Hand Embroidered Circles continued . . . Instastitchwithsue

I had this post already to go when, for some reason, the whole thing disappeared! Bummer!!!

It is a beautiful sunny day here and I got some time to sit out on the back deck. The temperature is above 20C and the clothes is quickly drying on the line.

I have been trying to play catch-up on these hand embroidered one inch circles from @instastitchwithsue on Instagram. These are a bit time consuming, depending on the design and I'm still about ten circles behind. I try not to take out stitches. In the first one, my spacing is a bit off but it's a practise piece and I only eye balled the distances.

 Lots of practise doing these bullion knots! I used two different variegated #8 pearl from Valdani Threads.

More variegated threads. Love the colours on this one.

The colours for this one worked out well. More bullion knots and a bullion rose.

 My basket is a bit tilted!

The lime green is a bit garish and it was difficult matching colours for this circle. Again, the middle is not centered. BUT these are practise pieces and it was late when it got done. That's my excuse.

Enjoy!!

First Circle Stitched - Instastitchwithsue

Here's my first circle stitched from Sue Spargo's instastitchwithsue on Instagram. I'm very satisfied with this one. The cream fly stitch, lime pistil stitch and burgundy colonial knots, are embroidered with Valdani threads. The bullion knots, variegated outer edge and center, are from Sue's collection which were purchased at Sew With Vision, Halifax.

I do have number 2 finished but I am thinking of adding another colour to it as I'm not happy with it. I'll post the before and after photos on my next post.

Stay safe, stay home and wash hands! I keep a fragrance free hand lotion on the bathroom sink to help with skin dryness.

A few links to check:

• Stitch Dictionary from Pintangle
• Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread stitch videos
• Tutorials from Shawkl Designs (Stitches for Crazy Quilting)
• Kelly Fletcher Needlework Design 
• Pinterest HERE (stitch tutorial from Kelly Fletcher)  

Enjoy

Straw Needles

I was just reading about different stitches and needles to use for embroidery. Most stitches can be created by using regular embroidery needles. However, according to Mary Corbet, using the right needle is the key to making perfect French Knots and Bullion Knots. On her blog she says that using a straw needle or milliner's needle is the perfect tool for making these stitches. If you have any of these on hand, you will notice that the shape of the straw needle is different from other needles. There is no bulge around the eye therefore making the shaft and the eye the same size the full extent of the needle. So when you pull the needle through a series of thread wraps, it goes through easily without the eye getting caught up in the wraps. Check out the rest of her article and see a picture of straw needles.

A couple of years ago, I did a three year hand embroidery course. Over the months, one of the class members kept saying that she only joined the class to learn how to make French Knots. This got to be a bit of a class chuckle. After the course was finally finished, we had an exhibit of all our work. We called it, "All I ever wanted to learn was French Knots". In fact most of the ladies who took this course still meet every Thursday evening to stitch, thus the name FETE (friends every Thursday evening).

Tanja Berlin has a lot of information on her site about embroidery needles.
Check out Victorian Embroidery and Crafts for information of selecting the right needle for your project.