What's In A Quilt - The Green Man - Part 1: Cross Stitch

Many years ago some friends in Norfolk, UK, introduced me to the Green Man. This architectural feature can be found in many churches in East Anglia, although it is not unique to the UK. 

There are various thoughts about what the Green Man actually symbolises. Many believe it to be a symbol of rebirth and the ever-changing seasons. Others speculate that the village craftsmen who helped build the churches wanted to add their own 'stamp' or even a bit of pagan mischief, especially as these Green Men are often well hidden. e.g. under pews and high up in the ceiling.

Read more about the Green Man on Wikipedia.

My friends and I would go on excursions and visit small village churches to look for Green Men in the masonry, wood carvings and roof bosses. 

Some faces are grotesque, others charming. The most well-known and best-loved, and in my opinion, the most beautiful, is the roof boss in Norwich Cathedral Cloisters. In fact, it is so adored it has lent its features to postcards, posters and cross-stitch kits. I made this one MANY years ago.

I was then commissioned to make a small quilt in 2005. After painting the face, the leaves were appliquéd with various pieces of fabric suitable for leaves, such as batik, marbled fabric and printed greenery. All of them are in the shape of oak leaves. The quilting in the border is also of oak leaves.

Making this quilt was such fun I wanted to make a larger quilt for myself. I decided to make 15 blocks of basically the same Green Man, where each block is worked with a different technique, e.g. Trapunto, Crazy Quilt, Hexagon...

Today I will start telling the stories of these blocks with the Cross-Stitch block:

I used the chart from the kit above, and DMC stranded floss left over from other projects. It is probably the block that required the most time to make.

To be continued...

Friday Homework for Lesson 33: Chinese Knot Stitch

Student: Phew, phew. I'm sorry I'm late. Here's is my homework.
Teacher: You'd better have a good excuse for handing in your homework a day late.
Student: Well, yesterday my brain boiled dry in the heat.
Teacher: I've never heard such rubbish!
Student: But it's true, Miss, I promise.
Teacher: Stop wining and hand over the work.
Student: Here it is.
Teacher. Hm, not too bad considering the overcooked brain. I'll give you, 'Pass'.
Student: Oh, thank you, Miss.

Friday Homework for Lesson 3: Cross Stitch

Sorry for the delay.

There has been a lot to learn since last week's lesson. I have worked hard at the set homework.
Let's start with the monogram on the tea towel.

I stitched it with a piece of waste canvas, which helped to keep the stitches even.

After stitching, I sprayed the canvas with water, waited until the starched threads had softened and picked them out with a pair of tweezers.

 I am quite pleased with the result.

By paying attention I managed to make the back rather even, too. Most stitches are vertical and the crosses or horizontally drawn threads are few.

I am the student of this course, but in a way also the teacher, so I will give myself 'Well Done' for this part of the homework.

The free pattern

The object with this homework was to make the thread lie flat on the cross and the back look neat. 

I added another target, to make individual stitches without the thread traveling on the back.

The first thing I did was to separate the two threads by pulling them out one by one from the six strands of floss. This is also known as 'stripping'.

Since then I have been given the advice by Carorose to dampen the strands with a sponge before threading the needle. I have yet to try this, but Carorose is a highly professional needlewoman and have made more Cross Stitch work than anyone I know.

I paid attention to  check that the two threads were parallel even in the first part of the cross.

I did this with a tip I once got from a Japanese embroidery book - roll the needle between the thumb and index finger to untangle the threads. I blogged about this back in 2013.

I think this method works rather well.

Next let's focus on individual Cross Stitches without the thread traveling on the back.

On the internet I found something called the Pinhead Stitch.

Begin by anchoring the stitch like this:

Then make the Cross Stitch itself.

Finally anchor the stitch under the Cross Stitch.

Snip off the thread ends on the back.

The completed piece.

So how does it look on the back?

Well, certainly better than my previous work!

I think the Cross Stitch is one stitch I no longer need to get crossed with!

Friday Homework for Lesson 3: Cross Stitch

Sorry for the delay.

There has been a lot to learn since last week's lesson. I have worked hard at the set homework.
Let's start with the monogram on the tea towel.

I stitched it with a piece of waste canvas, which helped to keep the stitches even.

After stitching, I sprayed the canvas with water, waited until the starched threads had softened and picked them out with a pair of tweezers.

 I am quite pleased with the result.

