Friday Homework for Lesson 266: Laced Back Stitch

 EASY!

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Mottled Wool Scribble Cloth

What's in a Quilt - The Green Man - Part 10: Boutis

Today's Green Man was made with stitched 'tunnels' and knitting yarn in the French style of stuffed quilting - Bouti.

Here is a reading list for this type of quilting: Textile Research Centre and   The Quilt House La Maison du Boutis

And a video with Japanese Boutis quilter Kumiko Nakayama.

Updated: After posting this, I saw that Mary Corbet of Needle 'n Thread had written an article about Boutis, AND added the above video, too!  Mary Corbet's articles are ALWAYS worth reading, so check this one out, please.

For a quick briefing,  have a look at my photo demonstration:

Apart from quilting needle and thread, you will need knitting yarn (preferably white, or the colour of the fabric), LONG blunt needles (for tunnels), or very short ones (for curves). In the picture is a set from Clover.

Stitch two parallel lines (tunnels) in Running or Back Stitch for the quilt pattern.

Load the needle with yarn.

Insert the yarn, but come out through the back of the fabric at corners. Snip off the yarn. 

Load the needle again and do the next curve.

Pull the yarn through and flatten the puckering.

Snip off the yarn again. 

Turn the right side up.

.................

To be continued...

WIPW - A Finish

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The best progress one can make is of course a finish, and today I have such a finish - the birthday present I wrote about last week.

The projects I usually report about, Mandala and Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler, slumbered peacefully while I burned the midnight oil in order to finish the present.

Last week it looked like this:

Now it is in the safe hands of the Japanese Postal Services and will be handed over to the Birthday Girl on Friday. 

I added more of the following stitches between last week and today: Stem, Fly and Pistil Stitch. Also, quite a lot of metallic thread and masses of beads have been used.

After pressing the cotton fabric, I prepared a circular piece of card as well as a circle of purple felt with interfacing. I basted 'drawstring stitches' around the circle,  pulled, 

tightened it around the card and the embroidery, pressed down the folds and stitched down the felted backing.

A string for hanging the ornament was next.

The last job was to make a beaded edge. This was easy thanks to the excellent tutorial by Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai.

I now have an enormous backlog of chores... Well, I am very pleased with the result and will start on those jobs with a light heart.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 266: Laced Back Stitch

It is time for a new set of five embroidery stitches. First out is a manipulated stitch, well-known, easy, and with a descriptive name - Laced Back Stitch. Just reading the name most of you will know how to stitch it.

Just for fun, you can follow these photos:

Start with a line of Back Stitch.

Change to another thread for the lacing. 

Go under the thread only.  Down...

up... Down, up, down, up down, up...

Choose between tight and loose loops - or use both.

Anchor at the end.

Homework: 

Add lines of Laced Back Stitch to these three samplers.