Welcome to the ‘Stitch Explorer’ Sampler
This sampler is a slow stitching project for everyone who wants to enjoy learning or just simply stitching lots of different stitches. At this point we have no idea how long it will take to complete, or what it will look like!
Would you like to Stitch this sampler ?
You can join in anytime in one of the following formats…
If you want a bit more information on the project itself, please go to this page.
Week 6 stitching…
Satin Stitch
This week I started with Satin stitch. There are lots of different shapes in this sampler to practice this stitch on and you can see those I did highlighted with a red circle.
Satin Stitch is supposed to look nice and smooth when complete, I used 2 strands of thread for all my stitching. You can see a tutorial for Satin stitch here.
A few tips I have for creating a smooth finish are, outline the shape first in back stitch, when using stranded threads make sure you separate them off and pop them back together before stitching, start in the middle of the shape and work your way outwards on each side, smooth your stitches as you go with the back end of the needle to make sure you keep it smooth from the outset.
French Knots
Next I played around with a few French Knots. This is one of those stitches that seems tricky but once you have mastered it, you wonder how you ever found it difficult inn the first place!
First I just used the row below the flowers in the central area and used different amounts of strands to vary the size of the knots as well as the amount of times wrapped around the needle to see the effect this had as well – have a play around with these and get a feel for which you like.
French Knots make a great addition to add as a decoartive isolated stitch and can equally work great as an outline stitch as well as a filler! I popped a french knot in the centre of each of the flowers to give them a finished feel…
A slight variation of the French Knot is a Pistil Stitch – this is basically a straight stitch finished with a French Knot on the end.
I used these for the circular decoration as shown.
Weaving Stitch
This simple technique is really decorative and can be used as a quick way to fill a large area.
You simply stitch rows of evenly spaced horizontal stitches across the shape you want to fill – (blue lines in the circle below). Each row is then completed by bringing a different colour up on the edge so it will cross the lines vertically – then weave it in and out of the lines – there is a great tutorial here.
I stitched the centre circle as shown here, as well as one of the petals on the lower flower…
There should be plenty there for you to play around with this week and of course you don’t just have to follow what I do – choose some stitches you fancy doing and give them a go.
Make sure you show off your chosen stitches in the Happy Stitching FB Group or on Instagram with #stitchdoodlesembroidery.
If you need help along the way just ask in the FB group as there are lots of lovely people stitching along with you who can offer lots of advice and support if needed.
Happy Stitching!
