Stitchonaries No 4. Knots

Craft YourSelf Silly Stitchonaries

No 4. Knots

Stitchonaries are the modern day sampler, they're great for both beginners to learn with and for experienced embroiderers to practice on...and if i'm honest i've been embroidering for nearly 40 years now and they've featured stitches i didn't know and have enjoyed learning. there are 6 project pages as well as the front cover and a patterned back that you can embellish as you choose. They come as a complete panel and instructions on how to fold it into a floppy book, i've then taken that a step further and inserted card to stiffen the pages.

I would also recommend you invest in a heat erasable pen so you can draw any changes onto the page, stitch them and then iron away your lines.

In these Blogs i will take you through the stitchonaries one at a time and page by page to tell you what i have done and why. But i cant recommend them highly enough and they look awesome when finished too.

interested? check out the Craft yourself Silly Site or Hochanda.

No 4. Knots

I always take the time to neatly stitch in the text as it looks very effective, this can be done at any stage of the project and like any page you don't have to complete it in one go...although each page/project is small enough that there isn't really time to get bored or stressed and they look awesome when done.

Have fun decorating the butterfly with the knots learnt in this stitchonary, Cosmic shimmer paint added a nice touch I think

This is the page that inspired me to start with the stitchonaries, when you get it the sheep look like they are floating...a little inktense pencil, and a few running stitches and they're happily grounded. I also used whipped running stitch to outline the hills and  single running stitches for the trees and legs.

apart from adding the name of the stitch, this page was copied directly from the instructions...with a little cosmic shimmer fabric paint, just because i could.

Bullion Knots, these were once my Bete Noir, thankfully the pages are small enough that the practice is easy, again i have named the stitch and showed thread numbers.

As you can see ive nailed bullion knots...love them now, the leaves i added myself, the background is a soft inktense wash and the stems are stitched with whipped running stitch.

Bullion Roses are fun, this page is a great way to practice different colour combinations. The leaves i added myself using a stitch i learnt in the chain stitch stitchonary.

Once again, apart from naming the technique this is direct from the instructions, all i will say is be wary of your tension, keep it even or they will become messy.

The back page is a great opportunity to play with the stitches learnt throughout the stitchonary. I have added extra colour with Cosmic Shimmer fabric paints and simply outlined the bubbles with back stitch. The stem stitch i have used to outline the Sea Horse with hasn't been learnt in the stitchonaries (Intermediate Running stitch is yet to come in these blogs) a simple back stitch would look just as nice.

Next up is No 5. Satin Stitch