Mr X Stitch — The number one contemporary embroidery and needlecraft blog

Newsflash – Cross Stitcher #253 is out now!

by Mr X on 16 May 2012

The latest issue of Cross Stitcher magazine hits the shops today! It’s an exciting issue from my perspective as it features my first two designs for the magazine, ideal for the man in your life!

But wait! There’s more! There’s also a two page spread featuring five of my coolest cross stitch artist chums and a two page interview with me as well! What more could you want?!

Cross Stitcher magazine is available from all good stores and via the Cross Stitcher website.

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Craftster Pick of the Week – SisterTwisty’s Carrickmacross Lace

by Beefranck on 16 May 2012

Time for another look at some of the great work featured in the forums at Craftster.

Note: Although they’re the pick of this week, they may have appeared before this week.

SisterTwisty had a go at Carrickmacross Lace and did a great job of it!

“You applique muslin on to netting, couch it down, and then cut away the muslin that isn’t part of the design. So I doodled a design of some birds holding a key, and over the weekend I made this:”

I think it’s a charming piece and an interesting form of embroidery. Does it inspire you to have a go?

See the original Craftster post here, and be sure to come back next week for another great pick from the forums!

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Improving your stitch – Go on, touch it

by Stitchalicious on 14 May 2012

Last post we were talking about filling stitches and how to perfect the shiny smooth satin stitch. That got me thinking and this month I’d like to go into textures a bit more. Sure, we know that texture is this cool thing that you automatically get with embroidery (otherwise why not, y’know, just paint?) but most of us don’t really aim for it specifically or put thought into the details of it.

So to start I’m proposing that we (dum dum DAAAAHHH) put down the bright red and take a step back from our colourful thread box. I know this is hard….

(…yes, I know, I have a problem. But I AM seeing someone about it. I call him Dr Gutermann and he’s being very helpful with my thread addiction. But back to the issue at hand…)

One of the most useful ways, I think, of really learning how to work with texture is to reduce your available colour palette. And if you want to really learn something go with just a single colour. In fact, seeing as we’re all about pushing our boundaries and learning the tuff stuff here, let’s do white. Just white. On white fabric. No creams, pale yellows, light greys… white on white.

There are a few techniques out there that tend to the monochromatic palette – Mountmellick, drawn thread such as Hardanger, pulled work, several lace-making techniques – and all bring different ideas and methods for making images pop despite the lack of colour. Here’s a few ways you can start on your own, without needing to get into the intricacies of a new technique.

Making it stand out

First things first, if we have a picture to stitch white on white, we need to make sure we can pick it out somehow. We’re going to need threads that don’t disappear into the fabric – so silks or single strands of cotton floss are pretty much out. Think of thicker cottons, perles, wools. Anything that will really break up the fabric background and, preferably, stand physically out on the surface. Don’t have any of those to hand, just grab your six stranded floss and use 3 or 4 strands instead of the usual 1 or 2.

We can stick to our old standards for outlining stitches – stem, chain, split – but also think of expanding into ones with even more texture to them, such as cable stitch, coral stitch or even a line of french knots.

Filling it in

Now that we can’t rely on colour to define the separate sections of our stitched design, we’ll need to break it up with filled in texture. Again, look at the possibility of mixing various kinds of thread. Bring your silks back in here with a smooth satin stitch, but have it butt up against a wool that’s been couched. Why not? That’s a serious texture contrast we’re talking about right there. But you don’t have to change the thread, sticking with floss and changing your stitches are more than enough. Fill an area with chain or split stitch, try out herringbone or fly stitch. Go through your stitch dictionary and grab anything where the stitches overlap each other. Start padding your stitches by layering them over straight stitches to make them more raised. Try doing that candy skull in chain stitch, with buttonhole stitched eye holes and padded satin stitched teeth.

Mountmellick Owl by Janet Davies of JMD designs

Texture isn’t just randomness

It’s easy to get a bit lax with the neatness when thinking “I’m trying to add texture” but not all texture is good. Without the guise of a brilliant colour to hide it, that imperfect stitch in the middle of a line or filled area can really throw out the whole textural pattern. Look at really perfecting the stitches individually so you can experience the true beauty of the stitches’ texture on your work. In the end, hand embroidery it is too much work invested in a single piece to get lazy with one or two stitches, right?

