Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 331: Astrakhan Velvet Stitch

 Let's start the set of five new stitches with a loopy one - Astrakhan Velvet Stitch, or just Velvet Stitch for short.

It belongs to the Loopy Family together with #93 Rya Stitch and #248 Surrey Stitch.

I recommend two internet sites for instructions: Royal School of Needlework or Deanna Hall West's article in Piecework Magazine, where she shows no fewer than seven different ways to do the stitch!

Or you could follow my photo instructions, which I based on The Embroidery Stitch Bible.

Place a pin below the actual stitch line to wrap the loops around.

Go under the pin while not going through the fabric.

Pull the thread to the left.

The first stitch is complete.

New stitches are placed above the previous stitches.

You need another pin to wrap the new loops around.

These stitches are spaced so there is a lot of fabric between each row.

Here they are right above the previous row filling the fabric.

Keep the loops like this, or cut them open to make a tufted look.

Homework:

Add here.

Friday Revision Homework - Stitches: 326 - 330

Phew! I finished my homework with less than half an hour to spare - soon it will be Saturday here in Japan.

On the internet, I found an illustration which I thought would make a good Sunbonnet Sue. 

Here she is on a freelance photo shoot with the Pueblo Indians. They let her try on one of the dance costumes, and it has a face mask!

To illustrate the revision stitches, I let Sue hold a stitch sampler of Pueblo geometric designs.

The question is, does she realise there are flames in the radiation grass behind her?

WIPW - New Starts and A Restart

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The past week has been about starting two new projects (a stitch sampler and a quilt), restarting an old UFO (The Mandala) and of course, continuing with the ongoing quilt (Hexablooms). A bit of garment adjustment was also achieved.

Hexablooms

I added more floral blocks in purple. In total, 75 blocks are joined together. It's getting difficult to photograph...

Mandala

Here is the restart of a shelved UFO. I added more Colonial Knots to the Mandala. Two out of four sections like this are filled.

New! Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

This is a new stitch sampler for the remaining and future Sunday Stitch School stitches.

I added #301 Wreath Stitch, #302 Triangular Bullion Stitch, and #303 Tacked Herringbone Stitch.

The coarse cotton is lovely to stitch on, but tough to mark. For the orange wreath, I tried to mark the fabric with a yellow charcoal pencil. The markings were not clear enough to guide the needle, but the charcoal stuck to the fabric, and here I am with a yellow stain inside the wreath.

In the end, I had to mark the design on a piece of paper, pin it to the fabric and stitch through the paper.  The result was a very neat wreath.

In the stitch at the top, I also stitched the corners - I ended up with a square wreath!

New! The Baby Quilt

Next month, a friend of mine will become a grandmother, and I want to welcome the Little One with a simple quilt.

There will be pieces of scraps from my stash in it, but I needed a piece of cotton big enough for the larger area and the back. Off I went to a fabric shop where I selected a print with pink cherry blossoms and the traditional Japanese wave patterns.

The first step was to wash the fabric. 

Step number two will be to give it a good press with a hot iron, before cutting it into the desired parts.

Modifying Clothing

A young family member came with a request: "Aunty Queenie, please shorten this secondhand T-shirt I bought online". 

My nephew had bought a T-shirt marked size L. Made in the US, it was considerably larger than a Japanese L-size, especially in length. When my nephew modelled the T-shirt, I thought he was wearing a dress.

Out came my Elna sewing machine and the presser foot for "Super Overlock Stitch". In the manual, it says: "This industrial inspired overlock stitch is excellent for assembling and finishing fabrics together in one step. Apply ribbings to knits and garment retains its shape. Elna invented this stitch in 1982."

I haven't worked with knits or overlocking in a long time, but the machine delivered a good result.

Sorry, no photo was taken.

Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 326 - 330

Some of the five stitches we are going to review here are so simple, the only thing you need to know is how to make a Straight Stitch. Then add a bit of tweaking, and you have a variety of new stitches.

Click on the title to get to the stitch instructions.

#326 Alternative Cross Stitch

The name says it all - two types of Xs, one large and one small, make up this stitch.

#327 Fire Stitch

Isn't this a descriptive name?! You make it by placing two Straight Stitches leaning against each other.

The flames can also turn into grass or other things.

#328 Old Florentine Stitch

It was high time I added a Canvas Stitch. This is easy to make with two sizes of Straight Stitch.

#329 Radiation Stitch

This is a stitch that resembles an open hand-held fan. The more you open up the fan, the wider the stitch. Change the length of each Straight Stitch, and voila! new shapes take form.

#330 Pueblo Stitch

Instead of Straight Stitch, this is based on Back Stitch/Split Stitch and looks a bit like a Chain Stitch. 

Pueblo Stitch is best done slowly. Switching over the two coloured threads takes a bit of time before it becomes second nature. The result is a lovely braid.

Much has been written about the Pueblo Indians, their costumes and religious dances. Check out the Friday Homework page here.

Homework:

How will Sunbonnet Sue deal with the five stitches?

Friday Homework for Lesson 330: Pueblo Stitch (with some updates)

My friend Janie left a comment about the Pueblo Indians and the origin of the name of the stitch.

