Hand Embroidery - Part One: Threads and Flosses

I have way too many hobbies for someone that has had to slow down ALL my activities as I get tired so quickly these days. I like to quilt and after years of using for the most part my embroidery machine, a Janome 300e, to do embroidery, I have reverted back to trying to do more hand embroidery with the embroidery machine doing quick or else very long projects. Part of this has to do with having to limit my time with my feet down which of course limits my time in my sewing room.  I have a rolling cart with most of my embroidery supplies on the different shelves. It is a different type of cart that I picked up at a yard sale or the thrift store; I don't remember which, but it was worth every penny. Now while watching TV or a movie if my hands are up to it I can embroider or work on my hexagon project.

All this meaning that I have become very interested in hand embroidery resources which include books and magazines. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an embroidery magazines that aren't devote to counted cross stitch? I had found one called Inspirations which is the cream of the crop and is an Australian magazine that is rather expensive, but I found out this month that they do have a much cheaper electronic version that you can download and have it forever (some magazines are only on your Kindle or tablet for 6 months and then they disappear. Not a good thing if you are in the middle of a project! The other magazine I have found is Stitch, a Great Britain publication not be be confused with Stitch a US publication from Interweave Press which is a good magazine in it's own right but not devoted to embroidery like the British magazine. While finding a link to the US Stitch magazine, I discovered that it will cease publication in the fall of this year 2016 but some back issues are still available. If any reader knows of another purely embroidery magazine, I would love to know it's name and where it is published.

I'm more or less done with counted cross stitch at this point. I started doing hand embroidery in junior high and made a pair of pillowsaces for my hope chest. Now I want to get back into regular hand embroidery with all sorts of nifty stitches that can encompass embroidery, crewel work, and needlepoint.  I don't have much experience doing crewel work with wool or needlepoint. With needlepoint, even though I have picked up many books on the subject at library used book sales, I haven't found any that really show how to use the many different stitches instead of the boring tent stitch. Crewel work with wool I did from a pillow kit many years ago and since that time I haven't had any wool to work with until now. I have found a wonderful website that anyone that does handwork needs to read and sign up for regular blog posts. The site is called Needle 'n Thread. The woman named Mary Corbet is a supremely talented woman and has a marvelous wealth of information on her site and links to many different sources of supplies.

In my years since doing a lot of counted cross stitch, many new types of threads and more colors of threads have been developed. These past few months I have found a gold mine of embroidery floss, needlework kits and crewel wool at the thrift stores and yard sales. On top of what I have found for cheap On the Needle 'n Thread website, I have found links to some folks selling marvelous floss of different  types: cotton, rayon, silkd, regular embroidery floss as well as perle floss. One of the sites is called Colour Complements located on Etsy. The seller hand dyes her threads and makes varigated  floss in the yummiest of colors! The yellow/orange pack in the photo above is one of her sampler packs that you can get that has an assortment the different threads she makes and they all coordinate for your project. I'm still looking for the perfect project to use these on.

Another site I found was Threads Be Gone where I got the above assortment of SILK embroidery floss, something I had never owned much less stitched with. They also have a lot of other popular thread brands on their site. Yet again, I'm looking for the right project for these threads. I bought the colors that I did as they appealed to me and most were 'all purpose' colors that can be used in many different applications such as leaves, branches, sky, etc.

 

 

I also found some wonderful DMC floss called Color Variations that are simply gorgeous. Are you starting to see what my favorite type of floss is? Yes, I love varigated floss! When I'm in a store by in the embroidery floss isle, I want it all to scoop up and just play with all the threads there. They look like jewels to me. Be assured that if you are starting embroidery for the first time, or coming back into hand embroidery after a long absence or someone that has been doing it all along, I can assure you that there is a plethora of threads and supplies available out there for the choosing! Until next time, Happy Stitching!

 

 



Hand Embroidery

If you love hand embroidery, do I have the website for you! Mary Corbet's Needle n' Thread is the ultimate site for hand embroiderers. I just spent an hour looking at her postings on variations of the chain stitch. Not only does she post really clear photos, but post of the variations had videos that were also clear and easy to understand. See the photo for just a sampling you will learn to do and the chain stitch is just a sampling of what is available on her site.

