The Readers' Digest Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches is one of my new favorite reads right now. I got a copy from the library but might have to put this on a Christmas wish list.
One of the things I like about this book is that it's not just a guide to stitches but also types of embroidery such as pulled stitches, smocking, and embroidery on canvas often called needlepoint.
It's a cmplete instructional guide with helpful sections on needles, hoops, and fabrics, as well as stitch variations and skills building.
The how-to illustrations are very clear and there's also a color photo of each stitch. There are more than 260 stitches explained in the book.
I even found a very rarely taught stitch I'll be using in an upcoming magazine project I'm designing: the knitting stitch. It's not knitting but looks just like it!
The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches was published in 2004 and this seems to be a printing from 2006. I'm shocked, though, that this particular book looks brand new. I'm going to have a card written up so I can put it on a Reader's Choice shelf at the local library.
This book gets a thumbs up from me!
Over the next four days, we'll learn twelve stitches - three per day. I'll be working these up on the wheel sampler but will also show you how I used the same stitches on the tree sampler. (The links will give you both patterns in one download.)
The order in which we are learning stitches has no logic. I simply listed them on the wheel alphabetically so we'll just go around.
You'll see some stitches are remarkably similar: little loops and catches, or just a bunch of straight stitches worked slightly differently. Yup. Most embroidery stitches are lines, loops, or knots or some combination of these.
See? It's easy!
Hoops
If you transfer the pattern (lesson two) as is, without enlarging or reducing, a 7" hoop will fit all around nicely. You can also use a smaller hoop, moving it from area to area as you go or a larger hoop if your fabric piece will accommodate it.
If you printed the sampler on a home computer, it is the size of a sheet of paper and a 7" hoop is the largest size that will accommodate the width.
Colors
Choose your own colors or use the color wheel I chose.
Thanks to Dawn Lewis
who said she saw a color wheel in the design. I had originally thought
of it as a clock and was delighted to see rainbows in my head after she
mentioned it.
( I had a problem identifying two of the colors. I had them labelled as Anchor threads with numbers not matching Anchor's lists. I used online charts as best as I could to choose the likely DMC color. I chose 350 and 311 as the colors that came closest on my computer screen.)
Splitting the floss
Stranded cotton embroidery floss has 6 strands. I have used either 3 or 4 strands for the sampler wheel. Splitting the six strands into groups is a bit of a magic trick. Most stitchers start pulling them apart as you see and just as it looks as if the whole thing is going to become a knotted mess, grabs the other end in their mouths and pulls while continuing to separate the strands.
There's no other way to describe it. You'll see what I mean.
Use any of the methods you like for working with or without knots at the end of the thread. (Lesson three.) I have knotted mine.
Let's start!
Back Stitch
Back stitch is one of easiest stitches of all. It is very often used as an outline stitch, left as is or with the space filled in using another type of stitch.
Bring the threaded needle from the back to the front at the end of the first stitch. You can start from either the outer edge (working in) or the inner edge (working out). I used 3 strands for this stitch.
Insert the needle at the end of the first stitch, actually in between the printed stitch guides. Bring the thread through to the back.
Bring the needle back up to the front at the far end of the next stitch.
And then back down into the same place the last one ended.
From here, continue making these loop-de-loops across to the end of the line.
At the end, simply bring the thread to the back side and knot. This is the back of the work.
Blanket Stitch
Use 4 strands to completely cover the pattern markings. There is just a bit of a tail before the first stitch on this row. Bring the threaded needle from the back to the front at the end of that tail.
Then insert the needle at the end of the little offshoot, pulling through to the back of the fabric, and back up at the top of the "T" of the offshoot. A little bit of thread makes a loop around the needle.
Pull the thread up and a little hook is formed along the line.
Continue pushing the needle down to the back of the work at the far ends of the offshoot lines and back up at the T junction, catching the thread in a loop.
At the end of the line, make a tiny little stitch over the edge to hold the loop shape.
Chain Stitch
I used three strands for this stitch. Bring the threaded needle to the front of the work at the end of the stitch closest to the center of the wheel.
Tricky here. You're going to actually put the needle back into the same hole or a thread or so away from it. Pull it to the back, but not all the way; leave a loop of thread on the top side.
And then bring the needle to the front at the rounded loop end of the stitch, making sure it's inside the loop of thread remaining at the top.
Pull it tight.
Now do the same thing again. Go to the back side at the same point, come back up at the other end of the stitch inside the loop, and pull tight. (Not too tight.)
Continue making these chains along the line.
At the end of the row, catch the loop by making a tiny stitch at the end.
Back of the work
This is what the work looks like on the back side.
Yay! You've learned three stitches and completed a quarter of the sampler wheel.
Here are the same stitches used on the tree sampler.
Back stitch on the fence - 3 strands. DMC 814
Blanket stitch in the tree - 4 strands. DMC 367 and 3053
Chain stitch for the clouds - 3 strands. DMC 793
Bonus round! Running out of thread during blanket stitch:
If you run out of thread, make your loop as shown and bring the end of the thread up elsewhere just to hold it.
Knot and bring the new thread up at the top of the T to catch the loop. Pull the hanging thread to tighten it a bit.
Bring the needle through and make your next stitch.
Pull the hanging tail thread to the back and knot.
I'll see you all tomorrow for lesson five and three more stitches. Happy stitching!
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