Embroidery Sampler

Crewel/Embroidery SamplerOne of the things I finished Thanksgiving weekend were two motifs on my ongoing embroidery/crewel sampler. This is a place where I play with threads, play with colors, and learn…

I finished the bottom two motifs last weekend. The top one is all in Appleton wool, and it was a stitch exploration that turned into a color test. The pink actually turned out to go with the golds quite well! The design is the crewel work design out of the Anchor Little book of Crewel stitches that goes with the basque stitch – which is the stitch around the circles and in the center of two of the leaves.

I relearned that I really dislike working with Appleton yarn – it’s quite fuzzy, although the fuzziness does hide some of the little stitching mistakes. It also stretches out and thins faster than some of the other yarns I use.

The bottom motif is an art deco design that I tried using some of the Art needlework techniques I’ve been reading about – and all of the strands of Eterna Silk floss. I got the look that’s so prevalent in my antique Poppy Piece, but I ran out  of green silk before I could put in the stem — so today I used a green hand dyed that I won from Sharon Boggins years ago. Finally actually using the pretties! I can’t save them for the “perfect project” forever– and it WILL be forever if I try that!

I’ll go into detail about these four little motifs later.

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2 Responses to Embroidery Sampler

  1. Looking forward to seeing and hearing more detail.
    Never worked in wool – heard about Appleton’s great colour range, but a lot about it’s fuzziness as well – and here’s another confirmation. I think I’ll skip it.

    • I’ve found I really like Renaissance Dyeing’s wool. And the d’Aubisson that Hedgehog carries is lovely as well, though it is slightly thinner than a lot of the wools out there.

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