Product Photography, a Craftsy Addiction, and a Bunny

So first, Craftsy. I went first because of the patterns, then started following the blog, but I was keen on the idea of the classes too. I have quite an addiction to learning new crafts even though I don't have time for my current ones. Having these lessons join me in the comfort of my own home whenever it suits me is pretty darn appealing.

So courtesy of a 50% off sale and no willpower, I bought my first class. It's called "Shoot It: A Product Photography Primer". So far I've watched the bits about colour, composition, style and such, and today I'm sharing with you some pictures I took as part of the first homework assignment (the best kind of assignment - one that no one but you cares if you actually do the work).

The homework is really just to take photos and start playing with what works and doesn't, but particularly considering composition.

The subject today is a bunny Lovey Dovey that is waiting for the birth of its future owner next month. Its made from white and pink bamboo fleece and has a little embroidered face. (I previously made the elephant version of the Lovey Dovey)

My first ever hat features in this next photo. I have sure improved a lot since then, but it makes a nice photo prop.

So back to the classes. They are basically structured as a set of videos that you can watch and re-watch as you feel like it, and they stay available to you forever. You can add notes so you can find bits you want to refer to later. Then there's course materials like notes and resource lists and stuff. The best bit, and what sets the classes above other online resources, is that you can ask the teacher questions and get their feedback on whatever you need. Other class participants can help you out too, and you get to see their questions and answers. Then people share pictures of their completed projects too.

I've since started another class too, but I'll talk about that in another post. There's plenty more classes on Craftsy that I'd love to get into, but I must be a good girl and finish the ones I've started first!

Embroidery Class 2012 in review - Pulled and Withdrawn Thread Work

The third module of the basic course was Pulled and Withdrawn Thread Work. I had no experience at all of this going in and was excited to try.  They are worked on evenweave fabric with threads that can be removed, rather than an Aida or Hardanger which has a stiffer weave. Linen is the best.
Pulled thread work used tight tension to pull the threads together to form patterns. Withdrawn thread work removes weft or warp threads and then manipulates the remaining threads. Easier to show than to tell!

We worked a sampler for each technique, and put some hemming techniques on each one also. Then as our assignment we had to make a small project that contained 1 hem and examples of each.
Again, as these are samplers, I've scanned them and labelled them for future reference.
This is my withdrawn thread sampler:

Withdrawn thread sampler.

It contains several ways of treating the leftover threads: ladder and zig-zag hem stitch, three styles of interwoven hemstitch, some wrapped hemstitches, and an Italian double hemstitch in both ladder and zig-zag. It also shows a Picot hem stitch at the top, and a corner example with a spider's web interlacing.

And here is my pulled thread sampler:

Pulled thread sampler.

This has both straight and diagonal stitches as well as a variety of eyelets, a 4-sided stitch hem at the base, and a traditional hem stitch at the top.

For my project, I did a small bag that could be used as a smart phone cover. I did a deep 4-sided stitch hem at the top, zig-zag ladder hemstitch, a double row of 3-sided eyelets (which I think look like little flowers), and some interlaced hemstitch.  Then there are two satin-stitch edged squares. The one on the front has a spaced satin stitch and a wave stitch.

Small bag assignment - front - featuring pulled and withdrawn work.

The one on the back has two diagonal stitches: diagonal cross stitch and step filling.

Small bag assignment - back - featuring pulled and withdrawn work

It ended up being a cm shorter than it needed to be, so I might line it with a dark fabric that extends up at the top. Or I'll wait and buy a smaller phone. Or use it for something else.

I've fallen in love with this style. It needs a lot of preparation, with proper gridding of the fabric, and the withdrawn thread work and the various hems (4-sided in particular) take a lot of time to set up. But the actual pulled work and hemstitches are fast once you've done the preparation, I love the texture it produces, and for white on white... magical.

I've started a piece to be a back sleeve for my kindle - i.e. one that can be on while I'm reading it, to protect the back from my finger smudges.

Kindle sleeve underway 

You can see that I still have sections on either side of the central row of eyelets to fill in.The outline is the first stage of the 4-sided stitch hem - the rest will be done after the corners are mitred.

Embroidery Course 2012 in review - Counted Thread Embroidery

The second module of the year was Counted Thread Embroidery, with sub-topics of counted cross stitch, Assisi work, blackwork, Hardanger and pattern darning

I've been doing counted cross stitch since I was five years old, so I wasn't anticipating much from that section. We covered the basics very quickly and moved onto some variation stitches, and talked about design. Our project for this topic was to make a name badge - design it, stitch it, assemble it. I knew that stitching my entire first name in cross stitch could make the name badge relatively big, so I did the first letter as a decorative capital in plain cross stitch and the rest of my name in backstitch.

