Teaching Tuesday - texture!

Phew, what a couple of weeks. Last I looked it was half-term - what happened?!

Without further ado (and there has been much ado around here - but that's for another post) here is some much-promised texture - and there's a lot of it, so take notes!

(if you think you've seen this before, that's because I posted the pic in October when I finished it!)

This piece is stitched with standard free motion machine embroidery, no funny business, and the texture is purely from the textured threads and fibres that I have couched down. The orange leaves are stitched by hand, but everything else is machine stitch. Just shows what you can do with a stash of thick and hairy threads and wools! 

Teaching point 1: when you couch down hairy things that are likely to get caught up in the foot, use a cocktail stick NOT your fingers to hold it down, and maybe stitch backwards so the prongs of your embroidery foot don't get caught up in the fibres.

Teaching point 2: automatic/programmed patterned stitches such as the blind hemming stitch are brilliant for couching - they hold things down,  but don't knock back the texture. Obviously, you wouldn't free motion stitch this - raise those teeth back up again and put the normal presser foot back on.

One of my favourite bits is the hedgerow in the middle - I rediscovered free-motion sideways zigzag and it was just perfect for adding this line of sticky twiggyness.

3. Sideways zigzag: set your machine for free motion stitching as usual, but instead of running stitch, select zigzag - with a nice wide zig (or zag!). You also need a very firm fabric base or fabric in a tight hoop for this one. When you stitch, remember you are still in control of the direction of the stitch, but the needle will be jumping from left to right. Move the fabric gently from left to right, so the lines go sideways and not up and down. Be very careful not to move the fabric too fast, as the large sideways movement makes it more likely that you will bend the needle (and then it will inevitably hit the needleplate and break).

Di demonstrates the effect beautifully here:

and you can see how (a) it can be used for colour mixing, (b) how much the fabric puckers - it really does need to be drum tight.

Right! Next!

You may also have seen this picture before, on my Facebook page. This is stitched almost entirely UPSIDE DOWN. Carol Naylor is an absolute superstar at this, and one of my textile heroes! 

This is called cable stitch. To do it, you wind a thick, smooth thread onto your bobbin, and then adjust (loosen) the bobbin tension to allow the thread to flow smoothly. I will say no more, other than all machines are different, but some are better than others than this...cough Bernina cough...

Perle threads are brilliant, as are crochet cottons and stranded cottons. Just nothing knobbly or too thick. The above piece features rainbow sock wool, and let's just say that I was pushing it to get away with that...And don't forget that you will be stitching upside down, so you need to mark where you want the thick cable stitch to be - so you do this by roughly stitching the outline of the various shapes first, before turning the fabric over. 

Here's what the troops have been doing with cable stitch practice:

(the green  thread)

(the blue thread)

(the pink thread)

And finally for today, we have also been playing with whip stitch and feather stitch. No thick threads here, normal sewing threads. To stitch these:

4. Whip stitch: tighten the top tension on your machine, and stitch (free motion) really fast! If you are lucky the bobbin thread will pull up through the fabric and "whip" over the top thread to create a raised line. You may need to loosen the bobbin thread a tad to get it to whip up, but you may get away with it. Again, all  machines are different...

5. Feather stitch: Exactly the same, but try and get even more thread to whip up (you will almost certainly have to loosen the bobbin now) and work in circular and wiggly movements - as you turn the corner or go round in circles, the top thread pulls itself into a tight circle, and creates a ring of lovely feathery bits with the bobbin thread.

just look at that bush on the left, fantastic feathering! And those whip stitch crop lines...

And the grey line of feather stitch, below the blue...

There are many, many more photos of other works in progress that I could show you - but I'll save them for next week when I can reveal what we've been working towards. Yes, it involves landscapes, and yes, it was ambitious, but I think we might have pulled it off! Fingers crossed!

Teaching Tuesday: fancyschmanzy cutaways and design transfer

Better late than never, here we are! Yes, it is still Tuesday - just. 

In the week before half-term we were constructing backgrounds by free-machining scraps of fabric onto calico (we used Bondaweb to stick them down first). Some people were more pernickity than others in arranging their "scraps"!

