Todays detail is a Shi Sha surrounded with a combination of detached chain stitch and fly stitch sealed with a colonial knot…
If you have ever tried to sew on a shi sha and given up in disgust I will encourage you to give it another go…as they are not that difficult once you know the tricks and are worth mastering because they are a lovely embellishment and the technicque can be ever so handy for attaching many interesting items to your crzy quilts.
Shi Shas are held in place with straight stitches, the difficulty with sewing shi shas on is holding them in place while you do the first four stitches…to overcome this I suggest that you start with a sequin or coin charm that has a hole in it so that it can be stitched in place and wont fall out while you are trying to figure out where the next stitch goes…OR Learn/practice the stitch sequence on a circle drawn on some scrape fabric, then when you move onto the shisha you will know the stitch and can concentrate on holding it in place with your thumb.
Drawing a circle on the Fabric is what I did for my sample because it solved the problem I was having with the flash on the shi sha.
   
These are the first 4 Straight Stitches that hold the shi sha in place…don’t pull the support stitches tightly as they need some movement so that they can be pulled closer to the edge when you do the edge stitching.
   
Another 4 Straight Stitches complete the support structure for the edgeing.
When you start you will possibly find it easier to go come up and go down as 2 motions, once you understand how the support structure works you will find that you can go down and come up with one motion.
Step 1 of the edgeing stitch is worked by slipping the needle under all the threads from the centre to the edge of the shi sha and looping the thread under the needle as you do for a blanket stitch.
Step 2 is a small back stitch beside the shi sha which anchors the step 1 stitch to the background.
Repeat these 2 steps….
The edge stitches can be close together as in the top of my sample or spaced apart as on the bottom of my sample…
POSTSCRIPT posted 31st Oct 2007
Sharon B has illustrated Shisha stitchfor Week 35 of Take a stitch Tuesday…She has shown a different method of anchoring the Shisha to the fabric and of the surrounding stitches…I have tried her method and love the way she anchors the shisha, but I prefer the method I have described above for the surrounding stitches.
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