Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 266: Laced Back Stitch

It is time for a new set of five embroidery stitches. First out is a manipulated stitch, well-known, easy, and with a descriptive name - Laced Back Stitch. Just reading the name most of you will know how to stitch it.

Just for fun, you can follow these photos:

Start with a line of Back Stitch.

Change to another thread for the lacing. 

Go under the thread only.  Down...

up... Down, up, down, up down, up...

Choose between tight and loose loops - or use both.

Anchor at the end.

Homework: 

Add lines of Laced Back Stitch to these three samplers.

Friday Revision Homework - Stitches: 261 - 265

I want to feature Sunbonnet Sue at many stages of her life. 

Here she is in her teens, brooding over life, love, school, music, God, the future, acne,  plastic marine pollution.... She is wondering whether to join the fencing team or embroidery club at school, to make do with her pocket money or get a part-time job after school, to continue to wait for Sam in the year above to call or to be brave enough to text him, to apply for an exchange student programme and go abroad for a year... or should she give in to the pressure from her friends and try that party drug, or join the volunteers and clean up the beach, or...

Poor Sue is thinking so hard she's got a splitting headache.

Did you have an identity crisis in your youth?

Apart from the stitches above, I have also used Stem Stitch and Straight Stitch.

What's in a Quilt - The Green Man - Part 9: Trapunto

There are a few blocks on the Green Man quilt that have added stuffing, today let's look at Trapunto, an Italian way to add extra texture.

Basically, you need the top fabric, a sheet of batting (high or low loft), small balls of extra batting, and a sheet of thin backing fabric, e.g. gauze:

Sandwich the quilt in the usual way.

Quilt along the desired quilting line -  I made a leaf.

Now, out come the scissors! Cut a slit in the backing fabric, and with the help of a pair of tweezers and a cocktail stick stuff the leaf with extra batting.

When you are satisfied with the height of the stuffing, stitch the slit together. Pure surgery!

You can see how puffy the leaf has become.

Finally, it is time for the real backing fabric. Baste it to the quilt sandwich and start quilting the non-stuffed areas.

Here I have done echo quilting, but crosshatch or any other type is ok of course. The more you quilt, the higher the stuffed areas rise up. 

The leaves of the Green Man are densely packed with batting and there is dense quilting around him, as you can see.

I have also added a bit of interesting information for you:

Shannon Brinkley talks about the background of Trapunto quilting. Have a look at the beautiful Tristan and Isolde quilt. Shannon also shows examples of Trapunto made by machine. 

The second piece of information is this YouTube video where the quilter is simply poking a hole in the back and pushing in the batting, no need for suture!:

WIPW - A Birthday Present

Oh, how time flies! Here is this week's Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Mandala

I completed the four lines of small blue and green leaves.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler 

I used two filling stitches: #87 Open Wave (variegated thread) and #104 Fly Stitch Filling (red and white).

Both were stitched freehand without waste canvas, so they are a bit wonky.

Birthday Present

A young lady I know will soon be 8 years old. The other day she coloured in a Mandala and hinted that she wished it had been stitched. I rescheduled some chores to get enough time to stitch it for her. This is as far as I have got.

I will only use threads that I have in my stash, so that is why the orange is a bit too strong in colour. Furthermore, I will also add some beads and metallic thread as the birthday girl LOVES everything that sparkles.