Ezine articles

As you will see, I now have some articles published on Ezine - if you click on the link button, you will go directly to Ezine where you can type my name into the Search box, and a list of articles by me will come up. Click on the one you want to read.

Embroidery threads

Here is a small sample of some of the lovely threads you can use to create different textures.

Cotton – 6-stranded such as DMC or Anchor; can be separated into 1 or more strands.

Perle cotton, comes in different thicknesses, with the higher the number, the finer the thread.

Silks – floss silk such as Madeira. This is untwisted with a high sheen. Can be separated into 4 strands.

Synthetic threads – come in a smaller range of colours than cottons but are shinier.

Metallic threads – come in different thicknesses, but thicker threads need to be couched, as pulling through fabric causes them to splinter.

DMC threads have have a great website at http://tinyurl.com/lehgvg, it is well worth a browse.

I have just had an article published at http://tinyurl.com/njryhs - hope you enjoy it, it is a lighthearted look at learning about patchwork and quilting.

More on embroidery design

For anyone interested in all the textile arts, I recommend this website I found this morning, I have a tinyurl for it which is http://tinyurl.com/olywmv

More on embroidery design.
Think of the threads you are going to use -some like silk, some like stranded cotton – silk shines, cotton gives a matt finish, so you may consider these points.

Think too of the scale. If your design is farly large, you can include lots of detail. If small, you need to simplify – pick out the major points such as eyes, and just suggest smaller details with a few stitches, e.g. spot on fur can be a few small stitches.

Add notes on your final drawing about colours, stitch direction and any other things you may want to refer to later. This makes your embroidery pattern more useful to you as a working plan. But expect to change your mind – it makes life fun!

Also consider being innovative – you don’t have to only embroider or only applique for instance – combining techniques can give a highly original look and I will give you more ideas on this in future blogs. This is commonly known as Mixed Media.

Designing your own embroidery

Many embroiderers don’t want to design their own embroidery patterns, but for those who can’t find what they want, or have an idea in their head they want to embroider, it is a satisfying process.

First, know what embroidery style you are comfortable with. For beginners only just discovering surface embroidery, patterns for a stumpwork design are too adventurous. Wait until you have tried a style before designing for it.

Second, draft a few sketches on paper. Try different placements for the elements in your embroidery pattern, moving them around till they appear balanced – not evenly spread necessarily, but till it “looks right”. For example, if you have a bird on a branch to the left of centre, try a flower to the right.

And remember the basic rules of perspective – items closer to you will be larger, and lower in the picture. Items further away will be smaller, and higher in the picture.

To see the Collection Showcase of the UK Embroidery Guild go to this website:
http://tinyurl.com/lmtp6s
I am now using shortened URL's to make addresses less cumbersome, I get them shortened through tinyurl so you can be sure they are genuine.

More on embroidery design next time.

Crazy Patchwork

I love crazy patchwork. I sew it the traditional way, with the raw edges being covered with either ribbon, braid or embroidery, because I can make the patches irregular and place them where I want to. I know many people now prefer to use the sewing machine, but this looks to me like a modified log cabin design and I am more interested in the freedom of irregularity. I recently made a waistcoat which I show you here. It is velvet, satin and heavy Chinese satin, kindly donated by my cousin Jan, and I enjoyed making it, though it is quite heavy and hot to wear.

Embroidered galah (Australian bird)

The galah as promised.

Texture in Surface Embroidery

One of the loveliest things about embroidery is the textures we work to create. Smooth, fluffy, bumpy - so many different textures, all of them interesting and tactile.

As a textile artist, embroidery has long been one of my loves. I have given away many of my creations (I'm a "process more than the product" person) but I will show you one of those I couldn't part with. It portrays a variety of textures.This is not my design, I took it direct from a book by Lalla Ward called the Countryside Embroidery Book. Unfortunately it is no longer in print; it is a most beautiful book showing 12 scenes, one for each month, of British birds, flowers etc. The ducklings in this pic are fluffy, being worked in Turkey stitch/Giordes knot, which is basically a long looping stitch that is then cut to produce the fluffy effect. This contrasts strongly with the poppies, which are in smooth satin stitch. The butterfly has a fluffy body and smooth wings. The borders are first, padded satin stitch, stem stitch and blanket stitch.

Another way of creating texture is with the stitches themselves. For instance, in my galah, the bird is actually painted with fabric paint and them embroidered with detached chains. This gives the texture of the feathers quite well.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to upload this photo so I will show you next time!

Patchwork Piecing

Today I have a few hints on patchwork piecing. I'm thinking about it because my husband has picked out a patchwork quilt for me to make, and it contains hundreds of squares cut into triangles. A couple of posts back I gave you my idea for using glad snaplock bags for categorising the various sizes and shapes. Another idea is to use fleece as a backing instead of the usual batting and fabric backing. This makes for a light quilt, better for summer use, or if it is going to be a throw rather than a bed quilt. I have machine-quilted on this very successfully - the walking foot goes over the two layers like a dream with no rucking-up of the patchwork layer.

As far as the piecing goes - there is a tradition that you have to build in a mistake because only God can achieve perfection. I like this rule because I can excuse my mistakes by saying they were meant!

I do use a rotary cutter for large amounts of straight cutting, but I am a philistine really because I prefer scissors - anyone else out there who shares my feeling?I found this pattern in a magazine several years ago, before I started designing my own patterns, and as I have a great affection for a cup of tea, I made it straight away.

Back to embroidery next time.