Playful Free-Form Embroidery: Stitch Stories with Texture, Pattern & Color

By Laura Wasilowski

Stitch a story! From the best-selling author of Joyful Stitching, Laura Wasilowski brings 6 new hand-embroidery projects with full-sized patterns and step-by-step pictorial directions. Bright and lively project designs include a whirling paint brush, a dancing bird, tea cups tipping, flowers blooming, a fuzzy sheep, and a happy acorn nut house. With the free-form embroidery approach, you can either follow the given directions, or allow your imagination to run wild and improv your own additions—there is no right or wrong! Plus, no special tools are needed—just felt or felted wool, perle cotton #12 and #8 threads, embroidery needles, and sewing equipment. Start your stitch story! Stitch 6 textured projects with easy-to-follow free-form embroidery instructions Each project features a unique stitch combination, including some wool applique Finished creations are visually stunning art work that can be treasured for a lifetime

• Language: English
• Publisher: C&T Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781617459948

Book preview

Introduction: Tell Your Story in Stitches

In this book, you’ll learn to create narrative embroideries from inspiration to the final stitch. Whether designing your own work or making one of the stitched vignettes in the book, hand embroidery vividly brings those stories to life. From the Bayeux Tapestry, created in 1067, to contemporary stitchery found on Instagram, embroiderers are keen to illustrate treasured stories, memories, phrases, and tales in thread.

To tell our stories, we’ll use a free-form approach to the artwork. With only a few guidelines on what to stitch, this type of approach frees you to cultivate your own imagination. Accuracy is not important. Enjoyment is. Following exact rules is not expected. Improvisation is encouraged. The goal is stress-free stitchery. Using the humble fabric, thread, and needle in your hand, you can express yourself through color, pattern, and texture.

In the first chapter, you’ll find a step-by-step method of translating your idea into an original design, how to choose fabrics and transfer pattern shapes to them, and all about the glorious threads and tools you’ll need for stitching.

Six hand-embroidery projects with full-size patterns show the process from inspiration to the final stitch. These designs are made with a combination of fabric shapes stitched to a background fabric and embroidered shapes stitched directly on the background fabric. There’s a whirling paint brush, a dancing bird, teacups tipping, flowers blooming, a fuzzy sheep greeting a neighbor, and an image of my home, the Nut House. Make any of these six projects following the step-by-step pictorial directions or adapt stitch ideas to your own original designs.

In the final chapters, there are diagrams on how to make fourteen basic embroidery stitches and a gallery of artwork. The gallery shows even more embroidery designs as inspiration, along with a few tips on finishing the pieces.

Detail from Painting the Town

Hand embroidery is a tactile, personal way to tell your tale. When you stitch, the story blooms and grows before your very eyes. Stitches capture the spirit of a statement, memories, emotions, the action of a moment. As the embroidery evolves from your hands, it is imbued with the warmth of fabric, thread, and your own personality.

Tell your story in stitches. It’s an adventure full of joy and creativity!

Your friend,

Free-Form Embroidery Basics

From Story to Sketch to Pattern

Is there a family story, a maxim, phrase, or idiom you’d like to illustrate with embroidery? We all have stories and memories to relate and we speak languages full of evocative phrases with a treasury of idioms. Take note of these stories and phrases. They are great fodder for your next embroidery design.

Selecting and Sketching the Story

To demonstrate the process from that spark of an idea to the first stitch on fabric, we’ll use the Nut House as an example. This design is inspired by my family reunions. As we gather, a bevy of children busily play and shout while adults chat and prepare food. When experiencing all this happy commotion and bustle, an embroidery design popped into my mind. It’s based on the phrase a nut house, suggesting that we live in a house shaped like a nut full of active people who are a little … nutty.

Here are a few suggestions for conjuring up your own story to stitch in cloth:

•Note anything that brings an image to mind. Can you visualize the main character or objects in your story? Can you describe the setting and action? In our example, the hubbub and jubilation of a family reunion trigger an image of a house shaped like a nut, surrounded by activity.

•What is the focal point of your story? A focal point is where the viewer’s eye is naturally drawn, such as the acorn house in the Nut House . The focal point depicts the most important character, object, or element. Can you define and describe the shape, size, and placement of the focal point in your story?

•Where does your story take place? Is the setting an interior scene, a landscape, an abstract or imaginary world? The setting sets the mood or atmosphere of your story, giving it context.

•What elements or props, other than the focal point, help tell the story? In the Nut House , the tree embraces the house and tethers a flying tire swing. Flowers reach for the sun and ladybugs busily crawl everywhere. Other elements or details add to the story, making it richer.

•What is happening in the story? Movement or action gives the story life. How can you implement the action in your story to engage the viewer? Design elements placed squarely are stable and secure. But elements placed at an angle, like the tree trunk, appear animated and lively. Another method of adding action to a design is to repeat a shape or a color like the red ladybugs in the Nut House . Repetition engages the viewer and makes their eyes travel around the piece.

•What words or adjectives describe the story? Is it sunny, serene, cold, or mysterious? Descriptive words help you portray the emotion and feeling of your story, and you can evoke these emotions through your color choices.