Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 11: stitching the large leaves on the front heart panel

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. I’m starting to stitch the large leaves on the front heart panel. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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This is the project that I am working on:

 

STITCHING THE LARGE LEAVES ON THE FRONT PANEL

Now that the two large flowers have been completed, it’s time to stitch the leaves.

Each of the two large flowers has three long leaves underneath, and they are stitched differently each time, but using quite simple stitches. Leaf 1 has the main part stitched using Knotted pearl stitch in Anchor 268 substitute with a betweens needle (it has to be a slim needle, as Mill Hill 275 clear gold beads are threaded on in between each stitch). Here’s Mary Corbet’s video tutorial on her Needle ‘N Thread website to show how to do it. An outline of Stem stitch in Anchor 269 substitute, and then Metallic copper for a line of Stem stitch and also Straight stitches between the ‘arms’ of the Knotted pearl stitch finish off the flat end of the leaf (do the Straight stitch before outlining, for neatness).

The curled end of the leaf is stitched in Chain stitch padding with a pale green Anchor 264 substitute (not sure why it has to be a different shade from the top layer though), and then Anchor 266 is worked in Blanket stitch over the top with one strand in tiny stitches to cover the padding. Angle the stitches to follow the line of the leaf edge. The instructions then say to whip the edge of the Blanket stitch, but I thought that would be impossible at such a small scale, so I didn’t bother.

As I mentioned before, the pattern for this panel is not very well drawn, compared to Carolyn Pearce’s stitched model – her version has more space to do the Blanket stitch, whereas my leaf touches the wide stem, and looks squashed, to me.

This is Leaf 4, which is stitched in the same manner as Leaf 1, so I stitched the pair at the same time as the Leaf 1 pair, to save re-threading needles.

I took a photo of the whole panel after I’d stitched the pair of ‘Leaf 1’ and ‘Leaf 4’ leaves, so that you can see where I am working them. Both leaves are mirrored on the opposite side.

There’s quite a lot of colour on the panel now….but a lot of that is green!! It’ll be good when I can stitch with more colours.

Hopefully, next week I’ll get all the large leaves completed.

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~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 10: stitching the lily on the right

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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This week I have been stitching the large lily flower on the right hand side of the front heart panel.

CHANGES TO THE THREADS USED

If you are stitching this along with me, using my substitute list of threads, then you need to be aware that I am already deviating from the list! I found that this flower needed more pinks, and fewer orangey-pinks (and I hate orange with pink anyway, so I can hardly bring myself to stitch with orange and pink together!).

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

Several people have mentioned that they aren’t stitching this project at the same speed as me – that’s fine though! Some people have stitched waaaay ahead of me already, and some people don’t have the time at the moment to keep up with what I’m doing. Just do it at your own pace, really, and check out my blog posts when you want to read how I did things. As I said at the beginning, this is supposed to be fun!

STITCHING THE LILY PETALS

The lily flower is the large pink one on the right of the front panel. The first pair of petals at the top of the flower are stitched in Vandyke stitch, using two strands of Anchor 55 substitute, and a tapestry needle (I used a size 26). You need a needle with a blunt tip for this stitch, so that you don’t pierce the fabric when you take the scooping stitch from right to left. See this video for Vandyke Stitch from Mary Corbet’s Needle ‘N Thread website for how to do the stitch.

When it’s completed, it looks like a row of chain stitches with lines out each side. It’s a simple and quick stitch to do. Although I used two strands, I think it might have looked better with just one.

The next pair of petals are first covered with Satin stitch using two strands of Anchor 62 substitute and a betweens needle, ‘worked down the length of the petal’ as the instructions said, which I took to mean like this:

Then, five Fly stitches are worked over the top of the Satin stitch, adding a size 15 bead (1606 Dyed semi-transparent rose, from Spellbound Beads) each time, just before you complete the vertical tying down stitch. I used a paler bead than the design calls for, as I wanted a more subtle look.

The third pair of petals also are covered with Satin stitch, but this time the direction of the stitches follows the curve of the petal. As this is quite a sharp angle at times, I found I needed to make four or five ‘compensation stitches’ (three quarters the width, rather than the whole width) on each petal, to fill in on the wider curves.

Then the pretty bit – Latttice couching on top of the Satin stitch, with two strands of Anchor 77 substitute in one direction, and one strand of the metallic copper in the other direction, held down with one strand of Anchor 62 pink.  To do this neatly, it helps to place the threads that cross over at the most crucial point *first*, and then work out from there – on these petals, that’s the innermost part of the tight inner curves, where the lattice threads only just touch. And make sure that the angles of the couching threads mirror each other, as far as possible, on each side. This is where I noticed that the design was badly drawn (again), and the inner curve of these two petals varies on either side.

With the next part, I hit a problem. The Instructions call for Cable Plait stitch, but when I read up on how to do it in the magazine, it didn’t seem as if that was going to work, as it is a kind of wide braided stitch, and the area to be covered is just a line, and a thin line at that. So, I decided to use Coral stitch instead, which kind of looks the same, but is far easier to do, and fits the space!

This is how to do Coral Stitch.

