Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 186 - 190

It is time to look back at the five stitches we have done recently.

Click on the title to see the instructions.

186 Stick People Stitch

Fun and easy. You can dress up or down the people.

187 Catherine Wheel Stitch

This is a beautiful combination of stitches, but the actual wheel it got its name from has much to answer for. 

188 Quaker Stitch

Perfect for lettering, but difficult to get even.

189 Tied Chain Stitch

Here is another example of how two stitches can combine into a really beautiful one.

190 Ring Knot Stitch

This is a 'LEGO' stitch - you can build all sort of things with it.

Homework:

Use the five stitches in a Sunbonnet Sue picture, based on this sketch.

Friday Homework for Lesson 190: Ring Knot Stitch

This stitch has turned out to be trickier than I first thought. First of all, it was really hard to do it on Aida. Better use a tightly woven fabric. Secondly, you need to know which part of the loop to keep steady. I hope the following photos will show how:

Place the thread over the needle, then pull the thread slightly towards you.

Tip the needle to shape a loop.

Put your finger on the red star, and tighten the working thread (yellow arrow).

Insert the needle as close to where it came out.

Pull through and tighten.

Aida Sampler

I had to anchor the loops with an extra stitch to keep the ring from becoming a real knot!

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth

WIPW - Only 10

 Work In Progress Wednesday - a weekly report on projects.

Log Cabin Challenge

I must confess I have only had time to quilt ten blocks, you can see them in yellow on the right.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

I added three different stitches, on the left #43 Moss Stitch, in the middle #108 Crow's Foot and on the right #94 Smyrna Stitch.

Not a lot to 'write home about' and no need to comment. I hope next week will be a better week.

May I Suggest...Monday?

Every Monday I want to promote blog reading. The names of blogs I like have been written on pieces of paper, and today I picked two slips at random from my box.

Spoonflower

This is a commercial site. I first learned about Spoonflower from Linda at Lins Arty Blob. Spoonflower is a company where fabric (and wallpaper) is printed to order, they have a huge collection of patterns by talented artists,  Linda is one of them and has several beautiful designs. Search for Linsart to see.

Anyway, this is about BLOG promotion, and at Spoonflower there is also a blog. There you will find tutorials, free patterns, fat quarter projects, and Spoonflower Ambassadors, designers who have come up with various ways to use the prints. Among them is also an embroidery artist.

If you like fabric, art and design, if you want ideas for small gifts, and if you want to order fabric or wallpaper with a special design, or upload your own! and have it printed and shipped to you, have a look at this website.

Quilted Twins Quilt Lingo

BOM, PhD, DSM, Honey Bun, RST, UFO, Jelly Roll.... If you know what these expressions are, you don't need to learn any more quilt lingo. If you don't know, go to this site and learn to speak 'Quiltish'.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 190: Ring Knot Stitch

The French Knot (TAST #15) is probably the most well known of all the stitches in the Knot Family.

Then there is the famous Colonial Knot #49 used for candlewick quilting.

We've also looked at Danish Knot #4

Chinese Knot #33

Carina's Knot Stitch #125

Plucked Knot #154

So today it is time for another knotty stitch, Ring Knot Stitch. This stitch I have seen before in a book about Chinese embroidery. According to it there are two versions, a tight one referred to as Chinese Knot. This stitch was used for lesson #33.

The other version is a ring, or loop, anchored by a knot, and we will be learning it today.

Shami, at My Craft Works, has a good tutorial for the loop version. Actually all her stitch tutorials are really professional with clear and easy to follow photos and instructions. Shami also suggests how to use each stitch, and supplies a design. The Ring Knot Stitch is perfect for flowers..

At Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials, another excellent collection of stitches, you will see a joint tutorial for the Chinese Knot and the Ring Knot Stitch. She calls both versions of the stitch Peking Knot

Confused? Is your brain in a knotty tangle?

Here they all are:

.........

Updated to clarify the instructions.

Make the Ring Knot Stitch like this:

Wrap the thread around the needle.

Insert the needle just above the exit,

without tightening the thread

into a tight knot. Instead make a loop.

Flip the loop over.

Press down on the thread where the red  

star is and pull the working thread 

(yellow arrow) to the size you want the

ring.

Pull the needle through to anchor the

thread.

To make a group of rings,

take the needle out nearby and

repeat.

Aren't they pretty?

Homework:

Add Ring Knots to your samplers.

Friday Homework for Lesson 189: Tied Chain Stitch

This lovely stitch has so many good points: it can be a filler, a border or edge, it swerves well in curves, it lets you play with two threads, or even three if you want to do the Chain Stitch in two different threads as well. It lets you use threads of different weight, or the Coral Stitch line can be made using a difficult, fluffy or knobbly yarn... Try it out in various ways!

