Herringbone filling

Now here is the herringbone filling from Elizabeths blog as promised. Sorry to all those I’m making fall asleep from boredom with this. It is so simple but took me much more time to figure out than more difficult stitches, and now I want to share the fun.

First, do a row of herringbone stitch as shown.
Start the next row 2 threads below the first one, working in the opposite direction.

At the top, the stitches of the second row are placed under the stitches of the first row.

Start the third and all following rows 2 threads under the previous one. Remeber to always work to and fro, and try to find comfortable working positions by turning the fabric between rows.

Here you see a few finished rows, and some more in pearl cotton 3 which gives better coverage on this fabric.

A closeup of the nicer section.

Working on

So this is how far I got this week. not too much, I know.

I decided to fill the sky in the picture with dark blue long-armed cross stitch. not sure this is so good, it takes forever to do. I wanted something simple for the sky to avoid an overly busy look, and rich structure for the soil.

A closup of the long-armed cross stitch. I like this stitch very much for filling large areas. Here, the stitches turend out very long because the fabric is no evenweave and I worked over the traditional 3*3 threads. I think if I do such a piece again I will probably invest in real embroidery linen istead of using some cheap surrogate. This is a 100% linen dress fabric which looks great, but is no evenweave and more stretchy than I would like my embroidery fabric.

Stitch Invention by Stupidity

So I saw a herring bone stitch variant used as filling stitch at Quieter Moments. Elizabeth had provided instructions, but I found them rather vague and struggled a bit.

First thing do a row of herringbone stitch. Start the second row right under the first one, leaving only one thread space between them.

On the upper side of the fabric, you have little change but work the next herringbone stitch on top of the previous row.

Continue like this, always making sure you work the stitch over all existing threads from previous stitches. Four rows done, the last one requires some care to really work over all existing stitches. Make sure you always work to and fro to get that braiding effect, turn the fabric as needed to find a comfortable working position for every row.

After four rows, I was at a loss. I found that I have no change but start a new packet of stacked stitches. For that, start the next row 2 threads under the pevious one and work the stitches at the top under the previous row. Complete the “packet” of four rows like the previous one.

Two rows of the combined stitches finished.

The whole sampler from a distance, to show the overall effect.

What do you say? This doesn’t quite look like Elizabeths’s work? Yeah right, it happened as the title states. They say lazy vacations reduce the IQ, I seem to be a good example for this LOL.

Don’t worry, I have figured out how to do the real stitch by now. I will post detailed instructions on that soon, although it really is so easy that I made a fool of myself already.

Progress on my Work

So tomorrow I’ll have to go back to work, this week was way too short. I have been doing a bit more than I was showing you and prepared lots of photographs in advance, So I won’t be back to posting once a week for some time, I hope.

Now this is how far I got with my flower bulb. You see how the iron-on pattern is already beginning to fade, That’s why I have to finish all these outlines before continuing with my trellis stitch piece.

Another long and short stitch detail. I’m getting better at this, I think.

I used to dabble in bonsai, and as you see here, I maintained the habit of collecting little plants in pots, always hoping they’ll be beautiful useful one day. Thy rarely are. And my best ones always died after a few years thanks to the unpredictable weather here.

Stitching On: Outlines and Internal Fillings on my Assisi Project

So I’m working on my stuff slowly but surely, in between cleaning up the garden and enjoying the fine weather in other ways. The whole thing is going to be more “Sharon-style” than traditional assisi work of course. This Prym iron-on pattern pen fades within a months or so, so I’m trying to finish all the outlines quickly. I’m doing only the dark parts inside the onion in long and short stitch, I plan to use something more textured on the outside.

This I did in the evening, in a room not too well lit.

And this in daylight.

I think the difference does show. I will need better lights. But these also show that I will have to pracrice long and short stitch a lot more. I’m doing it with 3 strands of floss here to match the coarse linen.

Assisi Work -Continued

I described here what ideas I had about assisi work and how I started my design process.

I decided that the first drawing in my last post was best.So I copied it unto transparent paper by simply drawing the outlines after putting the transparent paper over the original drawing, then tried to get all the black and white right. I used in part copic marker, in part Faber-Castell brush marker. This is the result.

Next, I used a pencil for making iron-on patterns and drew along the lines of the outlines of the motif . The ironing on is best done on a hard surface to get good presure and make sure nothing shifts. As you can see, the frame was ironed on first and the bulb was moved away from the end of the area to stitch a bit. Unfortunately not all lines were drawn strong enough to show well after ironing on.

Warning: Don’t do this like I did this time! The marker gave off funny smells that made me dizzy during ironing. Don’t heat paint or marker colour not intended for this! Do a copy in pencil on another sheet of transparent paper if you have used marker, then draw with iron-on pattern pencil onto the back of it to avoid getting a mirror image of your pattern.

I reinforced the iron-on pencil drawing and braved the stench a second time, but it didn’t really get better. I guess that pencil doesn’t work too well with linen like this that has bulks and is rather uneven. So i started stitching. I used cotton a broder for the outlines because I found I don’t have any black floss and the shops are shut on important church hollidays here. I’m going to get floss for the roots I think. Now here is how far I got. I know it’s not that impressive but i fear I’ll miss the deadline if I don’t post something now. Stay tuned for the next updates.

Sketchcrawl, we did it!

So me and two other sketchers met and had a good time. It was the first really warm weekend of the year, so we sketched in a little park, the Hofgarten. After that we went to a little courtyard and continued there but what I did there was too pathetic to show. I so need more practice! We finished the day at a very good tai restaurant. We didn’t get much done because we all had to leave early, but it was a fun day and we hope to repeat that soon.

I know 15th of April will be soon, I should get going on the assisi challenge. I already bought thread if that counts a little bit lol.

I also couldn’t keep my beloved camera in the pocket on this day, but more on that on other occasions. Here are some photographs I took today in the garden, and with those I wish you a happy spring festival, no matter if you call it easter or something else. Celebrate Life!

Sketchcrawl !

Tomorrow we will be sketching at Munich again, as will be many people in other towns. See here for details. If you live nearby and want to join us just drop by, we won’t be too hard to spot with all our sketching gear out. I will have a week off work now, so expect a few more meaty postings soon.

For eye candy, here is a sketch I did at the botanical garden not long ago. I confess it is the only real outdoor sketch I did since last scetchcrawl.

What I Did this Week – Chicken Scratch

Well, What the title says. Hard week at work and such, so this was all I did on the commute this week. Maybe the weekend will be better.