Christine Libby

And some people used neutral fabrics and painted them after stitching:

 Libby

Then we embroidered something over the top, as it were. 

Some people went for an applique, making it up as they went along carefully designing something first, then piecing it together and stitching it onto the background.

 Morag

 Sue

Other people tried a bit of design transfer and a cutaway technique to create their embroideries.

First, stitch your background (as above).

Secondly, design something to stitch...we were inspired by the wonderful Angie Lewin.

 me

Thirdly, pin a piece of sheer fabric - organza is good - onto your background. Make sure the pins are just around the edge.

 Is this you, Lyndsay?!

Fourthly, turn your work over and pin a tracing of your design onto the back. You can trace onto tissue paper, you can use tracing paper, a photocopy or even a design drawn on the back of a (paper) envelope! I just drew straight onto the stabiliser backing.

 

My design, drawn and stitched on the reverse

Fifthly (!) make sure you have a wonderful thread in the BOBBIN and a toning thread on top, and stitch - upside down - following the lines of your design. Finger's crossed your bobbin tension is set perfectly (we'll be talking tension soon).

 Christine

When you have finished stitching, you can tear away the excess paper from the back, turn your work over, and CAREFULLY snip away the excess organza with some very sharp scissors.

 

I made a mistake here - the little details should have been stitched after I cut away the organza. I think I will regret that as it means more fiddly cutting away...

To make sure nothing comes undone where it shouldn't, I tend to stitch a double line of tiny stitches, and I don't cut the organza right up tight to the stitching - I leave a millimetre or two!

Here is Carole adding some detail to the top surface. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a photo of the finished piece - but it was wonderful! Next time. So meanwhile, here is mine:

Ta da!

Teaching Tuesdays - masses of free machine embroidery!

Thank you for all who read their way down to the end of my last post - it was much longer than first anticipated! I hope you've enjoyed visiting the blogs I nominated (apologies in advance for the Google-suggested translation for a certain sentence in Ingrid's post - I have suggested an alternative to Mr Google, but he's ignored me so far!).

Right, where were we...free machining, I think!

In class we have been continuing to practice our free machining skills, now using free motion stitching to "colour in" - in small areas 

(and demonstrated far better than I could, by people like Linda Miller and Gina Ferrari, here and here)

but we've also used free machining to fill in, shade or add interest to larger areas:

(again, demonstrated far batter than I could, by people like Dionne Swift).

For stitching the small things, it is important to try and keep the stitches flowing, not too tiny, and with not too much overlapping - otherwise the background fabric gets tougher and tougher to stitch! Larger stitches also catch the light and glisten (particularly if you use machine embroidery rayon thread) and the glistening can help to disguise any missed bits! 

For stitching larger areas, it is also important to keep the stitches flowing - the key is to move the fabric (or hoop) smoothly and confidently, keep everything relaxed and smooooth....

Here's how we've got on with the small pieces (there are a lot of owls as I found some lovely ones just the right size to stitch on the Girl's violin music folder!)

Di (going off-piste with her redwork owl!)

Morag

Lyndsay

Owl in progress, but I can't remember who he belongs to! Sorry!

Libby (owl in progress)

Carole B (a robin in progress)

Carole H

Christine

and last but not least, Judith...I'm a bit concerned about this Russian doll, she seems to have got herself into a bit of fistycuffs...

Not everyone enjoyed working so small (and I must admit, I've not really done much of this intense, dense stitching - must be a reason!) Then again, the option to work bigger was a challenge as well! 

The idea I presented was to work in an abstract way, not worry about creating a picture, but just practice the stitching - keeping things flowing and smooth. I know not everyone is pleased with their results, but the point was not to create a pleasing composition but to practice the stitch! So I think all those who attempted this were very brave, to work in such an unstructured way:

Jill

Sorry - my brain has gone blank again and I can't remember whose this is!

Maggie

Lyndsay

Morag (the bottom sample was over-painted after stitching)

Kathy

So we are going to continue our free machining, but not the abstract work! Next time we will be using free machining to applique again (but in a slightly different way) and to construct backgrounds.

Until then!