After working the large lily flower, I have now turned my attention to the pair of leaves below the flower. Traditionally in Mountmellick embroidery, when leaves are in groups e.g. pairs, three, five, etc, the whole group is worked similarly, not each leaf worked differently.
When I am designing, I like to have a good balance of outline/filled motifs with non-outlined/filled motifs. By this I mean that if all the motifs have a distinct outline then a filling worked inside, it can all look a bit the same. So I like to also have some that are just filling stitches, with no outline. And sometimes, depending on the width of the outline and the size of the motif, sometimes just an outline with no filling.
Because of the way the leaves are drawn (and the pair above the large flower) it means that we have a large quantity of petals and leaves that have a wide outline around each, with a centre that can either be left empty or filled with a filling stitch.
One of the easiest way to work a leaf like the type we have, is to work the outline in buttonhole or satin stitch, leaving the centre empty. But if I do that, then it will be too similar to the petals, which have a wide buttonholed outline, with centres filled with french knots.
So, how to get around this? I’ve decided to fill the centre of each leaf with a closely spaced long-armed feather stitch. This give the centre a good filled coverage. Then the outline will be worked in coral knot stitch which will create a very narrow border, with a gap of unfilled negative space, and then the long-armed feather stitch filling in the centre.
To work long-armed feather stitch as shown, each of the stitches is worked very close together. Sometimes people find this a bit difficult to get the spacing so close together if they’ve never done it before.
Because of the way feather stitch works, every second stitch’s outer end reaches out to the opposite side, but all the inner ends are right down the centre. This means that the spacing between stitches is approximately twice as close in the centre (down the vein) as it is at the edges of the shape. I say only “approximately” because we also have to take into account the curve of the leaf, which means that on one side the stitches will be slightly closer together (the inner side of the curve), than the other side.
To get your feather stitch as close together as mine is, you really need to bring your needle out on the centre vein right next to the previous stitch – even coming out slightly below the previous stitch for even closer stitching. This can take some practice, so you may like to try a test leaf elsewhere first.
Let’s see that in action:
Ok, so to start we bring the needle out at the tip end – if you bring it out at the other end, the veins will be going the wrong way! I’ve done a bit already so that you can see what we are aiming for.
To work the next stitch, insert the needle on the right-hand side of the shape, using regular spacing. You can see that the stitches are quite close together. I’m going in only 1-2mm (I’m sorry, I don’t know what that is in inches, but its very short!) below the last stitch.
Pull the needle through, but leave the working thread loose in a great big loop – don’t pull the stitch flat against the fabric yet. Keep the working thread out of the way, so that you can see where you are going to bring your needle back up again.
Bring the needle out right next to the previous stitch at the centre vein. This is MUCH closer to the previous stitch at the middle, than it is at the edge. This is because all the stitches come up at the centre, but only every second stitch goes out to a side: half go to the left, half go to the right, meaning that you only get half as many on each side, and therefore they can be further spaced apart.
Take the working thread around the needle – not wrapping, but just so that the needle is now coming up in the large loop.
Pull the needle through, so that the stitch tightens and curves gently against where the working thread now comes out.
Insert the needle in the left side, using similar spacing as is already used on that side.
If your leaf curves at all, you will need to adjust the spacing on the sides so that the veins curve with the shape of the leaf. You’ll need slightly less spacing on the inside curve of the leaf edge, and slightly more on the outer curve.
Pull the needle through, leaving a great big loop of working thread. Keeping the thread out of the way so that you can see properly, bring the needle out in the middle, right below the previous stitch. Make sure that the needle comes up within the great big loop.
Pull the needle through to tighten the stitch around where the thread now comes out.
Keep stitching, taking stitches out to alternate sides, to complete the leaf.
Just to note also, the centre vein isn’t actually drawn onto the leaf, so you can either just imagine it, or draw it in lightly yourself.
Though you can already see the coral stitch edging stitched here, tomorrow I’ll go through how I got it to look like that!
Thankyou – this is great information to know for fishbone/herringbone stitched leaves in general 🙂
Have not used the fishbone stitch too much, and again, your very clear and precise way of explaining the “how to’s” of each stitching step are so very important in this SAL. Thank you.