SBQ: Love and Hate

It's been almost a week since I posted, and that's partially because I haven't been stitching much this week. We've had landscape contractors here, ripping out shrubs & weeds, and fixing the flower beds so I can repopulate them with nicer things! Anyway, on to stitching!

I'm so far behind on SBQ's (Stitching Bloggers' Questions), I won't even try to catch up! This week's question applies to one of my current projects, though, so it's getting me back into answering SBQ's!

This week's SBQ was suggested by The Wagon:

What do you love to do that many people hate? What do you hate to do, but do anyway?

All right, I'm strange, but I find french knots very easy, and really like doing them. It seems that so many people avoid french knots or replace them with beads or other types of knots!

For the record, I make french knots with one wrap around the needle (although most diagrams show two), and sink the needle just a little bit away from where the thread came up through the fabric. Maybe some people don't like them because they try to go back down in the same hole and the knot slips to the back of the fabric. That would frustrate me, too! Try moving over a bit (or over 1 thread of linen/canvas) when bringing the needle to the back, and it becomes very easy!

Here are my most recent additions to Fantasy Remembered - french knot raspberries:

I've even picked up one of Theresa Layman's kits (Snow White, Rose Red) that is nothing but french knots!

As for what I hate to do - that's easy! BACKSTITCHING! I'll do it if it's just a bit here and there, but nothing will make me put a cross stitch chart down faster than tons of backstitch to define the shapes in the picture. It's as if the designer has never heard of shading. And if the backstitching is used as a separate element, like a tendril on a vine, I'll stitch that in double-running so the thread on the back doesn't show through to the front.

Wired Leaves

Wired leaves and petals are one of the basics of modern stumpwork. The use of wire to edge stitched areas that will later be attached to the final piece allows for bendable, three-dimensional realism. To see what I mean, check out this piece from Jane Nicholas!

It would be a bit much for me to call this post an official "How To" tutorial, since I've never actually finished a piece with wired leaves. I have however, started three - all from classes or GCCs:

• Fantasy Remembered by Luan Callery (5 leaves throughout the stem)
• Picnic Hampered! by Kathy Fenchel (the sunflower leaves)
• Rose's Pyramid by Marsha Papay Gomola (the rose petals, some leaves)
  

Here's a picture of some of the wired leaves in process for Fantasy Remembered. The process for making wired leaves is really pretty simple, but it takes a bit of time. It starts with a ground fabric like batiste or muslin. This can be white, or if you don't want to worry too much about the ground showing through, a colored ground can be used, like the green for these leaves. The pattern for the shape needed is traced onto the fabric. The fabric is mounted in a small hoop. Then, a thin wire (like 28 gauge floral wire), either covered or uncovered (two classes specified uncovered, one used fabric-covered wire), is couched over the outline. The couching stitches can be seen on two of the leaf forms in the picture.

After the shape is in place, the entire edge is worked in buttonhole stitch (or blanket stitch, to be precise). This takes a lot of time, especially if a single strand of floss is used, because the stitches have to be so close together that the wire does not show through. This is where using green fabric covered wire is an advantage for leaves! I usually stagger the base of the buttonhole stitches, as can be seen in the picture, so that the ground fabric does not become weakened by many closely-spaced stitches piercing the fabric in a row.

The leaf filling can be done in a variety of stitches. For Fantasy Remembered, outline stitch is used (right). Kathy Fenchel used satin stitch for the sunflower leaves, and long-and-short is used for the petals on Rose's Pyramid (below).

After the stitching is done on all the leaves in the hoop, very small sharp scissors are used to CAREFULLY cut the fabric around the leaves, leaving the wire ends attached to the leaves. I haven't made it to that point yet on any of mine, but hopefully I'll finish these first three leaves within the next week, and I'll write up any difficulties I find!

These detached elements are attached to the main piece of fabric as the last stage of the stumpwork piece. The wire ends are pushed through the fabric and whip-stitched to the back to hold the leaves in place.

If anybody can add details I might have missed (since I haven't actually finished one of these pieces yet!) or has questions, please feel free to comment!

Startitis!

On Sunday, I finished all but the gold couching on the Kimono. I finally decided to use encroaching gobelin (1x2) for the blue flowers, then it was on to the gold! Upon reading a bit about couching in traditional Japanese embroidery, I realized I had to get a pair of koma. These are used to help control and direct the threads being couched, which are fairly lightweight and don't want to stay in one place without help! So, what's a girl to do when she can't progress with the current project when the LNS is closed? Start something new, of course! :-)




I've had Fantasy Remembered, an EGA group correspondence course by Luan Callery, waiting in the wings for a while. I traced the design on the fabric months ago! I've been hesitant to start it because it's stumpwork, and while I want to get better at non-counted work, I'm an engineer, so the exactness of counted work appeals to me! Anyway, I found I had the correct size stretcher bars, and got to work mounting and lacing the fabric as specified in the course directions.

The instructions are broken down by "sessions" for those groups that will be meeting monthly. Since I'm taking this through the CyberStitchers chapter of EGA, we don't have sessions, and we're on our own except for the Yahoo! group set up for the class. The first session consisted of working the stems in outline stitch and the tendrils in coral knot stitch, using Medici wool. I must be getting more comfortable with non-counted work (thanks to the goldwork hearts, perhaps?), because I actually enjoyed working this, and wasn't completely stressed out about it being perfect! I only occasionally had to repeat my motto: "It's just string... it's just string".