By paying attention I managed to make the back rather even, too. Most stitches are vertical and the crosses or horizontally drawn threads are few.

I am the student of this course, but in a way also the teacher, so I will give myself 'Well Done' for this part of the homework.

The free pattern

The object with this homework was to make the thread lie flat on the cross and the back look neat. 

I added another target, to make individual stitches without the thread traveling on the back.

The first thing I did was to separate the two threads by pulling them out one by one from the six strands of floss. This is also known as 'stripping'.

Since then I have been given the advice by Carorose to dampen the strands with a sponge before threading the needle. I have yet to try this, but Carorose is a highly professional needlewoman and have made more Cross Stitch work than anyone I know.

I paid attention to  check that the two threads were parallel even in the first part of the cross.

I did this with a tip I once got from a Japanese embroidery book - roll the needle between the thumb and index finger to untangle the threads. I blogged about this back in 2013.

I think this method works rather well.

Next let's focus on individual Cross Stitches without the thread traveling on the back.

On the internet I found something called the Pinhead Stitch.

Begin by anchoring the stitch like this:

Then make the Cross Stitch itself.

Finally anchor the stitch under the Cross Stitch.

Snip off the thread ends on the back.

The completed piece.

So how does it look on the back?

Well, certainly better than my previous work!

I think the Cross Stitch is one stitch I no longer need to get crossed with!

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 3: Cross Stitch

Welcome to Sunday Stitch School. Today I will be focusing on another basic and fundamental stitch, the Cross Stitch. It is also known as Sampler Stitch, Berlin Stitch and Point de Marque, and in Swedish is called Korsstygn. I would be delighted to hear what other names, in other languages, it has.
Updated information:
French: Point de Marque is an old expression, now it is called Point de Croix
Dutch: Kruissteek

Cross Stitch features in almost every one of my stitch books. In one of them it says that this stitch is used traditionally in India, Central and Eastern Europe, the Greek Islands and Scandinavia, but I think it is a stitch that can be found in ANY country on Earth.
In Britain, in the 19th century, learning the Cross Stitch was an important part of girls' education and the name Sampler Stitch must refer to the many samplers that these girls made.
One unique form of Cross Stitch embroidery is the Italian Assisi work, where the background is stitched, but the motif remains void of stitches.
The name of Berlin Stitch, does it refer to the printed and coloured grid patterns sold in Germany from 1809?
Greece is a country of islands and there are many styles of Cross Stitch unique to the various islands, like the elaborate bed tents which were made on Cos and Rhodes.
In India, is Cross Stitch most commonly stitched on plain weave fabric, for clothing, where there is no help from large holes (like in the Aida fabric)? Chitra and Shami, is this a correct assumption?
For more reading, check Classic Cross Stitch.

As for Scandinavia, I bet there is some form of Cross Stitch embroidery in every home in Sweden.
For example the embroidered banners, so popular in the 1930s or 40s with a slogan or motto 'Home Sweet Home' or 'The Early Bird Catches the Worm' have now become a place for 'stitch graffiti' or political slogans by young and avant-garde stitchers and might include the Peace Mark or sculls.

My grandmother used Cross Stitch to monogram tea towels,

I worked this kit (Clara Weaver?)

for my mother's birthday when I was still a student.

I also have this aunt who is a stitch oracle and whose strands of thread lie flat in each stitch, although I am sure she has never seen a laying tool in her life. She got plenty of practise as she made hundreds of Christmas cards for charity. Even her father took up Cross Stitching after he moved to the Old People's Home, and stitched well into his late 90s.

I guess he was about 95 years old when he made this.

Now why would I need to have a Cross Stitch lesson, if it is 'in my blood and in my nationality'? Well, I need to learn how to make the strands flat and even, I need to learn how to let the thread travel neatly  to a new location on the back, and I need to make myself use the stitch more.

.........

On Aida the Cross Stitch is easily worked like this:

For an individual stitch

 For a horizontal row

 For a vertical column

According to Sarah at Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials (a great source of stitch instructions) working the stitches horizontally is called Danish style. This is the way I learned it in school (Denmark is near Sweden so an obvious connection?) Maybe sticking to the Danish style only, is why I am not good at skipping from one area to another without making a mess on the back.

My homework will be to:
1) Practise on this free pattern (found in a pack of magnetic window markers), and aim for

flat strands on front and a neat back.

2) Monogram a tea towel (using waste canvas and a design from this book)

This has been a long and chatty lesson. I hope you haven't fallen asleep!