Needing Donations of Embroidery Supplies for Congo Women

Since I started our pattern business, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, my heart has gone out to third world women that do not have the resources like we do to improve their lives and have respectable ways of earning a living to support their families. We have been donating 10% of our profits towards helping these women. One of the projects that we help support is one in the Congo, by way of Carma Nelson who has served as a Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary there for many years. While she is no longer assigned to Congo, she still helps coordinate this small project. This is a grass roots project that started maybe 6 years ago that I have helped when I can.

There is a lady in the Congo that is knowledgeable in embroidery who teaches the other women, who then can sell what they make to help support themselves. To help her and her students out, I have been sending packages of embroidery supplies; embroidery floss, embroidery fabric, hoops, needles and books and booklets on embroidery over the past few years.

At this point I’m asking for your help as well if this strikes a chord in your heart as well. The teacher needs more 6-strand cotton thread/floss especially in pinks and browns but any color would help. Also I’m sure that embroidery needles for hand embroidery and embroidery fabric would help, even those little embroidery scissors so each woman can have her own pair for when she works at her own home. If you used to do embroidery and gave up on a project and still have the floss, we can use it. Not sure if you should send a tangled bunch of floss. Sure go ahead. David loves untangling when he is resting as do I. So don’t let things like that go to waste, and you can feel good about recycling and helping others directly. Any embroidery supplies you may have but no longer plan to use are welcome. Put them to work in the hands of women that can earn a living by using them. If you live in the North East, PA area and can drop any donations off at my house, I would appreciate it as would Carma and the ladies in the Congo. If you aren’t close by but would like to help, You can mail me the supplies (please email me at gailete@hotmail.com for my address). Or you can make a donation of cash by way of https://paypal.me/GailRodgers to the project and I will buy the supplies with my trusty shopping helper, Steve. I want to send the parcel to Carma by way of her mother on Monday, November 16, 2015. If you don’t have time to get something out by then, no worries. I constantly collect for this project and then send the supplies when Carma lets me know that we should have transport of them to the Congo. Their mail service can’t be used as it isn’t trustworthy.

This is not an official charity, so I can’t send out receipts for tax purposes. I have found that I like donating to a project where I know every penny or thread strand will get to where it can be used and this is the case here. 100% of all donations will be sent as supplies to the Congo.

Thank you so much for your support for this worthwhile project.

 

 

Gingham Aprons of the '40s & '50s by Judy Florence

This is a copy of a review that I also posted to Amazon. I received this book as a birthday present from my incredibly long Amazon wish list and was very happy to get it.

I enjoyed reading the book very much and loved seeing the many close up photo details although I am stumped in why these aprons look so pristine! I am an apron wearer and I make my own aprons and most of them with use would never make it to a collection of 'Aprons of the 1980's to 2020's'. They are pretty mucked up within a five to ten year span, but then that is the whole point of an apron isn't it? I can see that some of the apron would have been set aside for good, or like my Christmas apron only for certain special occasions.

Most of the aprons in the book were homemade using machines, while some were completely sewn by hand. The worse looking aprons were made in factories and it certainly shows the difference between tender loving care when sewing and seeing just how many you can whip up in a day when being paid via piecework.

While it was nice to see some approximate values on the aprons, you have to remember that the book was published in 2003 and with the plethora of on line selling venues available since that point, those values are most likely highly inaccurate at this point. My favorite thing was seeing how the makers worked all sorts of rick rack into the aprons as well as embroidery and 'Chicken Scratch' embroidery. I have all sorts of vintage rick rack that I have acquired at my local thrift store and it was good to see the different and attractive ways I can use it. It is obvious though, that the ladies of long ago who made these aprons had no access to Pinterest and its many ideas and links to websites that showed some magnificent ways of doing Chicken Scratch embroidery! If they had they would have really gone to town with Chicken Scratch! It seems that the more ideas spread on Pinterest the more people are trying to out do each other.

