Embroidery Threads and How I organise it?

 Hi all

Hope all are doing well and good.   When I started doing embroidery I use embroidery threads that are available in my local craft shop.  I know about doli threads.  At that time I was not aware of the different brands especially anchor and the shades available.  I use to ask flower for red, green for leaves.  When I started doing cross stitch from the patterns available in the net I came across the thread numbers and the number of shades available.  From that time onwards I started collecting threads of different shades and colours.  Now a day I am using Anchor threads for most of my projects. 

Sometime back in 2015 I have posted about I have organsied my thread of green colour family.  You can view it here. At that time I didn't wound the threads in thread bobbins.  Then slowly got introduced to thread bobbins and initially I cut cereal box covers to wind my threads.  After that got plastic bobbins from amazon and used that to wind the threads.  Then got a plastic box with 24 compartments and 18 compartments in the local supermarket and this is what I have come up with.

One thread of  all the available colours and it shades go into this plastic box.  Once it is over I took the thread from stash and refill the bobbin.   Remaining stash of threads I have kept it in a transparent folder like this.

This folder contains the thread numbers from 1-10.  The next one from 11-20 and so on.  So it is easy for me to identify the threads easily with the numbers. 

I have kept all the threads with its folders in a plastic drawer like the one in below. 

(This image is an amazon affiliate link). 

This storage is very useful and it has so much space to organise my threads and other crafty things.  I had two sets of these drawers.  Worth for money.

Apart from anchor threads I have some DMC pearle cotton 5 threads and those threads I have stored it in a plastic box.

For the embroidery in my blouses and aari embroidery I prefer silk thread and I have a good collection of colours in silk thread also. 

In another post I will show all the materials used for aari embroidery and the different yarns I own for crocheting. 

Whenever I look at these boxes and these colours it automatically brings a smile on my face and it brings some joy to me.  What about you? What will you feel on seeing your crafty things?  Let me know in the comments. 

That's all for today's post.  Tomorrow If possible I will come up with an embroidery finish.  Till then have a nice day. 

My amazon picks for the things used in this post: 

I am on youtube now in the name "Embroidery stitches and Tutorials".  I am presenting all the stitch tutorials  as a video, compiled from the pictures used in the blog.  Instead of scrolling down the page you can see as a video there. 

Kindly Watch and subscribe.  

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My colour choice - right or wrong?

 Hi all

Hope all are doing well.  In my embroidery journey so many I embroider the designs perfectly.  But if I show to my family they will say the colour choice is not good.  So most of the times I stitch from the patterns with the colour keys to avoid the imperfection.  Whenever I stitch from a chart without any colour key or if I choose my own colours I will not be satisfied with the end result.  

Today's finish is one such project which I have finished a month back.  Once when I was exploring pinterest for designs I came across this blog and I fell in love with the cross stitch designs there.  Oh my god so many cross stitch designs available for free.   I have saved one of those charts and many were in my to do list.  Those charts were in red and blue colour.

I decide to choose my own colour choices and tried dark blue and light coral.  The light shade coral is very light after stitching with 2 strands and the designs not stand out.  That was my first mistake.  Then out of my own interest I decided to frame each design with a simple design.  But there too I made a wrong choice of using two colours.  I should have used single colour for the frame.  Have a look at the design.  What do you think of my colour choices?

Fabric used - 14 ct Aida

Threads used - Anchor embroidery threads.(2 strands)

Then I decided to add some quotes and this one is my favourite.  "Look up, Aim high" is the motto of our school.  

Are you a novice in doing cross stitch? I have a cross stitch kit recommendation for you.  When I saw this kit in amazon it reminded me of my beginner days I started doing cross stitch.  I didn't know how to ask for the aida fabric.  The shop keeper gave me these plastic canvas sheets and woolen threads only.  But it was a nice start.  I still have it as a treasure in my mom's place.  

Now everything we are getting at the click of the button and that too as a kit and I purchased this for one of my friends daughter to gift her.  She was very happy with it.  This kit is best for a beginner.  Have a look at the kit I found in amazon. 

(This is an affiliate link.  If you made any purchase through this link I will get a commission from that sale at no cost to you)

So what is the lesson learned? 

If you are going for color choices stitch a small sample out of it and see how it looks after stitching.  So that's it for today.  Tomorrow I will come up with a small mandala. Till then have a nice day.

Embroidery Stitch Tutorial - Spider Web stitch / How to work Spider Web Stitch?

 Hi all

Hope all are staying safe.  Today I am happy to share with you the stitch tutorial for Spider Web Stitch.  It is an isolated stitch, which works well for flowers and other round shapes. The spokes and the pattern of the stitch resembles the spider web and so the stitch got the name spider web stitch.  The other names for this stitch is whipped wheel, Ribbed spider wheel etc.

Now let us move on to the tutorial. 

For this stitch we are going to work with straight stitch as its foundation.  Work a group of straight stitches that radiates from the centre.  

I have used 8 spokes here to explain the stitch.  The number of spokes can be even or odd.  Bring the needle out through the fabric at outer end of a straight stitch.  

   

Make a straight stitch towards the centre.  Then make another straight stitch in the next spoke, from outer end to centre.

Complete all the straight stitches.  

Now whipping begins.  Bring the needle between two straight stitches close to the centre.   Bring the needle below the straight stitch which is to the left of the needle.

