Gold n' Stitches

Enchanted Forest - Gathering Your Threads

This is the fun part!  Now that you have selected your fabric you can start getting the threads together.

If you have a thread stash, get it out.  If you don't have a stash, now is the time to start putting one together.

The threads you choose will be influenced by a number of things:

• The colour of your background fabric.  I started by selecting colours for the main elements ie the tree trunks and then built the colours around these.  I chose a lot of variegated threads for this project as they worked well with the many colours in the fabric.  The variegated threads also create a lot of the character of the finished elements such as leaves and stems.
• Availability of threads - what you have available to you in your local area and /or your stash.  I have used threads made in Australia as well as threads produced overseas.  Over my many years of stitching I have collected quite a variety of different brands, some for specific projects and others as an impulse because I couldn't resist them or they were on sale to walk by.  Of course this did not stop me from purchasing more for this specific project.
• Budget - I have used quite a lot of silks and hand dyed/over-dyed threads.  These can be somewhat more expensive than the more commonly available threads such as DMC and Anchor. Imported threads can also be more expensive so try using what you have available and then add just a few little treasures as a special treat.
• Texture - I have used silks. cottons and wools in a variety of thicknesses from stranded cottons and silks, pearl silks and cottons of varying thickness and silk ribbon.  This project is a great way to experiment with threads and try out some that you haven't used before.  Try combining different threads to create new textures.

Here is the list of threads I used:

ThreadworX (previously needle Necessities) Over-dyed stranded cotton floss

1041 Dust to Dust

1069 Spanish Olives

1070 Rocky Mountain

1090 Red Lipstick

DMC Colour Variations 4030, 4145, 4150

Colourstreams Hand Dyed Ribbons and Threads

Stranded Silks - 37 (Uluru), 50 (Blackberry Ripple)

Ophir -19 (Verde), 16 (Seascape), 23 (Rose Blush), 28 Carnivale

Exotic Lights - 21 (Purple Genie), 24 (Plum)

4mm silk ribbon - 17 (Jacaranda), 37 (Uluru)

Caron Waterlilies - 104

Gumnut Hand-dyed Yarns - Buds 589

Strand Crewel Yarn Wool Mohair - 253

Kanagawa Embroidery Silk - KNK - ? Oops can't find the number

30 gauge covered wire, felt

Hoppin' to it

I have finally finished writing up the instruction for my Golden Lotus design. Now that the instructions are done,  I am concentrating on the second in the lotus series – On Golden Pond.

My last post described the process of making the gilt edged detached petals for the lotus flower.  I have since started to work on the surface embroidery.

 

I statred with the foundation work, applying the lily pads of silk dupion.  They have been fused to the base silk fabric using Mistyfuse ™.  It is a very fine fusible web, ideal for working with fine fabrics.  It doesn’t stiffen the fabrics excessively and the fine structure of the web means there isn’t any telltale results left after fusing.  It is great for fusing layers of organza!

Next came the layers of felt for the lotus flower. 

As you can see, once I started applying the threads and wires,  I have jumped all over the place.  I did some initial planning on what threads and wires I would use where, but was keen to see what the overall effect would be.  Thus there are lots of bits started and unfinished.

For the smaller lily pad I have couched Gold 376 couching thread from Benton & Johnson.  This thread has gold coloured synthetic strips wound around a cotton core. It is a very pliable thread and it is easy to manipulate into the tight corners.  I have used a silk thread, Matilda’s Own Daruma Silk Colour 149, for couching.  The thread is 50 weight, not quite as fine as the YLI silk threads that are commonly used for goldwork.  The Matilda’s Own silk is made is Japan and come in 60 colours.  They are distributed by an Australian company and are readily available here.  I use them for my embroidery as well as needle turn appliqué and paper piecing for quilting.  I like them a lot – they are fine, reasonably priced and high quality.

 

Today I plan on working on two smaller lily pads that will appear above the lotus flower and finish the long and short stitches on the flower.

I am using Madeira stranded silks for the long and short stitch.  The decision to use Madeira threads was really based on the availablility of colours.  They are also quite reasonably priced.

Oh - and I have started doing some online entry level studies in Financial Services and hope to do a bit of work on my next assignment too. My embroidery seems to have been put on the back burner and I am missing it greatly but I am trying to make it of equal priority.  So much to do – so little time.  Ah well we can only but try!

Hope you all have a great day.

Floral Glove Needlecase – On Line Project Begins

You all must have thought I had fallen of the planet- but no just,  really hectic with life.

I have managed to do some stitching.  I am working on a new design as well as sewing samples for the store for  the upcoming craft craft show in March.  I will post some pictures of these soon. 

Today, I’m  all excited about starting my Floral Glove Needlecase.

Thanks to Tricia Wilson Nguyen and the Thistle Threads team for the opportunity to re-create a little piece of history.