All together a very interesting book to those that love aprons, embroidery, rick rack, vintage sewing and/or vintage garments. It is about research and study and has no instructions for making any of the aprons although it does reference a few vintage apron patterns as well as embroidery transfer patterns. The author does have a legible photo of a vintage apron pattern instructions in the book and you should be able to follow them if you like since there are no tissue patterns involved and it even includes two different charts for doing counted cross stitch to embellish the apron. For more apron patterns, you should be able to find both current and vintage as well as vintage pattern reprints on sewing pattern selling sites including mine at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts. Since reading this book, I have put the author's other book; Aprons of the Mid-20th Century: To Serve and Protect (A Schiffer Book for Designers and Collectors)on my Wish List.

Kaleidoscope Stitching for Hand Embroidery

I have always liked the images that Kaleidoscope made when looking through the tube. I especially have liked the special effects that quilters can make with the Kaleidoscope blocks. I'm not sure why I have never made a Kaleidoscope quilt. But then after my last Remicade IV day I popped into my local Barnes & Noble for my 'treat' and saw and looked through the different craft magazines to see which ones would come home with me while I rested for the rest of the day. My Remicade day takes the starch out of me. Anyhow I picked up the current copy of Stitch magazine, Issue 91 Oct.-Nov. and saw this stitch in it and had to have the magazine!

I used a variegated embroidery floss to make the design. For those with eagle eyes, yes I did make a couple boo-boos. Ever since I got bi-focals I have had a few problems with counting spaces on Aida cloth. I love how the design comes out. The article showed the many different ways that you can change the whole look of the stitch by just your use of floss colors and whether you use variegated floss or not.

This is one thing I do like about this magazine is the clear instructions and diagrams, plus samples to help you learn how to make the different stitches. It also has projects to make, and different techniques to get your stitching repertoire increased. I have finally broken down and gotten a subscription by way of Amazon. There are two different Stitch magazines being published that I know of with the name Stitch. This one comes form the UK the other has sewing, quilting, stitching projects from Interweave. I wouldn't mind have a subscription of that one either. It is very hard to find a magazine that focuses on other types of embroidery other than counted cross stitch, so I have been happy to pick it up when I can. Depending on how my hands feel, I can't do a lot of hand embroidery or quilt piecing for that matter, but it is nice to get new ideas to try.

Great Little Sewing Light

I have the privilege of being on Amazon's Vine Review Program (sorry you can't ask to be in this program). Besides lots of books that I get to read and review, I also get all sorts of items to use and review. This little light I just got to review. It can clamp onto an embroidery hoop if you need extra light for part of a design. With the arthritis in my hands, I can't continually hold onto my embroidery hoop with even this little bit of extra weight added on. But if you are in a tiny very technical spot, and need extra good lighting this little light will do the job. I have also checked, and if I clamp it onto the accessory table that came with my Janome 7700, and then point the light to any unsewing I have to do. Don't you just hate unsewing? I know I do and with this little light I'll be able to see those stitches that are hard to focus on with bifocals.


 

Chicken Scratch Embroidery

One of the things that I like most about Pinterest is that we are literally bookmarking items that we might want to see and study later. So last night I clicked on my Hand Embroidery board on my Pinterest page. Earlier I had pinned a Chicken Scratch embroidery picture and since it was a bit different than I had ever seen before, it was this picture that I wanted to follow and learn more about this newer concept.

I have done chicken scratch embroidery in the past, but was very happily surprised at other's genius with changing what they were doing, whether with the design itself or the colors and weights of threads or a combination of all. When clicking on the photo, it took me to PinTangle where there were lots of new and different combinations for doing chicken scratch, and also lots of links to see what others are doing. And of course, the embroiders are doing more than chicken scratch so you get lots of ideas on other types of embroidery as well. PinTangle had bunches of other links to other embroiders and by the time an hour was up, I had barely 'scratched' the surface of all the information that was there on the different pages. The great thing is, with just that one photo that I have posted for all to see and be inspired, I also have all that is needed to find more information about the latest in chicken scratch embroidery. As needle workers, we have no reason to ever be without an idea of something to make, since if we can't bring up a creative thought on our own, thousands of others that have come before have done so!

