HOW-TO Videos: Cross stitch (part 2)

Today, I will post the second part of the video series on cross stitch. Last week, we show here the basic stitches in cross stitching: cross stitch, half cross stitch, and quarter cross stitch. The next two videos demonstrate two more of the basic stitches: back stitches and French knot stitches.

How to Cross Stitch: How to Do Back Stitches in Cross Stitching
Back stitches are used mainly to outline your pictures to make them more fancy looking and show up nicer.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Do French Knots in Cross Stitching
This video shows how to wind your thread around the needle in order to form a knot, the so called French knot.
Once you become akin of the basic cross stitches, it is time to start your own cross stitch project. The videos that follow will help you decide on what cross stitch pattern to use depending on your experience as a stitcher, they show you what ways to use in order to transfer a pattern into your grid paper, they even show you how to customize and personalize or design your own pattern. The series concludes with the last video that shows what to do once you have finished your cross stitch project.
How to Cross Stitch: Types of Cross Stitch Patterns
What patterns to use when you are a beginner or a professional stitcher.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Design a Cross Stitch Pattern
This is a video showing how to design your own pattern. Any picture and pattern that you like can be easily transferred to a grid paper. Use the grid paper to trace the pattern, draw it and then fill it with the cross-stitches and the colors that you like.
How to Cross Stitch : How to Use a Transparency for Cross Stitching
Another simple way to copy a pattern is to use transparency paper. Check this out.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Make a Cross Stitch Pattern from a Photo
This video actually shows how to customize a ready to use pattern in order to make it wider or longer or whatever suits you.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Personalize Your Cross Stitching Pattern
Some ideas on how to embellish and personalize your cross stitch by sewing on beads and little charms. Don't forget to put your initials so that the people you're going to give it remember who made it for them.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Frame a Cross Stitch Pattern
This video explains what to do once you finish your cross stitching project. How to wash it, iron it, and finally frame it, in order to enjoy it for years to come.

Please share your thoughts about cross stitch. Do you like this embroidery technique? If you do like this technique and want to share your work in this blog you can send me an email with images of your creations and a small description right here!

KP

Thank you Expert Village for the videos!

Embroidery in Art - Olja Stipanovic

Embroidery is a form of art. When it intersects with other forms of art, the result is innovative and contemporary. An illustrative example is the artwork of Olja Stipanovic, an emerging artist from Croatia. One of her exhibitions, called "Stitches", uses embroidery combined with photography and drawings on a rice paper, to express the tangibility of human skin with marks related to human body.

Human body as an embodiment tool with so many experiences in cultural, social and personal life carries numerous codes of identification, articulating at the same time notions and ideas. By using the red thread she writes on "rice" new substitutes with an aim to articulate the body as a word, thought or semantic code (for more details click here).

Her stitches originate from a variety of myths, through kids' games or simply, palm readings, creating her own "bodies".

I hope you liked this post. I have never imagined embroidery used in this way. Have you used or seen other people use embroidery in a similar or other contemporary way?

KP

Greek Folklore - new column

Greece has a very rich folklore. The diverse geographical features of greek land and the varied historical course of its people have created a rich cultural tradition of a distinct character, consisting of a mix of stories, music, dances, legends, oral history, popular beliefs, traditions, and so forth, within the different greek regions. An important element of greek folklore are the artifacts, such as decorative items, handmade clothing, and other crafts, incorporated into every day life and events.

What interests me more from this greek "material culture" is of course Embroidery. One of the most important handicrafts that flowered in Greece especially in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries. Whenever I visit a place in Greece, I always visit its folklore museum, in order to understand how people lived, what they used in their everyday lives, how they were dressed, and so on. It is amazing how every city, every town in Greece has its own embroidery artifacts.

So, I am starting a new column in my blog, which I name "Greek Folklore". I will try to introduce you to greek traditional embroidery and needlecrafts in general from different regions in Greece. I hope you will enjoy it!

Here is a taste of what is to follow.

Embroidered Thracian tsevres from the folklore museum of Komotini.

