Loveday: Crewelwork Woodpecker
The crewelwork woodpecker is the second to last bird to embroider on Loveday. The colours are some of my favourites - black, grey and red. The stitches are also lovely because, if you do them carefully, they look just fabulous!
The bulk of the body is embroidered in slanted satin stitch. "Why slanted satin stitch?" I hear you ask.The longer the stitch the smoother it will look. In some areas of this piece I needed to use shorter stitches because the size of the area was smaller and I couldn't slant them. I notice that these shorter stitches are never quite as smooth as the longer ones.
I outlined each section with split stitches as I worked along the body of the woodpecker which helped me keep the edges neat.
The tail feathers and the decorative oval, leaf-shaped areas on the bottom of the wing are also worked in slanted satin stitch.French knots fill the small circles in the red area of the tail, making a lovely contrast!
The belly of the woodpecker is embroidered using at technique called vermicelli couching. Yep, vermicelli like the pasta! When you look at the stitch you can see where the name comes from: it looks just like squiggly bits of pasta!
Vermicelli couching is a method of couching thread onto fabric with small, straight, holding stitches. The thread wanders across the area to be filled in gentle curves and the most fun (as well as the trickiest) thing is planning as you go, so you don't couch yourself into a corner!
One trick I discovered as I worked was to use the needle to hold the thread in place as I curved it first one way a... (see above)
and then the other (see above again), so I could see which would work best. It worked a treat and I didn't once couch myself into a corner!
Some seeding stitches, a bit more satin stitch and a white bead for his eye and he was ready to begin his woodworking! He looks a bit fierce, doesn't he?
This is the last bird and now all that's left are the two butterflies and the dragonfly at the very top. On Saturday the finished piece will be revealed - long drum roll, please!
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