Sardinian Knot Stitch Mug Mat Finished?

I'm cleaning up my blog page to start preparing for next year and noticed a few projects like the Mug Mat was still listed on the current page. This was an online class I took with Jeanine Robertson on Virtual Threads.

It is stitched using the Italian embroidery technique called Sardinian Knot Stitch and was a really fun technique to learn. However, what I stumbled on was how to finish the edges of the mat. The original mat had a frayed edge which I didn't particularly like. So I set out to find a more neat finish for my piece. I found a tutorial by Luzine Happel for a folded Peahole edging which I thought would be perfect and started stitching.

I withdrew some threads to create a channel and started stitching four-sided stitches all around the piece. I still remember when I did it, it felt like it was taking FOREVER! Finally after two days of stitching, I reached the other end and started removing the rest of the threads like it's described in the tutorial. That's when I realize. I stitched my four-sided stitches on the WRONG side :( The x's should be in the back and squares in the front.

After that, I kind of got annoyed with the piece. I cut off the excess fabric and just left it with a frayed edge.

I do like the design and the technique (I need to track down a copy of Yvette Stanton's book). I LOVE the invisible stitching in the back. But my mistake left me with bad memories for this piece. I still get annoyed thinking about it today and this happened back in June!

There is a second chance for this design. When I was doing the class, I actually stitched 2 mug mats on the same blue fabric. So one day I will give the folded peahole edging another chance, just not today :)

WIPocalypse 2016 – May

This month's theme is: What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it? (via Jo) About this time last year, I was working on finishing up some of my smaller class projects from the Creative Festival. But I also worked on this Crewel piece which I later find out is not really Crewel at all since I wasn't stitching with wool thread. As you can see I did finish it :) It was my first attempt at transferring and stitching a pattern. Now that I see this again, I think I should frame this in a hoop. I wonder where it is...

By the time this gets posted I will be in Toronto attending the EAC Seminar. This also means that I didn't really progress on any of my WIPs. I promise it won't be like this when I come back :|

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Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Still hidden away poor dragons.

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Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

Nothing to see here either :P

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Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

I haven't touched Fandango either, but since this is my class project for Seminar you can definitely bet that there will be progress on it. I just won't be able to share it until I get back at the end of May. I did take a better picture thought, last month's was really bad.

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The two WIPs I added last month saw a lot of progress. I not only finished this mat, I managed to stitch a second one identical to it. I just have to figure out how to cleanly finish the edges of this really (frustratingly) thick fabric.

Sardinian Knot Stitch Mug Mat - Jeanine Robertson

I also attended the second part of my Italian drawn thread class. This project received the bulk of my attention as I had homework to complete.

Sfilati Fantasia - Fiore Fonda

Knotting away

I worked on class work this weekend. I have finished stitching three of the tear drops for my Italian drawn thread class (three more to go!). But there isn't any point in taking any pictures as it's all the same stuff right now. I'll take one once all the tear drops are stitched.

I also worked on finishing the stitching on my Sardinian knot stitch mug mat. Once I got the basics down it was a very fast stitch. I just had to keep remembering where to keep the thread when I'm stitching an ascending or descending line. My one complaint: my neck hurts after a session. This is because the best way to stitch is to lay the piece on a flat surface, so my neck was constantly hunched as I tried to see which fabric thread I had to stitch onto next. Next time I'll have to figure out a better stitching area than my desk, maybe an elevated pillow?

So that's it for now on the Sardinian knot stitch mug mat. I'm waiting to see if there will be finishing instructions. In the meantime, I've started stitching a second one in the same colorway since the fabric is large enough for it. I also have another piece in black. So I might stitch three more to make a set of matching mug mats :)

WIPocalypse 2016 – April

This month's theme is: What do you listen to while stitching? (via Jo) I don't listen to music or audio books while stitching. I usually stitch at my desk with a frame on one side of my desk and computer screen on the other end. Netflix is pretty much always on. If I'm not re-watching my favorite shows, I'm watching a documentary. I've watched so many at this point on a huge variety of subjects: biographies, environment, guns, education, dance, music,... I've even watched the ones about alcohol even though I don't drink, it's my way of educating myself so that I can hold a conversation with co-workers who do drink (I know how champagne is made =D). But my favorite are the ones on food. I do occasionally find that all stitching has stopped and I'm watching the screen, but that's okay. I'm resting my eyes ;)

This month I did put in some time on Bramble and the Rose. In fact I reached my little goal of finishing one page (page 3). So that's one thing I can cross off. Extra points if I can finish page 2 and 5 :)

Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Still hidden away poor dragons.

