MooshieStitch Monday: Kamal Kadai Stitch (2 color with pearl cotton)

Hello there! One of my favorite embroidery techniques is Kamal Kadai work.

My previous attempts at Kamal Kadai, I stitched flowers using 6 strand cotton floss. I was curious to see how different it would look with pearl cotton and using two colors.

To start, I referred to this photo tutorial.

I drew a 3.5 inch by 3.5 inch square with a water soluble pen onto my fabric.

Find the center of the square - draw lines and create 4 boxes within that square.

Then I made a mark every 1/4 inch - so there were 6 marks total between the middle box line and each corner ... hopefully that makes sense and the photo helps with the explanation!

Starting from the lower left square, bring your needle up from the top mark and stitch over the lowest mark on the upper right square (as seen above).

Continue by stitching from the next mark in the upper right square and stitch down to the next mark in the lower left square. Keep doing this back and forth until you finish stitching to each mark (as seen below). You will then want to couch down in the middle.

Now it is time to start weaving with your second color.

If you want to see a more detailed tutorial on how to weave - check out my first Kamal Kadai flower post for more step by step instructions.

Once you have weaved both squares, you will repeat the steps.

Stitch your lines and couch them down in the middle.

All finished weaving! Now my favorite part - removing the pens lines with water!

There you have it - two color pearl cotton Kamal Kadai stitch.

I really liked how this turned out. I think pearl cotton is much easier to use for this stitch than the cotton floss.

The two color effect is great for this stitch also - I now want to try it with other colors. Black and white would be cool or green and red for Christmas!

If you want to see my other version of the Kamal Kadai flower in cotton floss - check out this post!

See you next time!

MooshieStitch Monday: Woven Picot Stitch with Wool

Ever since I did the Simply Stitched book review, I have really enjoyed working with tapestry wool.

I had some leftover wool from my plushwork wreath, so I decided to try stitching a woven picot stitch flower with it.

You can refer to my tutorial for the woven picot if you need to learn the stitch - this post is more to show you how it looks using tapestry wool.

DMC Red 7108 and Blanc

I usually stitch the woven picot with pearl cotton. The first thing I noticed using wool is how quickly you can stitch it up - less weaving since the wool is so thick.

Here are the finished flower petals.

I added woven picot leaves and white french knots for the center of the flower.

I love how it looks with the tapestry wool.

It sorta reminds me of poinsettia - but maybe because it's red and I have Christmas on my mind :)

Thank you again to DMC for providing the tapestry wool!

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!