled with a three inch polyfill batt and then tied, because I wanted a thick fluffy comforter look rather than doing a bunch of hand quilting. I had no idea how to make a quilt, so it’s bagged and turned, as if it were just a pillow — no binding.  My sewing machine wouldn’t take the strain of even the side edges, so for the most part, they are hand stitched seams.

So it’s now 2011. That makes it 23 years old. It has had hot wax spilled on it, gone to several SCA events as part of my bedroll, and generally seen very hard use. Thrown into the washing machine AND the dryer (in apartments and laundromats, so on HOT) with no respect for the work I put into it… And yet I’m still using it.

At the time, DMC floss was about 25 cents a skein, and I could often get it for 10 for a dollar. I think the entire quilt cost me about $20.00 all told – and I was annoyed because the batting was “expensive.”  Pretty good bargain for 23 years and more usage!

The stitching is beginning to wear thin (gone in some places), but the colors are still bright. I’ll put closeups of some of the motifs  below.  It will never be an heirloom – I’m going to wear it out long before my non-existent children get their hands on it! But it’s six months of work that I’ve never regretted. And it still makes me smile when it’s thrown on the bed or over a sick husband on the couch.  Such is the power of embroidery.

A really bad area for lost stitches

The wings close up. Even worse magnified!

The red bird motifs are a pretty bad area for lost stitches. The leaves were couched into a very open chain stitch and have all but gone. The stem stitch wings are missing parts of themselves, too.

French knots with many wraps often take the worst of the damage from the washing machine because they stick out. Many of the birds now have eye stalks instead of beady little eyes!

The blue birds didn't take as much damage.

Closeup of Flower Motif

The blue birds didn’t take quite as much damage as the red ones, but the stem stitch still wore. Part of this is due to the fact that I was young and in a hurry, and my stem stitches were not as small nor as even as they could have been at the time.

You can see the disappearing french knot effect on the Flower motif to the right.

And the worst damage was in this red flower motif.

The worst damage.

You can see the needle holes for the missing stitches when you enlarge the photo. It’s lost most of the red & pink flower and some of the leaves and stems, too. Strangely, on this one the french knots are doing fine! But you can also tell that over the years the “permanent” transfer ink has finally washed out with the stitching!

Stitching I found at Dad's apartment

We finished cleaning out my father’s apartment last night. At Christmas he sadly told me that he had finally thrown out the pencil holder I made him out of contact paper and an orange juice can back in kindergarten. It had finally fallen completely apart. Or maybe his cat ate it. I can’t remember the details.

But while sorting through the various pieces of ham radio gear, metal lathing tools, and other such, we found three pieces of embroidery that I had done for him over the years.

The biggest is the cross stitched sailing ship I gave him for his birthday one year. It’s the one and only pattern I ever did from a color chart, and it’s the ONLY color chart I will ever use. No design, no matter how beautiful, is worth the pain I went through trying to identify various shades of brown in that pattern!

Embroidered box in perle cotton and plastic canvas

In addition, there is the matchbox style box that I made from plastic canvas and perle cotton. He used it to store q-tips in, and obviously pulled on the edge to open it rather than pushing it through the box… The inner box is starting to fall open from use.

And there’s the small sampler I knocked out from scraps in my stash when I wanted to give him a father’s day present and was unemployed.

Sailing band sampler in Caron threads on old polyester lugana

Not needlework related, there’s the pencil portrait of my mother that I did for him while we lived in California.

Small pieces, mostly. Well loved. He preferred things from me that he could use.. and didn’t really want or need a lot of  “things” around him.

I miss him. And it’s hard having these things, as well as his Christmas sweater around right now, although I’m sure I’ll change my mind about that as the heartache starts to heal.

Pretty pretty! Now… WHAT should I do with him? Suggestions?

His feet and leaf:

Click to enlarge.

18th Century pocket

Years ago, one of the magazines I subscribed to, I think it MIGHT have been Samplers and Antique Needlework, but don’t quote me, it might just as well have been Piecework - published a pattern for an indigo blue crewelwork pocket. It was very 18th century American, and very pretty. Me, being me, decided that I didn’t want to be working everything I did in blue after all, and jumped sideways to pink. I’m still very proud of this set of pockets – at least the embroidery! I suppose I ought to actually stitch them together so that they can be worn with an 18th century gown if I ever get one made! Click the photo for details.

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.

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!

As usual, click for the full picture and details!