Friday Instagram Finds No. 10

Hooray - it's Friday! The funny thing is that I'm writing this ahead of time on Sunday, and I haven't even started my workweek, but I'm already looking forward to the weekend :)

This Friday I am introducing you to Kelly Darke. She is an art therapist who works with fibers to create unique art.

@kellydarke
Kelly's embroidery creations are unlike any I've ever seen! They are unique and one of a kind. There is intention and design in each piece that she creates. The layers she puts into each piece give each piece depth, and visual interest.

I love the bright colors Kelly so often uses in her pieces, and the way that she assembles them.

The close up photos of her work that Kelly shares on her Instagram account are stunning! It is fascinating to see her process, and how she layers the fibers she uses to create her art.

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Friday Instagram Finds (FIF) on Feeling Stitchy, which is brought to you weekly, and you'll check out Kelly's work on Instagram! Please leave comments below to let me know what you thought. If you'd like to be considered for FIF, or if you find a great embroiderer or stitch-related needle worker who you think I should feature, be sure to tag their pictures with #feelingstitchyig, and I'll take a look!

While you're on Instagram, make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We're @feelingstitchyish. We'd love for you to stop by and say hello.

Interview with Julie Sarloutte on El Blog de DMC

There's a fabulous interview with embroidery artist Julie Sarloutte over on the Spanish DMC blog, El Blog de DMC.

If you're not a Spanish reader, enjoy this handy English translation, from Google Translate:
Interview with Julie Sarloutte in English.

Patterns: Helen M Stevens

Vivienne Wells from Vivebooks, very kindly sent me a copy of the Tawny Owl pattern by Helen M Stevens, to have a go at, the above photo is my attempt. The pattern recommends using Piper Silks or other silk embroidery floss, however I used DMC. I also used two strands of DMC and not the recommended one (if you were to use normal embroidery floss). I also did change the colours a bit, you can see the pattern more expertly embroidered here.

Helen M Stevens has designed a wide range of nature and animal patterns, each pattern pack has very comprehensive instructions, with diagrams that clearly show which colours to use and which direction you should stitch in. Helen's patterns are subtitled 'one simple stitch' and that is very true, as the owl above is just created with one simple stitch, the satin stitch, which makes seemingly complex designs, quite achievable.

Let's Meet: Hawthorne & Heaney

One of the nicest things about having a craft blog is the diverse and wonderful blogs one gets to "meet" in the process. The blog of embroidery company Hawthorne & Heaney is one such new acquaintance, as they reached out to Feeling Stitchy via email, very kindly introducing themselves...

As this lovely sampling of their projects indicates, they work in a myriad of traditional, gorgeous styles, scroll down for a visual sampler of their work...

Hawthorne & Heaney operate the London Embroidery School which offers numerous classes in beginner to advanced embroidery techniques.

A bit more on their company, in their own words:

HAWTHORNE & HEANEY are a London based embroidery company specialising in excellent, innovative design and rigorous production expertise. With 15 years collective experience of the industry we offer design, consultation, management and production services for couture fashion embroidery, military and ceremonial gold work, monograming and embroidery for interiors and art projects. We work from a studio in Islington, which is easily accessible via car and public transport or alternatively our designers can come to you to offer advice and help with design.

Our team includes specialists in various fields including military, tailoring, theatre, film, fashion and art making us superbly capable of taking on any project at any stage from design and consultation through to production.

We're very pleased to meet you, Hawthorne & Heaney!

Friday Instagram Finds No. 9

On this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds I'm introducing you to one of my first embroidery friends on Instagram, Kristen of @heypaul. She has done so much for bringing hand embroidery into the public eye through public events called Eat, Drink, Stitch @eatdrinkstitch, and the video tutorials of stitches she creates. She's a dog lover, and has the cutest Puggles (Pug and Beagle mix) named Briscoe and Lollipop!

