Category: General Embroidery
Happy Holidays – The Sea Tractor at Burgh Island (part one)
The Sea Tractor At Burgh Island
This piece was intended as an entry in a competition run by “Needlecraft” Magazine about 25 years ago. The brief was to recreate “A Holiday Memory”, and as it happened, that year we had had a great adventure – a ride on the Sea Tractor at Burgh Island in Devon.
“Needlecraft” had also run an article shortly before, describing and teaching Dorset Buttons, and they seemed perfect for the Sea Tractor’s wheels. Since time was short and the complexity of the Sea Tractor likely to be time-consuming, I also experimented with a painted background on my cotton fabric.
The Cloud Stitch Cloud
In retrospect, the painted background isn’t hugely successful, and it doesn’t have enough stitchery to qualify for high marks in an embroidery competition, but I enjoyed adding those details I did create, and so often in these early pieces, you can see “Rachel-Now” and her ideas prefigured in the stitch choices of “Rachel-Then”.
Looking at it now, I might have done better to work the cloud filling smaller, in white rather than pastels, over a painted base, and without outlining it. Still when you consider that the whole thing was an experiment….!
Hillside Stitch Details
The hillside details involved a lot of different stitches in lots of different greens. There are straight stitches, French Knots, chain stitches, and arrowhead stitches (upside down to look like shrubs). Again, if I were to work this now, there would be a great deal more stitchery in it, but I suspect that the combination of lack of time, and a disinclination to work areas of repetitive stitching led me to stop before I should have done.
What I can’t, now, recall, is whether I was pleased with it at the time. I’ve had it propped up in my living room since I rediscovered it, and I’m very tempted to crop it to show just the Sea Tractor itself – which would at least afford me the opportunity to re-block the piece and get rid of the ripples!
Making It Up As I Went Along – The Big Reveal
Stiletto And Mellor
The last time you saw the case I planned for the wooden mellor and stiletto, I’d cut the slits and described how I finished assembling it, using chain stitch down each spine, and blanket stitch around the edge.
When I put the tools in place, though, the whole thing seemed rather flimsy, somehow. I wracked my brains for a bit, and then thought that maybe if I were to needlefelt the layers together, it would give it a little more body.
I have a needlefelting tool with five needles in a single holder, so I fished it out, and stared at it pensively for a while. Fortunately it has a plastic guard around the needles, so I left the tools in place, and needlefelted around them. From both sides.
Finished Piece
Then I took out the tools, and felted between the loops so that the fabric behind the tools would stay in place and only the loops themselves would be free of the backing.
Finally, I needlefelted around the edge of the sampler panel and across all of the back, so that the whole case would have the same sense of solidity.
Here is the finished piece. You can zoom in on the picture to get a better view of the stitches, and the needlefelting that gives the piece its body.
I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope my cousin will have many opportunities to use it, and will find the sampler panel inspiring and intriguing.
Making It Up As I Went Along – Part Three
Close Up 3
The final set of stitches for the sampler panel starts with Chained Feather Stitch, using very heavy plain pearl cotton
Braid Stitch (number eleven) is another stitch I’m fond of – I used it on the Frolicking Teddies Cot Blanket. It’s a stitch with a huge personality, so it needs to be used with care, but it’s a good one to have in the repertoire. The thread is another overdyed mercerised round yarn, and because braid stitch uses so much thread, it cycles beautifully through the colours and shows them off very well.
Stitch number twelve is Reverse Chain Stitch. This is a stitch I’d never used before the Goldwork Masterclass, but it is a very useful one, because for some threads it is much easier to work than conventional Chain Stitch.
Stitch number thirteen is Cretan Stitch. This is a great border stitch, but because the thread I chose – an overdyed soft cotton – was in a green that was rather close to the colour of the felt, I decided to add a row of Chain stitch in a very dark green silk to define the edge. It balances the cream Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch at the other end beautifully.
Layout For Tools
I double checked that I was happy with the layout for the tools by pinning an outline of the two wooden tools onto the felt.Since I used squared paper for the templates it was also very easy to plan where I would place the slits that would allow to tools to be held in place, and to line them up properly.
Then all I had to do was to make use of my mother’s buttonhole cutter to cut the slits – straight through the paper template – and reassemble the two layers. That was harder than I expected. I’d forgotten that felt is a very flexible material, and it bent and stretched itself, and needed to be coaxed back into shape, and then pinned firmly back into stability. Then I chain stitched down each spine, and blanket stitched around the edge….
Making It Up As I Went Along – Part Two
The idea of the sampler section was to give my cousin some inspiration for her own embroidery, and the chance to see what stitches look like in real life, since however good the book or the photo, it doesn’t come close to having the stitch there in front of you in real life! So I decided that it would consist of a sequence of stitches using a variety of threads. Naturally, I included some of my own favourite stitches!
Close Up 1
Here, the top one is Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch, using a stranded linen thread from DMC. I first used this stitch in the Persian Fantasy, and I’ve loved it ever since. In this case I’ve added to the ornamental effect by alternating long and short upright stitches.