One of the nicest things about embroidery is that at the most basic, it is an inexpensive way to create something beautiful and to embellish clothing or other projects. My re-interest in chicken scratch was brought out by a tiny little booklet that I got for a dime at the thrift store that had chicken scratch as well as ways to use rick rack with embroidery floss in ways I had never seen before. On one of the links, I found several samples of rick rack in combination with chicken scratch and it was amazing how lovely the designed looked and how inexpensive it was to accomplish, assuming you live near a great thrift store that I have bought lots of rick rack from.

Checking to see what books Amazon might have on the topic, I only found a couple as well as some design booklets. This first one I put on my wish list as it looks like something I would like to study.

Hand Embroidery

Sunday night I was able to finished embroidering this pillowcase which shows 2 bluebirds in a nest. The design came from some old Workbasket magazines that I had gotten at a yard sale long ago that I took all the embroidery transfers out. So a vintage embroidery design that was stitched in 2014!

My husband took the photo and did the photo manipulation so it looks a bit brighter than it really is and the one detail that I was most proud of doesn't show up very well. I had managed by manipulating the colors of embroidery floss to make the tree branch rounded looking by doing dark on the edges and building up to a lighter brown on the top and it gave the optical illusion of a round branch. I used both DMC embroidery floss and DMC pearl cotton in the design.

I enjoyed trying out some different techniques and stitches on this pillowcase. Since they will probably never be used at the same time, with the other pillowcase that I already have stamped I will be using some more different stitches and techniques. I just bought this book Embroidered Embellished which has some interesting different embroidery stitches and ways to use them so I will be using it for inspiration.

An Embroidery Pattern Book

The joys of Pinterest and the internet. Last night while seeing some of the newest pins coming my way, I saw a pin for an old book called, An Embroidery Pattern Book  Today I checked it's source out to find it is part of the Open Library and I could have a copy of the book sent for FREE to my Kindle. I saw some of the pictures before downloading it and I think that anyone who does hand embroidery and those who digitize their own designs might see and receive some interesting ideas for their work.

You can find the book Here.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a great New Year. This was a really simple Christmas for us. got to see my son Ron and his lovely wife Savannah (he won the jackpot with her!) and our other son Steve. Savannah made us a nice meal since I wasn't up to it. I've been having a rather rough time with a new med>bad reaction>get off new med on top of everything else. Then we opened our presents.

So glad for the internet as I was able to get most gifts on line and it looked like others did too. I feel like I made out like a bandit although probably not a lot by many people's standards but our family stays simple. I got three needlework books as gifts as well as was given a book on Ohio quilts. Steve who tapes Restaurant Impossible and brings it over to watch with us also gave me a cookbook by Robert Irwin. Hubby who has seen how I love the show Call the Midwife, gave me three Kindle books of the series. Other than a DVD, all I got for Christmas was BOOKS and more BOOKS! Yeah. They will keep me busy for at least a week or two. Two of the books are on the history of embroidery (hand) in the 18th and also the 19th centuries. Lots of pictures so you can really follow along with the exquisite work shown, read and learn to improve your own embroidery.

The really big news I'm hoping for those that read my blogs is that we have been able to get whole house WiFi so hubby and I don't have to take turns with the one computer connected to the satellite, now the laptop is as well so I have more time to write and post blog entries much more frequently than in the past. I've been spending this past year trying to improve my quilting/piecing techniques by following a Block of the Month class on Craftys. I haven't quite finished my blocks and still have three to go. I'm 'cheating' on my second Drunkards Path block as I hated the regular technique. If it works out, I will post instructions and pictures here.

Anyone else get some amazing needlework books that they want to recommend? Let me know so I can get it on my wishlist!

