stitchery

Topsy Turvy: The Wonders of Thick Thread: Bobbin Work Part Two

| ellenanneeddy
Thick metallic thread and pearl cotton bobbin work make up the heron

Do you like instant gratification? But of course! Using thick thread in the bobbin is showy, exciting and quick as machine embroidery goes. It’s one of my favorite techniques.

Bobbin work is the only way I know to free motion with thick threads. I’m defining thick threads as #3-8 threads. What those numbers mean is that if you put 8 threads side by side, they would make an inch. This is what thread count means.

adjusting a bobbin case

Thick threads can’t fit through the needle. They do fit easily in an adjusted or bypassed bobbin case. How do you know what kind of machine you have. If you open up your bobbin and it’s in a little silver housing that comes out of the machine, that’s a bobbin case. For thick thread, you loosen the bobbin case by turning the screw about 3/4 of a turn to the left. It’s best to have a separate bobbin case for the purposes. Bobbin cases get old, so it’s never a bad idea to buy a fresh one and make your new bobbin case your true bobbin case. Mark the old one with nail polish, and keep it just for thick thread.

If your bobbin just drops into a housing in your machine, it can be bypassed. You simply don’t put it into tension. No need to adjust anything.

I tend to keep extra bobbins to hold and store thread I’ve wound off. One bobbin per thread. If I don’t use it for one project, I’m bound to use it for another.

Never wind a bobbin on top of thread on the bobbin. It messes terribly with your tension.

I usually stitch on a similar fabric to the background, or one that matches the color of the embroidery. Don’t fool yourself. IT WILL SHOW!

a different frog, zoned

Your image is always backwards. Think of it as a slide. You can see it through either side. I use Totally Stable as my patterns, drawn with marker. It irons on but the excess will tear away.

Stitching in a creature is like coloring with different crayons. I pick black as my outline, and then I zone my drawing. On this frog, there’s a tummy zone, a stripe zone, an eye zone, and the basic body.

I choose my darkest thread in that zone first, the color I want to be dominate. I add a shader color, usually purple, brown or a complement to the color. Then I go through a range of the color, dark to light, and add a shocker color, usually the complement right before the last lightest color.

eye colors in sliver

The eye is always done in sliver thread so it’s shiny and wet. I use black for the pupil, an iris color, and iridescent white for the spark.

Eye

Here’s a progression of stitching and thread on this frog

  • thread one green zone
  • thread two green zone
  • thread three green zone
  • thread four green zone
  • thread five green zone
  • thread one stripe zone
  • thread two striped zone
  • finished frog on background

Some basic things about thick thread bobbin work:

Only work with a straight stitch: Zigzag stitching tends to sew your piece to your needle plate and jam your machine.

When you fill in your stitching, remember that the thick thread fills up more space than the thinner thread on top. Leave a little space.

Pick a #40 weight embroidery thread for the top thread. I like polyester, for it’s strength. You should either match the color to your bobbin thread, or like the mix of them together. You will see both on the front of your piece.

New project, new needle! New day, new needle! I use #90 topstitching needles because they’re strong and have a large eye that reduces thread breakage.

Midnight Stroll

I could stitch directly into my top as well. It integrates better into the background, but it tends to distort things. If an image is under three inches square, I may well embroider right on the surface.

frog cut out and ready to go

But if it’s a big enough image, It’s better done on a separate sandwich of felt, Tear Away, Totally Stable and suitable hand dye to match. It can be appliqued onto the surface and will look like it belongs perfectly

Don’t be afraid to be upside down. Bobbin work makes the most impressive images quickly and easily.

Arse Over Teakettle: The Art of Stubborn Bobbin Work

| ellenanneeddy
Fly in the Ointment

I spent the week fighting with a sewing machine, and a thread. That’s not anything new. I spend a lot of time fighting with a sewing machine and thread.

But I have learned some sneaky tricks. And one of the best of them is bobbin work.

