Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 15: the beaded forget-me-nots

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I’m stitching the beaded forget-me-not flowers. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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HOW TO MAKE THE BEADED FORGET-ME-NOTS

I’ve been looking forward to stitching these cute little beaded forget-me-not flowers, as I love beads used with embroidery.

You’ll need to look at page 59 of the Inspirations magazine issue 95 for the diagrams about exactly how to do these – I tried to take photos of this process, but I didn’t have enough hands!!!

Before you start to make the beaded flowers, stitch the leaves, as it’s easier to do now, than after the flowers are in place (as is suggested in the instructions) – the leaves are simply individual Lazy daisy stitches in one strand of Anchor green 265 substitute.

The beaded forget-me-nots near the centre of the panel are what are referred to as ‘large’ sprays of flowers. These aren’t really ‘large’ in any sense of the word, but they are larger than the ‘small’ ones, if you see what I mean! The large ones use number 11 seed beads, and the small ones use tiny little number 15s. The large ones are placed near the centre of the panel. There are six of those, and ten of the small flowers, nearer to the  top of the panel.

These are some of the ‘large’ ones, using two shades of blue, once completed:

I had to substitute almost all the beads from the supplies list in the magazine, as I couldn’t find the Matsuno bead brand anywhere, that were actually in stock. In the end, I used two shades of blue (AB Delica shade SB0063 and SB0243 beads, both bought from Spellbound Beads) plus a gold size 11 bead for the ‘large’ flowers, and a blue  size 15 shade 353 plus a size 15 gold bead for the ‘small’ flowers. The blue shades looked virtually identical in the packets, but they do look different once stitched onto the fabric.

This is where the large flowers are used, on the panel:

The flowers are made by threading six blue beads onto fine thread (I used one strand of pale gold silk, as I wanted it to highlight the gold of the centre bead, but with hindsight I think a medium blue silk would have been better), using a betweens needle #10. Don’t knot the end of the thread first. Just hold the free end in your left hand close to your chest, with the beads on the thread held straight out in front of you. Then thread the needle through the first three beads again, to make a loop (easier said than done…). Resting all six beads on the index finger of your left hand while you do this helps. A bit. But not much.

Still holding the loose end of thread in your left hand, thread on a gold bead, and take the needle through the sixth bead, in the direction of the first bead on the ring, so that when you pull the thread tight, it should make a ring of beads, with the gold bead sitting in the middle of a ring of blue beads. Hopefully, the two thread ends are now close together between the sixth bead and the first bead. You can now tie a knot in the thread, place the beaded flower on your fabric, and use the thread end with the needle on to attach the flower to your fabric. Re-thread the needle with the second thread, and use that thread to couch down in between each of the blue beads, holding the ring in place neatly on the fabric. At this point, if your ‘flower’ didn’t look much like a flower, you can manipulate the beads a bit to pull them into shape.

Honestly, it’s easier to do than to describe!!

I found these quite time-consuming to do, but they really lift the design, once they’re done. The difference in size of the two types of flowers is subtle, but very pretty, and a typical Carolyn Pearce design feature!

Next week, I’ll be doing the berries at the base of the panel. How’s your stitching going?

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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!).

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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 14: primrose flower and calyx

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I’ve been stitching the primrose flower and calyx at the bottom of the front heart panel. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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HOW TO STITCH THE PRIMROSE FLOWER AND CALYX

This pretty little primrose flower sits at the base of the heart shape. The calyx needs to be stitched first. I found that the design was a bit off-centre for this shape, so I corrected it in pencil before stitching the outline. It’s also a bit oversized, I feel, but I can’t do much about that now!

The calyx has one layer of stitched padding, worked with one strand of Anchor 266, before Cretan stitch is worked over the top using two strands. Keep your padding stitches well away from the edges of the shape, so that the shaping ends up being gradual, and not lumpy.

