Owl Project

Since my last post on this owl embroidery, I have taken out the back stitching I used on the leaves and switched to a blanket stitch.  I like it so much better.  Filling in the entire leaf with lines of back stitch were making the leaf too dense and lumpy looking.  To me, this blanket stitch looks just right!

I have quite a few projects going at the moment, it is fun to have a variety of subjects to stitch!

100 stitches - lazy daisy stitch

The latest stitch in my 100 stitches project is stitch #40, the lazy daisy stitch. I have had so much trouble learning this stitch! It isn't that the stitch itself is hard to do, it's that it is so hard to make the stitches even and the same size when making a flower! Here is the least embarrassing example of my first attempts

I thought it might not look so bad if I added some french knots in the centers :)

Still noticing the uneven, poorly spaced and loopy stitches :( After much stitching, removing of stitching and re-stitching...I think I am happy with the result:sort of.This really is a pretty stitch. I think I will love stitching lazy daisies when I have a pattern to work from. This stitch is from the "linked stitches" section of the 100 stitches book
***update*** When I first started posting about my journey through the 100 Stitches book, I mostly just took a picture of my completed stitch or line of stitching. The more comfortable I got learning these new stitches, the more I started to document the steps of the stitches as I went along. Now my 100 Stitches posts always have a step by step demonstration of my stitching. I am currently going back through my early 100 Stitches posts and adding demonstration pictures. Here is my demonstration of the lazy daisy stitch. I am using a beautiful orange dmc color variations pearl cotton floss. I started with a daisy from the Daisy embroidery pattern packet and transferred it onto my fabric:
The first step is to bring your needle up through the fabric at the base of one of the daisy petals:
pull the thread all the way through:
Now take your needle back down through the fabric right where it first emerged:
and bring your needle back out at the end of the daisy petal. As your needle emerges, make sure it is going to over the working floss. Start pulling:
and keep pulling...you can see a loop forming:
when you have pulled all the way, you will have a nice petal formedYou now can secure the petal in place by taking a single stitch: that is all there is to this stitch, just do the same steps on the next petal:
until you have completed all the petals. I added a french knot in the center of mine:
and here is what the underside of my stitching looks like:

100 Stitches - chain stitch

The next stitch in the 100 Stitches book is the chain stitch (stitch #39).

This is such a beautiful stitch and really fun to do. This is just the basic chain stitch - I notice that the 100 Stitches book has nine variations on this simple stitch!

The pictures for "checkered chain stitch" and "rosette chain stitch" in particular look pretty complicated!

Here are the steps I used when learning the chain stitch.   For my floss, I used
this pretty perle cotton.  This is DMC color variations number 4210.

First, I used a ruler and water soluble marking pen to mark a stitching line to follow:

I started this stitch on the left edge of the marked line, with my needle coming up through the fabric. 

Pull the floss all the way through:

I brought the needle back around and went back into the fabric right in the same hole that the floss first emerged from:

I brought my needle back out of the fabric along the stitching line, a small ways to the right of where the needle first went in.  Start pulling the needle and notice the needle is passing over the top of the working floss:

As I pulled, it starts to form a loop:

Once pulled all the way through,  a sort of tear-drop shape is formed:

I brought my needle back around and went back into the fabric right in the same hole or even just alongside but a little below the hole that the floss just emerged from:

I then brought the needle back out of the fabric, just like before a bit to the right along the stitching line, making sure the needle passes over the working floss:

Pull the floss all the way through and form the second chain stitch:

I continued stitching all along the marked line and at the end I finished by going back into the fabric on the right side of the last tear drop shape:

I pulled my floss through:

and secured it on the underside:

Work In Progress

I am starting a new embroidery project on this very light-weight denim fabric. I am not sure what I am going to do with this - perhaps make a little pillow or use it as a patch on a tote bag. I think it would also look good framed or even as part of a journal book cover.
The patterns I am going to embroider are embellishment patterns from the "Butterfly" pattern packet. I am using the butterfly and the word butterfly. I used my copier to increase the size of the butterfly by 130%.

Here they both are ready to be traced onto my fabric using carbon transfer paper. In a previous post I detailed this process.

The transfer came through really well on this light colored fabric!Now I am ready to stitch! I think I will use these bright colors.

Etsy shop updated!

I have updated my Etsy shop, the Zinnia embroidery pattern packet is now for sale! I hope you will take a look! Here is a picture of a towel I completed using the pattern.