I used a darker pink than the instructions said to use, as I felt my flower was becoming too insipid (Anchor 1028 substitute). At this point, I also filled in, with the metallic copper using Straight stitch, on the upper petals.

STITCHING THE CALYX

The calyx is stitched in just two colours: Anchor 265 substitute first, by outlining in Split stitch in one strand, then padding using Chain stitches laid head to tail within the Split stitch outline, and then covering all of that with Satin stitch in one strand. Then Lattice couching, tying down threads and outlining all in Oliver Twists Fine Cotton, shade 004 substitute. I was more pleased with how this calyx turned out than I was for the one for the carnation flower.

STITCHING THE LARGE CENTRE STAMEN

The centre large stamen is supposed to be made from looped bullion knots. For these, you need a Milliners needle (but not a really long one, as that makes the bullions more difficult to complete) – these are almost the same diameter from eye to point, so they are really good for making even, tightly wrapped bullions. It helps to stitch each bullion, then finish off your thread, and start again for the next one. That seems unnecessary, until one of them goes wrong…..you don’t want the previous bullion thread to not be anchored properly on the back of your work in that case, so it’s worth working each one individually. Note: these bullions are looonngg!! Practice first, so that you can make them neatly. They need to stand proud of the fabric, in a small loop, so the ‘bite’ of fabric that you take needs to be small. Also, remove the fabric from the hoop while you make these bullions, as it helps to be able to manipulate the fabric a bit while you push the needle upwards while you wrap the thread around the needle. Mary Corbet has a good written description, and then a video tutorial, here on her Needle ‘N Thread website.

However….I absolutely LOATHE doing bullion knots. I have a phobia about maggots, and to me, bullions look just like maggots. So, I decided to do the centre stamen like this: I stitched one chain stitch at the very top of the lily in Anchor 55 substitute, then four loose Fly stitches in a line above it, quite tightly placed above the previous stitches, curving to the left. Then I whipped the outside edges of the line of stitches with a pale pink Anchor 73, to make it all look a bit more solid. Much easier, and less maggot-like!!

The remaining stamens are in Pistil stitch (like a French knot on a stick), using the metallic copper thread. Mary Corbet has a good tutorial here.

That’s it! Finished the lily! How did your one go?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 9: stitching the carnation on the left

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in! This is what I am working on:

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A QUICK NOTE ABOUT HOURS OF STITCHING

I just want to make it clear that some weeks I get a lot done, and some weeks hardly anything! Some people were concerned last week when I said I’d done 15 hours….don’t worry, I don’t expect to do anything like that much per week! Some weeks, I hardly get the time to pick up my needle  🙂  So, do what you can, and I’ll be doing what I can, and eventually we should all get this thing stitched, one way or another!

STITCHING THE CARNATION FLOWER – DIAMOND STITCH

This is the main pink flower on the front left of the heart etui. I’ve never done Diamond stitch before – this pretty stitch is used as a filling stitch for the petals of the carnation flower. There are instructions in Inspirations no. 95 showing you how to do it. There’s also this Video tutorial on the Needle ‘N Thread website showing you how to do Diamond stitch, which I found better, as it’s a complicated stitch!

I used a betweens needle no. 9 and two strands of Anchor 1028 substitute to stitch this one. It helps to place the tip of your needle in the loop as you’re pulling the thread tight to make the knots, to help place them exactly where you want them to be.  I’d been planning to use no. 11 seed beads for the highlights in the centre of each petal, but when I placed them on the fabric, I though they looked a bit chunky, so I used Petite Glass Beads by Mill Hill no. 42012 instead – a deep pinky red, very similar to the thread colour. Start with the smallest petals at the sides, and work the diamond stitch on each petal, doing the centre petal last, when you’ve really got the hang of this stitch, as it will notice more! On the smallest petals, I managed to fit in two beaded repeats. On the next two petals on each side, I got three beaded repeats, and on the centre petal I got four beaded repeats. You might be able to do it a bit ‘tighter’ and get a few more, but I couldn’t manage it.

STITCHING THE CARNATION FLOWER – OUTLINES

I used Anchor 55 – a bright pink – to stitch the outlines of the petals in stem stitch once the Diamond stitch was completed. This only needs one strand, and a betweens needle. Start with the centre petal, and define how much of a point you want at the base of the petal, as the other petals will follow the  curve set by this main one, around the top of the calyx.

On the magazine’s stitched model, the petals ‘grow’ directly out of the calyx, touching it. On the pullout sheet’s pattern, the carnation is much more stylised, and the petals are definitely separate. This annoys me!! The pattern has several differences like this. The drawn pattern seems to almost be an afterthought sometimes, once the article for the magazine had been completed, and yet people like me are going to spend weeks, if not months, recreating the heart etui, and need an accurate pattern. The carnation itself has been drawn  on the pattern too close to the right hand thick stem, whereas the stitched model’s one is placed much better. Too late now, though – I wish I’d noticed it sooner….

The Anchor 55 stem stitching is then outlined again very closely with Anchor 62 substitute, in one strand. I didn’t realise, until I was doing this part, that the diamond stitch filling on the centre petal should have started higher up, filling more of the centre area up to the points, so I decided I will have to fill in the gaps with more French knots than the instructions suggest, using Anchor 1028 substitute.