Why is bobbin work stubborn? Because you need to just leap in and do it. It can feel a bit weird and it takes getting used to. But it makes all kinds of stitching that’s really hard, quite doable.

frog with metallic thick thread

Bobbin work is for thick threads. Thick threads go through an adjusted bobbin case, and you stitch from behind. It’s a great technique because the thread builds up quickly and is instant gratification.

frog with thin metallic thread and zigzag stitch

But it’s also the answer for any thread that’s too fragile as well. Your thread goes through your needle 50 times before it lands in your fabric. Your thread comes off the bobbin straight into your fabric. So if you have a thick thread or a fragile thread, bobbin work is your friend. It will make you feel completely different about metallic thread, older rayon, or something with an attitude.

It’s also good because you can tie off each thread, as you finish. Since I use it to shade creatures, I use 10 or more colors at a minimum even for a small image. That’s forty poky thread ends looking up at you if you’re working from the top. No thread ends except on the back of bobbin work.

It has it’s peculiarities. All of the work is upside down, so it’s facing the other direction. That’s not hard. Your pattern is in the back and you can see everything on both sides. It does take a bit of faith about thread color, but you get a sense of that before too long.

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be discussing several kinds of bobbin work and giving you some of the secret handshakes. It’s one of my favorite ways to work.

Here’s some facts about bobbin work.

Frog with pattern on the back

Bobbin work is done upside down. So your pattern faces the opposite direction. Your stitching goes all the way through, and your pattern is in the back so you can always see where you’re going.

Your top thread should either match the bobbin thread or be something that blends with it. Because you will always see both threads on the right side. In bobbin work, the thin thread looks like it is couching the bobbin thread. You should like what you see, either way.

Unless it’s a very small image, I usually treat bobbin work as an applique. Like all stitching it puckers up like it wants a kiss. As an applique, I can cut the distortion away with the background

I use a sandwich of Totally Stable with my pattern drawn on it, Stitch and Tear, light weight felt, and hand dye as my surface for bobbin work. It makes a stable applique can is easy to cut on and stitch down.

Zoned frog

I zone my colors on my pattern so I know where the colors go generally. After that, I set up a range of colors for that zone and progress through the space with them. The zones on the frog are the spots, the green body, the pastel tummy and the eyes which are always a separate zone done in sliver, a wet looking thin metallic.

Over the next several weeks we’ll discuss thick thread, thin metallic and hand dyed pearl cotton as ways to use bobbin work to create amazing creatures.

All About the Line: Choosing the Right Stitch

| ellenanneeddy

For those of us who use a lot of embroidery, there are really two go-to stitches: straight stitch and zigzag. There are fancy embroidery stitches, but those two hold up the bulk of my work. The other stitches just don’t maneuver as well. You either want exactly what it can do or it won’t do what you want.

That’s ok. The variations between are vast and wonderful. The angle which your fabric goes through the machine controls how wide your stitch is and how the stitch itself is angled.

But you don’t often see people mix straight stitch and zigzag. There are reasons why, but we’re quilters, aren’t we? There isn’t any rule.

I was working on this batch of butterflies that I intend for a series I’m working on. They were meant to be black and white, although color always creeps in. The blue and purple you’re seeing at the edges is the felt I used to stabilize them. I did that on purpose, to make the lace patterns more visible.

Part of the fun was picking through my lace collection. I went through my black and whites and found some special things.

The border of this leaf lace made great wings.

But back to stitch types. This isn’t sexy but it’s the basics. Zigzag can go at a right angle through your machine and it makes a bulky solid stitch. At an angle, it makes a smooth outline. And if you run it straight either left or right, it makes a stitch that looks like a straight stitch, with some of the stitches missing. And then there’s the straight stitch.

Straight stitch won’t outline. It won’t make a bulky stitch without a lot of work. It is lyrical and can go any direction without looking scattered.

Zigzag covers edges well. It outlines well. It puckers up like it wants a kiss. And the out to the side angle fills in space very well.

How does that work out. Here’s some details and full shots to show you.

Pure zigzag

The zigzag stitching outlines really well. I’ve used it for shading inside the wings as well. It’s a feathered kind of stitch that gives a loose line.

I

I used a straight stitch to feather the wings on this bug. I love the smoothness of the stitch.

The lines on these wings were done with that zigzag out to the side. The line is a bit jagged but more pronounced.

When do you use zigzag?

When you want a strong border.

When you want to fill in a space .

When you aren’t worried about distortion.

When do you use straight stitch?

