Showing posts with label Maiwa. Show all posts

Sunday, August 15, 2021

More slow stitching challenge

I'm happy to say that I'm still doing well with the #100dayschallenge on Instagram. Yesterday I finished my first week! If you haven't been following on Instagram, here is a recap and more details.

Stitching the Hexies, Diamonds and Spiral

So far, I've been stitching with yummy thread on an improv piece with free motion quilting (FMQ) in the centre panel. My #100dayschallenge has been to stitch the centre panel. This week I've played with some very special hand-dyed threads from Maiwa, in British Columbia. They have craftspeople in Bengal who hand-dye silk, linen, cotton and wool with natural plant-based dyes. As well, they have their own brand of thread, Honest Thread, that is also hand-dyed. You can read more about them in my previous posts (see links below).

Days 2 to 7 stitches

Days 4 and 5 - Fly and Cross Stitches

I played with both the fly stitch and the cross stitch within the border of the diamonds. I experimented with the size, and for the fly stitch in particular, the order in which I made them. Generally instructions for the fly stitch are from top to bottom (or else that's what I've always assumed!). I found that for me, this was the most difficult way of making them for a consistent outcome. I'm much better at making them from side to side, or even better, from bottom to top.

Fly and Cross stitches

Both of these stitches are made using Honest Yarn's lace linen thread in Lac. It's one of my favourite colours 😊

Day 6 - Coral Stitch with Chain Stitch Variations

This hexie started with a line of coral stitches. I left it for a couple of days because I had no idea where it was going. After checking out my embroidery stitching books, I decided to play with a chain stitch and one of its variations.

Coral stitch inside the hexie

Before jumping into the chain stitch however, I added another echo of coral stitching. The first line was made with 2 strands of Bengal linen in madder, while the second has three strands of the Bengal linen in marigold. It's nice to see the difference between a line of stitching using 2 and 3 strands.

I wanted something a little brighter 😊 so I used my hand-dyed #12 perle cotton to make the chain stitch. Next came the fun part. I added a berry stitch, which is a variation of the detached chain stitch to make the petals and then some French knots with some lovely golden #5 perle cotton.

Coral, Chain, and Berry stitches with French knots

Day 7 - Battlement Stitch

Doesn't that stitch sound grand and aggressive! I suppose that it could look like fortifications, but it's just rows of buttonhole or blanket stitches stacked row on row. If I had actually planned this, I would have made the first row (2 strands of Bengal linen in marigold) further away from the edge. I then had to squish the second row into it (2 strands of Bengal silk in madder).

Battlement stitch

Stitching slowly coming along!

Day 8 - Feathered Chain Stitch

I pretty much exhausted my usual stitches after a couple of days, although the stem stitch hasn't made it's way in yet...but I'm sure that it will eventually. So I've been looking at my three wonderful books of embroidery stitches. I'll talk a little about them after this stitch.

I really like the chain stitch. It has so many possibilities and can look very different depending on the thread used. I decided to try out the feathered chain stitch as a filler for the top spiral. I had to practice this one because remember, I'm accuracy challenged, so trying to make an accurate(ish) zig zag of stitches does not come naturally. Even my straight lines are only straight(ish)! This stitch is not difficult - it's really a long-tail chain stitch that follows a zig zag path.

Feathered Chain Stitch

For this stitch, I used a variegated Eleganza #8 perle cotton from Sue Spargo's collection (more about some new threads in a future post 😊).

Embroidery Books

I have three embroidery books that I LOVE and highly recommend. The first, The Beginner's Guide to Freestyle Embroidery, is the one I used to re-learn to embroider as an adult. On one of our family trips to the South-west states, I did most of the samples in the book. I've mentioned this book before in previous posts.

Beginner's Guide to
Freestyle Embroidery

I use the e-book version of Joyful Daily Stitches - seam by seam by Valerie Bothell to find interesting stitch combinations. It's created primarily for crazy quilting and has a lot of fun stitch combinations, something that I'm always struggling with.

Joyful Daily Stitches - seam by seam

Finally is a new book by Sharon Boggon, Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery. I found Sharon's amazing website, Pintangle, a few years ago. I has a great Stitch dictionary. Sharon also hosts Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST) which I followed on and off for a couple of years. I've used this book for many of the stitches in the #100dayschallenge so far.