 

Pull the thread below the straight.  Now again whip the same stitch once and bring the needle below the same stitch and the next straight stitch to the left. 

  

Pull the thread through.  You can see the thread is whipped over the first stitch and has come below the next straight stitch.

Now whip the stitch once where the thread is below and bring the needle below the same stitch and next stitch.  Continue in this manner in the anticlockwise direction.  The next picture shows the stitch in halfway.  

 

You can complete whipping the spokes or you can stop it with a small part of the spokes to be shown.  I have completed the stitch by whipping the spokes completely.  Finish the stitch by bring the thread under the whipped threads. 

Finished Spider Web stitch 

 

Hope this tutorial is clear. Click here for other embroidery stitch tutorials.

Tomorrow I will be posting the design for doing practicing this stitch.  Have a happy time with your needle and thread.

Embroidery Stitch Tutorial - Eyelet Stitch

Hi all 

Hope all are doing well.  Today I am going to share with you the tutorial for doing the Eyelet stitch.  You can see eyelet stitch in this Straight stitch family mandala. It comes under the family of straight stitches.  

To start with draw a circle.  I have drawn circle number 14 from circle protractor.  Used 3 strands of thread.  If your circle is big you can increase the number of strands.  Mark the centre of the circle.  

                                      Punch the centre and make a hole with a nail of thick needle.

Bring the needle up through the fabric on any one point on the circle.

Insert the needle through the hole in the middle.   The first stitch is made.

Again bring the needle near the first stitch on the stitch circle and insert through the hole and continue the steps.

 

While pulling the thread through the fabric hold the already stitched stitches and pull through.  The new stitch will sit nicely on the right of the already stitched ones.

After filling half of the circle.

A completed eyelet stitch.

While anchoring the thread on the back side be careful not to cross the hole.  If the hold is big the thread will be seen on the right side which will hide the eyelet.  

I hope this tutorial is useful to you.  Have a nice time with your needle and thread. 

Kutchwork Kurti update - Sleeves completed

 Hi all 

Hope all are doing well.  Last year I got 4 kurti kits from shreepathi design studio.  They have the fabric with the design trace - design in neck and sleeves.  Threads, needles and an outline of the design with the thread colors.  I have completed two of them - 2 kasuti kits.  Started the third one which is kutch work.  And completed the sleeves. 

They haven't instructed the stitch for the round blue colour round portions.  First I thought of stitching mirrors in it.  But I don't have mirror the fits the size of those circle.  They are small than the mirrors I have.  So I have stitched the Eyelet stitch to fill in those circles and it was perfect. 

Tutorial for Eyelet stitch.

For the small portion of the leaves and stems I have used back stitch.  All through the design 3 strands of anchor threads are used.  

Other kutch works done by me can be viewed in this link.

Today I have started to do the neck portion.  Hopefully within a week I will be able to completed it.  So the next update will be the finished neckline.  Drop in your feedbacks in the comments sections.  I will be happy to hear from you. 

Satin Stitch - Tutorial / How to do satin stitch?

 Hi all

Hope all are doing well and staying safe.  Yesterday I have posted an embroidery design for satin stitch.  Today I am happy to share with you the tutorial for doing satin stitch.  Practice it along two straight lines first if you are a beginner.  Afterwards you can move on to practice shapes.  

Satin stitch is a flat stitch used to cover small areas.  They are basically straight stitches worked close to each other. It is also known as damask stitch.  Long and short stitch is also satin used to fill large areas.  The stitch cover both the sides of the fabric i.e)front and back.   Satin stitch will look good when worked with less strands of threads 2 or 3.  This is again according to the size of the design you are working you can decide the number of strands. Here I have worked a heart shape with two colours and 3 strands of anchor embroidery thread. 

Let's move on to the tutorial now.  Mark two straight lines on the fabric.

Start from one end of the top line and stitch a straight stitch towards the bottom line.

Again bring the needle near the first stitch on the top line.  Though straight stitches are made each time the stitches will begin on the same side and end on the other side thus filling the fabric on both sides.  In that way it gives a smooth finish.  The stitches should be very close to each other.  Care should be taken not to overlap the stitches.

Continue to do the second straight stitch.

 

After stitching along the two straight lines the satin stitch filling would look like this.

Next picture shows the satin stitch in slanting position.

In the next picture satin stitch is worked to fill the shape of a triangle.  Start working from the wider part and go towards the narrow part.  The right side of the triangle is bended because of the tight stitch tension.  While completing a stitch and beginning the next stitch care should be taken to pull the thread smoothly to the other side. 

Next picture shows the worked of satin stitch in a petal shape.  This is the shape I have used for yesterday's design.  For these kind of shapes to get a regular and smooth stitches I used to start working the satin stitch from the  middle.  Divide the shape into two equal halves and then work the right half and then the left half.  In that way you will get smooth stitches and stitches will be divided equally on both sides and gives a uniformity in the stitches.  

Next is a leaf shape.  For that slanting stitches are worked from the middle of the shape and worked towards the top.  Then again start from the middle and worked towards the bottom. This is to maintain the shape properly.  

 

Hope the tutorial is clear.  In future I will come up with more details in working the satin stitch and its variations.   

Click here to learn new stitches on hand embroidery.  Or you can visit this page.

Tomorrow I will come up with my progress on kutch work kurti which I have shown here..  Till then, have a nice day.