Here are a few bits of buttonhole stitching. According to the Donna Kooler book mentioned below, the spaced legs are blanket stitch and the closely packed legs are buttonhole, but I'm not sure it really matters to me, what matters is the effect I'm looking for. Anyway, the red row is just testing, trying to get things even. I kept miscounting and one time when I was trying to find the right hole, I pulled the stitches and found I could twist the buttonhole from side to side. So, below the red line is a pink buttonhole wheel flower with a twisted buttonhole stem and buttonhole leaves where the legs alternate sides like some of sharon b's samples. I also did a detached buttonhole leaf in the upper right. My passion right now is for stumpwork, so I wanted to try the detached stitch, which was fun. The blue line is actually using buttonhole and blanket on an edge. The pink curves are closed and crossed blanket from the Kooler book. I was trying to make a straight line without counting but you see I'm hopeless - which is why I usually try to stitch organic things. Another stumpwork use for buttonhole is below.
This is a new 3-D piece I'm doing - a tulip to go in a posy holder (I've posted my other two posy holder arrangements on the Stitching Post blog but I'll try to post them here later). I'm doing a Rembrandt tulip - the photo in the middle. The left side is the buttonhole outline which is covering the wire - the center line is wire covered in satin stitch. The right photo is the finished petal. Only 5 more to go - and then a leaf!
This is what I am doing with my samples. While organizing I found an unused photo album - not full-sized but about 8"x9" - with pages that hold 2 4"x6" photos. So the top space is used for a card that explains what I have done and the bottom holds the fabric. For now I'm putting the stitches in by week, but when I'm done I'll decide if it is better to put things in alphabetically or arrange by stitch family and add an index.
1 comment:
That flower is very interesting. I like the effect on the leaves, particularly. The book seems like a good way to go, and I'd probably do it alphabetically at the end. It'll be easier than remembering by the week, unless you have tabs.
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