A Little Chat About Pearl and Her Friends

Teri and I (Kara) are feverishly getting ready for the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first week in March—making kits, gathering threads, and writing patterns. Since many hands make light work, I asked a friend to come over and help me put together thread kits. I was explaining that there were a few different types of pearl cottons in the kit along with the floss. She mentioned that she hadn't even heard of pearl cotton only floss. That spawned an idea for a short post on pearl cotton and its variations, along with how it compares to floss and wool thread. Many of us who have been stitching a while use all these threads on a regular basis, but if you are new to stitching, this is for you!

This picture shows floss on the left then pearl 8, 5, 3, and wool (Dried Sage by Weeks DyeWorks)

Embroidery floss is something most of have used and are familiar with, even if we just used it for those lovely friendship bracelets back in the day. It is plentiful and relatively inexpensive as threads go. DMC is the brand that is most popular and economical. It is usually 6-stranded and when used in stitching, is best separated by those strands in order to get a smoother stitch. You can use 1-6 strands in your needle, depending on the look you want to achieve.

Here you can see the 6 strands

Embroidery floss

Pearl cotton (or Perle depending on where you live) is great to use because it is not stranded and you can just stick it in your needle and go—no separating the strands. The most used sizes are 12, 8, 5, and 3; the larger number means the smaller diameter or thinner thread. (Occasionally, you can find it in 16 as well.) You can vary the look you are trying to achieve by using the different sizes. To fit the larger diameter threads through your needle, you will need to use a needle with a larger eye. We tend to use chenille needles ranging from #26-#18, depending on the thread. Teri is going to talk about needles in the next post.

Pearl 8

Pearl 5

Pearl 3

From left to right 8, 5, and 3

Weeks and The Gentle Art (just floss and wool) are two companies we like for threads, whether it is floss or pearl or even wool. Their products are hand-dyed, which gives a great variation in your stitching, but not so much that it is overly noticeable. They also come on these little cards, which makes it a little less likely to tangle. All you do is cut the bottom loops, and you instantly have the perfect length for stitching.

Wool thread is lovely to use as well and will give a completely different texture to your stitching. It is perfect for things that you might want to appear to be fuzzy or if you are stitching on wool, it will blend in beautifully. It lends a great contrast when used with other fibers such as floss or pearl.

Another popular company for pearl cotton is Valdani. Their pearl comes in different sizes and in a multitude of colors, both solid and variegated. It is very economical as the little balls go a long way.

Our curated In the Garden set by Valdani

Lastly, another company that we like to use is House of Textile Arts (Tentakulum) Painters Threads. These threads are dyed in gorgeous unique color-ways, and their names are based on famous painters.

There are many other thread companies out there that offer pearl cotton, but these are just a few of our favorites. All of these companies offer other fibers as well, and each fiber is going to give a different look and texture to your project. Below we have listed a few sources for these products and hope you will be inspired to try them all!

Weeks DyeWorks, Valdani, and The Gentle Art

Primitive Homespun and Needleworks

Painter's Threads

Threadnuts

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Depending on where you live, it is cold outside. Some of our friends in the northern climes are experiencing some bitter, cold temperatures.  It is one of those very cold locations that we envisioned when we created this block for the Winter Wonderland Mystery Sew-A-Long. Our snowman builder just couldn't take the weather anymore—not when there was a warm and cozy fire nearby.

Before starting your block, please read our pattern directions thoroughly. Our directions for how we cut out our appliqué pieces (especially the footprints) are very specific for the method we use. We use freezer paper templates which allows for the option to use or not use fusible. If you would like to use a different method, such as tracing the templates onto the fusible, then you will need to reverse them. Every designer may use a different method than the one you might use, so please read each set of directions for all the blocks in this stitch along. You may find a new method you might like to try!

We thought we would highlight some parts of the block and show how we did them as well as talk about some of our thread choices. 

Let's start with the footsteps! 

Your pattern includes a footprint stencil. Cut it out and then cut out the individual footprints creating the stencil and set aside. Then lay out the water, background snow, bottom half of the house and the snowman body in the correct placement  on your background but do not fuse. Align your footprint stencil in the correct position and iron stencil on, or pin in place if not using freezer paper.

