I’m in a tight fix. I’ve let the spot sampler slide a bit, because at one point, I had gotten pretty far ahead on it… so I haven’t embroidered on it for quite a while. But rats. My students are almost caught up with me! This week, they’re filling in a few leaf motifs and learning the stitches associated with those, and then they’ll be where I am.
This could be a good thing. It could also be a bad thing. It could be a good thing, because it might motivate me to move ahead quickly with some stitching. It could be a bad thing, because I don’t have a lot of time for stitching right now! But I’m pretty certain I’m not supposed to fall behind my students. Hmmmm……
In the meantime, I thought I’d show you what my spotty spot sampler looks like. This isn’t really my favorite type of stitching, but I have enjoyed working on the sampler. I just need to get back to it!
Here the sampler is, in it’s cluttered glory. To name the embroidery stitches that have been done on it so far:
1. Counted work (cross stitch, blackwork, backstitch, pattern darning, herringbone on the grid, and various filling patterns, including cloud filling, lattice filling, Japanese darning, Bosnian filling, fly stitch lattice…) Granted, these aren’t all solely counted techniques, but they work really well on counted ground, and they served their purpose, which was to get my students to understand how counted thread techniques work.
2. Surface (non-counted) stitches: stem stitch, Portuguese knotted stem stitch, stem stitch as filling, chain stitch and variations (see below), detached chain, French knots, split stitch, cretan stitch, fly stitch (as a filling), buttonhole stitch and a variation (still more to come on that), basket stitch, and… I think that’s it. We still have a lot to cover this quarter!
I’m not sure what the heck went on here, but it took the picture for me to notice it. I think, because the sampler is fairly wrinkled up, I didn’t notice that this is indeed crooked and not just a matter of the messy fabric. I’ll have to fix this. (Or not! After all, it is a sampler!) It looks as if I ended each row of variation a little bit shorter as I worked down those rows.
These are all variations of chain stitch. From top to bottom: open chain, pendant chain, wheat stitch, twisted chain, zig-zag chain, double chain, cable chain, crested chain, rosette chain, and… chain stitch. Down the left side is Spanish knotted feather stitch, which really is just kind of an alternated twisted chain stitch pattern. There’s also a spot of heavy chain stitch on the sampler (the periwinkle scroll on the lower left side), and some braid stitch (in a line on the right).
The lower corner here is also worked in Spanish knotted feather stitch, which I’ll be showing you how to work later on. It’s a fun stitch, and I love the look of it for edges. So it’s a must, as far as learning goes!
While I like the corner treatment, I’m not too fond of the leaf. It’s worked in split stitch, as a filling. It’s so blocky, isn’t it?
Woe is me! Looking at the sampler at this point makes me rather uneasy. We have only 4.5 weeks of school left this quarter, if you take into account Thanksgiving break. (Oooooh. Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving Break!!!) Not only do I have to stitch like a mad woman to get ahead again, but I have to light a fire under my students, too, to get them through the push at the end of the semester, if I want them to accomplish everything that we set out to accomplish. The latter will be more challenging than the former. But the former has its drawbacks. This isn’t the type of stitching I want to do right now! (Oh, yes – I would like some cheese with my “whine”, please!)
So that’s where I am. Where are you?
Have a great Monday!