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Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

Yeah, I thought about taking this out, but then nothing happened.

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Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

Pre-work on Fandango has gone as far as it will until I go to Seminar. It's not a very good picture, sorry. It's hard to capture white on white.

I've also added two more projects to my WIP list. Both are projects I'm taking as a class with my EAC guilds. One is a Sardinian Knot stitch class with VT and the other is an Italian Drawn Thread class with LCSG.

Sardinian Knot Stitch Mug Mat - Jeanine Robertson

Sfilati Fantasia - Fiore Fonda

A Bit of Everything

We had fantastic weather on the weekend so I spent most of it outside enjoying the sun. In the evening I worked on a little bit of everything.

On Friday I went to get some stitching supplies and picked up more beads from Michaels for another bead experiment. Lately in shops, I've been seeing what looks like bead bracelets that are crocheted. They come with a hefty price tag. Now, I'm all for encouraging crafters, but I'm not willing to pay that amount to a big brand store when I know that if I put my mind to it, I can make it myself. After lots of googling, I figured out the technique is called Crochet Bead Rope. I found a fantastic tutorial on YouTube and away I went.

It's a really simple technique and very zen once you get the hang of it. My only complaint: stringing beads is very tedious. It's very easy to loose track and end up with a bad sequence and you won't realize it until you've halfway crocheted the rope and it's too late to fix and everything has to be undone.

Now the best thing about this is, I can pick the colors and patterns I want so it matches my wardrobe. For my first try, I'm using DMC perl cotton #12 in black with Toho 11/0 beads in gold and gunmetal. The pattern is one I found on Pinterest. Not the most ideal thread and beads but I'm playing so it's okay. Once I've finished making up this bracelet, I'll have to do a comparison between it and Kumihimo and see which one I prefer.

I also received the second lesson for the Sardinian knot stitch class I'm taking with Virtual Threads. So I added the second layer. I'm really liking my choice of thread colors. I'm probably just going to alternate between the ecru and blue.

I can't forget whitework :) I signed up for an Italian Drawn Thread class with my local guild the Lakeshore Creative Stitchery Guild. It's a two day class, so I had to take the day off for it but it's totally worth it.

The class is thought by one of the guild members named Fiore Fonda who is a fount of information on not just Italian embroidery but other styles as well. Which is why I took the class. To be honest, I don't even know what the actual finished project is supposed to be (tea towel? decorative hand towel?). I took it more for the technique and learning aspect than the finished product.

We are stitching on a fabric called Soteima L20 (I might have that wrong since I can't find anything on it on google) and using DMC broder special #25 and DMC cordonnet #80. The class starts off with the buttonhole stitch, lots and lots of buttonholes. I think by the end of this project I will either hate the sight of them or will get very good at them and learn to like them :) By the end of the day, we managed to start the drawn thread on the tear drop we had stitched.

The finished project will look like the one below at the end, but there is a lot to do before it ends up looking like this. In fact I have 3 weeks until the next class and I have to stitch all the buttonholes for the 5 other tear drops. It seems like a very daunting task, but I was actually able to stitch another tear drop in my evening stitch meeting yesterday. So I'm feeling pretty confident.

Sfilati Fantasia by Fiore Fonda

Birthday Long Weekend

Since it was my birthday I decided to take another long weekend. We celebrated by going for High Tea at the Ritz Carlton which is something I've always wanted to try.

The scones have inspired me. I will definitely have to try making them at home. I also took the opportunity to attend the Thursday stitching meeting with the day group from the Lakeshore guild. It was great to sit down with the ladies and interact with them. Some of them brought pieces for show and tell but I was so busy looking at everything I forgot to take pictures.

Fandango has been progressing slowly (sorry it's hard to take pictures of white on white). I've already stitched more than I need for my class in May, but I'll continue working on it as much as I can. I am determined to have it finished before the end of the year :) So the more I do now, the better (or at least that's what I keep telling myself).

A while back I signed up for a class with the EAC Virtual Threads Guild and it finally started this weekend. This technique is called Sardinian Knot Stitch or punt’e nù and originates from Teulada, Sardinia, Italy. The technique is fairly simple and is composed of knots that rest along the vertical fabric thread. It kind of looks like the coral stitch but with this one you have to be careful of stitching on the right fabric thread otherwise once you come around things don't meet up and the design won't look symmetrical. And let's not forget tension! Tension is very important in this style of stitching. I think I restarted this little figure at least 5 times and I never even went all around until my last attempt. It looks kind of chunky because I'm stitching with #5 perle cotton.

