Saturday, April 28, 2007

Filling Stitches

Filling Stitches

Hand embroidery often involves covering small and larger areas with thread. There are several basic stitches commonly used to accomplish this. The most common filling stitches in general embroidery are probably satin stitch and long and short stitch. However, it's nice to have a few alternatives when filling up embroidered spaces. Here are some of the more common basic filling stitches.

Fishbone Stitch:


Fishbone Stitch Here's a good stitch to start with, when it comes to filling smaller shapes such as leaves and flower petals. The advantage of fishbone stitch is that it really looks like a leaf when complet, and you don't have to do anything "extra" to add, for example, the spine down the middle of the leaf. If you want a perfectly smooth leaf, though, you would use satin stitch instead of fishbone. The trick to a good fishbone stitched leaf is to draw a line in the middle of the leaf shape to use as a guide. You want to keep your edges smooth, too.




Direction:



Begin at the tip of the shape, coming up at A. Make a longish straight stitch straight down, following the center line marked in the leaf. Come up at B, and then slant your stitch to cross over the base of the straight stitch, just to the other side of your center line. Come up at C, and go down just on the other side of the center line, crossing over the tip of the previous stitch you just made. Note that the stitches take turns crossing over each other at the center line. They do not enter the fabric "on the line" - rather, just to the other side of the line. In this manner, the stitches overlap each other, all the way down the shape, giving the shape that "woven" look, creating the "spine" down the middle. Keep your stitches close together - you want to cover the area solidly.


flat stich:


flat stichThis is a lot like the fishbone stitch, but instead of stitching over one center line, you draw two lines just off the center, and take your needle down on either one of them. The flat stitch is also known as the Croatian stitch or the Croatian flat stitch. Again, it solidly fills a shape, forming an overlap in your stitches so that a kind of spine runs down th emiddle of the shape. Once executed, it looks almost identical to the fishbone, except it doesn't come to a point. Flat stitch is a good way to fill in circular flower petals.





Direction:


Again, with this stitch, you're going to be working slightly slanted stitches. Come up at A, go down at B, up at C, cross over the stitch you made when you went down at B, and go down at D. Keep your stitches close together, creating a solid filling. Make certain your edges are kept smooth by following the outline carefully, and taking up very little fabric between stitches

Friday, April 27, 2007

Stupid Question/Answers

Q. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A. Concrete floors are very hard to crack!

Q. If it took ten hours for eight men to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
A. No time at all it is already built.

Q. Approximately how many birthdays does the average Japanese woman have?
A. Just one. All the others are anniversaries.

Q. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?
A. Very large hands.

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. It is not a problem, since you will never find an elephant with one hand.

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
A. He sleeps at night.

Q. Why it is impossible to send a telegram to Washington today?
A: Because he is dead.

Q. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
A: It becomes wet.

Q. What often falls but never gets hurt?
A : Rain

Q. What is that no man ever saw which never was but always will be?
A : TOMORROW

Q. What looks like half apple?
A : The other half.

Q. What can you never eat for breakfast?
A : Dinner.

Q. What gets wet with drying?
A : A towel

Q. What 3 letters change a girl into a woman?
A : AGE.

Q. What happened when wheel was invented?
A : It caused a revolution.

Q. Why is it easy to weigh a fish?
A : Because it has its own scales.

Q. Why does a bike rest on its leg?
A : Because it is too tyred.

Q. Bay of Bengal is in which state
A : liquid

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