Stem Stitch

June 27, 2013 by Ann Bernard

Creative Use of Stitches

Meet Frances Fordham. Frances is a friend and a neighbour and has embroidered, quilted and rug hooked sort of forever. She always stitches flowers but look at these flowers closely and see the detail and how effectively she has used the stitches.

This first one is Running Stitch and French Knots. Frances finished each piece as a quilting square and then joined them to create a table runner.

Running Stitch and French Knots

The Lilies are stitched with Chain Stitch and variations.

Chain Stitch Lilies

The Pansy is stitched with Stem Stitch and variations, Cross Stitch, Herringbone Stitch and Threaded Back Stitch.

Stem Stitch Pansy

This last one is a Single Dahlia. The stitches are Buttonhole Stitch and variations, Cretan Stitch, Herringbone Stitch, Fly Stitch, Stem Stitch, Chain Stitch, Satin Stitch, Long and Short Stitch, Rumanian and other Leaf Stitches.

Single Dahlia

The threads Frances used were DMC Coton a Broder and Clarks Anchor Floss with a few extras included as needed.

June 6, 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

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

May 19, 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

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!

May 14, 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.

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

May 5, 2013 by Ann Bernard

Creative Use of Stitches: Part 4, completed

Completed Sampler

Here is the completed sampler. It is stretched onto a wooden frame and backed with white felt. A pocket for provenance papers is stitched onto the backing. The completed sampler is large, 31″ x 19 “, and that is big. Although I do not think it is beautiful, it does what was intended; it is a sampler of the basic stitches of embroidery and their variations. I will put it away for six months and my eyes will then see it fresh and objectivity becomes possible.
The background details were fun to conceive and stitch. They were essential to bring cohesion to these wildly different siblings.

Here is a Whipped Spider Wheel. The spokes were lengthened with Straight Stitches which also held the cording in place. Then add some beads.

Whipped Spider Wheel

Cabled Stem Stitch

Cabled Stem Stitch: I like it better than Cable Chain.

Lovers Knot

A Lovers’ Knot!

Coral Stitch and Chain Stitch

Single Coral Stitch and Chain Stitch, both with two threads in the needle. Coral Stitch is used to couch a circle of sampler fabric and then add some really large French Knots. That used up all of that wool or else I would have used it again elsewhere. It is also included in the Running Stitch sample.

Whenever we are being creative, our imagination and ability take a step forward on the road to creativity. It is a road without end but, for all of us, it does have a sharply defined beginning. For a student working on a project such as this, all will create differently even though the stitches are the same. Their experience comes together with their taste, colour choice and available materials. The world of textile creation is a wonderful one with unending space for creation and with room for everyone no matter where they are on their journey. The next time I teach this project, it is inevitable that all the students, myself included, will produce a totally different creation than anything produced now.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting this project. Next, I will post samplers from my students.

And that, said Pooh, is that.

April 29, 2013 by Ann Bernard

Creative Use of Stitches: Part 1

I have just finished teaching a class on the Creative Use of Stitches and I promised to share the results with you. The students are all good and enthusiastic textile artists using mostly machine stitching. They wished to know basic hand embroidery stitches and their variations. They did wonderfully well and produced a wide diversity of creative results. I will be featuring their work, with their permission, but will share my own first.

Six classes each featured one or more stitches. I chose to use them for individual samples which meant that, at the conclusion, I had eight samples of totally different size and expression though the colour range was congruent. What to do with them? Some light mauve velvet seemed to be a unifying possibility.

Stitching Class Trial Layout

This is the trial layout. Completed size is 31″ x 19″. And that is large! I had to mount it on my standing frame for assembly and stitching the final stages.

Our first lesson was Running Stitch and its many variations (bottom left). I included French Knots to give the students a nonlinear stitch to include. The Laid Work was added later and is shaded. The fabric for the samplers is dressmakers weight linen backed with an open weave fabric of undetermined fibre.

Threads are mostly DMC Perle 5, DMC Floss and various oddments of thread and wool. Better fabrics such as linen are not easily available in this area and backing fabric such as factory cotton has suddenly become scarce. DMC Floss is available as well as a limited range of DMC Perle. I had to supplement the colour range by ordering from the USA. Rejoice, all you fortunate stitchers who are able to access other and more interesting threads.

Running Stitch

Next was Stem Stitch and its variations. There are fewer variations though this stitch does create beautiful curves and adapts well for closely packed areas. We included Sorbello Stitch which is great for adding texture and interest. The bright turquoise metallic cord is a crafting item useful in this piece because of its colour and its brightness. Couching was one of the included stitches. Much of the time, I pierced the cord with a fine needle and stitched with a cotton dressmaking thread that matched the background. It adapted nicely to curves and loops. In some places, I did more interesting stitches which you will see in following blogs.

Stem Stitch

The next few blogs will continue the analysis of this project and will feature work done my students.

Creative Use of Stitches

Enjoy a post from the past

Accordion Book Stitched On Blue Linen

Enjoy a post from the past

Leaves to Love: Part 2

Enjoy a post from the past

Leaves to Love: Part 1

Enjoy a post from the past

Creative Use of Stitches: Part 4, completed

Enjoy a post from the past

Creative Use of Stitches: Part 1

Enjoy a post from the past