Embroidery Designs Guide

Stumpwork embroidery traces its roots down under in New Zealand in the 17th century. Stumpwork is a style of raised and padded embroidery which uses a charming bouquet of flowers, fruits, insects, animals - all woven intricately to give the entire design a natural look.

The highlight of this style of embroidery is the stuffed figures and attached pieces of embroidery. Nature provides as a backdrop to a couple in the foreground - all in the finest of details. Little dolls with shoes, ruffs, collars, skirts stand boldly in the embroidered piece which are generally used on mirrors and small bags.

Stumpwork Embroidery: A Collection Of Fruits, Flowers & Insects For Contemporary Raised Embroidery by Jane Nicholas gives readers a complete insight on the trends and methods adopted for this ancient technique. Of late, there has been a revival of this embroidery and one does see it in some of the embroidery stalls across the world. The book  comprehensively covers the details of the equipment required like fabric and threads, general instructions for an embroiderer and finally 10 different interesting projects on stumpwork embroidery. The projects which form a highlight of this book includes Pomegranate and Strawberries, Rose and Bee, Acorn Thistle and Bee, Christmas Rose and Dragonfly, Gooseberries to name a few.

We start a different series today… A series of famous embroiderers who have needled their way into the embroidery news of the world. They could be tutors on embroidery, writers of embroidery books, experts in embroidery digitizing software or plain and simple embroidery enthusiasts.

We start with Kathleen Bentley Tackett of Blaze Branch, Dorton who has developed an expertise in applique patterns. It is said that her applique finishes are so good, that the stitches seem to disappear like magic.  This is primarily due to the finesse skills garnered through her many years of practise.   As a child, her main motivation to take up sewing was her grandmother and in her own words: “I would stand at her sewing machine and watch her making pretty dresses for her daughters”. As a young woman, she worked towards getting a tailoring certificate and made the uniforms for the Virgie High School Band. She loved making complicated stuff. Four years ago she took up quilting with the help of her daughter’s quilting machine. They trade their talents with Kathleen doing the applique by hand and her daughter doing the quilting.

Kathleen has given a few remarkable appliques away to her loved ones : one to her granddaughter in California — “Basket of Roses”; one to her grandson — “Mexican Star”; and one to her grandddaughter in college — “Lavendar Tea.”

She is currently working on a “Through the Year with Sunbonnet Sue” quilt. It has 12 appliqued squares, one for each month. The patterns are made up of pieces of material in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. July’s square is patriotic; February’s is Valentine’s Day; September’s shows Sunbonnet Sue on her way to school … and so on.

With over 20 quilts finished and two more started, Kathleen is always flooded with new ideas and new patterns. Besides those mentioned, she has made: “Devil on the Run,” “Flower Garden” (hand quilted by Pike County Quilt Guild member Zetta Mullins), “Cabin in the Woods,” “Chain of Jewels,” “Garnet Glaze,” “Courthouse Steps,” “Maggie’s Flower Garden,” “Christmas,” “Mystery Quilt,” “Storm at Sea,” “China Blue,” “Grandmother’s Flower Garden,” “Robert’s Flower Garden,” “Folk Art Freedom,” “Cathedral Window” and “Autumn.”

Kathleen belongs to the Pike County Quilt Guild that meets at the Pike County Extension Office and has also won a prize in the guild’s Hillbilly Quilt Show, in the Miscellaneous category.

Lets wish her the very best in her embroidering career ahead!

What on earth are applique floral quilts? Well well, you have been missing out on some eye stopping embroidery designs if you haven’t come across these patterns till now.

A quilt is a type of bedding— a bed covering composed of a quilt top and a layer of fabric for backing. The two are secured by tying which is a technique of using thread, ribbon or yarn to pass through all 3 layers of the quilt at frequent intervals. These are strong bonds and hold on even when the quilt is being washed. Most quilts are decorative and find easy uses as wall hangings apart from the normal bedding. Over the years, attempts have been made to make this quilt look more and more exotic and flowers or animals have been frequently used to add a natural touch to the hand embroidery. Appliques florals are flowery designs sewed on a separate fabric which is then stitched on to the master quilt cloth.

If you would be interested to learn this art, we have for you a masterpiece book from Bonnie Lyn McCaffery called Fantasy Floral Quilts: Creating With Silk Flowers (That Patchwork Place). This book contains step by step instructions along with beautifully photographed quilt designs to help you on your way. The quilts here are made from fabric and silk flowers and embellished with glistening threads and beads. This is not a very easy art, but Bonnie with her easy-to-understand logical instructions makes applique floral quilting a breeze.

This is a special of specials by my friend Robbie M Fields. Hand embroidery could be made as simple as twiddling your thumbs! If you want to learn how to do blanket, back, chain, cross and feather stitches hand embroidery, you are in the right place. The history of Creative Success Strips started with a search for a more accurate method of making outline embroidery stitches around applique designs. This resulted in the manufacture of plastic strips with punched holes which would guide the extry/exit for the needle. The success strips covered by the United States Patent 6413091 prove to be a boon to the hand embroiderer struggling for accuracy in the embroidered pattern. The punched holes are placed in horizontal, vertical and parallel rows in and out of alignment, with certain holes having perpendicular lines extending to the outside edge of the strip. This indicates where a marking point is to be made. A disappearing ink pen to enable you to mark the points properly forms part of this kit. The 1920’s Dutch doll gives a clear picture of how the strips are to be used correctly to give the right outline. The Christmas stocking pattern is another cute example which displays the right use.

