Leaf SAL - 10 leaves

In my last post here I showed you the first of the leaves I'd been doing for the EGQ Leaf Stitch-Along project. Each leaf has a stitch outlining it and a centre filling with suggestions listed for variations. In that vein, I have taken a bit of liberty with some of the leaves and chosen different stitches. Others are waiting for inspiration. In the meantime these were my first 8 leaves.

Learning the more complicated stitches and doing them on the curve of the leaf has been challenging. I can see why they are usually demonstrated on an evenweave fabric which is particularly suited to someone learning the stitch. It does make the spacing much easier when you can place stitches in a straight line and a set number of threads apart.

So, it was nice to do a simpler outline of detached chain with two straight stitches in between. I wasn't looking forward to the buttonhole wheels, but they went more smoothly than I expected. 

Below I have added a further 2 leaves to my sampler, bringing the total to 10. Both the outline stitches  for these two leaves were new to me and rather interesting to learn.

Like me, one of the very first stitches you may have learnt to embroider is chain stitch. How about spicing it up, adding in a straight stitch, and trying Spine Chain Stitch? That sounds simple enough.

Well my version didn't quite turn out the way it should have. It's got spines on one side only, but that was an intentional variation. What wasn't intentional, is that the spines point in the wrong direction. Oops!

If you angle the straight stitches correctly, as shown below, with the spines worked back towards the beginning of the line, they stand out quite distinctly. 

Spine chain stitch - single sided variation

But, if you angle the spine in the direction in which you are travelling, it becomea partially covered by the next chain stitch. And that's why my spines seem to disappear under the chain. For now, I rather like the less spiky effect, so I have left it just like that. It's also a reminder to me of how not to do it in future.

Then I moved on to another variation of chain stitch. For most of the SAL stitches I have used Mary Thomas' Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. 

I like the single clear diagrams that illustrate how to do the stitches. However, for Hungarian Braided Chain I had to look elsewhere. It's a tricky stitch. I needed to see specifically how to handle the needle and what to do with the thread. 

Mary Corbett's video that you will find in her post here is very good. It shows clearly just how the chain must be left loose as you begin the next stitch, and then exactly how and when to tighten it. I watched the video a number of times, each time noting and learning something else about the movement.

The finished effect is a neat looking, heavy chain. I imagine it would look perfect embroidered on a smart military uniform. I wonder if it is used anywhere for that purpose?

Next time I'll show you how I am progressing on the final set of 10 leaves comprising past 3 of the SAL.

'Till then, take care and happy stitching!