KP

HOW-TO Videos: Cross stitch

Every week I am going to post videos that I find on the web, demonstrating various needlecraft techniques. This week I will start with the basics for cross-stitching. I have already shown you one of my cross stitch creations here. I love to cross stitch. However, some people find it a bit of monotonous and get bored easily. I think that you should have a lot of patience, the result is always rewarding. I also find cross stitching as an embroidery technique that is easy for a newbie to start with.

So, the videos that follow teach the very basics of cross-stitch. They are suitable for a newbie, but I think that even an experienced embroiderer can learn something new. The videos demonstrate all the basic cross stitches, how to thread the cross stitch needle, how to prepare the cloth and use hoops for cross stitching, what supplies do you need.

How to Cross Stitch: Supplies for Cross Stitching
You need a cross stitching kit that contains all the necessary material to make a design: a fabric (cloth) with a pattern or no pattern (counted cross stitch) on it, floss in many colors, hoops, needles, and embellishments.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Prepare Cloth for Cross Stitching
Tips on how to prevent rambling of the fabric and find the center of the design on your fabric.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Use Hoops in Cross Stitching
Learn what hoop size to use for your design.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Thread a Needle for Cross Stitching
There are two types of needles. The blunt, with a large eye, and a smaller with a sharp point and a much smaller eye.
How to Cross Stitch: How to Do Basic Cross Stitches
This video demonstrates cross stitch, half cross stitch, and quarter cross stitch.

Next week I am going to post the second part of this video series with more information about cross stitch. I hope you have found this post interesting. Please share your thoughts about cross stitch. Do you like this embroidery technique? If you do like this technique and want to share your work in this blog you can send me an email with images of your creations and a small description right here!

KP

Thank you Expert Village for the videos!

Etsy Sellers' 3rd Annual Community Christmas in July Sale

Etsy runs the Sellers' 3rd Annual Community Christmas in July Sale! Stitch, mom! participates and offers Free Shipping to all orders over $100, domestic and international, till the end of July! Spread the news! For more information on how to participate as an etsy seller and/or how to take advantage of sales opportunities as an etsy buyer, check this link.

 

KP

Bookmarks - a personal gift!

Hello!

After a small break from blogging due to many real life obligations I am back. I didn't have time to work on my table runners, but I have made two beautiful bookmarks with needlelace, one with silver and one with gold and dark gold lace. I consider bookmarks a very personal gift to someone, especially if they are handmade.

I hope you like them!

KP

My counted cross-stitch table runner project

Here is my latest work still in progress. A handmade table runner about 40 inches long and 16 inches wide. The embroidery technique I used to create it is counted cross-stitch. I hope you like the pattern and the colors of the threads that I' ve used. I need to do a little (actually a lot of) needlace work and create a nice lace to put around it. I' ll show you the final result soon! Meanwhile take a closer look at some details of the pattern.

So do you like it? Do you like counted cross stitch technique? If you do like this technique and want to share your work you can send me an email with images of your creations and a small description right here!

KP

Priceless treasures from my great grandmother's chest!

I’ve spent all this morning digging into my great grandmother's chest. It was full of handmade treasures that she had made when she was young. Beautiful embroidery, handwoven silk creations, knitting, and many more, dating more than 100 years old!

Here you can see a couple of her creations. Two pillowcases made of silk thread handwoven using a floor loom. In the center of each pillowcase there is embroidery made of silk thread. The two embroideries represent the greek letters "lamda" and "gama", the initials of her name, Loukritia Galanopoulou. The signs of wear from time are evident and can only be forgiven as great patina…

 

It was a real adventure; I might say that I was a little bit overwhelmed by emotions looking at these handmade treasures. I’ve never met my great grandmother, but I think that her creations were a part of her heart, and I get to keep them!

Waiting for your comments!

KP

Deborah Bowness

 
Since 1999, Deborah Bowness has been designing a collection of ready-made digitally and hand printed wallpapers. Each piece is hand finished so these ready-made ranges can be tailored to meet the needs of different color schemes. The collection contains wallpapers picturing things like dresses, shoes, books, mirrors, chairs, and frames. If I didn't already have a wall-to-wall bookcase, I would surelly like to have Deborah's fake bookcase pictured above.

You can find Deborah's wallpapers here. Enjoy!

KP