FME stitches

Here are a few new stitch try outs I did recently.

This one is a heavy garnet (or granite) stitch using a wide zig zag.  This is really good for filling large areas, like the poppies in my itty bitty landscape.  The next one is the same, only a little bit lighter.

 

It is good for shading and merging different colours.

The next one is also a garnet stitch, however it is bobbin work, working on the bottom of your fabric using the bobbin. a thicker thread (sorry, I had white to hand at the time) is wound on the bobbin and the bobbin tension loosened to compensate.  This thread (a no 10 crochet cotton) is at the limit of my bobbin screw, anything larger must be bypassed, which creates a nice mess of moss stitch on the bottom.

Another bobbin technique, is called cable stitch,  this is the same as the one above, however it is not a circular stitch

This is good for outlining and embellishing.  Once tension issues are solved, it is easier than couching, since you don't need to control where the thick thread goes.  And this leads us natually to couching.

My sample is not the best.  I have used FME, however if you are using this in a straight line, or in a manner that allows the feed dogs to be up, you can get a much smoother look.  The top one is showing a dense zig zag, while the bottom is a longer stitch and shows the thread.  Obviously, you would not use a dense zig zag if you wanted the thread to be a decorative element, and in this case you would probably use a monofilament thread, so the couched thread could be seen in all it's glory.  The dense couching, I would use to create dimension, as the lines of satin stich would be raised.  It would not really matter what thread you couched, 'cos you wouldn't see it.  another thought, is that using the feed dogs up, you can couch with a variety of decorative stiches, which is what I will be doing on my wall hanging

The last stich is another couching stitch, which I first learnt from Quilt in a day.  It is called chain stitch

This technique is also used in machine ribbon embroidery.  Generally, you use a pretty thread for the chain (not white!) and monofilament for the top and bobbin.  Basically you fold the thread in half and attach it to the base with a few stitches. Cross the thread or ribbon in fron to the needle, not pulling too tight, sew a few stiches forward to anchor the crossover, cross again and so on.  This is another technique which can be done with the feed dogs up.
So, there's a headful!

some stitches

One of the things I am working on is increasing my repertoire of FME stitches.
I have worked up some samples.  I have used different colour thread in the top and bottom to help show the stitches in all their glory.  The first sample is me fiddling round with the bobbin tension, to see how the stitches will turn out.








Next, is the first stitch, feather stitch.

This is made by tightening the upper tension and having a loose lower tension.  when done in a circular fashion, the bobbin thread shows like red feathers.  I am looking forward to doing some of this with metallic in the bobbin.
The next stitch is closely related - Whip stitch

 

Like feather stitch, the upper tension is tight and the lower is loose (perhaps not quite as loose) and when you stitch in a straight line or a very smooth curve, the bobbin thread wraps around the upper thread.

The next stitch is my favourite, probably because it is so easy to do, moss stitch

 

Moss stitch is basically using a tight or balanced lower tension and loosening the upper tension  almost to zero and scribbling in little circles.  If you do it on wash away stabilizer, it will stand on it's own and look like.....moss.

The next stitch is really a set of stitches and is related to moss stitch and to pebble quilting.  It is called garnet stitch

This is just a scribble, really, but it is used a lot in landscapes to fill in and change colours

 

This is a heavier one

Bull's eye is just what it says and is used for putting dots for things like..... eyes!

Seed stitch, (this sample is not quite correct) is a circle with a tail

Spray stitch is the same, but has more than one tail.

I also try do do a bit of scribbling each time I sit down, so here is  some of my scribbling