100 Stitches - the fly stitch

Doesn't this little red stitch make a nice strawberry seed?
This is the fly stitch! I had posted a picture of my strawberry tea towel both here on the blog and on my Flickr stream. I described how I had "made up" a stitch to use for the strawberry seeds. Yesterday, I got a sweet note from My1stBambina telling me that she thought the stitch looked like the fly stitch. I looked the stitch up in 100 Stitches and she was right! So I decided to make the fly stitch the latest stitch on the 100 Stitches list. Thank you My1stBambina! For the how-to pictures, I am using six strands of dmc #907 floss and a #24 chenille needle. I am stitching on 100% cotton quilting weight fabric.

According to 100 Stitches, this stitch may be worked singly or in horizontal or vertical rows. I am just demonstrating single stitches. First, come up through your fabric for the top left of the stitch
Now take your needle back down through the fabric a little to the right of where your needle first emerged:
Pull the floss partially through
Now bring your needle up through the fabric below and in the center, making sure the floss is under the needle:
Pull all the way through light and loose, not tight - this will form the stitch.
Now put your needle back down through the fabric directly under the stitch to anchor it in place.
Now you are free to move to another area and make another fly stitch!

Strawberries!

I have a new pattern packet available in my Etsy shop. It is called strawberries. The picture above is a work in progress I am doing on one of the patterns from the packet. Below is a picture of a completed tea towel featuring the main pattern. I love how this turned out. You might notice that I hemmed the towel with an easy running stitch.in the my running stitch.






This is a picture of what the pattern packet looks like. It is 10 pages with tons of fun designs!






I also wanted to post these pictures of some old needle packages. My grandma and great-grandma had a lot of embroidery and sewing supplies and it is always fun to look through their old items - I love the packaging on this:


on the back of the package is the price .19 cents! And this package: lots of the needles are still inside and all in beautiful colored foil -

and finally this so sweet little puppy "spool pet" to put on a thread spool - this puppy was one in a series - the package says you can get the rest by sending 4 cents in stamps!

100 Stitches - cable stitch

Next up on the 100 Stitches project is the cable stitch! I am using six strands of DMC #907 floss and a #24 chenille needle on 100% cotton quilting weight fabric.

If you are just learning how to do this stitch, I recommend practicing it on a marked stitching line! I first tried just looking at the picture in 100 stitches and stitching on my fabric without marking a line. I was thinking "I know what I'm doing, this looks simple" - only to find out that the needle needs to follow the stitching line not move to either side of the previous stitch, like the picture seemed to be showing!

This stitch is worked from left to right. First come up through the fabric at the beginning of your stitching line:

Next, go back down through the fabric a stitch length to the right of where your floss just came out and come back up halfway between. Notice that the floss is below the needle:Now pull the needle through forming a simple stitch. Now repeat the process of going back down through the fabric a stitch length away from where your floss emerged. Bring the needle back up right at the end of the previous stitch and NOTICE the floss is now above the needle action.

Pull all the way through.

Repeat the process and this time the floss will be below the needle again:

Stitch and pull through:

Repeat the process and this time the floss is above the needle and stitching line:

Pull through - now the floss is below the stitching line for your next stitch (this is a slightly different and hopefully helpful viewpoint) Notice that the needle is always on the stitching line!

Just keep stitching with the floss alternating below and above (or left and right) of the stitching line:

And you are doing the cable stitch!

If you look at the underside of your fabric after you have done a line of cable stitches, you wil see that you have a really nice, neat line of back stitches!

According to 100 Stitches, the cable stitch is also known as side to side stem stitch. The cable stitch is #3 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

non-embroidery post!

Nothing embroidery related to see here...we have had a few days of such beautiful spring weather and I wanted to share these pictures! The ornamental cherry tree is in bloom:The white camellia has finally bloomed:

These lilac bushes which are really old are in full bloom.

They are so fragrant!

And these bright red tulips: and finally these little grape hyacinths. I love these because their blooms last for such a long time.

100 stitches - cross stitch

I stitched this hen picture long before I started working through 100 Stitches. I wanted to stitch a frame around the image and really liked the way these "x-es" looked. I didn't realize I was actually doing the cross stitch!
These x-es are individual cross stitches, but the 100 stitches book only demonstrates doing the cross stitch in a line. The following pictures are my step by step attempt at the cross stitch in a line. I am starting with six strands of floss - dmc color #907, using a #24 chenille needle on 100% cotton quilting weight fabric.

I will be working this stitch from right to left. First come up through the fabric at what will be the bottom right of what will be the first "x":

Next, go back down through the fabric at what will be the top left of the "x".

Pull the floss all the way through to form a simple stitch. Now come back up through the fabric at what will be the bottom right of the NEXT "x":

Now go back down through the fabric at what will be the top left of the next "x":

Pull the floss through to form the next stitch:

Continue on in this fashion for as long as you want your stitching line. When you reach the end, it is time to stitch back to the beginning to complete all the x-es! To do this, first come up through the fabric at the bottom LEFT of the end of your stitching line:

then cross over that simple stitch and bring your needle back into the fabric at the top right

Pull the floss through and this will form an x:

Next, bring your needle up at the bottom left (right next to the bottom right of the first completed x. Then back down through at the next top right:

Keep on in this fashion until you are back to the start of the stitching line:

You will end up with a beautiful line of the cross stitch!

This impressive and versatile stitch is #19 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

Sweet dreams moon

I had so much fun stitching this little moon:

Here on the close-up, I am showing off the back stitch (the cloud outlines, part of the moon, the moon's features and hat outline, the stars and the lettering) french knots (for the cloud accents, hat accents and far-away stars) and the chain stitch (part out the moon's outline). I'm not exactly sure how I am going to complete this - it could be a pillow, it could be framed as a picture, if I knew how to quilt I think it could make a sweet quilt block? It looks good with all different kinds and colors of trims...