Showing posts with label sampler embroidery. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Spiral Challenge

Bonjour and welcome! 😊 I've been chasing a squirrel this week. Read on to find out more.

Spiral Challenge

One of my favourite embroidery artist and teacher is Mirjam Gielen of Mirjam Textiles. I've been following her on Instagram for years. She has taught a couple of workshops with TextileArtist.org and I'm also a member of her Patreon. She's having a Spiral Challenge for her Patreon members, so I've watched her videos and stitched up a few spirals.

Four embroidered spirals

For my first spiral, I drew a simple shape on the fabric with a FriXion pen. It was a spiral with curves within it, like an ammonite stone or a snail's shell. I wanted to make those marks within the curve and used bullion knots and cast-on stitches. Some of my stitches are better than others but outlining the spiral with a chain stitch makes it look better.

My first spiral, outlined with chain stitch and the curves in
bullion knots and cast-on stitches

The second spiral was created with two layers of herringbone stitches. I used a variegated perle cotton of green and yellow. I really enjoyed this one, once I got the hang of the stitch.

Herringbone stitch to make another spiral

The third spiral was made using the blanket stitch and outlined with a chain stitch. I love the blanket stitch once I get it started. The problem with a blanket stitch in a curved pattern is that it tends to draw in. That's why adding a contour of chain stitch is great - you can use the chain stitch to tack the blanket stitch in place.

Adding the chain stitch

Blanket stitch

Blanket stitched spiral with chain stitch edging

My final many-spoked spiral was stitched with a back stitch in different colours of #12 perle cotton. I added two rows of French knots to jazz it up.

Back stitched spirals with French knots

What I learned

I really enjoyed playing with the different stitches to make the spirals.
I don't often embroider in a hoop, but I found it necessary to use the hoop to get a good tension.
My stitches are ok - and I know that if I really wanted to get much better, that I would need to practice these shapes several times.
Although I enjoyed making them, I just don't have the patience to keep stitching the spirals over and over because I'm easily bored!
Lucky for me, I've learned to work to my strengths. When I embroider, it's usually to add texture to a piece - so that the imperfections don't really matter.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 559 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Deb from A Scrappy Quilter got two quilts quilted and finished! The first one was a pieced quilt top made of scrappy triangles. Deb quilted around each of the pyramids to accentuate them.

Deb's finished pyramid quilt

Close-up of the Deb's quilting along the pyramids

Deb's second quilt, 2000 Colors, started off as a green quilt. Deb put it aside - it was too green! Then she got a stash of "near postage stamp blocks" and the second quilt was created!

2000 Colors, created and quilted by Deb

Gwyned Trefethen has started FMQ the background of her Broken Hearts quilt with spirals.

Gwyneth FMQ spirals in the background of Broken Hearts

Donnalee quilted another runner for her guild's upcoming show and sale. It was originally quilted as you go but Donnalee added serpentine quilting to finish it off.

Donated runner gets additional serpentine quilting by Donnalee

Donnalee's quilted doggy placemat for Zoey

Melva, of Melva Loves Scraps, finished quilting two Memory Keeper quilts.

Memory Keeper quilt by Melva

Another Memory Keeper quilt by Melva

It's now your turn! 😎

Thursday, June 05, 2025

More Zen Stitching and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! I did some hand-stitching on a sampler that I started in Karen Turner's class last week. We had lots to do! I finally found the fabric to bind the Floral Fusion wall hanging that I started last September with Denise of the Quiltery. There's going to be a finish in the near future!😍

Slow-stitching Sampler

In her Making Zen class, Karen also showed us how she makes lovely hand-stitched samplers which she incorporates into a journal. I haven't worked on a meditative stitching piece in ages, so it was great to get back to it. Karen uses fusible interfacing as the base and then irons on scraps, covered by a transparent fabric like tulle or organza to keep everything together. I did the same thing but added a piece of flannel at the back to make the sampler sturdier and easier to stitch.

