Stitching Colleagues

06/06/2013 by Ann Bernard

Accordion Book Stitched On Blue Linen

Judy Eckhardt was a member of our class in Guelph earlier this year. I have pleasure in sharing some of her work with you. Judy teaches machine embroidery and quilting but had not been using hand stitching creatively. This class was an opportunity for her to become acquainted with the huge variety of embroidery stitches.

All her pieces were stitched on fine handkerchief linen which she dyed herself. She used Treenway Silk threads wherever possible adding DMC Floss to add a needed colour. She made her pieces into an accordion book.

Blue is Judy’s favourite creative colour and, like Barbara Lee, she chose the challenge of working predominantly with blue on blue plus other colours in a congruent range of tones.

Chain Stitch and Variations plus Sorbello Stitch and Split Stitch

Chain Stitch, Sorbello Stitch and Split Stitch

Cross Stitch, Stem Stitch, Outline Stitch and Turkey Work
You can see on this one how Judy finished her pieces and assembled them into a book.

Cross Stitch, Stem Stitch, Outline Stitch

Spider Wheels, Couching and Herringbone Stitch

Spider Wheels, Couching and Herringbone Stitch

The back cover of the book features Trellis Work and French Knots

Trellis Work and French Knots

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To my surprise, Judy used no machine embroidery anywhere in this project.

19/05/2013 by Ann Bernard

Leaves to Love: Part 2

Hi. I’m Barbara Lee. Ann asked me to write up some notes for the next set of my leaves that she has posted. As a realist painter, I have wondered just how to render realistic images in thread using something other than long and short stitch. As I learned the different stitches and how they could be used, I was thrilled to discover I had lots of stitching options to choose from.

Black Willow uses a variety of chain stitches as well as sorbello. I used perle cotton on hand painted fabric. I drew the leaves on the fabric before stitching. However, due to the open nature of zigzag and feather chain, the penciled center vein shows on these leaves. Word to the wise: be careful where you put your lines on your fabric!

Black Willow

Sugar Maple combines fabric and stitch. The leaf itself was cut from hand painted fabric, ironed on with a 2-sided interfacing, and outlined with a running stitch. The wing portion of the maple seed is buttonhole stitch; the seed portion itself is padded satin stitch; and the two sides of the seed are joined with split stitch. Split stitch is also used in the branches and border.

Sugar Maple Leaves

Leaf Collection is made up of a variety of different leaves stitched in various leaf and trellis stitches on hand painted fabric. Stitches include: laid work, fern stitch, fishbone, Roumanian couching, stem stitch, and trellis. The Battlement couching (the multi-coloured trellis leaf) was a lot of fun.

Leaf Collection

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And, last but not least, my just completed piece, Chain Oak. I had a lot of fun with this piece. It’s plain chain stitch but I used a variety of different threads: DMC floss and perle cotton, crochet cotton, Persian yarn, Merino wool, and other wools in both solid and variegated colours. The different weights of the threads made for a very textural piece.

Chain Oak

I had a lot of fun with this class. And I have many, many more leaves (and flowers and fish and…) that I would like to stitch using the different techniques I learned this past winter.

Thanks for a wonderful class, Ann!

14/05/2013 by Ann Bernard

Leaves to Love: Part 1

Barbara Lee Johnson was a participant in the Creative Use of Stitches class in Guelph, Canada. She chose to use the stitches to portray many different kinds of leaves. Mostly, she stitched green on green. We all know how difficult it is to stitch the same colour fabric and thread. They can result in a camouflage effect but not here. She has already completed eight different samples and has plans for many more. She is as yet undecided on how to present them as a congruent whole. Barbara Lee has a background in art and art history. She does a lot of beading and I was surprised that she did not included beading in this project.

This first one is of Walnut Leaves using Running Stitch and variations with French Knots. The fabric is Quilting Cotton hand painted with Colour Vie pigments. The threads are DMC Floss and Perle Cotton.

Walnut Leaves

The background of this piece is 11 Count Aida Cloth with Running Stitch using variegated Merino Wool leaving the sturdy Oak Leaves as open and negative spaces. The outlines of the leaves are done with Whipped Running Stitch.

Oak Leaves

Weeping Willow Leaves are portrayed with variations of Stem Stitch and Cross Stitch on painted fabric. The downward flow of a willow branch is most effectively displayed here. These samplers are as yet unpressed and unmounted and this accounts for the wrinkling in the background.

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Weeping Willow Leaves

The Maple Leaf is stitched with Buttonhole edging while the body of the leaf is Cretan Stitch. This picture is a photo rather than a scan which is why it has not reproduced so well.

Maple Leaf