My counted cross stitch assignment name badge

We had to show several variations, so I used long-armed cross stitch for the borders (with one corner on a diagonal) and double cross stitch in the other corners. The decorative 'stars' or 'flowers' are interwoven cross stitch.
The core of the badge is template plastic - better than card, as that makes it washable. I used a decorative double knot stitch (a stitch from surface embroidery) to cover up the joins, and used buttonhole to add the brooch back. Buttonhole is the best stitch for adding these sorts of things - press studs, too.

Double-knot stitch acts a near finish to the stitched seam.

Blackwork is another topic where I had some experience, but I picked up so many good tips on making my Holbein (double-running) stitch look more even.  We had to work the given pattern, to show the way stitches can be gradually built up to give a depth and intensity. It isn't reversible, which is a shame, as that is part of what I really love about blackwork, but I do like it.

The blackwork pattern worked in class. 

 We were asked to finish it as a bag. I didn't add a drawstring to it, and I'm currently using it as a bag for my Kindle!

The blackwork design made up into a bag. 

Assisi work combines the previous two techniques, and is basically where you work the background in cross stitch, leaving the motif, outlined in black, in the background fabric. Traditional Assisi work is very ornate and tends to be religious or floral patterns. The order matters for formal Assisi work - the first step is to do the outlines in double running stitch. Lots of modern Assisi patterns say to do it in backstitch, but double running doesn't give a shadow. Then you fill in the background, and then you stitch the ornate borders. We didn't have a lot of time for Assisi in class, and I stitched only a few small examples.

The small bird is very traditional, with its border. The bow is my attempt at a modern Assisi design.

The two techniques that I hadn't done at all before were pattern darning and Hardanger.
Hardanger I'd seen before, of course, as it is very popular, but I'd never tried it. I liked the stitching process itself- lots of precision counting - but the cutting of the threads was nerve-wracking. I discovered my scissors are not as good as I'd thought - or my scissor technique sucks. I was working in colour on white for our work in class, but switched to white on white for my assignment piece, because that way the tiny threads that remained weren't so obvious.  I made a bookmark, and placed a white grosgrain ribbon behind the design. That way I got some contrast, to show the design, but still white, so didn't make the threads obvious again.

My hardanger bookmark assignment.

I liked this technique, but unless I had a specific gift in mind I don't think I'll be doing a lot of it again. Not my favourite.

Pattern darning is awesome. You create a pattern by weaving a thread in and out of the fabric to create a reversible design. Our class project was a bookmark made on a piece of aida band, which was easy as each line of the band took its own threads, and they ended in the fringe (anchored with a buttonhole stitch).

Pattern darning bookmark front.

Pattern darning bookmark back.

Many other patterns are far more intricate and complicated, and I've been experimenting a bit with this technique and fully intend to do more.

So while I entered this module expecting to get a limited amount out of it, given my prior knowledge of counted thread work, I'm very happy with how much I learnt.

Embroidery Course 2012 in review - Surface Embroidery

I'm about to start the second year of the Basic Course offered by the NSW Embroider's Guild, and I thought it was time to review the first year here on the blog.

The first subject we did was Surface Embroidery, which is a difficult category really as it includes so many stitches, and in some way can be defined by negatives (not counted, not on canvas, etc).
Most countries have their own embroidery traditions, so identifying surface stitches can be challenging, as the same stitch can have multiple names. With the growing impetus towards professionalisation and categorisation of needlework at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in Britain, there was a push to create standard names and examples of stitches. They were allocated into four loose groupings - chain, knot, loop and straight.

The classes for this subject were largely learning and practicing specific stitches as well as general presentation and finishing tips. We talked a little bit about how colour and thread choice can dramatically change the way stitches look. Most of our work was carried out on a 'doodle cloth' for experimentation, so we wouldn't worry about mistakes.

My doodle cloth

Our class assignments were to create samplers for each group of stitches.

Flat and Loop Stitches

Knot and Chain stitches

I didn't have any grand plans for my sampler designs, so I kept to a relatively small colour pallette and decided to use the name of the stitch group as a feature in each one. The point of a sampler, of course, is to give yourself a reference for the future, so all the samplers have been scanned and the scanned copies clearly labelled.