When you have an open space where the straight stitch will show next to the zigzag,

When you are worried about distortion.

When you want a clean and simple line.

Of course, you are the one who makes those decisions for your work. And everything does work. Play with it. See what you like.

Thick Thread, Thin Thread: Thread Work as Grain

| ellenanneeddy

One of the mostly lovely things about free motion is that there are no limits. Not in size, not in shape, not in color. Anything thought can be done.

One of the things that changes the look of an embroidery most is the size of the thread. Regular embroidery thread is 30-40 weight ( which means if you lay 30 threads side by side, it would make 30 inches.) It can be used either for zigzag stitching or straight.

8 weight thread needs to be stitched from the bobbin. It can only be used for straight stitch. The look is very different. But it’s also abstracted.

The size of the thread creates a grain, like a photograph. A thicker thread looks more abstract, and less detailed, but it has a strong visual impact. Here are some images in thick and thin threads for you to see the difference.

Thread choices make a huge difference in the look of embroidery. Pick your threads for your own delight.

Rethinking Stabilizers: What’s on the Inside?

| ellenanneeddy
Clematis Moon in Process

Free motion embroidery has been the most exciting tool I’ve ever had. But it has it’s secrets. Yes, it’s about thread, and stitch quality and hoops. But the secret heart of free motion embroidery is what’s inside. Stabilizer creates the best foundation.

These moths are embroidered on felt, Stitch and Tear, and Totally Stable. The images are all thread.

I’ve been revisiting the stabilizers I use for Free Motion Applique. The stabilizer sandwich I used to use consisted of Totally Stable, hand dyed fabric, and a tight hoop.

I also used to do most of my embroidery on my piece. Lately I make more and more of my elements separately.

I’ve also started embroidering just on felt, leaving the hand dye fabric out of the sandwich.

Why have I changed?

Because stabilizers change, And because I want different things from my work. I’ve seen my work be more incrusted and wanted it to be a bit lighter, less distorted. Separate embroideries allow me to cure by cutting. I can cut off the bits that are distorted by too much stitching.

I’ve also changed my layering.

I’ve lately come to an appreciation of felt. When felt was made of wool, it was an exquisite fabric. When they made it of rayon and poly, not so much. It pulled apart when you looked at it. Now that it’s made of acryllic, it’s strong, embroiderable and unravellable. It can be stitched to the very edge and cut to the very edge. I now use felt instead of batt.

These flowers were made of sheers stuck on with Steam a Seam 2 and backed with felt and Stitch and Tear. No Totally Stabile, because my fabric makes my pattern for me.

But I also use it in my appliques. If I’m using a sheer for the basis of the applique, I use felt and Stitch and Tear as a stabilizer. If I am just making an applique of stitching, I use a pattern made from Totally Stable, a paper like stabilizer with a freezer paper that can be ironed down, stuck on, and then removed.

Leaving the names alone, what am I looking for in a stabilizer?

I’m looking for several abilities and responses in my stabilizers:
Does it iron on?
Does the glue texture show through?
Does the color show through?
Does it make a good drawing surface for a pattern?
Can I remove it afterwards?
Does it tear away or must I cut it away?
How stiff is it once it’s stitched?
Can I cover the edging cleaning with stitchery?

Those are some of the questions that help me decide whether a stabilizer will work for me.

Will I always use what I use now? I doubt it. Right now it’s giving me more stitchery with less weight. Stabilizers will change and I’ll roll with the changes.

The Miracle of Cheesecloth: Not Just for Turkey Anymore

| ellenanneeddy

I love sheers! I love the ability to have my background peak through the sheers to create the connection between background and an object.

But most sheers don’t paint or dye well. They are poly or nylon. They come in bright colors, but they have other problems. You can paint them in pastels. They don’t dye with fiber reactive dyes at all. And if you get your iron temperature wrong, they melt.

But cheesecloth does all that well! It’s all cotton, and woven loosely. And you can iron it on fry and it behaves like cotton.

You know cheesecloth. You just aren’t used to it in the sewing room. It’s an airy woven cotton people used to use to make cheese (hence the name). Or on turkies to keep the breast moist. You may have used it to make Halloween ghosts or Christmas angels.

