A Little Chat About Pearl and Her Friends

Teri and I (Kara) are feverishly getting ready for the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first week in March—making kits, gathering threads, and writing patterns. Since many hands make light work, I asked a friend to come over and help me put together thread kits. I was explaining that there were a few different types of pearl cottons in the kit along with the floss. She mentioned that she hadn't even heard of pearl cotton only floss. That spawned an idea for a short post on pearl cotton and its variations, along with how it compares to floss and wool thread. Many of us who have been stitching a while use all these threads on a regular basis, but if you are new to stitching, this is for you!

This picture shows floss on the left then pearl 8, 5, 3, and wool (Dried Sage by Weeks DyeWorks)

Embroidery floss is something most of have used and are familiar with, even if we just used it for those lovely friendship bracelets back in the day. It is plentiful and relatively inexpensive as threads go. DMC is the brand that is most popular and economical. It is usually 6-stranded and when used in stitching, is best separated by those strands in order to get a smoother stitch. You can use 1-6 strands in your needle, depending on the look you want to achieve.

Here you can see the 6 strands

Embroidery floss

Pearl cotton (or Perle depending on where you live) is great to use because it is not stranded and you can just stick it in your needle and go—no separating the strands. The most used sizes are 12, 8, 5, and 3; the larger number means the smaller diameter or thinner thread. (Occasionally, you can find it in 16 as well.) You can vary the look you are trying to achieve by using the different sizes. To fit the larger diameter threads through your needle, you will need to use a needle with a larger eye. We tend to use chenille needles ranging from #26-#18, depending on the thread. Teri is going to talk about needles in the next post.

Pearl 8

Pearl 5

Pearl 3

From left to right 8, 5, and 3

Weeks and The Gentle Art (just floss and wool) are two companies we like for threads, whether it is floss or pearl or even wool. Their products are hand-dyed, which gives a great variation in your stitching, but not so much that it is overly noticeable. They also come on these little cards, which makes it a little less likely to tangle. All you do is cut the bottom loops, and you instantly have the perfect length for stitching.

Wool thread is lovely to use as well and will give a completely different texture to your stitching. It is perfect for things that you might want to appear to be fuzzy or if you are stitching on wool, it will blend in beautifully. It lends a great contrast when used with other fibers such as floss or pearl.

Another popular company for pearl cotton is Valdani. Their pearl comes in different sizes and in a multitude of colors, both solid and variegated. It is very economical as the little balls go a long way.

Our curated In the Garden set by Valdani

Lastly, another company that we like to use is House of Textile Arts (Tentakulum) Painters Threads. These threads are dyed in gorgeous unique color-ways, and their names are based on famous painters.

There are many other thread companies out there that offer pearl cotton, but these are just a few of our favorites. All of these companies offer other fibers as well, and each fiber is going to give a different look and texture to your project. Below we have listed a few sources for these products and hope you will be inspired to try them all!

Weeks DyeWorks, Valdani, and The Gentle Art

Primitive Homespun and Needleworks

Painter's Threads

Threadnuts

“In the Garden” Again: Garden Gate

Today, we are taking care of a little housekeeping and letting you know about some changes coming soon. Due to changes in Blogger, our blog can no longer be delivered to your mailbox. Never fear though, you can still read our blog by going directly to it, checking social media, or better yet, sign-up for our newsletter and the blog links will always be included. Because of these changes we are in the midst of re-evaluating the future direction of our blog and its frequency. We will keep you posted as we go forward and hope you will still continue to support our little blog of stories, tutorials, and vintage beauties!

Now, on to this week's In the Garden post; this week, we are highlighting the Garden Gate block. I (Kara) began this block when I was in Malta, which seems like so many years ago. This is a bigger block, and the post below will give you lots of tips and tricks for managing the size. My favorite part about this block was creating the tiny little bees—they are so much fun to make! This week, beginning Thursday, July 1, take 10% off the digital pattern price by using the code GATE.

   🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Because of my trip to Europe in August, we took a hiatus from our Block of the Month, but we are back to finish this quilt! On Sunday, I (Teri) taught the class on our newest block, Garden Gate, at Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks in Frederick, MD. As always, we had lots of fun as we reviewed the techniques used to create this block. And the shop has just moved into a larger building, so we enjoyed a bit more room in which to stitch! A happy respite from our rainy day. 

Following are a few highlights for creating the Garden Gate, which is now available on our website.

 

Our beautiful new space allotted us plenty of room to spread out and stitch. As you can see above, I have the blocks assembled and am preparing for the borders and quilting next.

 

We had to do a bit of puzzle work to fit all the gate pieces onto the piece of wool that we had. Here is how one person got hers arranged so everything fit. 

Kara actually made this particular block, and her biggest piece of advice was to fuse the gate pieces. I tend to prefer stapling my pieces, but she said that because the piece was so large, she had to fuse the rails to be sure they didn't shift. Someone in class yesterday said that her pieces never stay fused. We discussed the possibility of using steam on a wool setting, and pressing it from the front and then the back for better hold. You could also fuse AND staple and/or pin, as Kara did above! 

After the arch and railings are appliquéd to the background, stitch the hinges and capstones. 

 

For the sunflowers, appliqué the back petals, and then use a stem stitch in the center of the front petals, echoing the edge. Kara added a bit of batting beneath the brown center before she appliquéd it down, and then added French knots, using a mixture of ribbon and floss for the seeds.

We placed the flowers before stitching the stems and leaves.

 

The flower stems are done using either chain stitch or the Hungarian braided chain. The Hungarian braided chain is used on the Cornflower block; you can see how to do it by clicking here. The leaves are then stapled, pinned, or fused in place, and surrounded by a blanket stitch with angled spokes creating the veins. To see another example of this leaf treatment, check out the Dragonfly and Fern leaves by clicking here.

A finished leaf

The beehive is appliquéd and embroidered. Brown pearl cotton is used for the rose stem (chain stitch) and roses are added, using the gathered French knot with white silk ribbon. It is the same ribbon stitch used to create the Butterfly Bush, which you can see modeled by clicking here. 

The roses will be scattered amongst the stems, and leaves are added with green silk ribbon using the ribbon stitch. The ribbon needed to create the roses, leaves, and sunflower seeds is included with the pattern.

And you can't have a beehive without bees! These little bullion bees are just SO fun. We had a great time making them in class. 

Thread a large milliners needle with two pieces of size 12 pearl cotton: one each of yellow and black.

 

Carefully wrap the threads around your needle so that the two colors alternate—about five wraps.

Pull the needle through the wraps gently, and take the thread to the back at the end of the stitch. 

All you need are wings, made by two small loops anchored with a tack stitch hidden beneath the bullion body, using one strand of white floss.

Cutest little bees ever!

It's never too late to join us In the Garden! We have one more block to go, and then we are ready to do the border and assemble the quilt. We would love to see photos of any of the blocks you have done. You can email them to us, or share them on our Facebook page.

All the patterns, which include any ribbon needed to complete the block, are available in our website store. To read more about our other blocks in the series, click on the links below.

• Introducing "In the Garden," A BOM Series: Cornflowers
• "In the Garden"—Oak Leaves and Acorns
• "In the Garden"—Violets
• "In the Garden"—Cardinals and Holly
• "In the Garden"—Rose
• "In the Garden"—Robin and Forsythia
• "in the Garden"—Dragonfly and Fern
• "In the Garden"—Hummingbird and Fuschia
• "In the Garden"—Hydrangea
• "In the Garden"—Monarch and Butterfly Bush