Using Cretan stitch for filling in this calyx means that you will need to work the long arms of the stitch VERY flat – almost horizontal. It’s sort of like a flat Fly stitch – the movement of the needle is almost identical to Fly stitch.

Mary Corbet has a good video for showing how to do this stitch.

To give the impression of a rounded front to the calyx, angle the horizontal arms up slightly at each side.

The primrose flower itself is then stitched in the same way that the small pink flowers were, using House of Embroidery Pale Lemon substitute. I found that I had to ‘tidy up’ the outline of this flower as well, before stitching it, as it was decidedly squiffy!

The instructions say to then whip the Blanket stitches with the copper metallic thread – I didn’t read the instructions properly, so I whipped the short parts of the stitches, instead of the long uprights, but the finished look isn’t much different. Hopefully.

It’s then suggested that the Blanket stitch petals have two more blanket stitches worked into alternating loops of the original row, to make a loopy edging. I felt this was too tiny to manage tidily, so I changed that to a line of Stem stitch worked in the HoE thread again, to finish the outline. Neater, and more successful, I think.

The centre of the primrose has a ‘forget-me-not flower ring’ of beads made from number 11 beads – Mill Hill 275 with one Gold one for the middle. I used one strand of silk thread and a betweens #10 needle to make it.

HOW TO STITCH THE PRIMROSE LEAVES

The filling stitch for the primrose leaves is Tied Wheatear Stitch. I did three straight stitches to each section in Anchor 265 substitute with one strand, before tying them down with Oliver Twists 004 variegated substitute. I can’t find a video to help with this stitch, but the diagrams in the magazine are good.

The small leaves at the top centre of the heart are also stitched using the same stitch and thread colours, so do these at the same time, so save re-threading your needles! I could only manage two of the straight stitches in each space, rather than three for these smaller leaves, though, or it got too crowded.

These are the leaves once outlined with Anchor 268 in one strand.

I have needed to make quite a lot of minor adjustments as I’ve been stitching this part of the etui, which I find quite frustrating when working from a published design. I think my main gripe is that the shapes are too small for some of the stitches suggested, as well as the drawn outlines being ‘off’ sometimes. I think this might put off less-experienced embroiderers, as they might blame themselves when it doesn’t come out as successfully as they were expecting. But I’m enjoying doing the actual embroidery, as usual!

Next week, I’m planning to tackle the beaded forget-me nots.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~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. 

EDIT: The materials pack from Inspirations, and the magazine from Manor House in the UK are not available any more as at March 2018 – I don’t know if any more stocks will be available now, unfortunately. The publishers may bring out a digital pattern pack later, which they sometimes do with popular projects from their magazines, but we’ll have to wait and see…..

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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More dollhouse inspiration – beautiful mini stitching!

I’m always really pleased to see the miniature needlepoint that I sell as kits when it is stitched up and inside someone’s dollhouse!  I’ve got some more dollhouse inspiration for you – this time, this beautiful mini stitching is by Dorthe, who lives in Denmark, and she makes the most gorgeous dollhouse rooms!

Dorthe recently contacted me with this series of photos. The large carpet featured in this fisherman’s house is a very old miniature needlepoint carpet design of mine – it was included in my book ‘Miniature Needlepoint Carpets’, way back in 1996 (please don’t contact me for copies – it’s been out of print for about 15 years, now!). This design is called Hazel, and is a very traditional oriental carpet. When stitched on 18 count canvas and then fringed, it measures about ten inches by six. Isn’t Dorthe’s room fantastically beautiful? I love the panelled walls.

This softly feminine miniature room features the Elizabeth carpet design, based on a William Morris Hammersmith carpet. But Dorthe altered the original colourway, and stitched hers in lighter peachy shades (the original kit design has a lot more denim blue in the centre area). She has stitched several Elizabeth cushions for her chairs, too, making the room look very co-ordinated.

