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15. French Knots

French Knots are my absolute favorite among stitches. It is so fun to make and gives a strong impact, besides it’s very beautiful.

I read on somebodies blog (can’t remember whose) that French knots are like salt for an embroidery. If it is dull and boring add a few knots and it will immediately get better.

I made a flower in French dots only. I love them thick and dense.

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These petals/hearts are surrounded by a coached thread to get a distinct edge.

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I run a small Bed and Breakfast. For our keys I have made felted balls, some of them with embroideries. This one has dense French Knots surrounded by coached black knitting yarn, all in wool.

The ball is made of small bits of yarn, left over from previous knitting projects and felted in the washing machine. The hanger is a knitted i-cord.

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I made a handbag filled with different kinds of knots a couple of years ago. Most of the knots are French knots.

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Here is another part of the bag.  Fabric and embroidery floss are wool.

And here is a denim swatch:

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And finally French knots on a dress.

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Updated June 2019:

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The edge is improved with French dots.

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Another edge and more dots.

Links

How to embroider French knots

Google picture search
Google search Swedish
Highlights


20
okt 15

Stitch Magic

Då och då försöker jag bringa ordning bland mina böcker. Sedan bär jag omkring dem till olika ställen och till slut har jag ingen aning om var de finns eller ens om de finns i min ägo. Flera misslyckade försök att få en ändring ligger bakom mig. Och nu tar jag tag i eländet igen.

Efter att ha sorterat i högar, ställt in i hyllor osv försjunker jag i en bok, som jag för länge sedan glömt att jag köpt.

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Det är Stitch Magic av Alison Reid, som handlar om hur stygn, både hand- och maskinsömnad, kan ge ett tyg en ny form eller ett nytt uttryck. Spännande. Jag får genast lust att testa. Med övningen från kursen textil formgivning i tankarna, där jag lekte med temat ”grovt möter skirt”, vill jag genast gå till syrummet och plocka bland mina tyger.

… eller ska jag fortsätta att läsa? … eller ska jag fortsätta att städa? Vardagen är full av beslut av detta slag.

På nätet finns kompletterande material till boken:
Bilder från boken
Magic Stitch-Along


19
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14. Stem Stitch

I have already made a lot of Stem Stitch on my practice cloth, for example outlining uneven edges, stems of flowers and veins of leaves.

The main reason for using Stem Stitch from the very beginning of TAST is the smooth and nice outline. Here are some ”Paradise Flowers” from previous weeks:

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This week I have tried Stem Stitch in a new way. I worked them in rows close together as a filling stitch. This flower is Stem stitch only.

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A stem with three rows of Stem Stitch.

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My ”Paradise flowers” embroidery will become a pillow case when it is finished. I need smooth edges easy to sew with a sewing machine. Stem Stitch is a perfect choice.

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Bellow are some pictures of previous embroideries. First whitework inspired by wool embroideries from  the province of Skåne in the south of Sweden. Those embroideries are often very colourful naive fantasy flowers but I made them white, using white cotton thread on linen instead of wool.

Stem stitch is outlining the whole motif.

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And finally a small linen towel all stitched in Stem stitch except the centre of the flowers, which is Satin Stitch with a Cross Stitch owner.

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Links:

Stem Stitch


Google picture search
Google search Swedish
Highlights

Variations of Stem stitch:
Whipped Stem stitch
Portuguese Stem stitch
Cable Stem stitch
Raised Stem stitch
Pekinese Stem Stitch


18
okt 15

Kurshelg tre, dag 2: Textil formgivning.

Gårdagens fotoövningar handlade om att fota en jacka i olika ljus och på olika sätt. Jackan såg ut så här:

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Jag blev mest nöjd med detaljbilden av det veckade partiet som visades i föregående post. Dagens övning handlade om att göra ett vernissagekort med inbjudan till en utställning inspirerad av gårdagens övning.

För mig ligger broderiet nära och jag tänker mig en utställning med broderier på temat ”Det grova möter det skira”, där jag tar fasta på kontrasten mellan den grova ullen med inslag av glansiga trådar och den skira chifongen i  de veckade partiet. De råa kanterna med korta fransar kan också tillföra något i det tänkta broderierna. Min utställning fick arbetsnamnet, ”En jackas berättelse”. Det kanske blir något av dessa tankar så småningom.