Stitched sampler based on Karen Turner's workshop

I used mostly hand-dyed scraps for this sampler as well as many different types of thread, perle cotton and yarn. As long as it fits in the needle, it can be used 😁. In the end, the piece reminds me a little bit of a landscape, with the spiral sun at the top, many vines and even rain drops!

My son's latest hobby is 3D printing. He made a box to place at the back of the printer to collect the scraps of plastic (we call it plastic poop! That's what happens when you have a dog 🐕) So I used three of these in the piece. One is black, the other black and white and the last one a gray, which happens when the black and white plastic fuse together. All of the plastic pieces have some kind of hole, so they're perfect for stitching. Apparently he now has many colours of plastic so I will get more colourful poop for my art making.

In the closeup, you can also see scraps of yarn and perle cotton placed under the tulle.

A closeup of the plastic pieces and scraps of yarn

I've now placed it in my Mindful Meditation Journal.

Sampler placed in my Mindful Stitching Journal

This side - bottom!

I was Poppy sitting earlier this week. What a cutie!

Waiting for the squirrels - in the jungle that is my
backyard right now!

What I learned

I was happy to have something simple and fun to stitch as my energy waned.
Poppy was a great distraction and I'm thankful that it was cool out for all of those walks!
Poppy is gone and the heat is here, but the evenings will be cool, so all is good!
I spent some quality time in my studio looking for the fabric to make the binding for the Floral Fusion wall hanging. When you use scraps, it's not always easy to find enough binding fabric.
I took the opportunity to clean up in the studio. It's not great but it's less chaotic.
I'm linking up to the June One Monthly Goal and will finish this piece, hopefully sooner than the end of the month! I did finish FMQ the empty blocks a while back, so it really is all about the binding.

Floral Fusion ready to be bound

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 534 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. This week there were lots of quilts in progress. Here is the project from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts free motion quilted this lovely pink and brown quilt following one of Angela Walter's video.

Kat's FMQ pink and brown quilt

Here's a look at the back where you can see the FMQ better.

Kat's FMQ as seen from the back

It's now your turn!

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Off the Grid Sampler is finished

Welcome! I'm very happy to share this finish with you 😊 It's been a fun project but it's nice to see it finished so that I now have a few less projects on the go, or I can start another one! 😁

Finishing up "Off the Grid"

Since I kept track of all of my different stitches, I can tell you that there were 44 different area to stitch. In some of those areas, I even managed to use a combination of more than one stitch.

"Off the Grid" Sampler finished and mounted

I don't usually track all of this but a sampler that doesn't include a record of the stitches used is difficult to learn from. Sometimes I can tell which stitches I used, but at other time, I don't have a clue!

This is my sampler - I did miss two areas, between 23 and 24, and then on the other side of 23.

A drawing of the sampler

These are the stitches that I used the most, in several places:

Running stitch
Chain stitch
Cross stitch
Blanket stitch and double blanket (buttonhole) battlement
Backstitch
Couching
Herringbone
French knots
Feather stitch
Threaded backstitch and running stitch
Stem stitch

I only used these stitches in one area of the sampler:

In case you're interested, I linked the stitches above to Sharon Boggon's Pentangle Stitch Dictionary.

Here are a few more images of stitches.

Raised band herringbone stitch, a row of chain stitch,
lots of French Knots, random fly and feather stitches,
and outlined satin stitch

from left, clockwise
Seed stitch, stem stitch, buttonhole stitch, double buttonhole
and battlement stitch, threaded running stitch (with transparent elastic),
threaded backstitch and couching stitch (at bottom)

I finished my sampler by mounting it on a canvas board.

