NOTE OF THE DAY:

June 2015

Considering starting the blog back up ?

Saturday 15 May 2010

Research for my embroidery project

Well all,
This time, i'm rather keen on making sure that i am well prepared for the project, not just go rushing in to do "something"

I) I downloaded all the "Jacobean" images i could find.
2) I then had a "play" with them deciding on my own style. It won't be an hisotical extant piece of work rather based on the style.
3) I ordered my threads from Renaissance dyeing And tryed to pick colours that were bright, not pastels, had shade variations, lots of nice greens and blues, browns and orange colours.
4) played around on the net some more

Mary Corbet's "Needle and Thread"
Helped me a lot with the stitches i might like to try (see below)

She also linked to Kathy's site "The Unbroken Thread" that had some fantastic images, certainly of where i would like to go.

For example: The following is a picture of her work I'm sure you will agree that it is stunning



Reference to Kathy's Site "the Unbroken Thread"
http://www.theunbrokenthread.com/

As you can see i started a similar type of design a few months ago:


As i have a dress project coming up that will use this style of embroidery i was very excited to see such beautiful images. Mary Corbet, also suggested that i look at a book "Flowers for Elizabeth" by Susan O'Connor. I must get this book at some stage!!!

BACK TO THE STITCHES
Things i need to know: (links are to the demonstrations on Mary's Site)
Back Stitch
Chain Stitch
Long and Short Stitch
Satin Stitch (padded) I am really need to practice this one :-)
French Knots (heaven help me i can't do these)
Wheat Stitch (looks really interesting)
Stem Stitch
feather Stitch (is nice but will see if i can use it)
Fish bone Stitch
Lattice Work (this one is over a padded ground)
Seed Stitch

Well i'm off to have a play with french knots and satin stitch. Will update when i have done enough procrastination. I have an exam to do today so i'm doing a FANTASTIC job of procrastinating. :-)

EDIT:

Here is the practice padded satin stitch (first time i have tried satin stitch let alone padded) and French knots.
I have always been terrified of trying these. My first efforts are a little shakey, and i was having difficulty placing them just where i wanted, but by the end i wasn't thinking so much about them. Still need more pracitice. I was using one or two strands of the Renaissance dyeing threads.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

Hi Constance,
Your work looks lovely! Thank you for linking to my site. I read your comments and I'm like you - I love to choose designs like these and then make my own choices about colors and stitches.

Follow Mary Corbet's suggestion and get Flowers for Elizabeth when it fits into to your embroidery budget. I'm about to post a project where I use the flower designs from the book but in a different overall design, using Renaissance Dyeing Wool and Silk Mill silk together again. I really love that combination of fibers!

In case you missed it in my post, here is the link to the site where I downloaded the page with all the little motifs I used. It's free! http://www.needlecrafter.com/SearchKey/SearchKeywords_detail.php?refNum=10005

If I find more, I'll let you know.
Good luck on your exam!
Kathy

Sarah Ketley said...

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for the link, i certainly did find it :-)

I will put the book on the "need to have list" and get it soon. Have mostly blown my play money this week on two orders from renaissance dyeing so it might be a while.

When you were using the wool and silk, did you blend the fibres together? Ie wool on outside of flower, silk in the tone graduation in the center of the flower?

Will have to get some proper silk in eventually.

Anyway thanks again. Keep posting those lovely pictures.
Sarah