At In The Stitch Zone, the weekly stitch group I teach, we’ve just started a six week project looking at six different hand embroidery filling stitches. Each week is dedicated to learning or developing variants on a filling stitch and then stitching a simple shape in the relevant stitch. At the end, the six shapes can be put together to make a sampler.
I’ve been working on my teaching samples – little fat almost egg-shaped leaves – since the summer and surprisingly for me, only have one left to complete. Last week we started with Satin Stitch. I decided to divide the leaf up as the whole thing was going to be far too wide to successfully stitch in satin stitch and worked the middle sections first in a very subtly variegated stranded cotton.
Then I added the outside sections in a more obviously variegated thread, which has given me very distinct stripes! I also managed to miss the outline and flatten one side of the leaf, so it’s probably the least satisfactory of my samples. In hindsight I should have worked a back stitch outline first…
This coming week is Seed Stitch, which is one of my favourite techniques. I love that Mary Thomas calls it ‘powdering’ which to me sounds a perfect and beautifully old fashioned term, conjuring up Regency heroines embroidering in the drawing room…
Because the background fabric is visible I used a scrap of my own rusted dyed fabric and matched it with some rust and olive green variegated thread. I started this one in a Husk, a gorgeous little independent café in Sheffield while the rest of the family were running around like mad things doing escape rooms. Stitching quietly in a coffee shop with a pot of tea is much more civilised.
There is something very satisfying about creating a random pattern yet one that fills the spaces evenly.
Not quite sure how I will finish my sampler yet. At the moment they are just on individual scraps of fabric, but there are a few possibilities going round in my head as I work on the last leaf.
Great filling options. I love seed stitch in all it’s glories too; especially when it is used to work a background area and the ‘object’ is left blank. Beautiful samples, as always!
Thank you! I did think I ought to have worked some separate samples in different seeding stitches, but time as ever, was not on my side.
I agree: time is always the issue: so many ideas and too few hours to try them all…
The tea shop looks a lovely place to stitch. I must admit that whilst scooting thought my reader feed leaves is not what came to mind with the top one. I had to stop and come in just to see what you’d been upto😳 but now is see it’s explained. 🫣
Ahhh, not just me when I looked at the finished product then… 😁
The top one does make me think more of cocoa pods!
It was not a success – I definitely think I need to stitch a new one for the sampler!