The class is thought by Jeanine Robertson who has a wonderful blog on Italian needlework of all kinds. You can learn more about this particular technique by clicking here. She even has some free patterns posted if you'd like to try your hand at it. My goal for this class is to master this technique so that I can stitch this piece.

It is a piece designed by Jeanine and appeared in issue 87 of Inspirations magazine. I tried to stitch it on my own but didn't like any of my attempts. Hopefully I will be able to do a better job after this class :)

EAC Name Tag

I've been working on this name tag for a long while. I think I started back in December. As a guild member, I am always supposed to wear a name tag at meetings and such. So I was given a packet with guidelines and a scrap of Aida and needle. I obviously ditched the Aida for some evenweave linen.

I didn't want to spend too much time on this project, so I decided to use an existing pattern by the Victorian Sampler for a name tag. I converted all the specialty threads for DMC and I decided I wanted to do drawn threads instead of specialty stitches at the top of the design.

That was me "saving" time. Now here is me over-complicating a name tag. I decided since I belong to two guilds it wouldn't be fair if both weren't represented. I decided I wanted to stitch the EAC logo at the center, with the logos of my two guilds on either side with the year I joined. This piece would go on the back of my name tag.

I kept with the purple theme and I decided to backstitch the maple leaf and then whip stitch it. I then padded the letters with stem stitch in #8 DMC perle cotton. This was then covered with a satin stitched using 1 strand of white DMC thread. This part took a while since it requires good eye sight and I tried to only work on it when I was feeling rested.

For the needle and thimble, I back stitched using Kreinik #4 in some silver I had left over. The logos on either side were backstitched. The Lakeshore guild provided me with a pattern of the logo, but Virtual Threads doesn't have one. A member is working on creating a pattern for Seminar 2018 which will be hosted by the guild, but I obviously didn't want to wait. So I improvised.

Since I decided to do drawn thread, I needed to cover the open space. I bought some satin fabric in this really nice silver blue/grey/green (no idea what color it is really but it matches one of the threads I used).

I used the same technique I learned in Kathryn Drummond's classes to attach the fabric to the back of my work using #8 DMC perl cotton.

Now that the stitching was finally done, I trimmed the excess fabric and started whip stitching them together. I placed a piece of cardboard I had that I cut to size. It's actually from Le centre des textiles contemporains de Montréal business card, which is very apropos as they also offer embroidery classes :)

I could have done a better job whip stitching, the sides are not very even, but I'm glad it's finally done. I'm now ready for Seminar :)

What I learned from this project: Satin stitched Monograms are not for me. It is very hard on the eyes and not relaxing which is not the point of this hobby. I'm glad I tried it all the same.

Virtual Stitches Stash Sale #2

Virtual Stitches had their second stash sale a few weeks back. I wasn't really planning on getting anything, but there were a few choice kits and patterns. It was very hard to resist. Most of these beauties were put up for sale by Jeanine Robertson. I guess she has a huge stash from her years of stitching.

Can you guess why I bought it?

I'll say it: I'm obsessed with anything white work. This piece has a lovely Reticello center and I've always wanted to try Bargello. The design is called Strawberry Lace Sewing Case and is by Diane Clements. I did a little bit of research and found out that this was a class that was offered by the EGA. Ms. Clements has since passed away, but you can still find some of her class kits for sale on eBay.

When I received the pattern, I was shocked by how thick the book was. Over 80 pages of instructions, from how to stitch each section to final assembly of the case. And that doesn't even include the pages for the actual pattern. The kit itself also contains everything you'd need to stitch and finish the project. The actual cost of which would have far exceeded what I payed for it (not to mention the cost of the class itself). I can't wait to start reading the book. I need to start prepping before I could even think to start stitching.

I've also really gotten back into Tree of Hope. I'm trying to finish stitching the skin of the second maiden. Hopefully I'll get that done this week.

Virtual Stitches Stash Sale

Over the weekend I got the kit I won in the Virtual Stitches stash sale. Here it is with my copy of Estense Embroidery by Elisabeth Holzer Spinelli. For a review of the book you can check out Mary Corbet's website.

I bought the kit from Jeanine Robertson, who in turn got it from the author of the book.

Some of the steps were already started as you can see in the picture below. I'll have to carefully read the instructions before I start working on it.

I can't wait to start. Hopefully very soon. I need to at least finish one WIP from my list first.