I searched the web and found:

Pueblo Indians are a group of Native Americans who live in the Southwestern United States, known for their distinctive, multi-story adobe villages commonly referred to as pueblos. They are descendants of the ancient Ancestral Puebloans (also known as Anasazi) and have a long history of settled agricultural life. Today, they reside primarily in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. 

Here is a link to Pueblo Indians' clothing.

In 'Ceremonial Costumes of the Pueblo Indians', which I have only had time to skim through, I found that 'heavy embroidery raises the surface and stiffens the garment...' on page 90. 

I didn't, however, note any information about a particular embroidery stitch. As Sunday Stitch School's  #330 Pueblo Stitch has a rich braided look, its 3D texture 'raises the surface...'.

Updated:  On pages 106 and 107 I found the following about Pueblo embroidery:

the embroidery was done by men, the cloth was stretched in a frame and the stitch was a simple Back Stitch, most of the thread was on the right side, picking up only a few on the underside.

If you are interested and have the time, please read this thorough description of the garments of the Pueblo Indians.

Janie also commented that she had heard Pueblo Stitch can also be called Split Ply Stitch. After some research, I found that there is a weaving technique with that name.

For an embroidery stitch, it also makes sense. 

Look what my dictionary says about PLY:

[usually in combination] a strand of yarn or rope: [as modifier] :  four-ply yarn. 

• the number of multiple layers or strands of which something is made: the yarn can be any ply from two to eight.

As the needle is loaded with two strands of thread and we are splitting those two strands for the Pueblo Stitch it makes sense to call Pueblo Stitch Split Ply Stitch. 
In my opinion, however, it would also apply to the ordinary Split Stitch as we are then splitting the two-ply twisted strand of a single strand of thread.
Isn't embroidery a most interesting subject?
.....................
My homework:

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Mottled Wool Scribble Cloth

Isn't Pueblo Stitch a most beautiful embroidery stitch?

WIPW - Zipped Up and Stuffed

 Work In Progress Wednesday. 

Hexablooms

More flowers, 65 to be exact, have opened up on the ever-growing quilt flimsy.

 

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

It's COMPLETED!

The cushion is now assembled. The fastener is stitched in place and zipped up. The cushion is stuffed with a large pillow AND a woollen blanket that was hibernating in the closet. 

Finally, the cushion, which features the first 300 stitches from Sunday Stitch School, is now chilling out on the daybed. 

Flip it over to see the reverse side.

This is definitely a 'look, but don't touch' cushion and nothing to lean back against. All those blue sequins will prick your back for sure. 

No, you had much better study the various stitches and celebrate the loveliness of embroidery.

Birthday Card

The birthday card I showed a blown-up version of last week looks like this.

I used three pieces of machine-made lace. One, the hat, I coloured with fabric crayons. The collar and the blue bow tie are simply stitched on. 

The hair was made from a silky synthetic fibre I once bought in the UK. I wound it round a bamboo skewer and ironed it till it became a long cork screw curl. 

It was then cut into several sections and stitched on before I placed the hat on top.

The face was drawn with felt-tip pens, and the cheeks were blushed with ink from a red pencil.

It was fun and easy to make this card with materials I had in my stash.

New!

The New Sunday Stitch School Sampler

There are 330 stitches in the Sunday Stitch School collection. 300 are in the cushion as seen above.

The remaining 30, and all the future stitches I have yet to learn, need a place to live. That is why I will start a new stitch sampler on a piece of coarse cotton dyed with indigo.

Here is the blank page!

Mandala

Do you remember the Mandala project? 

It has been taking a long rest in its project box. Now, with the cushion ticked off the list, it is time to progress on this wallhanging. 

The first thing I did was to take a good look and a long think!

First on the list will be to fill in the three remaining voids with knots, and I have to check what type of knot stitches they are, as I have forgotten.

All in all, it has been a very productive week for a change.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 330: Pueblo Stitch

 Do you remember #119 Alternating Magic Split Stitch and #120 Magic Split Stitch?

Today, we will learn Pueblo Stitch, which is quite similar.

Instructions for Pueblo Stitch can be found in many places, on YouTube and at Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials as well as at Arts&Design under Pueblo Stitch.

Q: So what differs between Alternating Magic Split Stitch and Pueblo Stitch? 

A: The placement of the needle!

Compare the picture of Alternating Magic Split Stitch with the photo of Pueblo Stitch.

In Alternating Magic Split Stitch, the tip of the needle 
comes out inside the previous 'Chain Stitch'.

In Pueblo Stitch, the tip of the needle comes out in the
hole just outside the 'Chain Stitch'. 

Here is my photo tutorial.

You need two threads of different colours on the needle.

Take a Back Stitch by splitting the threads, red on the left and blue on the right. 

Pull the threads through.

Change the threads over, blue on the left and red on the right. 

Take a Back Stitch and exit in the hole at the bottom of the 'Chain Stitch'.

Alternate by changing the coloured threads over.

Continue. Anchor the last stitch.

Homework:

Try to squeeze in a line of Pueblo Stitch on your samplers. The Mottled Wool Scribble Cloth is getting fuller and fuller. Is there any space left?