So here’s one more wip I’ve been working on on and off for the last 6 months, and again I don’t have any pictures of it before the ones I took today, so I’m sorry. This is a dish towel I bought from Sur La Table and i’m just embroidering over the print that was on it. Again, this will be super long, so check under the cut if you want more details AND more pictures!
So Bike #1: I used this towel as a way to practice difficult stitches and experiment with techniques I hadn’t before because there’s so much variety within this one project. This was the first bike I did, so it’s quite messy, but oh well.
(I didn’t record much about this and sort of made it up as I went, so a lot of what I’m about to say is sort of a guess) The frame of the bike is DMC 727, 2-3 ply chain stitch outline and then a couple rows of split stitch fill. The fenders are some unknown green thread, I think 3-4 ply chain stitch with stem stitch down one side to make it thicker where needed. The tires are I believe 6 ply hungarian braided chain stitch in DMC 3799, which I love doing and I think works especially well here because the roughness of it kind of looks like the tire tread. I opted not to do the spokes on any of the bikes because they’re so incomplete that I thought it would look better if I just left them be. The bike seat and handlebars are DMC 3799 and a mix of 6 ply long and short stitch, chain stitch, and satin stitch. The basket is DMC 3799 3 ply split stitch, and the carrots and radishes(?) are both 2 ply satin stitch. The radish leaves are light green 2 ply satin stitch outlined in 2 ply DMC 367 stem stitch, and the carrot leaves are this weird stitch I made up. It’s basically just 2 ply DMC 367 that I would make 4 or 5 very loose loops with, then tie a knot at the back to keep the tension, then make more loops, then tie another knot, etc so that all the loops stayed puffy.
Bike #2:
So the frame and fenders of this bike are 3 ply plaited braid stitch in DMC 817, which is incredibly difficult to get the hang of, but I chose because I wanted to see if I could use a stitch that was wide enough that I could do each stretch of it only once without having to double back multiple times like I did in bike #1. And it worked, and I think it looks lovely, its just a really difficult stitch. The headlight is a mix of long and short and stem stitches in the same 6 ply DMC 817 red and L&T 772 white. The tires are 6 ply DMC 310 in the same hungarian braided chain stitch because I love it so much in the first bike. The bike chain is DMC 310, 2 ply stem stitch, and the pedal is 3 ply long and short stitch. The seat is DMC 310 3 ply satin stitch, and the handlebars are 3 ply back stitch. The handles themselves are 2 ply satin outlined in 2 ply stem stitch in some unknown tan color.
Finally, the basket is the same unknown green as the fenders of bike #1, but I did four 3 ply really long horizontal stitches for each piece of wood, and then stabilized them by weaving some more thread sort of diagonally through the whole thing. The wine is some unknown green split stitch, L&T 772 white long and short stitch label, and yellow DMC 307 cork. The bread is some unknown brown 3 ply satin stitch outlined in stem stitch with my usual white 3 ply cracks.
Bike #3! The frame of this one is the same unknown green as Bike #2′s wine bottle, but I did two rows of 2 ply blanket stitch on each line such that the ‘legs’ of the blanket stitch interlocked, sort of. Please ignore my little hashmark guidelines that I haven’t washed out yet.
Once Again, I used 6 ply hungarian braided chain stitch for the tires, this time in a slightly lighter but unknown gray than Bike #1. The pedal is also this color; 6 ply long and short stitch.The seat of this bike is 2 ply unknown tan split stitch, but the tan I used on this bike is slightly darker than the one I used in Bike #2.
The basket and handles of this bike are the same color as the seat, but the handles are 2ply bullion stitch and the basket is 4 ply split stitch that I carefully wove into the basket pattern by passing the stitches over and under the intersections.
The flowers here get really crazy, I totally made them up as I went, but I only did those a few days ago so I actually remember it well. On this picture you can barely see my labelling of what colors I was going to use for them each, which will wash out. There’s six colors here: an unknown light green that is not the same as the ones used in the other bikes, dark green (DMC 986), yellow (DMC 727), an unknown red, grey (DMC 3799) and an unknown orange.
Working right to left, the 2 ply dark green leaves are sort of like satin stitch, but one side of the stitches all originate from the same point so the other side fans out in a circle. The orange flower just below these leaves is 2 ply detached chain stitch with 3 tacks on each petal. The flower below that one is a 2 ply gray satin stitch center, then 2 ply orange satin stitch petals outlined in red 3 ply stem stitch. The flower just above and to the left of those two is three 2 ply orange granitos outlined in 2-3 ply red stem stitch. The dark green leaves at top center are 3 ply fishbone stitch, and the yellow flowers below them are 3 ply colonial knots. The big red flower on the left is 1 ply blanket stitch petals with a 2 ply orange satin stitch center. The far left orange flower is again 3 play detached chain stitch with three tacks on each petal. Finally, the light green leaves on the left are 3 ply fishbone stitch.
Border. All I have left to do on this piece is the border line and flowers, which you can see in the very first picture. I have about 40% of the border done, and its 3 ply in an unknown burnt orange color, but I’m not sure exactly what the name of this stitch is. I think it’s a variation of basket stitch?? I copied a picture I found online but the caption was in russian, so who knows. Tell me if you recognize it!
If you made it this far, I seriously congratulate you, because I can’t imagine anyone actually reads my long ridiculous ramblings. If you have read this whole thing, you must be a serious embroidery nerd, and I definitely think we should be friends, so message me!!