For no particular reason other than wanting to give it a go, I have decided to teach myself tambour beading. For anyone who hasn’t come across it before, this is a way of attaching beads or sequins to a fabric with a hook rather than a needle, and is meant to be both faster and…
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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 – outlining
The first thing to do is outline all the shapes to be stitched in split stitch, using two strands of stranded cotton. For the leaves, I’m going to be using Madeira stranded cotton numbers 1410, 1411 and 1412: For the branches 2211, 2213 and 2214, and the acorns 2208 and 2209: The leaves outlined: And…
Apple tree fire screen – Italian tubular mesh wire ribbon

Sometimes, things just don’t work, and this was one of those times. If you’ve been following this project, you’ll know that I’m using techniques described by costume embroiderer Michele Carragher. As part of her fabulous work she uses something called Italian tubular wire mesh ribbon. I have to admit I’d never heard of this before,…