At last all of my goodies have arrived.  After receiving my notes and instructions for the first month, I just couldn’t wait for my threads and goodies to arrive.  You know what they say – through rain,  hail and snow – and with the horrendous weather conditions in the States, it was literally through SNOW!  But they arrived safe and sound and I couldn’t wait to get started.

With my email instructions arriving in the previous week, I had plenty of time to read through the instructions.  I found the instructions and diagrams for long and short stitch comprehensive and informative and gleaned a few little tips for improving my satin stitch.   I loved the close ups of the stitched examples provided.  I have referred to them regularly while stitching and it is the next best thing to having the teacher with you – in fact it tops that!  I can refer to the samples whenever I need to – got to love that!

 

The design was already traced onto the linen fabric.  As with most linen fabrics, the surface of the fabric is slightly uneven due to the slubs in the threads and this has caused the traced lines to a bit "wobbly".  However as you will see once the area has been stitched, this is not an issue.

I haven’t used the Au Ver a Soie Soie Paris before.  It is so smooth and lustrous. It blends together beautifully when doing long and short stitch and glides through the previous stitches with ease.

 

 
I think my long and short stitch is less structured than the examples provided in our notes however I am reasonably pleased with the end result.

The next area to be stitched this month is the small leaves under the carnations and some small blue flowers.

So I had better get to work as I also have to complete the right hand side before next months instructions arrive.

 

 

  

New Year = New Projects

Happy new year to all.

My resolution for the year is to laugh more, stitch more and spend more time with friends and family (luckily most of my friends are also avid embroiderer’s and quilters!).

I managed to fulfil one of my holiday commitments – Finish off my Jane Nicholas project, Persian Peony Tile. 

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this project, not just for the beauty of it but because it provided many of the elements I look for in a project i.e. new and varied techniques, the use of a variety of threads, wires and embellishments, and a challenge. 

The finished piece measures 16.5 cm (6 ½ “) by 11 cm (4 ¼ “).

Over the holidays, we had my two step daughters with us for 2 weeks, so there wasn’t much stitching going on and I was starting to feel withdrawal symptoms.

While I was stitching my Persian Tile, I was thinking about my next project and itching to get started.  And the perfect day dawned – a very wet rainy day – perfect for being indoors with needle and thread.  So today I began my new project – On Golden Pond.  But more about that tomorrow.

Before I leave this post I wanted to respond to a comment left by Carol-Anne Conway in relation to couching Or Nué style.  Thank you for the insight into the goldwork couching in Karahana.  I was very interested to read how you untwist and retwist the imitaltion jap when you turn the sharp corners.  I have not used this technique for turning or seen it mentioned in my goldwork books or come across it in any classes.  I will certainly give it a go in a future project.  Unfortunately, I don’t think this technique would be possible with the gilt passing thread as the gilt wire is very fine and very closely wound around the cotton core so it is quite stiff. As you have said, the flattened nature of the gold wrapping of the Jap makes it flexible and lends itself better to untwisting along the length of the thread.

I untwisted some of the Kreinik Imitation Jap No 7 (on the left),and gilt passing thread (centre) and placed them next to a single strand of Au Ver A Soie D’Alger (on the right).  I only included the Soie D’Alger to give an idea of the thickness of the other threads.  I hope the picture shows how these two gold threads differ in materials and thickness.

PS This piece will measure approx 7cm (2 3/4") by 15cm (6") when completed.

Or Nué - Filling the Gap

Merry Christmas to you all.  Hope you had a relaxing and safe festive season.  It was lovely to get away but I didn't get done as much as I thought I would.

The Or Nué piece has been occupying my thoughts and what little time I have been stitching.  Two of the circles have finally come together.

I couldn't wait to fill in the little gap.  The angle where the circles met was to sharp to bend and turn the passing thread so I had to dovetail the passing thread.

I started on the outside edge of the piece and worked as far into the corner as possible with the green silk.  I then cut the passing thread leaving a 2.5cm (1") tail which I took through to the back of my work.

I find it is easier to sink the thread to the back by unraveling the gold thread off the cotton core of the passing thread prior to taking it through to the back. I stop unravelling the gold thread about 2mm's from where I intend to sink the thread to make sure none of the cotton core shows through. 

Once the angle between the two circles became a little wider I then was able to bend and turn the passing thread.  The gilt passing thread is well suited to this method. It is made by by winding a flat, very thin piece of wire around a thread core in a spiral manner and produces a thread that is quite stiff and not fluid.  Consequently when it is bent it tends to hold its shape fairly well until couched in position.  A pair of tweezers with a fine point are very useful to bend and turn the passing thread.

It is quite a challenge concentrating on getting the corners right as well as creating the shape of the leaf.  As you can see by photo below, there is one stray stitch, which happened to be the last green couching stitch.  I can't live with this so will go back and "reverse stitch"(unpick) this little bit and redo it. 