The next is Diamond Stitch, using an over dyed pearl cotton from Stef Francis. This is a stitch I’ve never used before but often wanted to. I’ll use it again, I’m sure – it was rather fun!
The third – in standard Anchor pearl cotton – is Cable Chain Stitch, which is my favourite chain stitch variation. It isn’t always suitable, because it is a stitch with a very strong character, and sometimes something more subtle is needed, but I always enjoy stitching it.
The fourth is Ladder Stitch, which I struggled with so much on the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass course. Here I have used an overdyed soft cotton (Stef Francis again) and found it so much easier to do!
The fifth is Heavy Chain Stitch, which I have found very useful a number of times. It produces a smooth, clean line, definition without texture, which can be hard to achieve in embroidery, which after all is a very textural form of expression!
Close Up 2
The first new stitch in this photo (sixth in the sampler panel) is Loop Stitch, this one in a round mercerised cotton. It’s another stitch I’ve not often used, but it provides a great contrast in texture with the Heavy Chain Stitch above it.
Stitch number seven is Coral Stitch (remember I used it for the little girl’s hair in the Holiday Traycloth?). I used another overdyed pearl cotton – one of my favourite threads, because it brings stitches to life.
Closed Herringbone Stitch is next, using an almost untwisted rayon thread. This produces a dense plaited effect – very glossy and dramatic.
The final row in this second photograph, number nine in the sequence, is a combination of Stem Stitch set beside Outline Stitch. I know it looks a lot like chain stitch, but the two stitches are mirror images of one another!
Making It Up As I Went Along – Part One
Since Christmas is over and the present duly received, I can at last show you the present I made for my cousin. She’s become interested in embroidery, and when I saw some hand made, beautifully-finished wooden tools (a mellor and a stiletto) at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, I decided that I would give them to her for Christmas.
That was all well and good, but I couldn’t think of a suitable way to present them, so I decided to make a case for them. I spent some time sat in the picnic area at the show, sketching different possibilities and trying to work out what other supplies I needed to buy, and when, between mid-November and Christmas Day, I would be able to make it since I was still suffering from tennis elbow (I still am, but not nearly as much!). I was beginning to threaten to put together a kit and giving her that when one of the other ladies at the table pointed out that I would still need to make one as a proof of concept (a phrase I never expected to hear at the Knitting and Stitching Show!). She was right, because it evolved considerably in the process!
Final Layout Plan
In the end I decided to make a case with three panels, using two layers of felt. I drew out paper patterns for each panel, and pinned them on to the piece of felt I had decided to use. I had considered putting a panel of canvaswork stitches on the front – I even bought a piece of congress cloth to use – but then decided that since she is interested in embroidery, it should be a panel of embroidery stitches.
Layout For Sampler Panel
As you can see, I also had second thoughts about the size of the sampler panel, and made it slightly smaller. That meant that there would be a wider border around the panel – always an improvement!
I ran tacking stitches around all the design elements to make sure I knew what was where, and then started thinking about the stitches to use for the sampler panel.
My Very First Appliqué
First Surface Embroidery
Rummaging in the archives is a very salutary experience. This indescribable piece of appliqué is the first embroidery I did without guiding holes in the fabric (like the little mat I described in an earlier post). I remember starting it when I was visiting a friend – it was a rainy day, and I think her mother was at her wits’ end with us. She sat us down with fabric, needle and thread, and (I suspect) prayed for peace and quiet..
Even though the stitches are dog-legged and the colour choices leave a lot to be desired, the piece still reveals things about Rachel-the-Stitcher that I recognise today. One side of the piece for the house is sewn down with blanket stitch, two with running stitch, and one with zigzag back stitch. You can take that two ways – either as evidence of my butterfly mind, never sticking to a single method, or as evidence that even then I was thinking about the implications of a stitch. Blanket stitch is a good “grounding” stitch, because of the combination of uprights and horizontals, and the zigzags are rather reminiscent of the wavy edges of some roof tiles.
The tweeds chosen for the windows and the pattern-woven braid for the door also show early signs of thinking about what I’m doing – the square patterns of the tweed recalling leaded windows and the pattern-woven braid creating a different texture for the entrance.
The braid edging glued to the frame is also symptomatic of a tendency to over-complicate, which I’ve not eradicated to this day. I think I keep it under control, but that is all I’ve managed to do…
Incidentally, like all those little girls of long ago, working on samplers with their governesses, unaware that students of social history and students of needlework would be poring over their work in the future, I noted on the back when I finished the piece – 30th September 1975. Unlike most of those little girls, I also noted – in so many words – that “It was fun.”
Happy Christmas to you all
The Saviour Is Born!
Holiday Traycloth – second installment
Making Tea
Now this is very “Swallows and Amazons“, isn’t it!