@heypaul

This piece that Kristen did of chromosomes is awesome on so many levels! First and foremost, the chromosomes shown bring Fragile X Syndrome to light, which is a great way to start a conversation about this syndrome. Framing it in this big frame (and painting it pink!) beautifully showcases Kristen's amazing stitches! It looks to me like the chromosomes are made of expertly stitched satin stitches in a variety of great colors.

Not the same piece, and it looks like a smaller scale, but here's a closeup of chromosomes that Kristen's working on.

It was seeing what Kristen was making with stumpwork that got me interested in trying it. (In fact, 2015 is the Year of 3D Embroidery for me.) Take a look at all of these French knots! Built up like this, the French knots make this look like boucle.

This last picture is of Truman and Clinton Lakes in Missouri. I'm glad this picture is a closeup because we can see her teeny, tiny stitches.

Okay, so I bet you've figured out by now that I'm a pet lover, especially dogs. So I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Briscoe and Lollipop. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Friday Instagram Finds (FIF) on Feeling Stitchy, which is now brought to you weekly! Please leave comments below to let me know what you thought. If you'd like to be considered for FIF, or if you find a great embroiderer or stitch-related needle worker who you think I should feature, be sure to tag their pictures with #feelingstitchyig, and I'll take a look!

While you're on Instagram, make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We're @feelingstitchyish. We'd love for you to stop by and say hello.

Thimblenest Thursdays: Summer/Winter Stitchalong, Week 2

It's time for the second letter in our AUTUMN banner for our Summer/Winter Stitchalong. If you want to know more about the project, you can find the details in the kick-off post here.

MATERIALS

Linen rectangle

Letter "U" Stitchalong Design

Embroidery Floss: DMC #350, 352, 720, and 779

PROCEDURE

Once again, this project is meant to be one means of having fun with your stitches and trying new techniques--we're not looking for perfection. I'm focusing on different ways of using the running stitch and cross stitch, but you can do whatever you like!

For this week's letter "U", I again outlined the letter with chain stitch, using 3 strands of DMC 779. For the interior running stitch I used 3 strands of DMC 350, and then wove 3 strands of DMC 352 through the running stitch back and forth from left to right in what I like to think of as a slalom pattern.

For the Mountain Ash berries (common during the fall in the Pacific Northwest) I outlined with 2 strands of DMC 720 using stem stitch. These are especially finicky and in retrospect, I think backstitch would have worked better here.

The stems were stitched with stem stitch (imagine that!), using 1 strand of DMC 779. I altered the berry bottoms from what you will see on the pattern--the 5-star type design on the bottom of the berries was too difficult to stitch nicely, so I changed mine to a simple cross stitch of 1 strand of DMC 779.

How are your Autumn banner designs coming along? We would love to see them, so please share in the Feeling Stitchy Flickr group or on Instagram with #feelingstitchy. There's still plenty of time to join in!

Our stitchalong will return in two weeks with the letter T! Happy Stitching!

Patterns: Tuesday Bassen and the Sublime Stitching Transfer Pen

Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching very kindly sent me the new fine tip iron on transfer pen to try. Now I've always been a tracing my patterns with a light box kind of girl and lately I've been using Sulky Solvy, but I've been falling out of love with that. So I was very keen to try a new (for me) method, specially as the pen seemed to be nowhere near as thick as other iron on transfer pens I've seen (the tracing paper in the photo has been in my stash for a long time, as I've always been put off by the thick pens previously).

Now of course to try a Sublime Stitching pen I thought I might as well try it with a Sublime Stitching pattern, now I've got lots in my stash and I had a look through them and some of them are quite simple, like the Heavy Metal Alphabet and some of them are more complicated, with more fine lines, like the Shy Boy and Girl pattern. So I thought I'd pick something a bit more in between to test the pen, so I plumped for the Tuesday Bassen pattern set, which I thought would be perfect for my pre-teen's bedroom.

