Sunday's Stitches - February 1st

The RUNNING STITCH. Love, love, love this one. It's easy AND the best part - it can be manipulated in a zillion ways to create additional colors, textures, etc. I hand painted another piece of really nice linen I bought at the Lazy Daisy, with Neocolors, and brushed some water over it with a fan brush to create a nice painterly surface upon which to stitch. Using a variety of colors of perle cotton I worked the Runinng Stitch straight, curved, in trios, in a wave pattern with the ALGERIAN EYE stitch. I've read this is a great stitch to use as a foundation upon which to build other stitch patterns. I can see that possibility and am going to explore that.

(Click on the stitch names if you would like to learn how to do these stitches.)

SUNDAY'S STITCHES: A Case of Mistaken Identity (NOT!), An Orange Mess, and A Crooked Chain

I'm adding a regular section to my blog starting today called Sunday's Stitches.

I've been dabbling on and off over the last year or so with teaching myself embroidery and I've decided that the only way I'm going to learn is if I take it seriously and do it regularly. So I've organized my supplies, bought some really nice linen, put a basket next to my favorite chair by my favorite window and have committed myself to going through Sharon B's stitch library and a few books Acey suggested (with my pal Michelle) week by week until we complete the entire library by December.

If you're interested in following along, I'll be posting pictures of my progress and lessons learned every Sunday evening under the sub-heading....

The Learning Curve
Lesson #1

Gizmo does NOT know the difference between Esmerelda and white perle cotton...

Nor does he care.

Lesson #2

Make "heat setting " the Neocolors a priority BEFORE stitching on the hand painted linen.

(Will Shout take that out??? I hope so. I've had that shirt since I was 17.)




Lesson #3

If you think you're off to a good to start and don't "need" to use canvas (where you can see the little squares and count them to make sure stitches are even) -- it's probably a good idea to make chalk lines for stitching reference so your stitching doesn't look as though you did it after 2 (make that 3) martinis. Oops.

Final thought: I still have to work through the Arrowstitch and Alternate Chain stitch tonight. I did learn that pulling the thread really tight when executing the Algerian Eye Stitch makes a nice little hole in the center, and that there are more variations of the chain stitch than Bon Jovi has hairstyles. I think this is going to open up a whole new dimension for my work. Thank you Jude and Acey for being such an inspiration.