Of course the spacing of the parallell Chains Stitch lines is easiest on Aida.

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth

Aida Sampler

WIPW - Working Near the Edge

Work In Progress Wednesday.

Log Cabin Challenge

I have now reached one of the edges and have in total quilted 34 blocks since last Wednesday. I took the photo while it was still daylight so only 29 of them can be seen in blue on the graph, the remaning five ARE completed!

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

Two stitches made short swirls on the right, #58 Twisted Shell Chain Stitch (yellow) and #153 Alternating Chained Buttonhole Stitch (purple).

May I Suggest...Monday?

Every Monday I want to promote blog reading. The names of blogs I like have been written on pieces of paper, and today I picked two slips at random from my box.

KHG Arts

American Kate Herron Gendreau writes about quilting, embroidery, costume history and many other topics. She has some stitch video tutorials.

Threads

Here you can get inspiration for a Stitch Wheel, an embroidery sampler made inside a hoop. Cathy Reavy has YouTube tutorials for some stitches, workshops, kits and a passion for stitching.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 189: Tied Chain Stitch

When I heard the name of this stitch I instantly thought of gold chain necklaces, and how they tend to knot themselves if you don't store them properly.

There is no need to worry, you will have no such problem with this stitch. Instead the knots hold the chains in place. Yes, chainS, because you first need to make two parallel rows of Chain Stitch, and then tie them together with knotty Coral Stitch. If you already know these two stitches, then today's lesson will be a breeze.

Tied Chain Stitch comes from Sarah's Hand Embroidery Stitch Tutorials. 

Here are my pictures:

In Sarah's Stitch Tutorial the Coral Stitch is

worked from left to right.

I have done the traditional Coral Stitch, right

to left.

Tie the knots only around the inner links of the 

Chains without going through the fabric.

Anchor the last stitch.

Homework:

Add to the samplers.

Friday Homework for Lesson 188: Quaker Stitch

 Although this stitch is not difficult, it IS hard to get it even. It doesn't take the curves too well, I think...

Aida Sampler

Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

WIPW - Three Stitches

 Hurry, hurry to post your Work In Progress Wednesday report!

Log Cabin Challenge

I quilted no fewer than 26 blocks, they are marked in dark brown. This is a record number of blocks quilted in one week. Have I worked this hard because I am getting impatient and really want to finish this quilt?

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

Here I added three stitches, also a record, I usually add two.

The new stitches were a line of #142 Ainu Stitch (or to be exact, Ie Shin Nin Ninu Chie Shiro Kouchou, as this variation of the Running Stitch is called in Ainu language).

#129 Olga's Petal Stitch was used to make a petal. I first appliquéd an oval and then stitched over it. Finally I used #59 Knotted Running Stitch along the edge of the petal.

May I Suggest...Monday?

Every Monday I want to promote blog reading. The names of blogs I like have been written on pieces of paper, and today I picked two slips at random from my box.

 

Kazuko Aoki

This is the blog of famous Japanese embroiderer Kazuko Aoki. She was trained in Sweden and that has influenced her a lot. Her motifs are usually of things found in her kitchen and flower gardens.

The blog is written in Japanese, but you can always enjoy the photographs.

Those of you who live in Japan, or can watch NHK's Sutekini Handmade, might already be familiar with Ms Aoki.

RSN STITCHBANK

Although this is not a blog, I recommend you look at this website.

I recently learned about this new project launched at Royal School of Needlework to celebrate their 150th anniversary. The quality of RSN guarantees this to be an excellent resource of stitches.

You can read a bit about each stitch, alternative names, sources... There are three types of tutorials: drawings, photographs and videos. 

Don't miss this!

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 188: Quaker Stitch

Here is another stitch with references to religion - Quaker Stitch. It was used for the Quaker Tapestry. You can see the panels at The Quaker Tapestry Museum at Kendal, England. Read about it here.

Quaker Stitch is basically a Split Stem Stitch. It was created by Anne Wynn-Wilson who, together with a small boy, 11-year old Jonathan, started the tapestry project. There is an interesting interview with her in Friends Journal, April 1989, page 12 and onwards (you have to scroll down a bit), of this pdf file.

I have seen the stitch before, but my memory was nudged by  Carorose, and then I had a reminder look at Needle 'n Thread for Mary Corbet's excellent tutorial.

Make the Quaker Stitch like this:

Make a Back Stitch and come out

of the same hole as you started,

then enter a bit further along the

line.

Leave a loop, and exit the 

needle in the middle of the 

stitch, to split it.

Continue in the same way.

Anchor the last stitch in the 

same hole of the previous stitch.

The shorter you make the stitches the easier it is to use Quaker Stitch for writing.

Homework:

Write or make lines on these samplers.