Petal Two, Take Two

This is how I first stitched petal two.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

There are several things that I feel are wrong with it. Firstly, the change in the thickness of thread between the first and second row of stitches is too great. The second row of stitches begin too far from the outer edge leaving a wide band of the first row still showing and all of the bands of stitches are uneven and inconsistent. I realised that things were going wrong possibly from the first row and certainly from the second. There are too many stitches on the first row especially on the right hand side, they are too close together. As a consequence, I had to use a thinner thread for the second row but it looks spindly compared to the first row. Even with the thinner thread, I struggled to fit the stitches in on the right and this was amplified on each subsequent row.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I paid more attention to the spacing of the stitches in the first row second time around. Looking at the macro picture, I can see that two of the long stitches on the right-hand side are at a rakish angle but that is no so apparent with the naked eye.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Because I had not crowded the stitches this time, I did not have to reduce the thickness of the thread for the second row. That rogue stitch is quite obvious in this shot!

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The bands created by the rows of stitching are much more even and consistent this time and I am much happier with the petal now.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I think that I learnt alot from stitching this petal poorly and then using what I had learnt to rectify my mistakes. I think that I may finally be making some progress with this technique.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Pink Silk Purl Bug

While writing the posts for the Glittering Snail, I noticed that I had never posted the finished Pink Silk Purl Bug.

There is little more to tell you about the stitching. The wings were filled with couched silk purl in the same way that they were outlined.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

And to be honest, I can't remember too much about it now, but for completeness here is the finished article.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

A Glittering Shell

With the body complete, the snail needs a few features. The top of his head is finished with a row of split stitch in pink silk. A single strand of Soie de Paris is used to stitch his antenna and a single French knot in cream silk makes his eye.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Just as a real snail's is, the shell is a spiral. The foundation is a thick twisted silk cord which is couched with spaced stitches of alternating pink and orange Soie Ovale.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The spaces between the silk couching stitches are filled with short pieces of silver check. This is what makes him glitter!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I had great fun stitching this and I think that it is totally cute but, if I were to be critical:

his tail is far too dumpy - my fault not the design, snails have pointy tails and so does the design;
his eye is a mess, isn't that the sloppiest French knot you ever did see?;
I would have liked to space the pink and orange stitches more evenly so the silver check covered the yellow core better.

But, do you know what, I don't care about his dumpy tail or wonky eye. As I said, he is great fun to stitch, I love the speciality threads used and he was my stitchy respite in a very intense week.

The cord was a quick and easy project for one evening ...


... as was the tassel ...


... and over a couple more evenings I was able to do the finishing. Again, if I were to be critical, he is not very central but that is another part of his quirky cuteness.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Our windows lock with tiny keys that are easy misplaced. These nibbles make great key keepers.

Happy Stitching

A Snail's Tale

Even though March was a busy month that left me feeling exhausted most evenings, I still needed a little stitching time to keep me sane. I worked on a small but interesting project that had been on my to-do list for a few weeks.

I have already completed two Needlework Nibbles and have another in my stash that waiting to be done. The latest addition to the Needlework Nibble family is the extremely cute Glittering Snail. For me, the big attraction of these kits is an introduction to different materials and techniques. A BIG added bonus with this kit is that Thistle Threads donate $7.50 to Bath Fashion Museum for every kit purchased. The money will be used to the rehouse the owned by the Gloves Collection Trust. The collection was set up by the Worshipful Company of Glovers and is housed by the Museum. Every two kits sold will pay to rehouse a set of gloves in one of the new storage boxes that will better conserve the collection and allow for easier viewing by visitors to the appointments room.

The kit is based upon a detail of one of the gloves (BATMC-GLO-23342A) which was set up. The design is faithful to the original down to the majority of the threads used. This has been made possible by the reintroduction of speciality threads that had fallen out of product and use. This kit introduces the latest of these wonderful threads, silk gimp – silk wrapped around a silk core.


The picture below shows, from top to bottom, a strand of Soie Ovale (used to couch the silk gimp and silk purl), one ply of Anchor cotton, silk gimp and a strand (6 ply) of Anchor cotton.


This picture shows a piece of silk gimp that is beginning to unravel and show the silk core. Below it is a short length of the silk wrapping separated from its silk core (bottom).


The silk gimp is couched to and fro to form the snail’s body. A piece of silk purl is couched along the underside of the body. Silk wrapped purl was introduced in two earlier kits – I did the Pink Silk Purl Bug. In both kits the silk purl is couched in place but on this design the purl is first stretched to twice its original length.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Both the silk gimp and the silk purl are produced by Golden Threads for Thistle Threads.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - April

Wow, I can hardly believe that April is here already. March has been and extremely busy month for me both at work and socially. The last three weeks at work have been really intense. I have rather enjoyed the intensity of it but the extra hours and level of concentration throughout the day have left me feeling rather exhausted in the evenings. I would not have much to report this time had it not been for my week in Bournemouth at the beginning of the month.

Phase VII, Camellias is now on Frame 1: I am always a little dismayed by how little gets done during my week in Bournemouth but I remind myself that it is a class and I am learning new techniques. I have done a little more since returning home but I am still trying to get to grips with the techniques. I feel that this Phase is more of a learning curve for me that any other since Phase I but I want to succeed at it so am willing to take my time to understand it. This is the piece that is calling my name the loudest at the moment so expect to be working on it whenever I can in the coming month.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Frame 2: Embroidery Bridge has not even been out of its case this month.

Frame 3: While at Bournemouth, I spent a little time at the end of each day filling the space around the flowers with Tataki-ume (random seed beading). All of the beading on Poppy Pouch is now done but I have some finishing to do. When the stitching/beading is complete I lose interest to some degree. I am not so interested in making it into a bag as I was beading it but I want to take it off of this frame so that I can put Phase IV onto it and begin beading that in earnest. Maybe I will allocate a day or two of this month to doing that.

Phase IV is currently on Frame 4. I have yet to decide what I will put onto this frame when Floral Melody moves onto Frame 3 but I am in no hurry as I have more than enough to be getting on with at the moment.

I also stitched a Needlework Nibble, great fun, and I will blog about that soon, and another Round Robin Doodle Page but that will have to wait until the RR is complete.

This month I have another exciting new project starting.

Happy Stitching