Using a pencil or other marking tool, trace cut-out foot prints onto wool. Then remove the stencil and cut out the footprints.

Once your footprints are cut out, you can go ahead and position the snow, water and cabin parts except for the door and fuse/staple/baste those pieces down. We used an appliqué or tack stitch with matching thread to secure the pieces at this point. 

For the door openings, place your door template over the bottom cabin piece and trace the door openings onto the wool. Cut those out of cabin piece. This will create the openings so that you can put your fireplace and door inset in place. Note: When I created the block, the doorframe was originally in two pieces, but after doing that, it made more sense to turn it into one. That is why it is a bit different in the pictures than what is on the templates. 

Door openings cut out

If you are using a background piece of cotton, place that in the top window and then position your fireplace. Trace the fireplace opening onto your cotton and then cut out.  Place the following items in this order: cotton, door frame, fireplace, door inset, and then bottom door crosspieces. Then fuse/staple/baste into place and stitch down with matching thread

Your doorway set-up should look like this.

The snowman can be padded with a layer of thin batting. It gives him a bit of a pudgy look that a good snowman should have. 

Use your snowman templates to trace around a piece of batting for the body and the head.

Cut the batting out a 1/2" inside of drawn line.

Place the snowman in the correct position with the batting underneath and then stitch down with matching thread.

For the embroidery in this block, we primarily used #12 Valdani pearl cotton. In many places in the embroidery directions, we asked you to use two strands. By doing this, we were able to use one type of thread for places where we wanted to vary the thickness of the embroidery. This is a good way to make the most of one size of thread.

The basket handle and rim are two strands and woven parts are one.

Another reason we chose to go this route with the Valdani, was to keep the thread kit costs reasonable so that we could use one of our favorite threads of all time—Painter's Threads #8 pearl in Turner. This thread and color is a fantastic hand-dyed thread from Germany. It can be a bit more expensive but it is so worth it for stems, leaves, or in this case accenting our pine boughs.

Using a hand-dyed thread can add so much texture!

If you haven't already downloaded the pattern or if you would like to buy a wool, thread or embellishment kit, feel free to head over to our website listed below. Our thread kit supplies are low, but we anticipate more in the shop soon.

We really hope this post helps you as you stitch our Baby It's Cold Outside block. We had so much fun creating this block for the Winter Wonderland Mystery Sew-A-Long and we hope you will enjoy stitching it as well!

Baby It's Cold Outside Pattern and Kits

Winter Wonderland Mystery Sew-A-Long Facebook Group

A Prairie Update

As the new year has begun, so has the drive to complete some projects that we have on deck for this year. Teri wrote about hers a couple of weeks ago in her goals post seen HERE, and I (Kara) also have a few in-progress items that I have been working to get finished. As Teri mentioned in her post, I like to have projects as opposed to just blocks—not that there is anything wrong with having blocks. When we finished our Baltimore Fraktur blocks for our September 2020 class at Baltimore on the Prairie, I knew then that I would turn my block into a medallion quilt. Here is a little update on how that's going and what is to come.

The fraktur center is wool appliqué on linen, but I love mixing wool and cotton along with appliqué and piecing, so I knew that this quilt would be a mixture of all those things. The fabrics came to me by way of a former guild member who passed away. Her fabric collection was vast, and her husband offered the fabrics up to guild members with any monetary donations going to hospice. While I did not know Gabby, when I saw her fabric taste, I knew we were kindred spirits. She had a great collection of Dutch Heritage fabrics, and I knew they would be perfect for this quilt. 

Now that I had the fabrics and materials ready, it was time to get started. The first step was to frame the center with fabric and a contrasting bias strip.

I added a feather stitch to the bias using a #12 Painters Threads perle cotton.

Next was the piecing. Pinwheels seemed to me to be a good choice for a quilt that is reminiscent of the Pennsylvania Dutch. I've never been very fond of math, but it is a necessary evil for piecing—especially when trying to make the right size pinwheel and enough of them to fit around a square. I could say I did a lot of complicated math to figure out what size pinwheel and how many I needed to make, but that would be lying. I fit my medallion to the pinwheels by not trimming it until the blocks were finished—minimal math involved.