But dyed, it can be any color in the universe. I include it in a regular dye batch and it dyes like a champ with fiber reactive dyes. And it washes out easily in your regular washer in a nylon lingerie bag.

It makes amazing leaves! The weave in the cheesecloth looks like the cells of the leaves and the stitching defines the color.

My favorite thing to do with cheesecloth is to make mushrooms. Child of the 60s that I am, they are a flora that fascinates me. And they are an excuse for eye popping color.

I do make them in batches. I’ll line up a set of mushrooms on a piece of felt, using Steam a Seam 2, pull out my brightest polyester embroidery thread and stitch up batches of mushrooms at a time, that I’ll use in many different quilts. The bright colors and zigzag stitch pop the the colors to a peak intensity. Now, who doesn’t want that?

What I did differently, is I made some smaller ones for pins and patches for my friend, Sherrill Newman who owns the South Shore Market in Porter, Indiana.

South Shor Market in Porter IN

I almost never make these available to people except as finished quilts. But she talked me into it. I made a small batch for her store. Some of the left overs I’ve put on sale on Etsy. They have pins backs on them, but if you wished to use them as a patch, it would be a matter of a moment to remove that with a seam ripper.

Hand dyed cheesecloth might just be the sheer you’ve been longing for. Bright, cotton, and beautifully texturized, it makes great flowers, leaves and ‘shrooms.

Rethinking White: Another Approach to Thread Color

| ellenanneeddy

It would be nice if color were formulaic. Unfortunately it’s just not. Color is complicated, and thread color is even more so. How do we pick thread colors to create a flower shade? And what do we do if we want to create white?

White has it’s own complications. It’s a flashlight on a quilt. If you put on real white it’s intense. It blinds you to darker details. So often bright white is just too much.

It’s also boring. It needs shading and definition. Flat white is, well, flat.

I wanted some white clematis for a quilt.

The first question that I ask is what color is my light, How do I know what color my light is? My light is the color of my fabric. In this case my fabric is full of blue light. So my light is blue. I then imagine my flowers dusted with blue light.

I chose to use metallics for this because of their translucency. The sheers will also be translucent which adds to the feeling of them being flower petals. That being said, I decided white, silver, and grey threads white just for contrast. But if I were going to add a color for shading, blue was a good bet. The gold and purple gold were contrasts for the center swirls. And there is always room for lime green. It adds excitement without having a high color impact.

My other secret weapon I used was sheers. There are at least a dozen sheers I cut into petal shapes and fused on to blue felt, with tear away stabilizer behind it. The difference in the sheers make differences in each petal.

Using a different thread on each side of the petal creates shadows. Putting a crease through the petal in green and gold increases the illusion.

Here is the bank of them embroidered on the felt.

Here they are cut way. White is only one of the dozen threads I used, but my flowers are still white .

Here they are cut out on the background. There will be leaves and moths, but its a start.

So when you are thinking about thread colors, think about your light. Go both lighter and darker in your thread color for shadows and highlights. And if all fails, add lime green.

The Eyes Have It: Creating Shining Eyes

| ellenanneeddy

Whenever we see a living creature, we want to see its eyes. We speak of eyes as windows to the soul. But they are also the focus of the face, the place our eyes search for first.

So how to we make eyes stand out? It turns out all those Visine adds are right. Shiny wet eyes immediately command our attention. So, if we want our eyes to show off, we want them to shine. Here’s some easy ways to do that.

Metallic threads come in several different forms. There are wrapped and twisted threads. And then there is a flat metallic thread that is as shiny as Christmas tinsel. Sulky Sliver, and Superior Glimmer are good examples.

These threads really shine! They’re not easy necessarily to use. I usually stitch them from the back like bobbin work. A zigzag garnet stitch makes a beautiful wet shiny eye. Pick a color for the iris, add black for the pupil and an iridescent white makes an electric eye spark.

Of course that’s not the only way. Shiny lame and brocade can make a great eye too. These don’t have the iridescent spark.

These do.

Another thread that makes an exciting eye is Madiera’s bug body. This black and metallic twisted thread stitches up to look like beading. The turquoise iris rim here is stitched from that.

And finally, there’s always beads. Nothing wrong with that.

Find something shiny and make your eyes shine.

These do.These do.