Vernisagekorten skissades först på papper och sedan tog vi hjälp av Photoshop och InDesign för att färdigställa dem.

Nästa gång vi träffas i blir det stoffteckning och kroki, områden jag inte alls känner mig bekväm med, en riktig utmaning alltså.


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Textil formgivning på HV – tredje kurshelgen

Idag fortsätter kursen med fotografering. Vi fotare både inomhus med konstljus och utomhus med dagsljus. Därefter följde redigering i Photoshop.

Detta är en av bilderna. Kan någon gissa vad det föreställer?

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Tidigare inlägg om kursen finns här:
Redan andra kurshelgen på HV-kurs
Rapport från kurshelg 2, textil formgivning, dag 2


12
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13. Satin Stitch

Sweden has many local traditional embroidery styles. Dala-Floda is one of them, rich in form and colour with lots of different flower motifs. The printed fabric I use for my TAST stitching is inspired by these traditional embroideries.

This week I made a lot of Satin Stitch, an important stitch in Dala-Floda embroidery.

image image image imageSatin Stitch is often outlined with Stem Stitch, which is the stitch for next week. But as you can see it is almost impossible to wait using them untill next week.

I also tried Padded Satin Stitch.

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Satin Stitch is also common in other traditional local embroidery styles. In isolated villages material for embroidery was both expensive and rare and nobody could afford any waste. Therefore they used One Sided Satin Stitch, where almost all thread is on the front side of the facric, on the back side there are only tiny little stitches. Delsbo is such a place, there you can find Delsbo Seam with big red flowers worked with long one sided satin stitch, sometimes coached down by stem stitch.

This kind of Satin Stitch is not as even and delicate as regular Satin Stitch, but I find it far more interesting.

Here is another example where you even can see the back side.

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In Blekinge, a province in southwest of Sweden you also can find the one sided satin stitch. Blekinge Seam is distinguished by both colour and certain set of seams.

Here is my own interpretation of a Blekinge flower, with one sided satin stitch, Stem Stitch and Herringbone Stitch.

Links:

How to hand embroider Satin Stitch


Google picture search
Google picture search plattsöm (Swedish for Satin Stitch)
Delsbosöm Google search
Blekingesöm Google search
Highlights


07
okt 15

More about flowers from Dala-Floda, Satin stitch

I promised to write more about Dala-Floda embroidery tradition, TAST week 13, Satin stitch week. But instead of writing myself I will link to some blog posts of interest, by a friend, who has written far better texts than I can do.

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Embroidery on wool, with loosely spun threads, that makes a soft and textured surface.

His name is Lars and he is a talented knitter, who also has a broad interest in traditional textiles. (The picture above is from his blog.) He has just started to learn embroidery.

Lars writes in English and has published lots of pictures. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Dala-Floda is famous for more than embroideries. Follow the links below, and you will see. (All links are opened in a new window). You can also see the kinship with my ”Flowers of Paradise” print used for my TAST stitching.

Four days in Dala-Foda
Roses and embroidery, crochet and knitting in Dala-Floda, part 2
Roses in embroidery, crochet and knitting in Dala-Floda, part 5
Cources at Dala-Floda
Embroidery sampler – Påsöm
Embroidery in Dala-Floda – Påsöm
Treasures in Dala-Floda

Do you want to see more? Make a Google search for pictures. I suggest some Swedish words to use, that might give you a good search result. You can easily copy and paste, even if you don’t understand the words: Dala-Floda broderier, Floda broderier, Floda Hemslöjd, Påsöm.

There is also a digital museum at http://digitaltmuseum.se. You can try the same words for searching.

Here is a link to a photo book with wonderful pictures: Påsöm från Björbo

I hope you will find pictures of embroideries from Dala-Floda inspiring.


03
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12. Barred Chain stitch

I didn’t get Barred chain stitch right from the beginning, but after a few attempts I figured out how to make it. What a nice little stitch. I must say that I do like my mistakes too.

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… and here is an old denim swatch.

Links:

How to embroider Barred Chain Stitch


Google picture search 1
Google picture search 2