While embroidering Panel #1 I had a couple of problems with the fabric…firstly the threads of the weave (25 count linen) were to obvious to ignore and I couldn’t not count them which was difficult because my eyes arn’t so good any more…I also had trouble keeping the tension of my stitches, I don’t use a hoop and I was missing the extra bulk of the crazy blocks that I have done most of my stitching on.
When I mentioned the thread counting problem to Sharon she suggested and gave me some higher count linen which I can ignore the threads on and I figured that to help with the tension I could back the fabric with a light weight, loose weave cotton fabric which has helped with the tension as well as making it easier to start and finish the threads.
I am sure that the higher count fabrics will be nice to work on and I will use the pieces that Sharon gave me because I want to use different fabrics for each panel but being a bit contrary I am doing the second panel on a lower count (21 count Linen) fabric because when I pulled my Spanish Blackwork Tablecloth out the other night I remembered that there had been a scrape of the linen that was cut off to make the tablecloth square, what is quite amazing is that I was able to find that scrape whithin minutes of remembering it…I thought that it would be nice to Stitch on the same Linen as I used for the tablecloth all those years ago.
The first image tonight shows the back of the second panel with the linen hemmed, this time I used one of the threads I pulled from the fabric to do the hem stitch and the backing fabric.
I use lines of tacking to help in counting the threads and to keep the lines strait.
Top row is Buttonhole Stitch with alternating long and short arms stitched with a rayon thread and trimmed with beads.
Middle row is Buttonhole stitch with the arms stepped down, stitched with 3 strands of cotton.
Bottom row is another stepped variation of Buttonhole Stitch done with 6 strands of cotton.
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February 13th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Annie! You must have been tired when you posted Feb. 12th. Those are blanket or buttonhole stitches, not herringbone! Oops!
February 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I understood about half of that because I use linen a lot, but only in pieced CQ blocks, never the way you are using it here. However, that didn’t keep me from enjoying the beauty of the stitches. I like the little turn down stitch on the bottom row of buttonhole, too. The colors of these threads are all wonderful, and the blue beads look great.
How neat that you still had a scrap of that tablecloth! I would have long ago lost it. =)