Stitchy Snippets - Blossom

Dancing in a soft breeze, Laurence Aguerre's incredibly delicate flowers are hand embroidered, woven, braided and shaped into form. The process is lengthy as well as a journey of exploration for Aguerre. 'Sometimes I have in mind the idea of a specific flower, sometimes I create very freely, and let myself be guided by the materials and techniques.'

These beautiful floral displays perfectly encapsulate fleeting moments in time and appear to preserve the fragility of nature. To find out more about Laurence Aguerre's stunning work check out her website here.

MooshieStitch Monday: My Stitchable Mesh Project

Last month, Floresita shared a great review and her beautiful stitching on the new DMC Stitchable Mesh. Since DMC also sent me some, I thought I would share with you what I stitched!

First of all, I chose to stitch on the silver side of the mesh. 

A few of Floresita's suggestions when stitching on the mesh really helped, such as:

1. Use a permanent marker to trace your pattern/design onto the mesh. Anything else will rub off!

2. Secure the edges of the mesh fabric - it will unravel. I used black electrical tape on the edges. It doesn't look very pretty but it worked.

Here is the finished product with the tape removed.

To finish the back of the hoop, I used this awesome method with a light colored felt. I trimmed the mesh down so there was just a little bit left around the edge of the hoop to stitch the felt onto.

It is not my best attempt at finishing the back side, I need to work on my blanket stitch. I have never been good at the blanket stitch!! :)

Here is the front view after the felt was attached.

My biggest takeaway on stitching with the mesh - it made me very aware of the back side of the hoop!!

Since it is so sheer, I knew I had to be careful to not carry my thread from one flower to the next. (I hate to admit it, but my embroidery back sides are usually pretty messy!) But I think I did a pretty good job.

It is surprisingly easy to stitch with and softer to the touch than what I was expecting. I used pearl cotton and DMC cotton floss without any issues. I love it's unique look and like that there is a new option of something to stitch on other than regular fabric. 

Thanks again to DMC for sending the stitchable mesh!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

MooshieStitch Monday: Padded Satin Stitch Flower

The padded satin stitch is an easy way to add a raised effect to your embroidery. There are different ways to add the "padding", but I decided to try it with felt first.

Here is how I created the flower:

I roughly drew simple flower petals on felt. I chose a felt that was the same color as my floss so it would be more forgiving in case I had any gaps in my satin stitch.

Cut out the flower petals and attach to your fabric. I stitched a small little straight stitch on each petal to keep them in place.

Satin stitch over each felt petal.

Cut felt leaves and attach onto the fabric.

Satin stitch each leaf.

Once complete, I added some yellow french knots in the flower center.

Up close you can see the puffy raised effect of the padded stitch.

Don't know the satin stitch? Check out this how-to.

This video tutorial is another method for the padded satin stitch.

And finally - I had to share this blog post of amazing felt padded embroidery I found on the Hanging by a Thread blog!!

MooshieStitch Monday: Kamal Kadai Stitch Flower - Another Version

Back in November when I stitched my first Kamal Kadai flower, I had also traced this pattern with the intention of stitching it right away. 

I kept procrastinating and the little traced flower sat there waiting to be stitched... until now!

(Link to pattern if you are interested - there are a couple patterns posted there)

For a more detailed tutorial on how to stitch - check out my previous post.

I followed the same technique to stitch this blue flower.

Now this pattern has an additional straight stitch on each petal - for a total of seven, instead of six.

Honestly, after I finished this first petal, I think that middle straight stitch was supposed to be the same length as the two stitches directly on each side. I did not know how to weave all the way to the tip of that stitch.

But, I kind of like how it turned out, because it gives the petal more of a pointed look.

All done with the petals.

 The stems/vines are stem stitch and the center of the flower are french knots.

Since I could still see some of my pattern lines, it was a good thing I traced it with a water soluble pen!

Here is my finished flower all cleaned up with the pattern lines gone. 

I thought I would share some links of other Kamal Kadai work I found while searching online:

• Beaded Kamal Kadai Tutorial  (I may have to try this sometime!)

• These beautiful Kamal Kadai flowers (using two colors for the petals)

• Here is another amazing Kamal Kadai stitch tutorial 

MooshieStitch Monday: A Longer Woven Picot Stitch

Hey there! Remember when I showed you the woven picot stitch? Well, it got me thinking about stitching the woven picots a different length...

You see, the blue flower above from my previous post was stitched with a 1 1/4 inch pin.

I went to my local fabric store and found the longest pins available - which are 1 3/4 inch quilting pins.

See the difference below.

Here I used the longer 1 3/4 inch quilting pin for my woven picots.

Dark photo alert

Slowly adding more petals of the flower.

I stitched this with #5 pearl cotton on black cotton fabric.

Added french knots with white DMC floss for the flower center.

Can you see the difference in lengths of the woven picots as compared to the blue flower?

I love how this turned out and now I want to experiment more with different lengths of woven picots.

I am on the search now for longer pins... Let me know if you have seen pins longer than the 1 3/4 inch quilting pins.

MooshieStitch Monday: Woven Basket with Flowers

Spring has officially begun here in the Pacific Northwest and to celebrate, I stitched this little woven basket with flowers! 

To start, I drew a small basket outline.

My basket is a simple rectangle but your basket can be any size or shape.

Let's weave the basket....

First the vertical stitches (warp threads).

Then start weaving the horizontal stitches (weft threads).

All finished weaving the bottom portion of the basket.

I stitched the handle of the basket with chain stitch.

My flowers are simple lazy daisies and the leaves are detached chain stitches.

The flowers can be any stitch you like.

I hope you stitch your own basket with flowers! If you do, leave a comment, post your photos in the Flickr group or tag your photo on Instagram with #feelingstitchyig!