The Crewel Rooster is one of the step-by-step embroidery projects available on Needle ‘n Thread.
He was an experiment in combining various types of wool threads and various stitches, using whatever happened to be available, wool-wise, in my stash.
Since I’ve had lots of questions about the Crewel Rooster since he was born, I wasn’t surprised to receive a few contributions from readers in which he was featured.
The surprising thing is that all the rooster contributions arrived in my email on the same day, within a couple hours of each other! I’ve since proclaimed a National Rooster Day.
Each rooster below represents a completely different approach to the same embroidery design, so I think it’ll be fun to see them all on one page, demonstrating that an embroidery design can always be personalized with your own thread and stitch choices.
Lynn’s rooster in all its glory! She used a terrific combination of stitches on this guy!
I really like the raised stem stitch here! And the combinations of stitches within the individual tail feathers…
And the flowers are super fun, with their outlines in chain stitch and what looks like a whipped buttonhole stitch. The combinations of colors in the French knots was a great idea, and I like the variation on the center petal, too.
One thing I love about embroidery – there are so many stitches and combinations of embroidery stitches, that the variety you can have with embroidery can never be exhausted!
Sandy’s friend was setting out on a long road trip. So Sandy did what every good friend does – she compiled an embroidery kit with a piece of fabric with the design on it (in this case, the rooster), a whole variety of threads, and all that was needed to stitch up this little guy.
And then she sent her friend on her merry way, road tripping and stitching.
When her friend returned, Sandy took the embroidered rooster square and turned it into a little quilt piece. She did all the piecing and the other background embroidery (in the running stitch), assembled it, and quilted it.
Collaboration is a Great Thing, don’t you think? Fun!
Lois’s rooster proudly struts his vibrant tale and his terrific chest of feathers! I love the treatment of the beads on the chest, topped with those smooth black and grey stitches on the neck, and finally the contrasting white on the head.
I would have never thought of using beads, but I like the way they turned out – they’re black, but they reflect the light, so you get that little speckle of white in there with each glint.
And so, the Crewel Rooster lives on! And I’m so happy to see that he does!
It’s a fun project for playing around with all kinds of stitch combinations, and as you can see with the examples above, you’re not limited by particular stitches or threads – your own approach will yield your own personalized masterpiece!
For those just joining in, this is a continuation of series of articles that highlights embroidery from the Needle ‘n Thread community, especially needlework influenced by information, tutorials, patterns, and so forth from Needle ‘n Thread. You can find a call for contributions and an explanation of the series here, and you can see previous examples of embroidery-related reader contributions here.
