Trial and ERROR (and error) and try again!
I’ve been teaching myself some embroidery for that hoopie swap I’m doing. One of my fellow hoopie swappers linked to this great online source for embroidery stitches, which has been incredibly helpful.
I started out by making that paper pieced split hexagon in six different colors and had embroidery floss to coordinate with each one. Then it was time to start the embroidery. And the project just sat there staring at me for well over a week without being touched because … well, I was scared of messing it up. This was totally new for me!!
Finally, I decided I might as well just give it a go. The thing certainly wasn’t going to stitch itself. I started out by just outlining each triangle of the split hexagon with a basic straight stitch. It’s pretty difficult to screw that one up, and it looked pretty cute, so it gave me a little confidence.
Then I decided to create a little flower above each triangle using a chain stitch called the lazy daisy. Not too tough, and really cute. I’m feeling like I actually might be getting the hang of this!
I wanted a little something extra in the center of my flowers, so I thought I would move on and try a french knot. And here is where things got a little dicey.
The first one actually seemed to work out okay, but I wrapped the thread around the needle too many times, so the knot ended up sticking out too much and looking a little bit phallic. Eep!
The next two attempts, I wrapped the thread 3 times around the needle, but realize now that I had wrapped too far up the thread. When I inserted the needle back into the fabric, it resulted in this weird knotting thing with loose threads sticking out. I tried to remedy the situation by just stitching over it a few times. Bad idea. It looked a mess!
Finally, I went back and reviewed the French knot directions one more time. And the 4th attempt was a success! Hooray!
I let the project sit for awhile, trying to decide if I was going to redo it or just let it go. But ultimately, I cut out the three unsuccessful flowers and started over. I got more practice at that lazy daisy stitch, too, because when I cut out the center knots, I also had to cut out the flowers since they were connected. Boo hoo. But I’m much happier with the second attempt.