Embroidery sampler – Part 3

I finished the embroidery sampler.  I changed my original plan a bit.  Originally I was going to do all the stitching in the color of my logo.  So with the big heart, all the stitching would be done in the dark pink, and the lighter pink in the medium heart.  But I realized that all the stitching would just blend together so you couldn’t tell what stitches were what.  So having done the line or border stitches in one color, I did the individual stitches in between the lines in the color of the other heart shape.  I like it much better this way. 

I went through my embroidery books to look for some stitch ideas.  I found some I like using like the French knot and the fly stitch.  Then some I like but are challenging for me like the lazy daisy.  And then some new stitches I wanted to try. 

If you remember the little heart, I just did the seed stitch.  It wasn’t really big enough to do multiple stitches and the seed stitch is another stitch I like to use.

 

For the medium heart, I actually started with the French knot.  I like using the French knot.  It is one a lot of people have trouble with but it is just one of those stitches that you have to practice, practice, practice. 

   

One of those stitches I found in my embroidery book and thought would be fun to try.

It was the woven cross.  It starts off like a cross stitch but you repeat the same stitches weaving the last stitch in and out of the other stitches.

 

Another stitch I am seeing a lot lately in embroidery books but never tried is the sheaf stitch.    It is basically three straight stitches parallel to each other with a fourth stitch gathering the three stitches in the middle.  The do look like a sheaf of wheat.  This was a fun stitch to do.  I have seen it used a a filler but also used at the bottom of a flower right above the stem.

 

Now for the big heart I had a lot of room to fills so I did some combinations of stitches.  The fly stitch is one of my favorite.  It is a stitch like the start of feather stitch but instead of making another what I call ‘U’ stitch next to the first one, You just make a little straight stitch at the bottom to hold it in place.  So in one section I started with the fly stitch.

 

 

 But then one book had a variation I had to fill the rest of that section with.  You do the fly stitch but then add two more straight stitches on either side of the first one.  It gives it the appearance of a crown which is what this stitch is called.

 

 

 

I did something similar in another section.  Started one end with a lazy daisy stitch which is really just one link of the chain stitch (and this stitch is also know as the link stitch). 

 

 

Then on the other side I did a picot stitch (or lazy daisy with  a long tail stitch).

 

 

But then one book had a variation of the picot stitch called the tulip stitch.  You do the picot stitch but on one side of the ‘chain’ you take a stitch and bring it under the anchor stitch to the other side of the ‘chain’.  It gives it the appearance of leaves.  It was a fun stitch to try.

 

 

 

I did a simple star stitch around the little heart.  I thought it helped frame the little heart in the very light pink.

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the big heart I did the pistil stitch which is really just a French knot with a long tail.  It is great to add to a flower design in any embroidery.  I thought it was a good match to the French knots that are at the bottom of the medium heart.

 

 

 

And then finally I did the one stitch I always wanted to try.  It is called the woven spider web.  You take any odd number of straight stitches embroidered like the spokes of a bicycle wheel and with an alternating color you weave the second thread in and out of the spokes.  You don’t want to pull the weaving too tight or the stitches tend to hide under each other.  I liked how it turned out but I think it is better with a thicker embroidery thread than the floss I used. It looks a bit like a flower so I am going to have to try that one again.

 

 

This was fun, trying new stitches and deciding where and how to display them.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with my little Heartfully Cheryl logo.  Do I frame it or make it into a quilt wall hanging (which is usually what happens with my embroidery.

  

© 2019, 2024- Cheryl E. Fillion.

 

 

  

Embroidery Samplers - Part 2

 When I posted 2 weeks ago, I had the outline of my heart logo done in the stem stitch and the tiny heart ‘filled in” with a seed stitch.  Now since I was creating a sampler (of sorts), I decided I needed more line or outline stitches displayed.

So I randomly drew some curved lines through each of the bigger hearts.  I thought curved lines would be more interesting to look at and a little more challenging to stitch. (I tend to use the disappearing markers when marking my embroidery, especially on light colored fabric. )

 

Now I needed to decide on the stitches.  This is always my most difficult decision to make when working on an embroidery piece of my own.  I want to use them all but usually end up going with the back stitch since that is the one I can do without much concentration.  I usually embroidery when I just need to relax and not think too hard.  So my first decision was not to use the back stitch. 

I opened one of my embroidery books and just started looking at stitches.  (Just a note, this won’t be a tutorial on stitching as teaching embroidery is not one of my strong point.  If you search the internet, you can find picture and video tutorials that do a much better job than I could ever do.  Trust me on this.)

The first stitch I did was called the cable stitch also known as the alternating stem stitch.  That is what it really is.  Where the stem stitch is taking a stitch on top of the previous one, this stitch alternates one stitch on top, the next below.   (You will find if you are just beginning embroidery that many stitches have a number of names.  It can be confusing at times.  For example, the stem stitch which I used to outline the hearts is also called the outline stitch or the crewel stitch.)

 

I then used the fern stitch (or fern leaf stitch).  I liked how it looked in my book but on the heart it looks a bit like the stitching of a baseball. 

 

The next stitch is a fun one because it uses two different colors, the whipped running stitch.  The running stitch is the most basic stitch for embroidery or any kind of sewing really.  What makes this one different is that a second thread is “woven” underneath the running stitch.  Gives it a bit of pizzazz to a very basic stitch.

 

The last line stitch in the dark pink is the chain stitch.  This is another stitch, like the stem stitch, that I like but sometimes have trouble with.  I can’t always get the ‘chains’ to be the same size.  But it is a great stitch.

 

I only did two outline stitches in the medium pink heart.  It really wasn’t that big to do much more.  I picked another favorite, the feather stitch (also known as the Briar stitch).

When I was stitching it, it reminded me of an open sort of alternating chain stitch.  It gives a fancy look.

 

And I saved my favorite stitch for last.  I learned it as the Twilling stitch but it is also known as the Double knot stitch, the Old English knot stitch or the Palestrina stitch.  It is a outline stitch made of a fancy type knot.  It is a little difficult but gives such a great outline look especially when done with a thick thread.  And it will impress those who don’t know much about embroidery.  I used it in a quilt once and overheard some ladies at a quilt show where my quilt was displayed, talk about how impressed they were that I made so many French knots.  They were impressed.

 

So those are the line designs of my Heartfully Cheryl logo.  Next week I will add some filler stitches in between the lines.

 

©2019, 2024 Cheryl E. Fillion