SAL: the upper pair of leaves

Now we move on to the uppermost pair of leaves, just below the lily flower bud.

I have ummed and aahed about how to work these leaves. I really want to use a filling that fills without having an edging. All our other shapes so far have an edging around them, so I really would prefer not to for this one.

But what?

I’d use long-armed feather stitch, which is always a great way to fill a leaf, but I’ve already used that for another pair of leaves, so I’d rather not use it again. I could use something like cretan stitch (either open or closed) but that doesn’t grab me either. I could fill each side of the leave with bullions, or bullions alternating with straight stitches, but I think you might all not like me very much if I made you work that many bullions! I could use Indian filling stitch, but its not my most favourite stitch to work.

So I’ve settled on a centre vein of cable chain stitch, with the sides of the leaves in slanting, single chain stitches.

First, I work the centre vein in cable chain stitch. This is a lovely stitch, closely related to cable plait, but turning out with a very different look.

Next I begin the chain stitches up the side. The idea is to work a row of chain stitches that sit next to each other, rather than continuing on from one another end to end. Come up at the base of the leaf on one side of the centre vein. Then work a chain stitch out to the side, aligning the stitch so that it sits along the bottom curved edge of the leaf. To finish the chain, bring your needle up in the chain about 2mm from the edge of the leaf (sorry, no idea what that is in inches – not very long!) and then take the needle back down at the edge of the leaf to anchor the chain stitch.

Continue stitching in the same way up the leaf, angling the stitches so that at the top, the last one ends up nearly parallel with the centre vein.

Then work the other side in the same way. I find it useful to start at the base of the leaf again and work to the tip, as it helps me with angling the stitches. You can also draw guide lines under the stitching to help you with angling the stitches if you would like to.

Hmmm… I’m not really sure that I like this. I think that the cable chain stitch gets a bit lost in the middle, and its all a bit of a nothingness. Back to the drawing board.

Leaving that in place (just in case!), I’ve decided to work the other leaf (of the pair) in herringbone stitch, because that can fill the leaf without needing an outline around it.

Hmmm… not sure that I like that very much either. It’d probably work ok in crewel embroidery, but for Mountmellick embroidery, its not very leaf-like.

Back to my book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature I go, looking for inspiration and a leaf treatment that might be suitable. In the revised edition of the book, for those of you that have it, on page 11 there’s a photo of a beautiful nightdress case. Looking at the leaves there, there is one similar to my chain stitch leaf, but instead of a centre vein in cable chain stitch, it looks like it has its centre vein in stem stitch. Stem stitch seems to work much better as it gives a stronger line than my cable chain stitch does.

I’m going to take the cable chain stitch out, and then work stem stitch in the gap that is left. It might mean that there’s a slight gap on either side of the stem stitch, but I don’t think that will be a problem, as it will probably just accentuate the centre vein, which is fine.

I like this much better.

After undoing the herringbone leaf, I restitched it in the new style, first working the stem stitched centre vein, then the chain stitches up the side. Because I didn’t have the width of the cable chain stitch to guide the inside end of my chain stitches, I had to remember to leave a small gap in between the chains and the stem.