Sunbonnet Sue

I got a few requests about my Sunbonnet Sue collection. 

So far, there are 310 stitches in Sunday Stitch School. After every five stitches, I have made a Sunbonnet Sue stitch sampler. 

Let's do some mathematics: 310 ÷ 5 = 62. Yes, there are 62 Sunbonnet Sue pictures!

Some are the traditional Sue with her charming puppy fat and simple lines, and some are her bonnets, but most of the pictures are my own interpretations of Sue. Sue as a baby, a child, a teenager, a schoolgirl, an adult, a bride, an old lady... Sue is playing, relaxing, working, going shopping, crying, gardening, having her hair done, falling off a ladder ... but all the time, her face is hidden, one way or another.

Here are a few examples:

My first plan was to make a quilt, so I added wadding and the embroidery of each scene is done through the sandwich of top, bottom and wadding. 

Now I realise I can not make a quilt - it would simply be too large. What I will do is get a picture frame and display a picture per week in this frame. It will take me over a year to go through them all!

I will write more about this project later.

WIPW - Fabric Covered Plastic Cups

 It's time for this week's Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Hexablooms

I used some more of the Christmas prints I have to make ten more flowers, bringing the total to 220.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

I added two plastic cups that I had covered with fabric. Around one of them, I stitched #55 Tailor's Buttonhole Stitch (over gimp) and over the other, I made a grid of #135 Net Stitch.

Sunday Stitch School - Taking a Holiday

December is a busy month. I have decided to keep Sunday Stitch School closed for the rest of the year,

and start the next set of five stitches on the first Sunday in January next year.

Sunbonnet Sue made with stitches 231 - 235,   December 2022

Sunbonnet Sue can slumber in her box. Instead, I will continue with Hexablooms and Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler. The next blog post will be WIPW on Wednesday.

Friday Revision Homework - Stitches 306 - 310

Sunbonnet Sue is enjoying the cold winter weather. When the first snow fell, she rushed outside to make a snowman.

I usually make all the outlines in Stem Stitch, a stitch outside the five featured stitches for each Sunbonnet Sue sampler. In this particular group of five stitches was a linear stitch, Whipped Backstitch, which I used to outline all the main shapes. Boy, did it take time! Much, much more time than the quick and easy Stem Stitch would have taken. It was a good lesson to learn what linear stitch to use when. So, if you have little time, don't use the Whipped Backstitch. If you want a beautiful, even line, though, and have the time, go for the WB. 

WIPW - Time for X-mas Prints

Work In Progress Wednesday. It is nearing Christmas and I thought I would add some X-massy prints to the collection of 

Hexabloom

flowers. One print is red and the other green. There will be seasonal prints again next week.

I now have 210 flowers in my collection. I need a bigger box to store the individual blocks in until I can assemble them into the flimsy...

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

Where else can I pack in some extra stitches to even out any sparse places on this sampler? Well, I think it's time to add leaves, #45 Leaf Stitch and #67 Fishbone Stitch, as well as those odd shapes laced with variegated rainbow thread. #168 Croatian Rainbow Stitch ...

 

Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 306 - 310

These last five stitches seem to have very little in common. How am I going to work them into a Sunbonnet Sue sampler?

Let's revisit them. If you click the title a link will take you to the instructions.

306 Whipped Back Stitch

This is definitely the easiest of the five stitches, yet it is a very attractive stitch.

307 Rhodes Diamond Stitch

Here is another member of the Rhodes family. I like that the diamond can be either a square on point, or a real diamond shape - long and tapering.

308 Crossed Cretan Stitch

It takes a bit of time to get into the rhythm, but once you have got it, you have got it!

309 Chessboard Filling Stitch

Here is a neat canvas stitch. Nice and hardwearing.

310 Circular Buttonhole Dome Stitch

This stitch has been around for a long time. There are many possibilities here, play around with colour and different types of thread.

Homework:

Let Sue have seasonal fun!