I have a real soft spot for nurseries! I just adore this room! There are so many tiny toys in it to get your attention. The carpet is called ‘Katrina’, and is a nice, bright choice for this children’s room. This one is still available as a kit.

This round carpet in the foreground of this room is called Bella, and is one of my most popular kits – probably because soft pink is such a popular colour for interior design.

This is another view of the same room, showing the Laura carpet at the back of the room. This is another very old design from my book, which I no longer sell as a kit. I have good memories of this design, as it was the first design I ever sold in kit form, back in 1996! It looks very stylish in Dorthe’s dollhouse room here.

I always love seeing what my customers have stitched, so if you have any pictures of the stitching you have done for your dollhouse, please send me .jpg images to janet@janetgranger.co.uk, and I could well feature them here!

There is also a section on my website where I showcase customers’ stitching, if you’d like to see more inspirational pictures of mini rooms.

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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 13: small pink flowers on the front panel

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week I’m focussing on the small pink flowers and leaves at the top of the front heart panel. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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HOW TO STITCH THE SMALL PINK FLOWERS

This week I’ve actually been stitching with a thread shade that isn’t green! I was getting a bit bored with that!

These little pink flowers are on either side of the front panel, at the top. The instructions in the magazine say to use a variegated thread, and cut out just the lighter parts to use for this flower, but I’ve substituted with Anchor 73 solid pale pink for them instead.

I started each petal with one strand, making one Lazy daisy stitch on the far left hand edge of a petal to make a nicely rounded left hand curve, then I filled in all the rest of the petal with Blanket stitches. At the right hand edge I took the thread to the back, then started the next petal with a Lazy daisy stitch again, as that makes for a neater outline all the way round the flower.

Then I stitched an outer line with Coral stitch in a slightly darker shade of pink (Anchor 50 substitute). The shades I’ve used for these two pinks on this flower are reversed from what I listed in the original Threads list, as I found that the colour I’d chosen for the centre of the flower was too dark, so I swopped it round with the outlining colour.

The instructions say to fill the centre area with both Colonial knots and French knots, but I can never see the difference, so I just did French knots, in two shades (House of Embroidery Pale Lemon from my stash, so I don’t know what the shade number is (sorry!),  and Gentle Art 0460 Grecian Gold substitute), using one strand of the HoE and two strands of the GA thread, with two wraps of the needle each time. Knots need a sharp needle to be successful – I used a #9 Sharp for these.

HOW TO STITCH THE LEAVES NEAR THE SMALL PINK FLOWERS

The three leaves near each of the pink flowers have centre fillings where two are the same, and one is different, on each side. These leaves are tiny anyway, so it does seem a bit of a waste to do tiddly little filling stitches that can hardly be seen, but here we go anyway…..

The centre leaf is in Vandyke stitch (previously used as a filling on the lily flower) with one strand of Anchor 267 substitute, and the leaves either side are stitched in Chained feather stitch with one strand of Anchor 268 substitute. Chained feather stitch is like a cross between Lazy daisy stitch and Fly stitch. It’s easy to do, and makes a nice alternative filling for leaves – I just found it too small to be seen properly once the leaf had been outlined, which all three leaves are, eventually.

Sew and So has a short video on how to do this stitch.

 

The outlining was done in a deep olive green thread from Oliver Twists (no. 004 substitute) using Stem stitch , which is a variegated thread, so my leaves had more visual interest than the original suggested thread. Each of these leaves is barely 1/2 an inch long, so although cute, I do think there’s too much detail in there.

If you don’t want to do all this tiny stitching, you might choose to just fill them in with Satin stitch, or French knots used as a filling, or even Seed stitch filling, and then outline them with the Stem stitch – it would definitely be quicker!

So, although I haven’t had much time for stitching this week, I’m pleased that I’ve been able to do some stitching that isn’t using green, at least for part of the time! And the panel is starting to fill up now, which is good. Next week, I’m hoping to get the primrose at the base of the heart done, which should be good, as I love stitching with yellow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~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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