Thursday, April 21, 2016

Wedding Wreath - Part Two


Do you remember the wedding wreath I started stitching?  I first posted about it here

Since that post, I have finished the wreath.  I think the colors are beautiful together.  Very feminine:


Inside the wreath, I added the bridal couple's initials and their wedding date:


I cut and pasted these letters and numbers from the Wedding embroidery pattern. 


I actually started stitching the initials before I started the wreath stitching but I didn't know if I wanted all the text in mint.  It might look like too much of one color?
I decided to stitch the whole wreath first and then decide: 


Here are the colors I used for the wreath - mint, light and dark pink, and {for sparkle} blending filament. Now I just need to make a decision for the text color! 


Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Danish Knot



This is a row of Danish Knot Stitches.  This is the latest stitch I have learned on my 100 Stitches Plus journey.


I love using knotted stitches so I was happy to learn this new stitch!


The floss I am using is this beautiful color variations perle cotton from DMC.  This is number 4240.  The color variations make for an interesting color effect on these knots.


To start this very simple stitch, come up through the fabric:



Pull all the way through and go back into the fabric above and to the left of where the thread emerged:



Pull all the way through and this creates a small slanting stitch:


Next, come back up through the fabric to the left and alongside of the slanting stitch:



Pull all the way through:



Now bring the needle around and slide under the slanting stitch - do not go into the fabric, just slide the needle on top of the fabric but under the slanting stitch.  Notice the needle is passing to the left of where the thread just emerged:


Pull all the way across and a loop will begin to form around the slanting stitch:



Pull until the loop is securely formed and snug around the slanting stitch:



Now bring the needle around and again slide it under the slanting stitch - not picking up any fabric, just sliding over the fabric and under the slanting stitch.  Notice that this time the needle is passing on the right side of the emerging thread and also going over on top of that thread:


Pull and a loop will begin to form:



Just like the before, pull all the way until the loop is snug against the slanting stitch:



To finish, go back into the fabric right alongside the knot:




So easy!  



This stitch could be worked in a row or massed to fill a blank area.  I did mine in a row:


Here is a look at the underside after I finished the row and secured my thread:



To demonstrate this stitch, I made my slanting stitch rather large so that it was easy to see the technique of making the loops.  You can see by the above pictures that the two end of the slanting stitch show on either side of the knot.  
To use this stitch in embroidery, I think it is much better to make a small slanting stitch that the two looping stitches fill completely.  It looks much more compact and knotted.  I stitched another row using a smaller slanting stitch: 




I like this look much better!  I did an image search on this stitch and found examples of it done both ways.  

This stitch is from the book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.



Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Home Sweet Home Embroidery Stitching


I finished up another stitching from my Home Sweet Home pattern. 

My stitches for this project include : 
Back Stitch ~ {for the text, the roof outline, the chimneys, the door, the tree trunks and planters} 
Chain Stitch ~ {for the roof lines} 
Stem Stitch ~ {for the outline of the house, the roof edge and the trees} 
Double Knot Stitch ~ {for the top of each window}. 





I love the color palette for this project, the mint green is so pretty with the black and gray.


Here are the floss colors and numbers that I used: