Friday Revision Homework - Stitches: 206 - 210

 I like monochrome prints, you know, blue on blue, yellow on yellow, blue on blue. That is why I first coloured Sunbonnet Sue's clothes with wax crayons, set the wax with a hot iron and then embroidered on top of in the same colour as the crayon.

Sue is walking with heavy steps into a future of uncertainty ... Hopefully she will find solidarity, hope and peace along the way.

Other stitches used: 

Stem Stitch for the outlines and movement of skirt and scarf, 

Straight Stitch to add extra petals on the sunflower, 

a triple Star Filling Stitch for the centre of the flower.

Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 206 - 210

Time to look back at the five most recent stitches and then make a Sunbonnet Sue sampler.

Click on the title to get the instructions.

206 Rapid Stitch

Great on Canvas, but can also be used for individual stitches

207 Plaited Edge Stitch

This really is a great stitch to strengthen and/or adorn an edge, even a raw and fraying one.

208 Star Filling Stitch

I have used this stitch on endless projects, yet for years I failed to add it to the Sunday Stitch School's collection. Why, I wonder...

This is such a pretty stitch. Play around with different thread!

209 Padded Cross Stitch

I called this cheating, because it is so easy just to double the stitch. 

Actually I should  say it is well within 'legal limits' of what we can do to a stitch, in my opinion anyway. Or is there a stitch police out there who disagrees?

After all a Berry Stitch is just a doubling of a Lazy Daisy Stitch, isn't it? We really should be able to do a 'Padded' Running Stitch, Fly Stitch, Wheatear Stitch... Indeed any stitch could be 'padded'!

210 Closed Fly Stitch

Here is another stitch that should have been introduced LONG ago. 

Dear Closed Fly Stitch, please accept my apologises for keeping you in the shadow for such a long time. Please come out and SHINE!

Homework:

Let Sunbonnet Sue show off these five stitches as best she can.

 

Friday Homework for Lesson 207: Plaited Edge Stitch

 This is a pleasant stitch to do and to look at. I also think it will keep any edge in check, and on kitchen  linen like tea towels might get sturdier after each wash.

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Mottled Wool Scribble Cloth

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 207: Plaited Edge Stitch

The Plaited Edge Stitch is a kind of Buttonhole stitch, that in looks can be mistaken for #66 Berwick Stitch. 

As the name implies it is useful for edging, either on a folded hemline or a raw edge. The closer together you place the stitches the less the fabric is at risk of fraying.

I have used the stitches as fancy embroidery stitches, not for hemming.

Instructions can be found in these two books: Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches and A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2.

Here are the steps in my photo guide:

Take a straight (back) stitch and exit

to the left of where you started.

Insert the needle under the Straight Stitch

(without biting the fabric) and pull tight.

You now have a wrap that looks almost like

a knot. 

Continue in the same way by inserting the

needle diagonally.

Anchor the last stitch.

The stitches sit nicely, but are a bother to unpick, so pay attention to tension while you stitch.

On a folded hem they look like this:

Homework:

Add to these samplers.