Hand Embroidery

My dear mum was a very clever stitcher.  She made her own clothes and soft furnishings; she made rugs from wool which I am still using and she enjoyed hand embroidery.  She was good at what she did but very modest about it, not showing off at all.  (Did I mention the beautiful knitting she did?).  After she died I found a bedspread which she had been embroidering in the evenings when she was not feeling too well and leading up to her final illness.

I thought it a shame that the lovely free-form stitching she had done was on a cheap nylon bedspread which didn't do the embroidery justice.  These days beds are deeper and people use duvets not bedspreads so it wasn't suitable for anyone in the family to use.  I put it away with a plan to do something with it one day when I had time.

Each flower motif is different and individual.  She has not used any pattern and all are her own design.  She has used stranded cotton in the loveliest colours.

So I have decided the time has come to convert it to a throw or a wall hanging.  So far I have cut away the excess nylon frill and a piece at the top that wasn't embroidered - but what is left is still quite large and retains all the embroideries.

Although it only has a very thin wadding backing I will leave it at that, not put extra wadding as additional quilting would spoil what she has done.
I'm presently making a backing for it out of a variety of fabrics in shades of pink and will bind it and add a hanging sleeve.  Once finished I'll put an image of it on this blog.


My mother did teach me how to do some simple embroidery stitches and I have done a little bit from time to time but her beautiful work has inspired me to take it up again and improve what I do..

Recently I discovered that the Embroiderer's Guild, South West Region Branch, are running a hand stitching course in Gloucester.  So I have joined them and been to three classes so far.

Meeting new friends and starting to learn basic stitches from the beginning is proving to be relaxing and enjoyable.  We have to do some homework between the monthly classes so I thought I would show them here each time with a little discussion of the methods used.

 We are stitching on calico or cotton and using stranded cotton embroidery thread or Perle cotton thread.

We started with running stitch and this example shows some variations created by weaving or threading Perle thread through some single strand running stitches.

The bottom example is Holbein Stitch where you stitch one way in one colour then back the other way, filling in the gaps, with another colour.

So far we've also learned and practised Fly Stitch, Fern Stitch, Herringbone Stitch and Feather Stitch, all demonstrated on this image. Some of these are quite similar.

Split stitch I found difficult and discovered that a single thread was best and the smallest needle and stitch you can get away with works for me.

Split stitch is used to outline shapes or also as a filler.  the Letter H to the right is filled with Split Stitch and the Cockerel's tail shown below is outlined with Split Stitch.

The Letter P shown above the H is a Back Stitch outline and the two are divided by a whipped backstitch line.  The initials PH are in Stem Stitch using two strands of stranded cotton embroidery thread.

 I have several good embroidery stitches reference books but currently my favourite is: 'The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden'.

We have been advised to bind our hoops with either masking tape or binding to stop them slipping and to avoid damaging the fabric.

To transfer my cockerel image I traced the design using a black marker pen on to tracing paper, then with the aid of a light box copied it on to my fabric using a hard pencil which hopefully is covered by the stitches but will disappear when it's washed.

There are other methods you can use if you don't intend washing the embroidered item. Will talk about these another time.

All these basic stitches have been incorporated into the cockerel and although I'm not delighted with this end result he provided an excellent learning curve - lots of Herringbone Stitch practice!