 I am sure with more practice I can improve this technique.  I have been reading the posts on goldwork from Carol Anne Conway's blog Threads across the Web getting a few tips.
 Her work is exquisite  - just looking at the amazing execution of her piece titled Karahana inspires me to keep going.

 

'Tis the Season - Stocking in Goldwork

I don't usually spend alot of time making Christmas decorations - probably because they only come out once a year.  However this year I was feeling very festive and got to stitching the Golden Holly Stumpwork as well as a goldwork Christmas stocking for those very special little gifts.

Apologies for the quality of the photo - I am working on the laptop computer and working with what we have with us on holidays.

I have worked the body of the stocking on burgundy cotton velveteen with cream cotton velveteen for the band of the stocking.

When I was planning the design and choosing the threads and wires, I had to keep in mind that the piece would eventually be a soft flexible piece rather than a rigid framed embroidery.  So I chose goldwork threads that would withstand some handling and flexing.  For the scrolls I chose gilt twist and silver Jap, Pearl Purl No1 and silk thread for the flowers, plus beads and pearls and flat sequins secured with bright check chips.

I was happy with the choices of threads and wires.  However, as I used velveteen for the background fabric, I found it rather bulky when it came to attaching the band to the stocking.  As a result the band didn't sit as flat as I would hve liked.  Next time I will allow more fabric at the seams to compensate for the bulkiness.

Or Nué Blossoms - Detached Petals

I have started on the detached petals for the Or Nué blossoms.  I am not ready to attach them yet but am keen to see how they will look.

I have used 30 gauge wire on the petals and couched them with a single strand of silk, the same silk used to couch the gilt passing thread.

In Stage 1 I have simply couched down the wire in the shape of the petal.  You may notice that the wires to not meet at the base of the petals.  This is intentional for the shape of the petals.

In Stage 2 I have worked buttonhole stitch over the wire to form the edge of the petal. 

The little blobs of thread in the centre of the petal are the pin stitches I have used to start and finish each thread.  These will be covered later when the petal is filled with long and short stitch.

Before starting the long and short stitch I prefer to work a split backstitch around the inside of the wire. As I usually work my detached elements on quilters muslin rather than fabric colour matched to the thread (except with very bright/dark colours), this will prevent any of the muslin from showing through if there are any gaps between your long and short stitch and buttonhole edge.

Notice I have also worked a row of small split backstitch along the arch at the base of the petal.  This will prevent any fraying  when cut out.

Lastly I filled the petal with long and short stitch and added a few gold stitches. I think the gold stitches will help tie the petals in with the gold Or Nue background.

   

  If you find long and short stitch a challenge, or would just like to perfect your technique,  I can recommend Mary Corbett's long and short stitch tutorialon Needle n' Thread. The tutorial takes you through 9 lessons, starting with simple shapes and moving onto more complex shapes as each lesson progresses. The lessons are very detailed with excellent photos and diagrams accompanying each lesson.

 

Invisible Couching - is it achievable?

Earlier this year I undertook a class with Jane Nicholas at Koala Convention held in Brisbane Australia.  Definitely should be on your "Things to do Before I Die List".

I have been in awe of Jane's work for quite a time, her incredible design and meticulous attention to detail.  I had read her books in detail and finally the earth, sun and the moon lined up and I enrolled in her class "Persian Tile". 

I have almost finished the piece and hope to have it completed over the Christmas break.

The thing I like about participating in classes is that you always learn something new.

When couching the majority of metal threads in this project, Jane used a clear nylon mono-filament, like a fine fishing line.  In this case we used Madeira Monofil No 60.

Check out the results:

The Jap thread wrapped around the gold beads on the outer border was couched using the monofil.  Can you see the couching stitches?  It was also used to couch the gilt passing thread around the petals of the pink peony bud.

The Jap on the inner border was couched with a fine metallic thread. Much more noticeable isn't it.

The monofil proved to be a strong, fine thread that was very forgiving if the couching stitches were a little uneven in size or distance apart.

HOWEVER, and there is usually a 'however', a size 12 crewel needle was used with the monofil.  To say threading a very fine invisible thread though the eye of a number 12 needle is character building is an understatement. To challenge you even further this thread is very slippery and slides out of the needle easily.  So the only solution is to secure the thread in the eye of the needle.  Kreinik have made a short video showing how this is done - it is the second tip on the video.

Ah, you thought this would make it easier didn't you.  Well it does when it comes to keeping the needle threaded but of course you have to get the two strands of folded thread through that tiny hole.

Tip for the Day - if you intend using this thread, here is my suggestion.  Before you start your stitching session, thread up 4 or 5 needles with the monofil while your eyes are still fresh and your frustration levels low.  You will maintain your sanity and progress with your project.