Category Archives: Embroidery & Sewing

My first blackwork design

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This past weekend was very exciting for me, I was finishing my mystery project (a couple more days and it’s done) and then I also felt this urge to make something in blackwork.

Blackwork is an embroidery technique where black thread is used (I’m sure you guessed that) and it’s done with holbein stitch or back stitch. What you see above is a design that I created over the weekend myself. Yes, myself! I sat down with a pencil and tried to transfer this very vague idea from my head onto the paper. And line after line something started to emerge. I’m very proud of myself as it is my first design and I quite like it.

What do you think?

Related links:
Backstitch - Backstitch explained on wikipedia
Holbein stitch - Holbein stitch explained on wikipedia

© The above design is subject to copyright by Shelmertime and should not be copied without the author’s permission.

My world of cross-stitch

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I’ve been cross-stitching for many years now. I did my first project when I was a kid, it was a picture of a kitten playing with wool. It’s still around somewhere, hidden in a box.

I was taught to cross-stitch by my mum, who in turn was taught by her friend. I don’t think there are many walls in my parents house that don’t have any cross-stitch pictures on them (there are many walls in that house, too). It was always a cause for a little envy from the visitors.

Here are just a few samples of my mum’s work:

I’ve never done anything as big as mum’s pieces, I’m rather lacking in patience there. For me, most enjoyable are the small things. I love doing bookmarks and, as you could see in my last post, little motifs on cards. About 7 years ago I did my first Assisi style bookmarks without even realising that it was a technique. Now I know a bit more. It’s a style where you do an outline of a picture with Holbein Stitch or Back Stitch  (both create lines, but Holbein creates the same picture on both sides of a fabric) and then cross-stitch is added around the picture as a background. Originally this method only involved two colours (most often black for lines and red for the background), in modern days there are many ways of executing it.  The peacock you see on the website background was the first project I did in this style.

My other samples:

The way I did these bookmarks is quite time consuming, as I stitch the designs on two pieces of aida fabric that are then stitched together. These bookmarks are quite thick as well, so I’m using them only in books that I keep on the bedside table (cramming them into a book that you will then cram into a bag might be rather harmful to the book). But when you just loosely insert them between the pages, they are perfect (and nice to the touch too). All three bookmarks picture Australian possums. The back shows back-stitched symbols based on Aboriginal tracking marks.

I’m happy to say that I now have two of the possums bookmarks on sale in our etsy store! Follow the link: 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Shelmertime?section_id=10915250
. I have added some more earrings too, so head over to the earrings section to see them all!

Related links:
Possum - article about these marsupials on the wikipedia.
Aboriginal Art -  showing a few more symbols