Category: Surface embroidery

Nasturtium roundel – leaves

Onto the leaves next.  There was quite a bit of work in them, but I’m very pleased with how they’ve turned out. To start with, I added the leaf veins in a single line of split stitch.  In the other leaves I’ve done I put them in last, but with the shape of the nasturtium…

Nasturtium roundel – stems and seeds

With all the outlining done, time to start filling in the design with long and short stitch. I’m starting with the stems and seeds. The stems in particular are too narrow to allow for shading, so I’ve done them all in one shade of thread, Madeira stranded cotton no. 1409. As the stitching itself changes…

Nasturtium roundel – outlining the design

Off we go with the stitching, starting with outlining the motifs in the design in a single line of split stitch using two strands of Madeira stranded cotton in appropriate colours. For this project I’m using green in three shades, 1410, 1411 and 1412, for the leaves and 1409 for the stems and seeds: Yellow…

Oak leaves – stems and acorns

I’m finishing off the embroidery today! For the stems, I used Madeira stranded cotton no. 2213 for a bit of highlighting and 2214 for filling in the rest: For the acorns, I used 2208, again for highlighting, and 2209 for the rest: And that’s the embroidery done!  Right at the start, I mentioned that I…

Oak leaves – third and final green

Finishing off the leaves with the final shade of green.  This is comprised of one strand of Madeira stranded cotton 1411 and one of 1412, filling in all the space left. The first leaf: And the second: And the third: The veins up the centre of the leaf look dark, but that’s just shadow cast…

Oak leaves – the second green and shading

Time to add a bit of shading. The leaves are going to be light on the outer edge, getting a little darker as they head towards the centre; the first stage in the shading is to add another round of long and short stitch using one strand of the first colour, Madeira stranded cotton 1410, and…

Oak leaves – the first green on the leaves

The first two greens, actually. The ends of a couple of the lobes of each leaf in the design fold over, and I stitched them first, using Madeira stranded cotton no. 1409 (which I’ve just realised I didn’t take a photo of last time, but never mind. It’s a pale green): I’ve going the stitch the…

Plantagenet Wreath – roses (part III)

The roses are finally finished!  Sorry that they’ve taken so long, but I got there in the end. Last time, I’d filled in half of the 20 roses; I’ve now done them all, and here they are: They’re not quite finished, though: the little green leaves (or whatever the correct name is – does anyone…

Plantagenet Wreath – stitching the roses

Still slow progress on the roses, though I am getting there.  In the mean time, here’s a closer look at stitching one individual rose. The shading is already done, of course, so here I’m just filling in the rest with the off-white. This is one of the larger roses, so there’s a bit more stitching…

Plantagenet Wreath – roses (part II)

Other things have got in the way a bit recently, so I haven’t got as far as I’d hoped with the roses.  Still, I have done half of them, which is something. And here they are, filled in with Madeira stranded cotton no. 2402: The full wreath: I’m going to be busy for the next…