Tag: embroidery

This is Tall Flowers from Bucilla.
These were a lot of fun to stitch, the stems went very quickly, but each flower took lots of delicate little stitches.

As usual, I didn’t follow the directions. I used stem stitch, back stitch, and French knots only. It called for other stitches, including satin stitch, but I didn’t want to see filled in spots, so I treated the whole thing like an outline. I also used stronger, bolder colors than usual, and I’m very pleased with how this set turned out.

DMC purple #3834 for the single butterfly At first I wasn’t sure about putting a fourth color in there, then I wasn’t going to do the butterfly at all, then I did him with a pink body and purple wings. When I got to the second pillowcase, I decided the whole butterfly should be purple. More whimsical. The first one bugged me so much, I just had to tear out the stitches and do both butterflies in all purple. Probably an hour’s work. For a few moments, I felt a bit like Greg from Petch House.

These pillowcases are done in the Daisies on Gingham pattern from Dimensions.

As usual, I didn’t quite follow the instruction when it came to color. Close, though. You see, I’ve decided that I rather like working with the cotton perle #8, which is a bit different from the regular floss. Plus I have tons of it from my mom’s stash. So when I pulled this set from the package, I realized I had the same blue, and nearly the same yellow and orange in the #8 thread, I decided I may as well use it. The only thing I didn’t have was the right green. I think the green I used is a bit strong, but that’s what I had. I have since discovered that I can buy new balls of DMC cotton perle #8 from Joanne’s online. Oh well, next time.

This was a great set to learn from because there were so many different stitches used:

DMC green #702
DMC blue #519
DMC yellow #444
DMC orange #741

This is the Dogwood and Lace pillowcase set from Dimensions.
I got quite good at doing the satin stitch for the leaves and flower petals while working on this set. They feel so neat when they are done. The stitching is so tight, it makes the flowers almost puffy, very three dimensional.I actually used the recommended colors for this kit:
DMC green #524
DMC off-white #712
DMC yellow #676

One thing I changed was those small flowers. I did them in all yellow, the pattern called for blue. I thought the fourth color detracted from the rest of the design. It is such a nice shade of yellow, too. I think I’ve used it on one of the other sets before…

I just loved the variegated thread so much, I decided to use it again on my next project.This is the Lilacs and Vine pattern from Dimensions.I used DMC #8 cotton perle thread in variegated purple 52 on the flowers, and butterflies and green 49 on the vines.The vines went very quickly, but the teeny butterflies and the small, singular flowers seemed to take forever. I think I like patterns where I can just keep stitching, and not have to stop to change thread or positions so often.

Here is my short list of terrific companies who produce stamped kits for embroidery and cross stitch.

Dimensions-crafts

Janlynn

Jack Dempsey

Bucilla

You can find tons on eBay, sometimes at half the retail price, particularly if they are discontinued patterns.