I was still quite ambitious though, the Tuesday Bassen pattern set it pretty large and I wanted to stitch it almost like a sampler, stitching lots of the designs together. So I transferred the designs I liked onto two sheets of tracing paper and I was already appreciating how much easier that was compared to juggling the patterns and the fabric on a light box. And of course tracing on fabric is always a bit of a nightmare. Also I found that the pen was really nice to use, it has the sort of thin nib you normally find in artist drawing pens and it felt like in handled similarly too.

When ironing on the pattern I hit the normal problems I usually get with iron on transfers, as I find I can struggle a bit with either not ironing it enough or ironing it too much or the pattern shifting and causing double, blurred lines. I got a bit of all three problems when transferring the pattern and I also got a few small scorch marks, oops! But still, I was fairly pleased with the results and the lines were just as thin as I'd expect with a commercially made iron on pattern.

Then it came to stitching it up, which was great fun, Tuesday's pattern is really lovely and for someone who normally tries to embroider with a restricted palette, I used it as an opportunity to go really mad with colours. I didn't really hit any problems with not being able to cover the transfer lines, it does show a tiny bit in places (I, as the stitcher am probably more aware of it than anyone else looking at it) but that was due to the pattern shifting a bit in places when I ironed.

I used two strands of DMC embroidery floss throughout and although I was mainly using back stitch, there's also some satin stitching and french knots.

I will definitely be using the pen again to transfer more patterns, so thank you again Jenny for letting me have a go with the new pens!

Friday Instagram Finds No. 8

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope you've had a great week, and will have any even better weekend. This week I'm going to introduce you to @threadthewick! I found Chels because she used #feelingstitchyig to make sure I saw her work. This week, instead of using the embed code from Instagram, I am going to screen cap the pictures from Instagram. You can get to Chels' Instagram account to see all of her work by clicking on her user name below. I hope this fixes the problem that many of us have when viewing Friday Instagram Finds in Feedly or email. Spoiler Alert: I included a bonus account at the very end :)

@threadthewick
Chels creates pretty embroidery and cross stitch creations. One of the things she does is blend pop culture phrases with classic-looking cross stitch, like this, "I regret nothing" piece. I love how the colors pop on the black Aida cloth.

As a mother, these are words that we all long to hear! Again, I love how she created this phrase with cross stitch.

If you've seen my IG account, you know that I have a thing for delicately embroidered flowers. I just love them! These embroidered flowers Chels created are so dainty and pretty, and her stitching is beautifully precise.

Here are some more pretty flowers with, "I love you" stitched above them.

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Friday Instagram Finds (FIF) on Feeling Stitchy, which is now brought to you weekly! Please leave comments below to let me know what you thought. If you'd like to be considered for FIF, or if you find a great embroiderer or stitch-related needle worker who you think I should feature, be sure to tag their pictures with #feelingstitchyig, and I'll take a look!

While you're on Instagram, make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We're @feelingstitchyish. We'd love for you to stop by and say hello.

Bonus IG Account!

I have a bonus Instagram account for you! This account doesn't have anything to do with needlework of any kind, but it's one of my favorites. It''s @tunameltsmyheart, which follows the life of Tuna, a beautiful Chiweenie (Chihuahua and Dachshund (Weiner Dog) mix) who leads a charmed life. He even has a book written about him!!

Mooshie Stitch Mondays: Woven Trellis Stitch

Since my last post of the whipped wheel stitch, I started looking for other stitches that involved whipping or weaving and I came across the woven trellis stitch.

I have also been trying to stitch more flowers. When I saw that the woven trellis stitch can be worked as a flower, I decided it would be my next stitch to tackle.

So let's start!

First - I drew a small circle and stitched 4 sections each with 3 straight stitches around the circle. These are the base of each flower petal and woven trellis stitch.

Come up through the fabric under the center of the first section of straight stitches and weave your needle under the two outer stitches. It would be best to use a blunt tapestry needle for this.

(In my photos I was using a chenille needle because I forgot to switch to a tapestry needle. It was definitely not as easy and I ended up switching after the first petal.)

