Group Instructions for the Garden

Emie Bishop --- The Garden

Linda Fontenot is the leader for this gorgeous project!!!

Lesson One:
To begin the Garden, prepare your fabric in your usual manner and mark both edges of your design and the center with a contrasting thread. Linda likes to go over and under 2 threads as a counting reference. She also like to use the upright, or veritcal thread as her starting point. Your design will be 90 stitches wide and 367 stitches long.

We recommend some books as a reference to refer to :
Janice Love's BASICS AND BEYOND
Janice Love's FUNDAMENTALS MADE FANCY

We will not explain each stitch but will refer to these books, Emie's instructions and the internet for specific instructions on stitches. Also, we will occasionally offer alternate stitching suggestions.

More will follow next Tuesday, if you get all this done and want to do more start the Kloster stitches in row one. AND GIN SAID THE STITCHING AND SPECIALTY STITCHES HAVE TO BE DONE BEFORE ANY CUTTING FOR HARDANGER CAN BE DONE. If you have any questions please post them on the BB.

Lesson Two:
In this lesson do the rose in row one and all it’s surrounding leaves. Emie doesn’t mention it’s backstitching until 11 o’clock, noon and 1 o’clock and it is one strand of DMC 352 Dark Peach.

On the subject of back stitching … I like to push the previous thread to the inside of the line, up against whatever design it is outlining. by that I mean when I go down with the thread and needle to finish the stitch, I don’t spit it. To make a backstitch, I go up with the thread and needle away from the previous stitch and come down in the same space as the previous stitch and as I do that I push the previous stitch out of the way.

I also give a little tug on the completed stitch after I come up again with the thread and needle to start the next backstitch. You find out very quickly while doing the backstitch that to lock the stitch you can only do so on top of the fabric after the stitch is completed. This little tug pulls out any excess slack in the thread that would distort the stitch.

On the topic of quarter stitches, I discovered that if I skipped the quarter stitch at the beginning of a row and did the first leg of the cross stitches first and came back after I completed the row of cross stitches and then did the quarter stitch, the quarter stitch was much less distorted, for instance, at the very top of the rose, using pale peach, DMC 948. You might have noticed this yourself, although I hasten to add it is only a minor point especially since youc over it with the final leg. Emie discusses Ľ and ľ stitches at the end of number 2 in row one.

Finish up the center ring of Kloster stitches, BUT DO NOT CUT ANY THREADS, and if you get the chance, star the mauve flower at 2 o’clock. After you finsih all the corss stitches and the specialty stitches then you can start he Hardanger fillings. I believe after you finish this flower ring the work will go very fast. In my opinion the cross stitch takes the longest.

Hint from Sandy R: On the first band (floral ring), the rose at the top which is the main focal point of that band, looks really flat when worked with the colors listed in the key. The problem was that there seemed to be almost no color change between the two middle values used for the rose. I stitched it once, decided I didn't like it and frogged it. Stitched it a second time with new skeins of floss which looked like they were from better dye lots (more variation in color). Still looked flat, so frogged it again! Showed the piece to a few friends in my EGA chapter -- we decided that that particular shade of green seemed to be "absorbing" some of the color from the peach flosses. Finally, I made the two darkest shades yet one more value darker. I made DMC 352 the second darkest shade, and used 351 for the darkest shade. What a difference! It finally made the rose look great. I still used 352 for the back stitching (351 was too dark for that). Just a tip to consider when you start stitching this piece.

Lesson Three:
This lesson will discuss the sunflower and the daisies. The sunflower is not complicated. The edges of the petals need to be examined to determine how you want to handle them. This flower is not outlined so the final stitch at the petal tips will determine the over all look of the flower. You will do your quarter stitch and then some of the top stitches will go in different direction than all the other cross stitches in order to create the illlusions of a petal tip. Or you can choose to do them in the conventional way. This is one of the major reasons for doing Emie Bishop designs, you the stitcher/artist have so many opportuities to adopt her pattern, so many choices to explore.

Also you will find all this a lot easier to do if you do the leaves first and then the final stitches on the sunflower petal tips. That way you have a background to see your stitch placement.

I backstitched the sunflower center (top only) with one strand of 898, I didn't want too much green peeking through. That was a personal choice, an opportunity to explore.

In this lesson we will discuss the Lazy Daisy stitch. It is in Dark Gold, DMC 3045, and I used one strand. This stitch is best done by forming the loop in one hole. That is you will come up with the threaded needle in one hole and go back down with the threaded needle in the same hole. The tacking stitch needs to use different holes. If you use the same hole for the tacking stitch it will disappear like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. That is good to know. Sometimes you may want that tacking stitch to disappear. That way the loop is drawn tighter. But in this instance you may want a nice fat little loop, so you will tack the stitch in two holes. The holes you use should be very close and you want to make the tacking stitch a diagonal stitch. A diagonal stitch following the same slant as all the other cross stitches will appear to diappear because it is just like all the others. Close examination will reveal that, but only close scrutiny. And finally don't pull your loop too tightly while doing the tacking stitch.