White isn’t the end

I’ve suggested white on white so that you can really push the textural aspect of your embroidery without allowing yourself to fall back on the use of colour for definition, but of course, the aim is to bring that knowledge and experience back into the rest of your work. You’ll find that with an enhanced textural palette you can do amazing things with even a limited colour palette and, with such skills in place, well the sky’s the limit. Right Rachel?

High Texture Hand Embroidery of the Moon by Rachel Hobson aka Average Jane Crafter. The NASA-award winning space-faring embroidery - that's right, THAT'S what texture can get you: a thing of beauty, international fame and journeys to where no one can hear you scream...

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/etsy-nasa-space-craft-contest-the-winners/

http://averagejanecrafter.blogspot.de/2010/11/space-craft-still-awesome.html

Jacinta Lodge is the embroiderer behind Stitchalicious, and purveyor of graffiti cross stitch patterns via StitchaliciousDesign. She’s recently started tweeting a free patternevery Tuesday at 9am EST (@stitchalicious). Her embroidered artworks have been shown in exhibitions in Germany, the UK and Canada and published in The Anticraft and Indie Craft. Jacinta is Australian, but lives in Berlin, Germany, where she does roller derby and listens to her husband hark on and on about VW buses.

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Plush Love (& a Sandwich) – Dogs & Cephalopods

by Love&aSandwich on 13 May 2012

This month I decided I wanted to post about plush versions of my favorite animals! I am obsessed with dogs, and anything with tentacles. I’ve yet to see a plush that combined the two, and I challenge anyone reading this to try and make one!

MonCherPug makes only pug plushes with all different patterns and colors. The design is so adorable! I love a saggy faced dog.

I love this duo of dog and rider by Winnifredsdaughter. I can also appreciate when a toy has a great name, and these guys are called ‘Bendon & Spader’.

Handknit Nautilus toys by ArtsNCrass. These are great, and I can always appreciate the time and patience that goes into knitting/crocheting a toy.

This ‘Kokkino Sea Rover’ by deelind is so awesome. I love that she gave it a little hat and rope necklace. She also has similar obsessions as me because she makes dog plushes too!

Gretchen of OopsNein is officially a genius. She created this Monster Totem pole with an antlered monster on top and a tentacled one on the very bottom! Words can’t describe how much I love this.

That’s it for the plush goodness this month. If you have a suggestion for what the theme should be for next month, leave it in the comments!

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Chelsea Bloxsom is the woman behind Love & a Sandwich.
She is most known for making monsters out of faux fur, but has recently gotten into making embroidered and appliqued fanart on embroidery hoops! Her work can be found updated almost daily here!

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Newsflash! – Good News Sandwich

by Mr X on 12 May 2012

A bunch of news items for you today in the Good News Sandwich format. For those of you that don’t know, the Good News Sandwich is a great way of sharing bad or sad news with someone, by using good news either side:

“Your hair looks great!”

“I’m afraid you’re fired”

“We’re really gonna miss your hair!”

So with that in mind, here goes!

Good news!

We’ll soon be adding a game layer to the Mr X Stitch site, which will make sharing posts and adding comments a bit more fun. It’s a simple method and it’s a bit of an experiment, but with a bit of luck it’ll get you all talking and sharing that stitchy love!

Sad news! :/

After three years and more stitchgasms than a good person should deliver, Beefranck is moving on from her post as Editor in Chief. You can’t keep a good lady down, and I’m sure she’ll pop up from time to time, but if you still want a regular dose of Beefranckicity, be sure to follow her on Tumblr and subscribe to the epic Emergency Pants podcast. Word on the street is there’s also a Beefranck ringtone now!

Without Beefranck, this site would not be the phenomenon that it is, and I am eternally grateful to her for everything she’s done.

Good news!

As you may have seen from a recent post, we successfully completed a part of the Embroidered Digital Commons, with a heap of excellent people stitching the phrase Fractal. Thanks to everyone who took part in this terrific project.

Ele Carpenter, the mastermind behind the whole project has posted a nifty slideshow of the completed pieces on her blog. Why not check it out!

And finally!

The latest issue of Cross Stitcher magazine is worth a look. As well as an interview with some wiseacre called Mr X Stitch, it includes five other very groovy cross stitchers and a couple of nifty cross stitch patterns that are perfect for Father’s Day. The magazine will be hitting the UK stores this week, and you can buy it online as well!