The entire kit contains 5 different success strips, a disappearing ink pen, 2 examples of hand embroidered appliques (Dutch doll and the Christmas stocking pattern) and an instruction and illustration booklet and is priced modestly at 13.75 dollars (including free shipping and handling by first class mail in the US).

Disappearing Ink Pen -

Example of hand embroidered Dutch Doll and Christmas Stocking Pattern

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Instruction and Illustration booklet

You could buy the whole kit right here and it would be delivered to your address.

Within US - 13.75 dollars

Outside US - 16.00 dollars

Check out this amazing heavenly collection of fantasy fairies and creatures. One might get to see some embroidered fairies or goddesses but getting all of them at one place is a rare thing. We have them all here at Magical Machine Embroidery and they are a treat. All of them are done using machine embroidery designs. It is necessary that these be embroidered using metallic thread since the necessary shine should come through.

All designs are perfect for the 4×4 hoops. These designs are created using Janome colors although the threads are not Janome. The Pegasus and the Frog Prince are complicated but beautifully done. One could one’s own imagination for creating their own fairies. The available designs can be considered as a benchmark alone.

Check out this collection of applique and puff embroidery at Mushroom Monday Screen Printing & Embroidery. This is done using digitized embroidery done specific to your custom requirements which specifically caters to groups of people or staff with a common logo or symbol. Made to order - this is ideal for a complete set of jacket or headgear for your employees or particular group of friends who identify with a common cause. Mushroom Monday have 22 years experience with an impressive clientele. Their mission statement reads : “To provide quality products to our customers with unsurpassed customer service.”

Dakota means “friend” and is the name of a native American people of the Northern Mississippi Valley (USA). The people of Dakota have had a passion for embroidery over generations. Dakota embroidery designs is the name coined by embroiderers giving strength to the popularity of this special style of embroidering appliques which you can view in these resources.

Check out this Dakota collectibles resource at GoNuts. A really cute set of dakota embroidery designs. All the patterns are perfect for kids wear. The picture you see next to this post is the Turtle applique. This has been stitched using 5 colors - tackdown, white, dark charcoal, lime and green. The size is 4.64 inches wide by 5.13 inches height. The total stitch count is 16721.

Football and Tennis are the two common sports themes that have been used by embroiderers the world over. Tennis appliques make cute attractive designs on a T-shirt. Both the racquet and the ball - together or separate - can be embroidered in bright colours.

Check out this collection at Starbird. It gives a wide range of tennis embroidery designs. Some of them are beautiful like the yellow tennis ball you see next to this post. These are all applique embroidery designs and they can be done in zig zag fashion or the satin style.

Here are some basic tips on buying applique embroidery designs.

These tennis embroidery designs are done in a special style of applique called tackle-twill digitizing service. This is done by using pressure sensitive adhesive (unlike the spray cans of adhesive normally used). One needs to only peel off the back and press the applique piece at the exact place of the master cloth. The tennis embroidery stuck in this manner stands out in the T-shirt or master cloth and gives a good finish.

Check out this amazing collection of flip flop embroidery designs at Golden Stitch. Aren’t they a beauty. These are great appliques with a variety of categories varying from polka dots, hearts, swirls, checks and floral to name a few. Most of them are the small size appliques with width and height below 4 inches each.

These are available in most machine formats like Brother/Baby Lock (PES/PCS), Bernina (ART Version 1 Through 4), Viking Husqvarna (SHV/HUS), Janome (JEF/Sew), Compucon/Singer (XXX), Tajima (DST), Melco (EXP), Pfaff (PCS/VIP).

These applique embroidery designs can be used for kids wear, T-shirts, beach wear, beach bags.

This is an oft repeated question and I have been getting a few requests to get some cute looking borders for the embroidery hoops. We have quite a few resources on the actual embroideries or appliques but very few which really give you choices for the variety of borders that you can treat your design to. Just like in artwork, the border can make or break the look and feel of an embroidery. Hence it is important to choose the right border for the right design.

How does one do this? The rules are quite simple. Invertendo is the key. If the design is really complex and eyecatching, simple or sometimes no borders would do. If the design is simple or small and you would really want to attract the viewer, a smart border which showcases the design would be apt. The embroidery border should always focus to highlight the design - in some manner or the other.

Check out this page at Madmumbler. This focuses on some of the borders that you can choose from - as starters. But innovation is the key. Elegant borders can be used for stunning designs like the appliscapes. They generally come with single color or multi color formats from which you can choose suitably. Borders like the Holly Corner (you see besides this post) is good for simple colorful designs which need to suitably accentuated. This comes in 3 sizes, 2 of them fit the 4X4 hoop, the third fits the 5X7 hoop. These designs are available in the .hus, .pes, and .dst formats and the information on machine embroidery would come in handy here. Some of the moon corner border embroideries you see in the site are really cute and can be used as a contrast to the parent design.