Off the Grid Sampler

What I learned

As I typed out my notes about the stitches, I realised that they weren't very good - better than nothing but not consistent or detailed enough.
Using variegated thread for almost any stitch adds colour and interest.
My least successful stitches were in not very straight rows.
In doing couching stitches, if you want them to show up, they need to be very contrasting and use more than one thread.
I had given up on making the sampler pretty and used many more colours than I usually do. I'm not really sure why it works but it does look good. I did try to repeat the colours, so that may have helped.
I really like using the Mouliné étoile embroidery thread by DMC for French Knots. They are slightly fluffy and look great.
I love trying out different yarns for embroidery. Another fun yarn is Tencel Pearl. I've linked to the company, Trail Head Yarns, below.
I also discovered that you can buy linen at the yarn store for embroidery. I got 3 colours of the BC Garn Lino for Christmas. What beautiful linen and perfect for embroidery. Buying a skein of linen is economical considering how much linen it contains. It's going to last many years 😊

Related links

Off the Grid Sampler, December 11, 2022
Mouliné étoile embroidery thread by DMC
Trail Head Yarns - manufacturer of Tencel Pearl
BC Garn Lino, available at many yarn stores.
Pintangle's Stitch Dictionary
Sharon Boggon, Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery: Visual Guide to 120 Essential Stitches for Stunning Designs

Linking parties

I'll be linking up this post to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on out there! Patchwork & Appliqué, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers,

Project detail

Off the Grid sampler

Based on a workshop with Sue Stone, TextileArtist.org

Size: 8" x 6"

Material: Kona cotton, embroidery floss, metallic thread, Mouliné étoile, Tencel Pearl, perle cotton, transparent elastic, etc.

Techniques: embroidery (see post for stitches)

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Off the Grid Sampler

Hi! I hope that you are surviving December and all of its potential craziness 😎. I'm trying to stay Zen but it's not easy! Something that does help is embroidery and other slow stitching projects. Here is an ongoing project.

Creating my own Off the Grid Sampler

This sampler comes from a September class with Sue Stone from TextileArtist.org It's taken me a while to get going but now I'm enjoying it a lot and looking forward to trying out stitches.

Off the Grid Sampler...so far

I'm using two layers of fabric for the embroidery. The top is a Kona cotton and the bottom is a very light cotton that I've used for backing various slow-stitching projects. I've numbered the different shapes in the pattern so that I can keep track of what stitches I've used.

Pattern and numbering to keep track of stitches

Here are a few pictures at various stages. I won't be listing every combination here unless it's something particularly interesting.

Sampler

The image below has some interesting trellis stitches with Tencel perle (section 6), double buttonhole stitch (section 5), and feather stitches in black as a filler (section 7). In sections 3 and 9, I was playing with the placement of running stitches. It's not quite what I want yet but I'm sure I'll figure it out!😊

Closeup of some stitches

The French knots below are nice and fluffy because I'm using the Tencel Perle.

French Knots within a border (section 16).
I'm still working on the border part.

My two furry helpers

I was dog sitting and asked my two helpers to sit next to the embroidery so that I could take their pictures. Twix, always wanting to please, sat for this photo while Taffy, the independent one, promptly lay down on it to sleep 😁

Twix is always happy to pose for a picture.

Taffy taking a nap on the sampler

What I learned

I was hoping to make a lovely colour-coordinated sampler but I soon gave up and am using a variety of interesting threads without being too concerned with colour. It's going to be a scrappy sampler 😊.
When I was at my brother's place, he saw my embroidery floss, left the room and then came back with a plastic bin. It contains my niece's friendship bracelet supplies which I've now inherited. (Thanks Anna!) There is some wonderful embroidery floss in there and a few interesting beads and buttons.
There was also a whole bunch of friendship bracelets that she made. I had a few of her bracelets and now with these new ones, I really want to make a "collaborative" piece. I will also include some of my daughter's bracelets. So many ideas 😉
I'm enjoying trying out combinations of stitches on this sampler. The fun part is that if it doesn't really work the first time, I can use different threads to try again.
My motto for this sampler is: It might not be pretty but it will be useful!
I was happy to try out some stitch combinations from memory. I wasn't of the name but checked them out in my trusty Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery by Sharon Baggon.
The stitches I started in section 31 are buttonhole or blanket stiches but they are not going in the direction that I want them to. Unless it's really horrible, I'm not going to undo stitching, I'm just going to work around them.😊(that's the Zen part!)

Related links