 

STITCHING THE CARNATION FLOWER – FRENCH KNOT FILLING

The petals look a lot better once they have been filled with French knots in the gaps, and with the second row of stem stitch outlining. At the base of the petals, I worked extra dark pink in long and short stitch, to make it look more solid, as I don’t like the ‘floating’ look of the petals otherwise.

STITCHING THE CARNATION FLOWER – CALYX

The calyx is first outlined with one strand of Anchor 267 substitute – if the drawn shape is a bit uneven, now is the time to even it up as you do the split stitch and define the shape. I then worked two layers (rather than the one suggested in the instructions), first vertically, then horizontally, inside the lines of the split stitch, using two strands. Then I did the top layer, also with two strands vertically, going just outside the split stitch outline. I stitched my lattice with the copper metallic thread diagonally, so that the couching threads didn’t sink into the vertical green padding, and then couched down the threads with one strand of Anchor 55, using tiny stitches.

The side sepals are worked in two strands of Anchor 265 substitute in Fishbone stitch (the left one came out far better than the right – don’t really know why!). The video tutorial on Needle ‘N Thread explains the stitch very well.

Then the centre lattice area is outlined last of all with the copper metallic thread.

The carnation has turned out really nicely, and I am pleased with it….except it will always be stitched too far to the right in the available space, for my liking!!

If you’re stitching this along with me, how is your carnation turning out?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 8: starting with the front heart stems

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This is what I’m going to make:

See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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So, at last we get to do some stitching! After all that cutting out of templates and fabric, and bagging things up for later…… I put my fabric in its ‘window’, and hooped it up, and actually got quite a bit of stitching done this week.

THREADS USED

I’ll name the threads I use for each section as I go, but please note that I substituted a lot of threads for this project from my stash, so where I’m using a substitute, I’ll say that!

NUMBER OF STRANDS

This is quite fine embroidery, and the magazine instructions say that most embroidery is worked with just one strand (i.e. one strand of Anchor pulled from the six as it comes off the skein, for instance) unless otherwise specified.

NEEDLES

There’s guidance in the magazine instructions about which needles to use. I like to use a ‘betweens’/quilting needle (size 9) for fine embroidery when it’s with one strand, as I like the way the needle is able to be manipulated, as it’s a really short needle – just over an inch long. For two strands, I use a fine crewel needle, which has a larger eye. For the stitches such as the Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch I use a tapestry 26. For bullions I use a milliners needle, as they are long and straight, hardly tapering at all, which makes neat wraps easier to do.

THE STEMS

First off is to stitch the wide swirling stems. These are to be stitched using Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch (using Anchor 266 substitute), which is a stitch I hadn’t done before. The Inspirations magazine number 95 does have process diagrams, showing you how to do it, but I found this video on the Needle ‘n Thread website by Mary Corbet which makes it even clearer what you need to do (Mary’s website is fantastic, if you haven’t come across it before!).

The stitch is like a double chain stitch, and makes a nice strong braided outline for the more delicate embroidery. It helps to stitch this using a fine tapestry needle (I used a size 26 tapestry), so that you don’t keep piercing the loops of the stitches as you weave the needle around them.

The line is outlined on both sides with stem stitch in dark green (Anchor 269 substitute) and then metallic copper (Madeira metallic 20 weight, shade copper 428 substitute, as I couldn’t find the Au ver a Soie anywhere!). When using the metallic thread, I found that although the thread itself is fine, and *could* be threaded through the betweens needle, the thread kept shredding – it’s actually a black core thread with copper foil-type stuff wound around it, which is not that strong, although this is sold as a machine embroidery thread. So, I switched to a large-eyed crewel needle, so that the needle made a large hole in the fabric with each stitch, and the metallic thread could then go through the fabric easily, stopping it from shredding. Keep your stitches short for this outlining, as coarse long stitches detract from the swirly effect.

This is one of the swirls, part-way through adding the metallic thread outline – the top edge is still to be done:

The fine stems are worked in whipped chain stitch  – make sure that your chain stitches start at identical points on each side of the heart (i.e the two curves at the centre top need to go from the wide swirl into the centre, from each side, to the top point, and not all the way across in an upside-down V), as even when whipped, that slight difference would notice. The inner edge of the thin stems are outlined in stem stitch in the dark green, and the outer edges in light green (after whipping them), giving a shadow effect.

Having stitched the basic outlines of the thin stems though, I decided to stitch the fine curly tendrils (using Silk ‘n’ Colors Pond Scum substitute), as the pencil outlines for those were starting to disappear, and I wanted to get them stitched while I could still see them! Then I went back to the thin stems and finished off the whipping and outlining.

The tendrils are worked in stem stitch, with really small stitches, to keep the curves nice and neat.

That little lot took me about fifteen hours! I’m really enjoying this – the stitches are interesting, and no one area has to be worked on for so long that I get bored with it. The next bit to stitch is the carnation on the left of the heart.

What do you think of it so far? Are you joining in with this? Have you progressed further on your own already? Comment below!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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