![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_nepveu) wrote2020-05-27 06:53 pm
stitching: all-blackwork square; adventures in hand and machine sewing
First, another completed project, an all-blackwork square. If you can't see the image, open this link in an incognito window; I should really go back to self-hosting images but for now, convenience will win out, my apologies.
This is another pattern from Seba Designs, but I think I must've gotten it as a freebie or something way, way back in the day, because it's not available in the FB group's files. I messaged the designer to ask if she wanted me to upload it, and haven't heard back; I'll ask again when I post there.
I stitched this on white 18-count Aida with one strand of Caron Waterlilies 110 (Hyacinth). I went down to 18-count because a single strand didn't show up the way I wanted on lower counts, and because if I used more than one strand, I would've felt obligated to keep them parallel, which would have kept this from being an easy and fun project. I've never done blackwork with such an emphatically variegated thread before, and it was fun planning how to divide up sections. I don't quite love the design of the outermost section, but on the whole this was very satisfying.
(Also satisfying: most of the way through, I remembered that I had a scroll frame shoved in the back of a closet. I took that out, popped a clamp on the bottom, and just rested my Q-snaps across the scroll bars, with the clamp as an extremely low-rent version of the pegs on this stand that's no longer being made. Stitching two-handed, with my dominant hand underneath and other hand on top, is so fast.)
I actually finished this on Monday. I know exactly what fun project I'm doing next, but I was very good and did not start it, which worked out well because later that day I ended up spending a few hours mending a quilt that was made for Chad when he was a baby; it has various cut-out shapes hand-sewn to the front, and unsurprisingly, over the last decade of heavy use on the couch by our kids, those shapes have started coming loose. While sewing that, I found myself pondering how nice it is to have something that was made so long ago, and I have a sewing machine now, what if I started making quilts that might be family heirlooms in the fullness of time…
…and then I remembered that the day before, when I had been hemming fabric with my brand-new sewing machine to turn into masks, I had said to myself, "I know this would go a lot better if I ironed the creases the way all the instructions say to. But: I don't wanna." And so I didn't. (It turned out fine. It would have been better if I'd pressed it, of course, but still: fine.) So quilts, which appear to be all about precision, are not for me.
(Plus I've missed my window to create heirloom blankets for this generation, really.)
Anyway. More mending of the quilt, once I further tweak my homemade duct-tape-and-dime thimble; more making very simple masks on the sewing machine. And then: more blackwork.
Are you crafting at the moment? Anything you're eyeing once you can get the materials/energy/time? Feelings about needlework stands (I have many, which I omitted from the post for the sake of time)?
+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?
no subject
I like that a lot.
I am not crafting; I am mostly just trying to write.
no subject
no subject
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001DS1WK/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_EoWZEb9SRQK0N
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Bare breasts or no bare breasts? (I draw a lot of Minoans, as befits my username.)
no subject
no subject
That makes sense :)
no subject
no subject
You're totally welcome! \o/
no subject
I've been looking for a hoop stand for double-handed stitching myself--I really should have taken the chance to buy a table-clamp one when I tried it out at the San Francies School of Needlework and Design (they have a small shop up front, and do not sell online) and the closest I've come to finding it is a UK designer.
I've been working on a small piece (3-inch hoop) of a lotus, and my goal is to make something double-sided, similar to Shu embroidery. Satin stitches, long-short, and feather stitches, to hide the thread ends, and making it look as similar as possible front and back. I'm almost done all the pink bits, when I can concentrate on it! Mostly I'm trying to practice my basic stitches as much as possible.
no subject
I haven't been in the mood for embroidery right now, but I'm going to try this method when I resume, because I really like being able to just pick it up and turn it over.
Your lotus sounds amazing! I am extremely intimidated by long and short stitch and of course that's a big chunk of what I have left on the embroidery WIP... And double-sided too, an extra challenge! I'd love to see pictures whenever you're in the mood to share.
no subject
I've got an in-progress picture here from the early stage: https://www.instagram.com/p/CANiROygOeM/
Here's one I took just now: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAvLxndD73o/
I'm practicing because I got a really cute Chinese fan kit during my visit to Chengdu, and I don't really want to mess it up with knots and stuff. I noticed that a lot of Shu embroidery is double-sided and looked up videos for how it's done. Would love to take a class on it someday though omg.
no subject
also it's #blackworkembroidery on Instagram. =>
no subject
no subject
I'm still knitting things that aren't for me to wear, kind of doggedly. It works....
no subject
whatever works for you!