Saturday, May 8, 2010

100 Stitches - long and short stitch

This sunflower features the new stitch I have just learned on the 100 Stitches project. The stitch is called the long and short stitch. This is such an easy stitch! To demonstrate I am using six strands of dmc #907 floss, a #24 chenille needle, and 100% cotton quilting weight fabric. I transferred this little sunflower embellishment from the Peep-Peep-Peep Embroidery Pattern Packet:
To start, you bring your needle up through the fabric
and then back down, forming a simple stitch. I made this stitch a little long so it is the long stitch of "long and short" stitch:
Now come back up through the fabric next to your long stitch
and take a smaller "short" stitch!
Now come back up
and make another long stitch
You just continue doing this in stitches of varying lengths
until you fill in the shape! According to 100 Stitches, this is an excellent filling stitch and is sometimes referred to as a form of the satin stitch.
100 Stitches also mentioned that this is a good stitch to use to achieve a shaded effect which is what I have done on the sunflower petals:
Really a fun stitch to do and so quick to learn! This stitch is #9 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

3 comments:

Libby said...

Great stitch, great pictures and such a sweet flower!

Mahalakshmi said...

Great work.I can never get this perfect.I envy you.Though I like this filling stitch I have not done this at all as I cant do it so beautifully.I will surely practice this and get back to you:)

Kim said...

Thank you! I will look forward to it!