Next, weave back the other way - this time with the needle under the middle straight stitch only and pull the thread through.

Continue weaving back and forth following the same method of alternating under the outer stitches and then under the middle stitch.

Here is the first petal complete!

Second petal.

Third petal.

Last petal!

I filled the center of the flower with 5 yellow french knots - using 3 strands of floss.

Added a couple fly stitches as leaves to finish!

I love this stitch! It's so easy and gives great texture to your embroidery. Try it out and post any of your photos in the Feeling Stitchy Flickr Group.

Patterns: Follow the White Bunny

Flower and Bird by Follow the White Bunny

I'm sure everyone will be pleased to know that Follow the White Bunny is selling embroidery patterns again, this time as iron on patterns! I particularly love the negative space Flower and Bird design.

Wave goodbye by Follow the White Bunny

And also, if you're quick, you can get 20% off the Wave Goodbye pattern, the offer closes tonight (7th June 2015) at 12pm CET.

Learn the Butterfly Chain Stitch

Happy Weekend, fellow stitchers!

It's the first weekend in June, which means summer is officially on the way. I bet many of you are preparing for long weeks ahead filled with travel, gardening projects or maybe figuring out how to entertain your kiddos when they finish up the school year! If that's the case, hopefully you have another week or two to relax and take some time out for yourself, which is why this is the perfect weekend to learn another stitch!

Today we're learning the Butterfly Chain Stitch, a very pretty border/band stitch that you can work on pretty much any fabric or canvas. Maybe it's just because it has the word butterfly in the name, but to me this stitch is perfect for summer. It's simple, but there is a special method to doing it correctly. In fact, I realized after I had taken all my photos that I had done the stitch incorrectly, so I had to go back and do it all again!

Setting up the stitch is simple. I'm working on pretty pale blue aida I found in my stash with stranded floss in a few different colors. To start, you'll make a series of three straight stitches evenly spaced across your fabric. These can be any size you want, and spaced any way you want.

Since I'm working on aida fabric, it's easy to put the exact same amount of space between your stitches, in my case 3. But if you're working on linen or cotton you can measure your spaces by making small notches on your finger to help with your spacing, like in the picture in the middle. Make as many sections as you like to fit your space. 

Now here's our trick. Sometimes a picture can do more for me than anything else, so I'll start there!

You'll work the decorative part of your band from right to left. Come up with your fabric to the far right of your last section of stitches. Place your floss over all three stitches. It helps to hold it tight out to the left, especially if you're working with a long piece of thread, so you can create a little loop for your needle. Slip your needle under the three stitches, then over the thread you're holding out to the side, and pull through. (If you're familiar with the twisted chain stitch, this is just like that!) Pull your stitch tight so that the thread pulls the three straight stitches together and pinches them in the middle.

Without piercing your fabric, repeat on all the other stacks. This part of the stitch is worked completely on top of the fabric. Here's another photo further down the row. You'll notice I change colors here, because this is the part I had to redo, after I had done all my other rows correctly :)

And there you have it- the Butterfly Chain Stitch! I love how creative you can be with this technique. I made a little sampler of different versions, most of which I just made up because I thought they would look neat!

I played with the spacing of my straight stitches on the top two rows, doing an even increase/decrease on both sides for the top one, then just showing different spacings on the second. To me, the more space you leave the more celebratory the band becomes. Our middle band is straight forward and by the book. Below that I really enjoyed playing with size. I did sets that were double the height with two evenly spaced decorative chain stitches on top. I think it looks like a little picket fence! The last one is my favorite. The center stitch of each section is slightly longer than the outer two, which makes our pinched sections look like little stars. This option would be lovely on a retro themed project or maybe even and art deco design.

I hope you enjoyed learning this new stitch with me! What ideas do you have for incorporating this into your every day stitching? Share them in the comments below or post projects in our Flickr pool for everyone to see. Happy Stitching!