Friday Homework for Lesson 310: Circular Buttonhole Dome Stitch

Oh, I know the Circular Buttonhole Dome Stitch  looks complicated, but it is actually very simple to do. It is a bit of a challenge, though, to make it look neat.

I suggest using a thread with a good twist and stitching slowly.

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Mottled Wool Scribble Cloth

Oops, I missed adding the Buttonhole Dome to the set of 'legs' on the upper left!

WIPW - Two Zero Zero

 Work In Progress Wednesday for the first week in December 2024.

Hexablooms

I made another set of ten hexagon flowers. The number of completed flowers is now 200.

This time I didn't count every stitch but basically, I made 320 stitches on the Hexablooms project this week, too.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

More voids on the Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler have been filled in with:

Two buttons which were secured with #132 Dandelion Stitch. Furthermore, a green circle of #8 Heavy Chain was filled with one #295 Backstitched German Knot Stitch in purple. The ring of #49 Colonial Knots (light blue) is encircling a scattering of #56 Detached Twisted Chain Stitch (lime green).

So all in all, no spectacular work this week, I'm just trudging on.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 310: Circular Buttonhole Dome

Let's have a historic stitch today! Jacqui Carey, who has written interesting books on Elizabethan stitches, has co-operated with the Royal School of Needlework to add this stitch to their RSN Stitch Bank.

Here is the link to the excellent instructions for the Circular Buttonhole Stitch. There is a useful video, too.

For my photo tutorial, see below:

This is the desired design in the middle of the stitch. You can read more about the ancient Looped Square, or Apple Command key here.

1

2

3

4

Here you can see the lower left loop forming.

5

Next, the lower right loop.

6

7

Make sure you go under both orange threads.

8

So here is the upper right loop, one more to go.

9

Go under both orange threads and you'll have your last upper left loop.

10

11

Anchor the stitch in the middle void.

12

Congratulations!

13

Homework:

Add here.

A Zillion Little Stitches

 

Stitching the Hexablooms is an easy job which does not require much concentration. You can easily work up a hexagon flower while listening to audiobooks or music, or chattering to someone. Or you can just let your mind wander and think of other things. I was engaged in the latter last night and started pondering over the word STITCH.

As you know it can mean several things,

a stitch = a loop of thread resulting from a single pass of the needle in sewing

to stitch = to join something with stitches

to be in stitches = to laugh uncontrollably

a stitch in time saves nine = fix a small problem now to avoid trouble later

not have a stitch on = be in the nude

stitch and bitch  = gather to stitch and chat/gossip with others

to have a stitch = to have a pain (usually at the side of the abdomen)

to require stitches = a wound or incision that requires suturing at a hospital

to stitch up a deal = to set up a deal to one's advantage

and so on...

Now we embroidery stitchers spend a lot of time on stitching, don't we? Have you ever wondered how many stitches you have taken in your life? I have.

So while I sat there and let my needle do all the work, my brain started counting, one, two, three...

I make 14 stitches when I baste the fabric over the cardboard hexagon.

I need 6 petals and 1 centre, so 7 hexagons in total. 

14 x 7 = 98 

I join each petal to the centre, which requires 17 stitches

To go around all the sides of the centre, I need 17 x 6 = 102 stitches.

After removing the cardboard in the middle, I start joining the petals to each other. This requires another 17 stitches for each seam.

3 large basting stitches are also needed to let the thread walk between the petals before I can stitch on the next petal.

Each petal thus needs 17+3 stitches, and there are 6 seams.

17 + 3 = 20

20 x 6 = 120

Each Hexabloom requieres 98 + 102 + 120 = 320 stitches.

How many Hexablooms have I got?

This is just a few!

Piles and piles and piles, I have reached 190. 

190 x 320 = ...

This means I have made 60.800 stitches so far.

I still have a long way to go before reaching the zillion mark! I'd better make another Hexabloom, i.e. 320 new stitches to get closer to my goal.