I finally finished Birthday Bash, my embroidered kaleidoscope in a repeat paisley design.

Actually, I finished it twice.

Last week, I finished it the first time – or so I thought. I took photos and cleaned up my stitching mess. All the leftover threads were tidied and tucked away; the piece (thankfully still on the frame) was covered and set aside, and the whole thing was, in my mind, complete. All I had left to do was edit some photos so that I could share the finish with you.

And then I started editing the photos. It’s amazing what you’ll catch in photos, that you don’t catch in real life!

Somehow, I had forgotten all the French knots.

So this week, I finished it again.

Today, I’ll share the finish with you and a quick run-down on how I interpreted the design, with the why’s and wherefore’s of what I was trying to produce. And then next week, the pattern will be available for those who want to stitch your own interpretation or dabble with the same approach I took.

With these types of designs – as with any design you’re working that starts with just an embroidery pattern – ultimately, the interpretation is always up to the stitcher. While you might not feel perfectly confident in making your own color, thread, and stitch choices at first, the more you venture into making your own stitching decisions, the more you’ll be able to fine-tune your own embroidery style, unique to you.

If you’re not quite there yet when it comes to decisions on interpretation, that’s ok! Working through someone else’s suggestions works great, too! And it helps build the confidence you need to venture forth with your own ideas.

A Sampler of Sorts

I wanted to do two things with this pattern:

I wanted to get across the idea of a birthday celebration, with colors that come to mind when I think “Birthday Party.” Think: sprinkles on cupcakes and brightly colored birthday candles.

And I wanted to use a variety of stitches to keep the piece fun to work. In that regard, it turns out to be a sampler of sorts.

Stitches Used

My interpretation of Birthday Bash finished with a total of 15 stitches and stitching techniques incorporated into the finished design.

You’ll find whipped chain stitch and chain stitch filling, seed stitch, long and short stitch, fishbone stitch, and stem stitch…

…as well as diagonally striped band, granitos, French knots, scallops filled with radiating straight stitches and outlined with stem stitch (covered in this tutorial)…

…Palestrina stitch with a couching stitch worked between each knot, bullion knots, and beads for accents.

It’s a busy little piece, stitch-wise!

There’s nothing too difficult about the piece. In a few areas, if you were to interpret the design the same way, you’d want to be mindful of the order of stitching.

For example, in the area where the diagonal striped band is used as a filling, you’d definitely embroider the striped band filling first, and then the outline.

In areas (like the large leaf above) where whipped chain stitch is worked in closer proximity with other lines of stitches, you’d work from the inside to the outside on the leaf, whipping each chain stitch line as you progress outwards. That way, you don’t run into the other lines of stitches while you whip the chain stitch.

While there’s no intricate shading on the piece, I used three different shades of green to fill the larger leaves with seed stitches, working from dark green at the base of the leaf to a lighter green at the tip. It gives a hint of shading, anyway!

And here’s the whole thing – Birthday Bash!

I wanted to achieve something happy and bright, with a sense of movement (the swirls of the design), and a sense of celebration. I was picturing pinwheels, birthday candles and confetti.

Did it come across? Perhaps a little bit!

Next week, I’ll be releasing the pattern for Birthday Bash (and Party in Provence and Tulip Festival) in a pattern e-book of favorite kaleidoscope patterns ranging from simple to complex, and suitable for every level of stitcher. Look for it on Wednesday, when it will be introduced at a special price just for Needle ‘n Thread readers!

Heads Up!

If you’re wanting a few delectable threads to add to your stash, don’t forget to sign up for the current thread give-away. It ends tomorrow morning, so do it today if you want in on it!

Also, Tanja Berlin’s 10% discount for Needle ‘n Thread readers ends TODAY – so if you haven’t taken advantage of that, today is the last day. Visit Berlin Embroidery to shop for embroidery kits, supplies and tools. Enter the discount code needlenthreaddiscount10% before you check out.

Website Update & Begging

And there’s a new update on Needle ‘n Thread that I want to draw your attention to, slightly in the form of beggary!

If you visit Needle ‘n Thread, you’ll now notice that now there are no Google ads at the top of each article. I’ve long desired to get rid of those, but when it comes to income to keep the website going, every single penny counts.

However, it’s become progressively more difficult to control the content that shows up in those ads, making me more and more wary of what others may see at the top of my articles. The safer alternative was to replace them with Amazon links to embroidery books (a highly relevant topic to anyone reading Needle ‘n Thread), which you can use as a gateway to other shopping on Amazon. This will hopefully make up for the lost income from the Google ads, and will provide a more relevant and less bothersome experience all around.

You’ll now find links to favorite embroidery books available on Amazon at the top of each article on Needle ‘n Thread. I’ve selected different needlework books that I like and linked to them so that you can access them easily, and I’ll switch those out every so often to feature new books.

These are affiliate links, which means I get a small kickback for any Amazon purchases you make (whether books or anything else) when you enter Amazon via any of those links, without any cost to you.

So if you’re an Amazon shopper and you’d like to help support Needle ‘n Thread, this is a great way to do it without costing you a cent. Just pop through any of those links at the top of any article on Needle ‘n Thread before you begin shopping on Amazon, and voila! You’ve helped me out, too!

If you happen to use Amazon Smile, this does not affect your status with Smile.

Thank you ever so much!

Coming Up

Finally, coming up, I’m delving into new projects and project planning, which I’ll be sharing with you. I’ve also been playing with stitches! It’s an addicting habit! So you can look forward to some tutorials in the near future. Yay!

Have a thrilling weekend!