Catching up: Embroidery

Back in the spring, I started sewing small embroidery motifs on linen. The idea came from a blog post by Mary Corbet that featured a small tulip design. (More on Mary at the end of the post). I found more ideas for motifs, in a couple of books on hand that I used as sources for the motifs: Yumiko Higuchi, Zakka Embroidery and The New Anchor Book of Free-Style Embroidery Stitches. I loved stitching one or two of these each morning.  I fringed the edges of each small rectangle (about 3"), and then secured them to Fabriano Medioevalis note cards with fusible web tape. (I tried a few different fusibles; this one by Singer worked best.) I like having a stock of cards that incorporate a home-made element.  Here are a few more of my favorites:

Also this spring, I started to work on a crewel embroidery kit that I had planned to bring with me for a month-long stay in the Seattle area. Of course travel plans were cancelled, but I was curious to try out the kit. The photo below shows the printed pattern on the right side, my stitching on the left.

(The design is by Carolyn Barrani, www.tapistree.com.) 

This turned out to be a very good project to do in the midst of the uncertainties and anxieties of the pandemic. All the different stitches and colors are specified, and the yarn is provided in the kit. I didn't have to make any decisions. I worked on one section of a flower at a time, following the directions, enjoying the colors and seeing what came to be. A number of the stitches were ones I had never done before, including some I never would have tried if I'd just seen the directions in a stitch encyclopedia. It gave me a sense of accomplishment to master the bullion knot and shadow box laid stitch! You can see bullion knots below--the coiled up stitches in the middle of the petals done with a yellow buttonhole stitch. And I love the rose and burgundy color buds in the upper right, made with a whipped spider web stitch. 

The center of the sunflower below is done with the shadow box laid stitch:

One more detail:

Here's the finished piece, which I'm thinking I will back with another piece of linen and use as a cover for challah.

About Mary Corbet and her website: https://www.needlenthread.com/ Most of the blogs I follow are about quilting and textiles, with a few on stitching as well. The ones on stitching are mostly about free-form stitching done on quilts, but somewhere along the line I found Mary Corbet's embroidery blog, an extraordinary resource for anyone the least bit interested in embroidery. Her posts usually include photos of beautiful designs she's working on, and the blog is worth looking at just for the photos; here's a sample. But there's so much more. Mary is a superb writer, and every post is an occasion for teaching one thing or another. I just like listening to her "voice." Very down to earth and encouraging. She has things for beginners and for the most advanced stitchers. And the blog is only the top-most surface. Her web site has a huge number of tutorials, both on specific stitches and all kinds of other tips. It includes a large range of downloadable designs (many for free), and there is also a shop for purchasing items. There is a robust search function, which I have used extensively. (The only odd thing about the search: the first items on the list come from other places on the web, but if you scroll down past the first four entries, you'll come to a full list of entries from Mary's site, needlenthread.com.)

One of my favorite recent posts of Mary's was on the subject of ripping out work done.  I know this issue well; all quilters have a seam ripper close at hand. But one tends to feel one has failed when something major needs to be undone.  Mary has a different take on it: "There is always something satisfactory in picking out faulty embroidery stitches. I know, I know!! We tend to think that 'frogging' (rip-it, rip-it) is a horrid hassle, and to go through it is a nightmare. But really, the satisfaction of knowing you're going to put something to rights and love your embroidery all over again makes picking out stitches a wondrous thing! It actually makes me happy when I get to this point -- when I've made the decision to pick the stuff out, and I can't turn back." What a great way to look this! I have often faced a fork in the road where I can either settle for work that is not accomplishing what I had in mind, or I can pick up the ripper and start again, using what I've learned from the earlier attempt(s). When working on a significant art piece, I think I can say that I've always had to rip and re-start, but it's often been with a sigh or groan, knowing I had to do it, but wishing I didn't have to. The next time I reach this point, I'm going to try to experience it with Mary's sense of wonder and happiness, with a sense of moving forward with the work rather than going backwards. Mary makes the point that even with a great deal of advance thinking and planning, you can't know what the work will look like until you actually do it.  When the work doesn't live up to the idea, then, no problem, just take it out, think some more, and try again. Repeat as needed.