There’s a woven spiders web wheel for the top of the picnic basket, the little girl’s red hair is worked in coral stitch and her older sister’s is satin stitch. It’s barely visible in the photo, but the satin stitch is angled this way and that to create something that looks a little like a Marcel wave – a very grown up style on a relatively young girl!
As in the first installment, the cuffs and flounces are in blanket stitch. The spots are French knots, and the lilac dress is worked as a pattern of back stitches.
Reading
This motif, “Reading” shows particularly clearly how skilled the designer was in making the best possible use of simple shapes and simple line. Much of the design uses straight stitches – for the leaves, the bark, and the stems of the leaves.
The pattern on the skirt alternates back stitches with tiny satin stitch blocks, and the hair is stem stitch. The book and the shoes are satin stitch, the flowers are French Knots, and anything else is in back stitch.
It couldn’t be simpler to do, but doesn’t it look good!
Fishing
This is the point where – after nobly containing my experimental impulses for quite some time! – I indulged in a few wanderings from the path laid down. The shorts are actually woven! It must have been tricky to get right, but it’s worked really well – they look slightly tweedy, but in any case the sort of heavy fabric that any sensible mother would clothe her child in for scrambling around rocks and beaches.
The little gold fish is worked in Vandyke stitch, which is tricky to keep even but creates a strong line down the side of the fish to contrast with the net in the background.
Dealing with the Golden Acorn
Silver Braid Stitch
You last saw the Golden Acorn in July, when I was thoroughly fed up with it.
Since I’d got so engrossed in stitching that I’d neglected to pay attention to the details and had to unpick the lot, when I came to re-stitch I decided to put in the braid stitch in silver first.
I found the silver to be a more temperamental thread than the gold, although structurally it was exactly the same. However, these threads are all made more or less by hand, and must be hugely susceptible to temperature and humidity.
I know from my textile technology studies that natural fibres – such as cotton, wool, and silk – are susceptible to environmental conditions, because the basis for the success of the Lancashire cotton industry was due in no small part to the fact that ideal conditions for growing cotton are far from ideal for turning the cotton into cloth. In fact, nowadays, textile factories are built with climate control, because the speed of modern production demands that all possible variables be thoroughly ironed out.
In the same way, if you visit a woollen mill, you will see piles of wool at various stages of production, just sitting there. If you are a time-and-motion person you’ll get very uptight about this, and talk about “Just In Time” manufacturing – only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that if you want to pay for all the failed batches that will result from not allowing the wool to relax (technical term – yes, honestly) between processes, you’re welcome, but the manager won’t let it out of the factory with their name on it.
The silver and gold threads we are using have natural fibre cores, so sensitivity to climate is only to be expected!
Second Time Lucky
I found both of the two main stitches in the strapwork, Ceylon stitch and Braid Stitch, rather troublesome in metal thread, although Braid Stitch in pearl cotton is one of my favourites. There’s no denying that they produce a rich and exotic effect once they are in place, though!
I became slightly fed up with tent stitch – there was such a lot of it! – while I was working this, so I’ve been giving myself some time away from it. I’ll get started on the next one of these when I feel ready for fine tent stitch again.
I’m also waiting until all three are stitched before I decide which to finish to create which stitching accessory. If I recall correctly, there’s a scissors keep, a needlecase, and a pincushion. I suspect they’ll end up in that famous Winter Decoration Corner I keep threatening to do!
Holiday Traycloth – first installment
I worked this immediately after the First Voluntary Project, and my goodness, is there a difference between the two! I think I must have talked with Grandmama and looked at some of her embroidery, and it looks as though suddenly the whole idea “clicked”.
The motifs are from transfers from another of Grandmama’s Needlewoman Magazines (August 1934, if you are interested!), worked on an old piece of linen in stranded cottons. The design was suggested to be a cover for a photograph album, but since my family isn’t really photograph-conscious, I felt that such a thing would be superfluous, and finished it as a traycloth instead. We added the seagull to cover a hole in the linen, which was already quite old.
Rockpooling with Toto
The range of stitches is very limited on this piece – I must have been following the instructions in the magazine – and the whole thing is surprisingly neatly worked. I love the little girl’s spotty dress (satin stitch spots!) and windswept stem stitch hair, and the starfish is wonderfully knobbly, with closely packed French knots.
Most of the outlining across the whole piece is in back stitch, and although I didn’t count it precisely, I suspect the weave of the linen made that much easier to do than it might have been.
The designs themselves are very reminiscent of the children’s books of the period – it’s even exactly the right sort of dog, slightly scruffy, but always ready to play!
Walkers
These walkers have blanket stitch collars and cuffs, and stem stitch hair. His shorts are worked in Jacobean Couching and the spots on her skirt are French knots. The leaves on the bush in the background are detached chain, and the yellow flowers are blanket stitch wheels. Again, the hair is in stem stitch and the socks (like the little girl’s shoes) are in satin stitch.
You’ll notice that all of these stitches re-occur when I describe the other motifs, too. The designer has made absolutely first-class use of all the stitches.