Dmcthread's Blog

Summer Stitching Inspiration

I’m curious – how many of you are taking an embroidery class this summer or participating in an online stitching club?

I found some gorgeous stitching done for an embroidery class on the blog Stitching Idyllic. Ann taught a 6 week class on Creative Use of Stitches, and is sharing the results of her lessons on her blog.

Her class used DMC floss and DMC Pearl Cotton for their gorgeous work. Be sure to visit Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of her posts for more examples!

Mollie on Wild Olive is doing a Summer Stitching series using a bright, happy DMC floss palette. Her project includes tiny embroidered motifs and hexagon quilting – so those of you looking to expand into either embroidery or quilting could have a fun time.

Visit her post for more details.

Artist Megan Eckman just launched an Embroidery of the Month club – Megan’s style evokes children’s book illustrations that are dreamlike and imaginative.

Best of all -all you’ll need is a couple skeins of black or navy DMC floss for these lovely patterns!

If you’re looking for some free Summer Stitching inspiration – how about joining the DMC Mentor Program? You’ll receive a starter kit with all the basic materials you’ll need to share some stitching inspiration with your non-stitching friends – start your own summer stitching club! Find more information and sign up!

Embroidered Quilts

They say all Quilters embroider, but not all Embroiderers quilt. I’m not sure if this rings true or not, but I do know many quilters use embroidery in their quilted creations. Embroidery adds detail, texture, or helps the maker tell a story.

This quilt made by Debby Schnabel -a retired ICU nurse who runs the Debby Quilts blog -has created this masterpiece feauring her favorite psalms, and has used embroidery extensively in her project.

Debby has used pearl cotton to embroider her masterpiece with  a variety of interesting embroidered designs. The artists has used embroidery not only for the lettering in the text, but to also enhance images in the fabric, such as the tree show here, and to accent bold circles of color in the design.

As I look closely at Debby’s photos, I can see that she has painstakingly spaced rows of running stitch and bullion stitch, French knots and straight stitches in her circles, and has enhanced her trees with satin stitched fruit and detached chain stitch leaves.

The embroidered details are worked in basic stitches familiar to nearly anyone who embroiders or quilts, and really make the quilt come alive!

Quilt artist Allison Aller – one of the winners of DMC’s Trips to France -  also uses embroidery to enhance her quilts and add incredible detail to her projects.

She recently completed a piece titled Twenty Years in the Garden, using a variety of embroidery threads and ribbon to stitch the abundance of vegetables, flowers and plants in her quilted garden beds.

In the photo shown here, you can see the marigolds in-progress. Simply gorgeous.

Allison has used so many different hand embroidery stitches in her project that it’s hard to count them all, but I see French knots, straight stitch, stem stitch, detached chain stitch and lazy daisy stitches, running stitch, couching and more.

It’s amazing what embroidery can do for a quilting project, and I can hardly wait to see what these two incredible textile artists create next!

Spring Project Idea – Temari Balls

Temari balls are a terrific example of a colorful Japanese thread craft that anyone can learn. Temari are made of yarn wrapped around a soft core, and embellished with DMC pearl cotton. As your skills grow, so will the complexity of the Temari you create.

The name means hand ball in Japanese, and the balls were originally created for children. Today, they are a symbol of good luck, and are given as gifts on special occasions, or to decorate the home.

All of the balls shown here were created by designer Barbara Seuss, and were featured in her book, Japanese Temari, a Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft, available on her website as well as online and local bookstores. You can also see dozens of inspiring samples in her Temari Gallery.

Floss Flowers for Mom

Spring is in full swing and everything is in bloom!  I love seeing all of the wonderful patches of color in the flower garden and along the hillsides.

This week, you can bring some of that gorgeous color indoors using this free pattern for pretty floss flowers from the DMC archives. The blossoms would make a great Mother’s Day gift!

The flowers are easy to make using DMC Embroidery Floss and wire, and you can have an entire bouquet made up in a flash! Just cut, fold and twist.

Click on the photo or the link above to access the pdf pattern.

Enjoy!

Cinco de Mayo

It’s almost time for a bit of celebration – according to Wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo has a long and venerable history of celebrations here in the US as well as Mexico. What better way to celebrate, I think, than to make something! So, here’s a crafty roundup on a Mexican theme.

This adorable Fiesta skirt tutorial on Made is great for little ones, but there are also fabulous ideas for embellishing clothing of any size.

In addition to using trims, lace, and ribbons, Dana suggests hand-embellishing with embroidery threads – I’d love to try some DMC Pearl Cotton on this project!

Next up is this adorable piñata shirt tutorial by Jennifer Perkins of the Naughty Secretary Club – so cute!

Using a free piñata pattern and easy-to-find crafty materials, Jennifer puts together a really cute, fun top for kids.

If you’re sewing-inclined, I’m fascinated by this reverse applique adaptation of the classic Mexican peasant blouse – view the tutorial.

This could also be a fun way to combine  some floral fabric with stitching, although white-on-white embroidery could be just as captivating. And here’s an idea – glow-in-the-dark and light effects threads – I’d love to see that!

These adorable mini piñatas on the (hilariously named) Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! blog can be adapted in many stitchy ways – using felt or fabric scraps and thread, in addition to papier mache.

I hope all your celebrations are safe and stitchy!

Crochet a Zoo

While I normally cover embroidery and needlework books here on the DMC blog, I also enjoy Amigurumi (stuffed toy) crochet books – especially when they are filled with cute animals or embellished with embroidery.

Crochet a Zoo by Altadena, California designer Megan Kreiner has both!

This new book is filled with instructions for making and embellishing over a dozen familiar zoo figures such as lions, giraffes and monkeys, along with their multi-cultural zoo keepers.

Many of the animal patterns feature charming male and female versions of the cute critters, as well as their young. The mommy kangeroo with her baby in a pouch is absolutely adorable, as is the sweet family of elephants.

Be sure to check out the tail end on each of these charming creatures. No detail has been spared in their design.

The facial features and some of the narrow stripes on the creatures are hand embroidered in basic stitches using embroidery floss. Larger details such as spots, wide strips and clothing accents are appliqued using felt that has been hand-stitched to the animals with sewing thread.

Instructions for crocheting each animal are clear and feature well-illustrated step-by-step images. Full-size patterns for all of the animals can be found in the back of the book.

Just for fun, Megan has even included a section for making zoo food from felt to keep the critters from getting hungry.

The Martingale Publishing has also made it easy to use the patterns by offering a printable template on their web site, instead of tracing from the book.

Be sure to visit Megan’s web site for more unique crochet ideas and inspiration.