The grey will be a great canvas for some creative hand quilting.

A mix of Dutch Heritage fabrics and my stash.

The borders were next to be designed. Birds were definitely going to be part of this quilt (of course) and they would also be used for Teri's Baltimore Fraktur version, but I thought that it might be fun to do two different borders—one for the top and one for the sides. The top heart border is the first one that has been started and that is where the progress stands.

Ready to be stitched down and embellished.

A friend is going to help stitch all the wool down.

Love those Dutch Heritage fabrics

The two side borders have been cut, as well as the four corner blocks. I think these borders will come together quickly just like the medallion did. The medallion is not as complicated as it might look, and the ribbon work is not difficult either. If you join our class next September, you will see what I mean!

It is our plan to have our Baltimore Fraktur Quilt and wall hanging patterned up and ready to go for our students at Baltimore on the Prairie. Those who have signed up for our class there will receive the quilt and wallhanging patterns for free and then it will be sold on our website after we get back. In the meantime, we will keep you posted on the progress of this quilt and the wallhanging that Teri will be making. We are so excited about this project and can't wait to reveal the finished pieces!

Stitching a Tea Cozy Garden

A few months ago, I (Teri) joined the local chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. Each month at the meetings, an embroidery project is offered; at my first meeting it was a cute little tea cozy, made with buttons. I love tea, and I have a vast collections of buttons, so I gathered some fun buttons and threads and set off on my new adventure. 

I love to challenge myself to learn new stitches or to make them with different threads or applications. For this project, I chose to focus on using Painters Threads and floss by Weeks Dye Works. I had a wonderful time experimenting and just playing, without a real plan. The tea cozy went together pretty quickly, and I think it looks pretty happy sitting on my counter. I had intended to make it as a gift, so it will be a bit difficult to part with it! 

We were given a lovely kit that included the cut pieces of linen, the liner, and the insulating fabric. The butterfly buttons were available for us as well. This is how I created my button-embroidered tea cozy garden.

Choosing the buttons and arranging them was my biggest challenge.
Once I was pleased, I took a picture to follow as a guide.

Stems were lightly drawn with pencil and stitched with a stem stitch or chain stitch.
I used Painters Threads pearl #8, Turner. I then sewed all the buttons on with Weeks Dye Works floss, two strands of Saffron.

From left to right, these are the stitches and threads I used for each flower.

Picot stitch with Weeks Dye Works floss, Grenadine

Pistil stitches with Painters Threads pearl #5, Van Gogh

Colonial knots with Painters Threads pearl #8, Grandma Moses
and lazy daisy stitches with Weeks floss, Grenadine

Lazy daisy petals with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Grandma Moses;
 ribbon stitch leaves with Painters Threads 7mm ribbon, Turner

 

The bee is made with DMC pearl #12, a bullion knot made with one strand each of black and yellow, with wings of loops made with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Longan. To see a tutorial on making the bee, read our Garden Gate post by clicking here.

Drizzle stitches with Weeks floss, Autumn Leaves

Colonial knots and fly stitches with Weeks floss, Grenadine

This button is ringed with cast-on stitches that overlap to create the petals,
made with Painters Threads metallic braid #4, Van Gogh.

Left leaf—fishbone stitch, right—stacked fly stitches
Painters Threads pearl #8, Turner

Leaves, left to right: lazy daisy stitch with 7mm ribbon, stacked fly stitches with pearl #8, stacked lazy daisy stitches with Weeks floss, ribbon stitches with 7mm ribbon. Straight stitches with metallic braid #4 makes the flower. (All but floss is Painters Threads.) 

Pekinese stitch with Painters Threads pearl #8, Grandma Moses

Bullion stitches with Painters Threads pearl #5, Van Gogh

I changed the position of the butterfly button from my original plan; it seemed to be more balanced amidst the flowers. And the bees just completed my garden. As I write this, the weather is dreary and damp. I think I will go make some tea! Won't you join me?