November round up

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Today I'm going to stick to the tradition and bring the monthly wrap-ups back here on StitchFloral. Usually it includes only one month of activities here, but this time, I'm going to include July as well, since the blog went on hiatus after that.

First things first, I explain the reason for the hiatus in the post about my mental block for the embroidery. It doesn't have anything to do with the lack of inspiration or ideas, but rather... the consequences of bad self care? 

Sometimes we think that stitching with bad lighting won't do much harm, but you might be surprised at how wrong this assumption is. I've been there and shared my story, so make sure to read and avoid making the same mistake!

Developing Stitch Vocabulary

Now, as for the stitches. In July we took up the classical filling technique: satin stitch. It's one of the basic ones, so be sure to check out the tutorial (it contains some tips as well). For the more dimensional look, you can use padded satin stitch.

The previously mentioned stitches fit the purpose of filling in rather small shapes and areas. They create a nice solid “coat” and when you use cotton floss or silk thread your stitching looks really smooth and shiny. Of course, to achieve a real pretty look one needs to practice a little bit. But it's worth the effort.

However, satin stitch allows filling a shape only with one color. In case you want to use several shades of thread colors you can use long and short stitch technique. I once was a beginner myself and I know that this technique might look intimidating and something only “talented people” can do, but trust me, it's all about practice.

So, for the purpose of practicing this technique, I started the Needle Painting stitch along (which comes in 4 parts) where we stitched Trish Burr's pansies from the book “Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery”. 

All in all, there are four parts to this stitch along. It was also my first time to work a design by a well-known and acknowledged needle painter, which made me quite anxious in the beginning, but it turned out real fun in the process!

By the way, while I was working on the stitch along I discovered that it requires using split back stitch, so I made a tutorial for it as well.

I really enjoyed the stitch along and received a warm and positive feedback from you guys, so I plan to do another one with my own design where we could practice some stitches together – more on that at the end of the post.

The last stitch lesson of November was dedicated to fishbone stitch – a common technique to embroider leaves and feathers.

The Grace embroidery design I came up with when I thought of what defines “girls' power” features fishbone stitch as a filler of leaves motif. So, after learning it, grab the freebie and you're all equipped for completing this design!

Guide to embroidery

There were also few posts dedicated to common questions and mistakes in embroidery on the blog during the past months. First of all, we learned the 6 faces of stem stitch – a versatile stitch that can acquire a different look based on how you work it. Once you understand the basics of stem stitch, I encourage you to read the post and explore all the different ways of working it, as well as discovering different names for it (think of outline stitch).

Also, we looked at another way of starting your thread when neither knot nor anchoring stitches work for you. I must confess I use this way of starting thread SO often when I stitch lines and in some other instances, but I didn't see anyone else talk about it before, which seems surprising... This one might be a lifehack worth of your attention, so don't miss it.

Finally, read about 4 reasons why you should think of binding your hoop and find out why this ritual is very common among stitchers, and check out the post about mistake one can make while using a water soluble marker.

December

December is a busy month so I might not be as active here as I'd like, but I do have some materials I want to share with you, so please look forward to them.

I've been receiving e-mails from you asking to put you on a waiting list for the next stitch along. I plan to have it in January because the current month will be really hectic for many of us. Better to have a stitching session when things calm down, you feel me?

So, if you don't want to miss it, write to aminakdesigns@hotmail.com or use the contact form in the sidebar on the right and I will contact you with details when the time comes.

See you soon!