her bag is lovely!  here is a clip of her blog:

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“Hint; I tend to pull my stitches too tight, so now I keep the fabric a bit lose in the hoop (instead of tight as a drum) this lets me see when I pull the stitches too tight since the fabric would pucker up. ” from Yesterday’s charm.

choosing which stitches to start with

I really like the look of the satin stitch, mixed colours using the wedge stitch, the stem/outline stitches and funky looking bullion and french knots. i remember some of the patterns my mom did with contrasting colors of layered lines and knots on top of satin stitch (i think!)

“If you lack experience with needle and thread, the easiest way to begin to learn your ultimate goal of smooth satin stitching is to start with closed blanket stitch, then venture to fishbone. When you can do these well, you can do satin stitch well… If you can’t maintain a smooth outline with fishbone and closed blanket, your satin stitching won’t look any better“. from Heritage Shoppe

I love the instructive tone of the stitching how-tos at the Heritage Shoppe (See their Embroidery Stitches menu)

“Closed blanket stitch is a premium stitch used in old Hedebo, Schwalm, Mountmellick, and many crewel works. Don’t thumb your nose at it. Doing it well means you are an accomplished stitcher. It should be your first line of creative tricks in hand embroidery.”

I can’t imagine thumbing my nose at a stitch, but anyway, I appreciate this advice for starting out:

“Begin with stem stitch. Then try the chain stitch or straight stitch. Continue with satin stitch, Rumanian couching, and whipped stitches. Take your time. If you make a mistake, remove the thread a stitch at a time with the eye end of the needle (to prevent piercing and breaking the thread). You can also cut out the thread and begin anew. Even experienced embroiderers make errors and must redo areas.

The most important thing to remember is: Keep your stitches very tiny and even. If you have embroidered for a long while and still are not happy with your results, the reason is usually making your stitches too large, knots and other poor finishing techniques. The ultimate goal is 16 to 20 stitches per inch.”

Their french knot tutorial also has video to download. See the advice for starting and ending threads.

Yarn for Feather - with flash!

Originally uploaded by whizzme.

This is my new stash of crewel wool. Very precious! I got it in a swap with Whizz Me.
It is Appleton’s 2ply crewel wool. The colors are lovely. I am getting stressed about what I should do with it exactly. I want to read more about techniques before I dig into it. (Although I did use some pink for a certain mouse’s nose.)

Accomplishments Transferring Instructions for Crewel Embroidery

For these instructions you will need:

• “1. Tracing paper- preferable heavy weight. You can find this at Office Max.
• 2. A tracing pen- as shown in the picture. A knitting needle will also work.
• 3. Dressmaker’s carbon paper- This can be found at any fabric store.
• 4. Chalk markers or very fine felt tip pens- You can use the chalk pencils sold for quilting, but I find that this wears off quickly. And I never use water washable pens, as the lines can reappear if the chemicals are not completely washed out of the fabric.

…

• Step 1- Using a fine tip black marker and heavy tracing paper, trace the selected design from the book.
• Step 2- Cut the carbon so that it is larger than the design but smaller than the tracing paper. With the linen fabric on a hard smooth table surface, place the dressmaker’s carbon , carbon side down, on the right side of your linen fabric. Place the tracing paper, with design right-side-up, on top. The tracing paper may be pinned to the fabric, but do not put the pins through the carbon paper. Using the tracing pen, trace over the design on the tracing paper. Use sufficient pressure to get the design onto the linen.
• Step 3- Remove the tracing paper and carbon. The design should now be on the linen fabric, though there may be small gaps. Using the book as your guide, draw over the traced lines with a Zig pen. Here only slight pressure and very thin lines are necessary, as these lines will be permanent.”