Creative Stitches for
Contemporary Embroidery

What I learned

I really love learning new variations of the simpler stitches. Sharon Boggon's book is really great for this and I will be using it a lot.
I think that this #100dayschallenge is more about posting on Instagram every day than it is about stitching every day - and I'm ok with that. I don't see the point of stitching every day if I'm really not in the mood. I'm much better at stitching every couple of days and preparing for two or three Instagram posts. It's what works best for me!
As I mentioned, I got more thread (sigh). I'll either show it off as I use it or will include it in the next challenge post.
I had better go stitch today's Instagram post - it's now Sunday! 😲

Thursday, August 05, 2021

Improv piecing and FMQ

Welcome to week of Free Motion Mavericks linking party. I'm not sure if the eye candy will show up today since I waited too late in the day to take pictures.

Playing with improv piecing and FMQ

I'm really into mindless at this time. The heat is back and Chevy is not letting me sleep as much as I need to! All that to say that last night I wanted to sew but I didn't want to follow a pattern or plan, therefore, improv piecing! Since I also wanted some free motion quilting for today's post, I added solid fabric in the middle of the improv piecing.

FMQ the Improv piece

For the improv piecing, I used up fabrics from a box of partially stitched pieces that didn't make it into an improv quilt. Since I wanted to be able to FMQ and hand-stitch, it needed some solid fabric. This is what the piece looked like this morning. I kept looking at it during the day, hoping for inspiration on what to FMQ on it.

Improv pieced background

In the end, I decided on various shapes. I was inspired by a placemat under my work laptop in the dining room. There were boxes within boxes and diamonds on them. I added a circle, some hexies (of course), and other shapes.

This is what it looks like so far. I used mostly variegated thread for the stitching, which doesn't show up well.

Close up of the free motion quilting

What's next?

Playing with thread - both hand stitching and possibly more FMQ.

Last week I discovered Maiwa. Two orders in less than two weeks later, I'm in big trouble. I'm totally addicted 😊 I think that it's a great addiction - it's socially acceptable (there may be some eye rolling from non textile people), it has no calories and it takes up less space than fabric. That's a win, win, win situation!

In the box are two sets of hand-dyed Bengal thread - silk and linen. They also have cotton and wool in these colours but I couldn't resist the silk and linen. I have started using them and I'll tell you all about them in another post.

Bengal hand-dyed thread from Maiwa (silk and linen)

These are hand-dyed linen, also from Maiwa

I will be using these and other threads to add to the FMQ. I'm really not sure what I'll be doing except for using some fun stitches over and around the FMQ. You'll have to come back next time to see what I end up doing!

What I learned

It's really hard to not plan a project. The improv piecing was straight forward but I really didn't want to spend much time planning the FMQ. I hope that the use of shapes was a good idea...we'll see.
The trick when hand stitching will be to make the piece interesting, with mouvement and cohesion.
I discovered Maiwa from an article where Sue Stone is interviewed and she talked about some of the supplies that she uses. When I read that Maiwa was a Canadian company, I just had to check it out. Wow! (See Related links below)
I'm really looking forward to using the linen thread. I bought a white skein to eventually dye. That could be a lot of fun!

Free Motion Mavericks

It was a small intimate party last time but wow - the FMQ was impressive. I'm going to be featuring them all!

Let's start with Rebecca's White On White Bailee Quilt. Rebecca may be using a computerized long arm but that baby needs some guidance to quilt this kind of quilting.

Rebecca Grace's incredible White on White Bailee Quilt

Sandra of mmm quilts participated in the Just One Charm Pack Blog Hop with a lovely quilt designed by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Design. The Blog Hop was to showcase quilts from Cheryl's book, Just One Charm Pack Quilts. It's really amazing how the fabric and the quilting can change the look of a quilt. Sandra did a stunning job, as usual 😊.

Sandra's version of Blossom Chains, called Captiva Meadow

Gail of Quilting Gail got another UFO finished! She had some trouble with a couple of rows of swirls and found out that a new needle was the solution. It's a painful lesson to learn, but at least the solution was simple! Check out Gail's swirls. She did a great job of putting those two sets of panels together to make the quilt.