My Favorite Embroidery Books

Not only was I able to buy some embroidery floss as stated in my post yesterday, I was also able to get two more all purpose embroidery books. Why does someone need more than one? Well why not. Also since I review books I look at them in regards to completeness and which one might be the best to reccommend. In this instance, if you have the money, buy all three. If you don't have the money and are a new embroiderer and just learning stitches, then I recommend The Embroiderer's Handbook. It contains several photos of how to make the different stitches and so whould be easier to learn from. The other two books, (my new ones) are Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Needlework and Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. Both these books would be a good choice although they do have their differences. Donna's book has a lot of embroidery history, a large bibliography of other embroidery works, several lovely projects and a stitch index. Mary's book has a bit more detail when it comes to the stitches and also something I didn't see in the other books. Her books have what they call composite band stitches. This is the same as what machine embroiderer's call stitch stacking or building. They show combinations of the different stitches that are used to make fancy bands which either can take some of the thinking off of you or inspire you to try bigger and better stitch bands. Each of these books are unique and would be good references for you.

My kind of paint box!

I did a project about a month ago that rewarded me with a very large Amazon.com gift certificate. Let's just say I was in my glory. I have been going through my wish list, checking out the latest needlework books and magazines and also threads that Amazon.com now carries. They have come a long way from just being a media/book store.

I was very happy to find this set of DMC Stitcher's Palette Color Variations - 36 different embroidery floss colors. I had run into these types of floss before at Michael's but couldn't afford at the time to buy more than a few. I was very happy to find them for sale on Amazon.com.

The picture of these threads doesn't even begin to do them justice. They are gorgeous. They contain the colors of a wonderful Lake Erie sunset, the color of sand on the beach, flowers and water, trees and sky. I am of two mindsets. I can hardly wait to use them. Or I don't want to use them but just look at them as they are so pretty! Whichever I choose, I know I will have them for awhile as my hand embroidery has to relegated to small segments of time currently as my hands have been hurting a lot lately.

While my box of floss came sealed, it was missing one instruction/graph booklet. It also had a pack of needles and a piece of mottled sand colored fabric to sew on. I had been so excited about finding the floss that I didn't even pay attention to the other parts of the set.

Embroidered Pillowcases

Year's ago I was given a big box of Work Basket Magazines. I didn't really want to keep all of them, but before disposing of them, I did go through them first and removed all the embroidery transfers that were in them. When I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to embroider some pillowcases, I went through the transfers and found one that I liked and used them to put the design on the pillowcases. The nice thing about using these transfers is you don't have any concept of what colors to use or what stitches to use. You get to be as creative as you want. I pulled out my copy of The Embroiderer's Handbook which I have found to be the BEST embroidery stitch guide I have ever seen and started sewing. I used several stitches that I had never used before and also some variegated threads, especially for the birds. For the bird I used the Fishbone Stitch found on page 73 of the book. For the green leaves I used Lattice Couching found on page 99 (I do need a bit more practice with that stitch), I also used a long stitch with a French Knot on the end for the pistils of the flowers. I enjoyed my time sitting and stitching. I also found when stitching I tend to not much which has it's own benefits!

Blackwork Embroidery

I was sitting last night looking though some craft magazines when I came upon a small article on doing blackwork embroidery in issue 173 of Cross Stitcher Magazine (from the UK). I've seen numerous examples of blackwork in other magazines and embroidery books, but have never attempted it myself. Thanks to the fact that I have all my embroidery supplies in a rolling cart near the couch, I was ready on a moments notice to stitch. Of course, I didn't have the right size fabric, but I didn't let that stop me. I did have a piece of Aida cloth that someone had already used threads to make the design ready to stitch.

Since the design was a strawberry, I decided to use red embroidery floss. Part of the design was in one strand of floss and others parts in two strands. The instructions were minimal, but I did figure most of them out and had to change some stitches because of using the wrong type and size of fabric. After the first few stitches I realized that I would have some trouble following the chart as it was too small to see clearly, so David very nicely blew the chart up for me and printed it out in color so I could still follow the color chart. I did find that at the beginning since it was new to me, that after 2-3 stitches I would cross off those stitches to be sure I was keeping the right count and was stitching in the right place. The one place that I did have trouble was the beginning and ending the thread, especially with the single strand of thread as the back of the stitching didn't  have the same type of set up to bury stitches like regular counted cross stitch. If I do this again, I will have to see if my other books have instructions or perhaps some one reading this could leave us all an explanation.

In the end after around 2 hours of 'work' I had a nice little design that I will eventually us for something. It was fun and I enjoyed myself. Here is my little strawberry design.