June Sampler-along: Wheat Ear Stitch

Today I'd like to introduce you to (or perhaps re-acquaint you with) one of my favourite stitches: the Wheat Ear Stitch. I think it's obvious where it got it's name from! The Wheat Ear Stitch is perfect for making decorative straight lines as well as curvy ones. I especially like making 'Wheat Ear Circles' and I can't wait to see how you all will be experimenting with this stitch in your Garden Path Sampler!

So without further ado: here's a photo tutorial on how to make a Wheat Ear Stitch. If you click on the photos you can view them in a larger size on Flickr. :)



I always like to draw a guideline when I work this particular stitch. If you want your Wheat 'leaves' (the stitches that point outward) to be extremely accurate you may even prefer to use three guidelines: one in the middle (like mine) and a parallel line on either side.





I hope you will have lots of fun with the Wheat Ear Stitch, don't forget to post your Garden Path Sampler wip's in our Flickr Group here.

Columbine in Progress

Victoria Matthewson of Love In Idleness stitched this beautiful Columbine flower in silk thread on silk fabric. I'm in awe of her beautifully intricate shading on this project - the detail and depth are really quite incredible.

In addition to Victoria's obvious stitching skill, I also love that she showed us this project from start to finish, taking progress pictures as she worked. The above photo is where she started, and there are several more progress photos in her Flickr photostream. I must remember to do this more often with my own projects, there's something very special about getting to see embroidery come together, step by step!

June Sampler-along: Sheaf Filling Stitch

Are you all ready for the second stitch for your Garden Path Sampler? As you can see, I've worked my section of Granito Stitch - a stitch I'd never, ever done before! Now it's time to add the second segment in Sheaf Filling Stitch, which is a lot of fun to work - let me show you how simple it is!

Sheaf Filling Stitch Tutorial

First stitch three straight stitches side-by-side:

Then bring needle back through the fabric, coming from beneath your straight stitches:

Bring your needle under the straight stitches from the other side, wrapping your thread around them:

And then take your needle back down through the fabric on the other side, essentially creating a second wrap around your little stitch bundle:

And there you have it, a sea of tiny little Sheaf Stitches!

Sheaf Filling Stitch is fun because you can change the look of it in so many ways - play around with the length of your stitches, how far apart they stand, how many wraps you give them. You can place them randomly as I have, work them in alternating rows checkerboard-style, or end-to-end in long columns!

If you're stitching along with us, don't forget to share your progress in the &Stitches Flickr Group or leave a link to your blog in the comments!

... something blue

I spied this beautiful embroidery by Michelle Kingdom on Flickr last week - I'm a sucker for stitching on vintage textiles anyway, but this one really blew me away. I love that the lace Michelle chose is slightly damaged and that she worked it into her piece rather than repairing it - combined with the gentle blues she's used, it gives the whole thing a days-past, Dickensian feel to me. This is how Michelle described her own piece:

… something blue is an allegory about relationships, and the distance between hopeful intentions and mature realizations. The couple, symbolized by a wedding cake topper, begins their journey with charmingly optimistic naiveté. Faceless and simplistic, neither is fully formed. Each is searching for their missing piece - or was it lost? Together they unite, becoming a monolith of black and white.

The couple stands positioned atop an inherited piece of beautiful old lace, now yellowed and worn. A tattered hole lies directly beneath their feet. Shimmering satin swirls compress them together. Brilliant yet blue, tinged with melancholy.

Something blue is a lucky charm. A superstitious promise of love and purity. It is an heirloom kept secret, hidden under petticoats. The last verse remembered in an olde English rhyme.

Lovely. If you'd like to see more of Michelle's work, be sure to check out her Flickr photostream!

June Wish List

1. Scissors 2. Embroidered Trim 3. Cross Stitch Chart 4. Thread Cutter

A few things on my stitchy wishlist recently...

I am a big fan of the orange Fiskars scissors, but these patterned scissors are pretty cool too! I really would consider adding these to my 'collection'. Not so much because I need more scissors, but they're just so darn pretty. :-)

Normally I'd add embroidery myself, but I don't mind a shortcut here and there - especially not when it's as colourful as this embroidered trim from Gilliangladrag!

Cross stitch has grown on my recently, although I still find it a bit tedious. But I think I might just manage the attention span required to stitch this British Isles Map from The Bellwether.

For the longest time I've wanted one of these thread cutter pendants - handy for stitching on planes, I think! By Clover, from Sew and So.

June Sampler-along!

This month we're all three stitching a sampler and we hope you'll join along! We've even got a template for you. :-) Over the course of the month there will be tutorials for three stitches, which we'll of course add to our samplers. And then there's space in the template to add four more stitches of your choice. Or use seven stitches of your choice, it's all good!

I think I might do a few of these samplers and put them together in a quilt or something. But that's a very looong term project! :-)

Download the Garden Path Sampler template here. If you stitch along with us, please share in the &Stitches Flickr group! Or let us know on Twitter - we're @stitchygeeks - do use the tag #junesampleralong

Here's the first stitch: the Granito stitch. I'm going to fill the space with several colours of pink. :-)

Granito stitch tutorial

First make either a straight stitch or a back stitch. Then use the entry and exit points of your first stitch to add back stitches slightly to the left and right of your first stitch. And even more stitches next to the 2nd and 3rd stitch if you like. Essentially it’s a bunch of back stitches next to each other and much like a satin stitch, except you use one entry and exit point for all your back stitches. Try varying the length of your stitches and the number of threads for different results.

The Granito Stitch is one of the easiest stitches around yet relatively unknown. It’s perfect to make a quick petal and can be a good, fuller looking, alternative to the lazy daisy (detached chain) stitch. A rounder version of this stitch is also great for embroidering animal eyes.

Embroidery Sampler Exercise

Oh, how I do love a good sampler! And I especially love a sampler that's doing what they're meant to do: teach the embroiderer new stitches and techniques. I don't know what it is, but those little rows of practiced stitches just fill my heart with joy.

Paloma from Three Kitchen Fairies created this beautiful sampler as a way to try out a few of the many, many exciting stitches described in "Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches". I have an old copy of this book myself, and it is the best in my collection - every stitch you could possibly think of it in there, it's my go-to reference now. I love the idea of just jumping in and trying them all out like Paloma's done!