Since my last post on embarking on the journey of embroidery art, I have made significant progress.
My First Embroidery Art
This is my first embroidery art piece, based on an original artwork I created in 2014 when I was starting my foundation year for the psychology degree. To beat the peak traffic hours, I often arrived at the school much earlier before the class began. I sketched whatever came to mine to distract myself from the tension brought on by the crowd and noises.
My first project clearly showed my weaknesses and flaws in stitching techniques. I need to improve in the long and short stitches to create a more aesthetically pleasing transition from one shade to another. I experimented with the satin stitch with and without an outline under it; with an outline, it creates a subtle heightened dimension and gives a neater edge. I also took the chance to experiment with doing the back of the finished embroidery work and decided that I like using felt back the best. I also find it fun to stitch something on the felt fabric, like what my mom did for her photos when she was a young girl. I saw those words she penned when I scanned her old photographs before I moved to America; it was very moving.
Monogram stitching
I made several monogram drafts, and the husband decided on the styles. My favorite stitch is the stem stitch; it looks like a braided stitch and makes the lines bolder. I find that it’s probably best to use the back stitch for smaller text as the stem stitch makes the small text less clear. I like to use the plastic embroidery frame when working on the embroidery and change out to frame in the bamboo frame. The plastic frame has a molded edge that tightens the fabric when you stitch. I have not framed the monogram embroidery as the ordered bamboo frames are in delivery.
I created the monogram embroidery within a 4-inch diameter, and it’s quite an adequate size. I would probably go with a 6-inch diameter for a more complex design.
3D Embroidery Stitching
I am pretty comfortable with stitching now, so I moved on to practice 3D embroidery. It’s not difficult since I picked an easy object to start. The pink rose uses some techniques similar to crochet and knitting. I made many crocheted roses, and the concept is identical, except that for crocheted rose, we crochet the petals in a running piece and coil it to form the rose. We created each petal individually for the embroidery rose using a similar technique in knitting, cast-on, and securing each petal onto the fabric. I still need more practice and to consider other ways to make taller petals. I am pretty happy with the results, nonetheless. I am experimenting to determine the ideal thread count for the more miniature blue roses. I used 2-ply and 3-ply for these roses but didn’t achieve the taller dimension as planned. I use 100% cotton with a tight weave (higher thread count), so I can’t stitch with 6-ply floss.
I won’t be framing the 3D embroidery piece since it’s a practice piece. I have to think about how to keep the practice pieces. 3D work is a little tricky to store away flat. I’ll think more about it.
I have a terrible habit of jumping into the state of flow when I become fixated and obsessed with a new craft. In psychology, we refer to the flow state as a state of mind where we become completely immersed in an activity or task process. I can spend hours stitching, neglecting to keep an ergonomic posture. The same problem happened when I first started knitting, and I often ended up with a frozen shoulder and neck. My mind could be so engaged in perfecting the stitches that I would dream about developing new ways to work around a problem I encountered in my waking moments. It’s harder to fix my fixation, so my husband convinced me to buy the embroidery stand. We’ll see how that goes.
Do you have a similar problem with prolonged embroidery work? What do you do to resolve that?
