Thursday, October 21, 2010

100 Stitches - cable chain stitch

This beautiful stitch is the cable chain stitch. It is the latest stitch I have learned from 100 StitchesThis is a fairly easy stitch to do, but it wasn't so easy for me to learn! I think I am doing it correctly...anyway here is what I did. First, this stitch doesn't need any guidelines just a needle and floss:This stitch is worked from right to left. The first step is to come up through your fabric. Keep your working floss to the left:Next, slide your needle under the working floss, without going into the fabric and then over the working floss: Gently pull on the working floss to wrap the floss around the needle. Put your needle into the fabric just to the left of where your floss originally came up through the fabric:
Now take a small stitch and pull your needle through:and keep pulling: Pull all the way through and you will have a flat loop which is the first stitch. Now just repeat: bring your needle under and then over your working floss:Pull on the working floss to wrap it around your needle. Put your needle into the fabric a bit to the left of where the floss came out of the fabric: and take a stitch:
Now pull the needle and floss all the way through and this forms the second loop:
Just continue for as many stitches as you want:To end the stitching line, simply go back down through the fabric and thread your floss through the underside stitches to anchor the floss:
This stitch leaves a nice, neat underside: I think this is such a beautiful stitch, it almost looks like a bracelet!

The cable chain stitch is stitch #45 and is in the linked stitches section of 100 Stitches.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Snowman and some new floss

I finished stitching up the "Let It snow" snowman:This was so fun to stitch. I am surprised at how good the white floss shows up on my white fabric! I really like the way it looks.You might notice that I used my newly learned herringbone stitch to decorate the band around the broom: Much as I love the white-on-white look of this project, I am excited to try stitching some snowmen and especially snowflakes on this new pale blue colored fabric I just bought:
See that white pearl cotton floss? I bought that and some black along with these other pearl cottons:It is less expensive to buy these spools of the pearl cotton than the skeins. However, at my fabric store, they have a very limited color selection of the spool floss - by limited selection I mean only black and white!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Blue metallic snowflake - finished!

I just finished the blue metallic snowflake!I had been a little worried about doing all the lazy daisy stitches with this metallic floss but they were relatively straightforward. I had a more difficult time with all the french knots! But I think it looks really nice when seen as a whole:

Thursday, October 14, 2010

100 Stitches - herringbone stitch and threaded herringbone stitch

This complex looking stitch is the threaded herringbone stitch.It is a variation of the herringbone stitch: These two stitches together are up next on the always exciting 100 stitches journey! These are extremely easy stitches to do. They do benefit from having guidelines though - just to keep everything even. I drew two parallel guidelines 3/8" apart:First up is the herringbone stitch. This stitch is worked from left to right. The first step is to come up through your fabric on the left edge of the lower guideline: Now bring your needle to the top line, a little to the right of where your floss came through and take a small stitch from right to left: Pull your floss all the way through: Take your needle back down to the lower guideline, a little to the right of where your floss came through and take a small stitch from right to left. Notice the needle is staying under the working thread:Pull your floss all the way through:Now take your needle to the top guideline, a little to the right and take a small stitch from right to left:Pull the floss all the way through:Take your needle to the lower guideline, a little to the right and take a small right to left stitch:Just continue on and you have done the herringbone stitch!
Now for the threaded herringbone stitch - select a nice contrasting color - I chose the complementary color to violet which is this nice yellow:With the new color, bring your needle up through your fabric right along side the first stitch. Now, carefully slide your needle under the right side of the first stitch but not into the fabric:Pull it through and carefully slide it up under the left side of the second stitch - again under the floss but not catching any fabric: Continue threading in and out until you have this:
These are both
such beautiful stitches! I love the suggestion donna!ee made a few posts ago, that I show the underside of my stitches as I go through 100 Stitches. So I made sure I took a picture of the herringbone stitch from the underside:These stitches are #15 and are in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Snowflakes and metallic floss

I am busy stitching up a snowflake border:and a single snowflake with the word snow under it: I am bravely stitching these using...metallic floss!So far so goodwith the silver:The blue, however, is giving me a little trouble! I am attempting lazy daisies with this so maybe that is to be expected! I just can't resist the beautiful look of the metallic floss! The blue is dmc Jewel Effects E3843 and the silver is Precious Metals Effects E168

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Snow! wip

I have a new work in progress to show! This sweet little snowman is just one of several featured in my new Snow! embroidery pattern packet - here is what the packet looks like:
Here is a close up view of the lettering - this is in back stitch. I used three strands of this beautiful wintry blue embroidery floss. I am also using this white cotton pearl floss - this is turning out to be the perfect floss for the snowman because it looks so chunky and almost glistens...I bet it will be perfect for snowflakes too!Does anyone happen to know the dmc color of this blue? For some reason, I did not record the number! I have a whole color range of blue floss but this is all I have left of the wintry blue I am using for this project:
I better save this to match at the store!