I finished session 1 in only a few days (I'm on vacation!), and have since moved on to session two - the flat and wired leaves. I've started the leaves on the ground fabric in outline stitch with 1 strand of floss. This is a bit more frustrating because the floss does not plump up as much as the wool, and is somewhat less forgiving, but I'm making progress!

Moving on... In the past week, I've made a few purchases. Last Thursday at the LNS, I came across Hillside Samplings' Be You to Others Sampler, and had to pick it up! Also, MIL and I went to a not-so-LNS on Tuesday! I purchased a new tote bag, some more Japanese gold for the kimono, and four sampler charts.

Yesterday, knowing that it was stitch night at the LNS, I thought about what I would take to stitch. I realized that both the kimono and the stumpwork would take a bit more concentration than a group stitch-in would allow. So, ignoring the many other already-started projects, I decided that I needed something fairly simple. (Note - I did not say small. I don't do too many small pieces!) So, I looked at my new sampler charts, picked one that was mostly cross stitch and would fit on one of the fat quarters I had, and could be started with threads from the stash! (You can see why this post is labeled Startitis!)

I chose the Be You to Others Sampler. This is probably the last time I'll call it that. When the ladies and I were looking at the chart last week, we noted the disproportionate size of the various elements in the picture. This was common to samplers in the nineteenth century, and while this isn't a reproduction, it has a historical feel. In particular, we noted that the squirrels under the tree on the left were nearly as big as Adam and Eve under the tree on the right, and were pretty tall in relation to the house. They almost immediately were dubbed "Teenage Mutant Ninja Squirrels", so this piece is now destined to be known as the Ninja Squirrel sampler amongst my stitching friends!

And so, the Ninja Squirrel sampler was started last evening. I'm using a 36ct linen from Lakeside in a limited run color. I received it as part of the fabric of the month club from Silkweaver a few years ago. The color is a light warm brown, though it's hard to see in the picture due to the camera flash. I'm using a single strand of silk over two, and found sufficient colors of Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers in my stash to at least start the border to make sure the fat quarter was going to be wide enough. The fabric is 18" wide, and the sampler is almost 14" on the 36ct. I started in the middle of the border, and ran it past the LNS owner/framer to make sure it was frameable. I didn't want to stitch more than needed and then find out I was wasting my time!

My apologies for the (really) long post, but I've been stitching a lot this week!

Happy Birthday, USA!

To all my fellow Americans, Happy Fourth of July! (To those of you in other areas of the world, you can have a happy fourth as well, but it just doesn't mean the same thing! :-) )

To celebrate, here are some sites with patriotic freebies:

• Richard Seekins designs: Flag and American Shield
• Whispered by the Wind: "Stars and Stripes" and "Freedom" on the freebies page
• Rainbow Gallery: The needlepoint and cross stitch freebies pages have several patriotic designs!
• Waxing Moon Designs: For something different, stitch the Patriotic Snowman on the Waxing Moon freebies page.
• From Enchanted Fabrics and Helga Mandl: July 4th freebie (PDF file)
• Dutch Treat Designs: A Red, White, and Blue Doily from the company that makes great tabletopper designs!

If you've found some other freebies and would like to share where they can be found, please leave a comment!

Enjoy the designs, and have fun grilling, watching fireworks and parades, or just stitching - however you want to celebrate the day!

June recap & July goals

Wow, June flew by and it's July already! Here were my goals for June, along with what I actually accomplished:

• Complete Jim Wurth's Arcadia - DONE!
• Start and finish GAR mystery window 3 - DONE!
• Get the tree done on Picnic Hampered! - Not even close, due to a change in priorities (see this post)
  
• Work on Examplar IV - Unfortunately, not one stitch!
  
• Work on Goldwork Heart II - Not only worked on, but finished!

I also picked up my needlepoint kimono, and finished all but the blue flowers (although those were finished yesterday!) and the gold couching.

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For July, my goals are:

• Finish the kimono
  
• Start Fantasy Remembered GCC, and get through "session 3" (note - I actually started this yesterday!)
• Send in the Goldwork Heart GCCs (I & II) for evaluation
  
• Enjoy the class with Sharon G while starting the Tuscan Spring canvas
• Start and finish window 4 on the GAR mystery sampler

I'm looking forward to a productive month!

Kimono background and leaves

The background and leaves are done on my kimono canvas! As I mentioned in my last post about the kimono, the leaves were stitched in basketweave. The red background is stitched in burden stitch with two ply of dark red Accentuate for the couched thread, and 2 ply of red Splendor for the top stitch.




I'm now working on finishing up the flowers. Those that are pink in the middle and white on the outside are being worked in long and short. The white-only flowers are satin stitch across the short direction of the petals (as in Japanese embroidery). I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to use on the blue ones - the one at the bottom and those on both sleeves. I'm thinking of a really lightweight stitch with one ply of silk to let the shading of the paint show through, but I'm open to suggestions!

After the flowers are done, I'll move on to the gold swirls and outlines.