Category Archives: Level 3 Stitch

Flowers Inspired by Rebecca Crompton

Posted on by under applique, hand stitching, Level 3 Stitch, nuno felting

One of our assignments for Level 3 Stitch was to create a piece inspired by Rebecca Crompton. She was an embroidery teacher in Great Britain in the early 20th century. You can read more about her on the V&A site and see some of her work.

Nuno Felted sample with grey wool and red/green silk in woven pattern

As I was thinking about what to create, I came across this old sample of nuno felting in my stash. I was thinking of gardens and flowers (Rebecca Crompton has several garden themed pieces.) I thought this would work for a background piece.

Nuno Felt stitched with Kantha stitch in hand dyed wool lace weight threads.

I decided to add some base stitching. I used hand dyed lace weight wool thread with running stitch.

Applique fabric pieces applied to stitched surface of nuno felt.

The next step was finding different fabric for the flower elements. I cut out various flower shapes and tried them out in a variety of places on the background. I wanted the colors to move throughout the piece but for it to all feel cohesive. Now to stitch them in place. I could have fused them down but I don’t like the way fusing flattens everything. I prefer raw edges, a bit of fraying and texture.

Completed piece of nuno felt, stitching and hand stitched applique

Here is the final result. I added a few French knots and couched down a bit of yarn for the branch at the top left. This isn’t my usual style but I enjoy the movement and liveliness of the piece.

Laidwork Samples

Posted on by under hand stitching, Level 3 Stitch

On to a couple more stitch samples from my Level 3 Stitch class.

Here’s another mushroom. This one used Bayeux stitch for the orange section, that much I remember. The remaining stitches were “laidwork” which is essentially different methods of couching. I have forgotten the exact stitches. I have them written down in my class notebook but don’t have that handy at the moment. It’s interesting how easily I forget what stitch is what. When I learn a stitch, I think to myself, I’ve got this. But then if I come back and try to remember how to do the stitch or even what it is called, I’m at a loss. Good thing I have books and the internet to look up how to do these stitches!

Knowing that I was never going to remember the stitches in the next sampler, I wrote them all down. With this many different stitches, this was the only answer.

Here is the finished sampler. The background is Bayeux and Kloster Stitch. Then all the other stitches are noted on the guide above. It was a way to try out a bunch of different stitches to fill a space. I used hand dyed wool thread for this sampler. I ended up framing this piece and it is now hanging in my studio.

Kloster Stitch Sample

Posted on by under hand stitching, Level 3 Stitch, sketch book

Here’s another stitch sample that I created for my Level 3 Stitch class. It is done with Kloster stitch which is a variation of couching. I decided to use a mushroom that I took a photo of near my house as it related to my theme of trees communicating for my larger wall hanging.

The photo of the mushroom is on the left and then I worked through a couple of choices on color themes. I decided to use the blue green, blue violet and orange color theme that I was using in my larger wall hanging in the hopes that the pieces would feel compatible.

Here’s the mushroom stitched on hand dyed linen. I used hand dyed wool thread (lace weight) and stitched the Kloster stitch in different directions to give it more variety. I’m pretty sure that the stem was stitched with a different stitch but I can’t remember now. (And I’m too lazy to go look it up in my sketchbook.)

I ended up with three different mushrooms, in different types of stitch. Too make them more interesting, roots were added to the different mushrooms. These roots were stitched with stem stitch and French knots. I will show you the other two soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Stitch Samples

Posted on by under hand stitching, Level 3 Stitch, samples

Moving on in showing some of my work from my Level 3 Experimental Stitch class, I have created a number of stitch samples. These aren’t usually a complete piece but just a sample to try out the stitch.

This first one is long and short stitch done with one strand of embroidery floss. This took forever! I can see the appeal to using this type of stitch but it takes patience.

This one is a bit more of a finished piece. It is created with a variety of knotted stitches featuring the bullion knot roses.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ponderosa Pine Applique

Posted on by under applique, hand stitching, Level 3 Stitch, machine stitching

I have always loved the bark on the Ponderosa pines. It has great texture and the pieces that slough off look like puzzle pieces. Needless to say, I have a collection of those.

Here’s a photo of the Ponderosa pine bark. Not only great texture, but interesting colors and shapes.

Here’s a photo of the resulting applique I created based on bark. I used a felt background with inclusions to give more volume to the raised areas. I then added a variety of silk applique and stitched down with hand dyed wool thread in a variety of colors. I then machine stitched the background to flatten those areas and give the piece more depth.