In this lesson we will examine the daisies. On the daisies you will see a satin stitched center. For this particular stitch you may want to practice on a scrap piece of linen first. The center will look best if the cross stitches surrounding it form a uniform circle. By this I mean on the right side you will satin stitch over 4 threads, the next stitch will cover 5 threads, the center stitches will cover 6 threads and then the left stitch will cover 5 threads and the final stitch will cover 4 threads. Naturally, you must determine this in advance, so count your cross stitches and make sure they are as balanced on each side as you can get them.

Then do a padded satin stitch by going left to right first, or side to side. Then come back and starting at the top right side make your satin stitches by coming up at the bottom and going down at the top and the next stitch coming up at bottom in the NEXT hole and going down at the the top in the NEXT hole. You don't want to skimp in any way with satin stitches they must cover the fabric uniformly and they must be done as completely on the back of the fabric as the front. By that I mean that you want as much thread on the back of the fabric as the front. AND NEVER EVER START A SATIN STITCH IN THE MIDDLE OF A ROW OR THE MIDDLE OF THE DESIGN AREA! If you do, you will live forever with a split that allows too much fabric to peek through and shouts out loud that you started you stitch RIGHT HERE!

Lesson 4:
This lesson will discuss the berries, nuts, and leaves that are done with satin stitches. Before I begin on that topic, I found that doing the cross stitched leaves first helps lock the satin stitches in place. And if you follow Emie's straight line diagrams exactly you will find it easy to do the designs that are satin stitched. In her instructions she calls these lines "slant".

Emie calls for a single strand of variegated #8 perle cotton to work the berries. On the berries you do not want to pad the satin stitches. Instead if you work them a little less tightly they will puff up on their own. Remember to change directions with each new berry! And, again it helps to already have the little single cross stitches in dark green done before doing the satin stitched berries. Also try to find the most variegated thread in your little bundle of threads.

As you go on the motifs at 7 o'clock you will do the satin stitch for the nuts by using 2 threads and splitting them when you bring your needle down into the fabric. You don't literally split any thread! You just want to make sure you put the needle down in between the two threads as you stitch the design. (I am talking about the two threads on the threaded needle.) This will insure a nice smooth satin stitch. And you want to do the nut cap LAST, so it looks like it is on top.

The leaves that are around the berries are done by first doing a fly stitch until the tacking stitch reaches another design. Then finish the leaf by doing the satin stitches exactly as shown in the diagram. Again, for the satin stitch you want to split the two threads as you bring your needle down into the fabric.

Lesson 5.1 - Hardanger Klosters
Okay, with our #8 green perle cotton make you kloster circle in the inner floral circle. I find that it is a much neater cut if you take your stitches go INTO the inner circle where you will be cutting later. Make sure that you don't drag your p.c. ion the diagonal when you turn your corners and make sure that you are NOT a thread miser when you do hardanger. P.C. is very cheap and I don't want to hear that when you rip out that you are re-using your perle cotton. It takes off the sheen the more you drag it through your fabric and will loose all light refraction if you re-sue it. Also, remember to keep your tension even throughout your klosters so that you can not tell where you stop and start your new threads or where you started/finished.

Lesson 5.2 - Cutting the Handanger Section
I find that when I do my cutting it has a cleaner cut if you follow these small suggestions:

1. ALWAYS have your scissor blade to the left of the kloster area that you need to cut. Your scissor blade will never, ever lay in the same direction of your klosters when you make a cut. It will always be at a right angle to every single one of your kloster areas that you have to cut.

2. Bring your scissor point back up to the top of the linen and have all 4 threads laying on your scissor blade. This way you can double check your thread count and make sure you have the right threads laying on your blade.

3. Rock your scissor blade back and forth so that it "opens" up the linen thread from your kloster block.

When you make your cut, cut ALL 4 threads at once, do not cut one at a time. You will have less chance of error if you do it this way. After you make your cut and remove your threads, the cuts will be hidden by your kloster when it relaxes back to normal.

Turn your fabric and cut the matching 4 threads on the opposite side that you have just cut. Remove the threads and continue on in this fashion till you have the whole area removed and ready to do the filling stitches. Do all one direction first, then the other direction.

Lesson Six - Bullion Knots
Today, I want to discuss bullion knots. I found several little tricks to making really nice bullion knots. First, don’t use more than one thread, no matter now small the thread. The reason for this will be discussed further down the page. If you want to make a bigger know simply wrap the threads around the needle more times.

Secondly, always wrap with the twist of the ply of the thread. Watch what you are doing in a little experiment. Wrap the needle going left, then examine the thread – is it still twisted or is it untwisting? Now wrap the thread going right, is the thread twisted or untwisted? If the wrapping thread is twisted tightly then you are going to have a nice bullion knot. Always watch this when wrapping the thread around the needle and go in the direction that will keep the twist tight. And if you think abut it for a moment you can visualize why. A tightly twisted thread has more shine and will lay down evenly. It is that simple!

And the way you wrap the thread around the needle is important too. It must lay down in a spiral and not overlap at any point. Overlapping will ruin the stitch! You want to push the needle point up through the fabric and wrap the needle while it is still in the fabric, then grasp the wraps with one hand and pull the threaded needle through the wraps. At this point, you can visualize, that if you have pierced the thread as you came up through the fabric you are not going to be able to pull the needle all the way through the wraps. It is absolutely essential to go down and come up through the fabric and not split the thread. Now after you have pulled the needle all the way through the wraps, you want to pull through any excess thread and slide the know down close to the fabric. Then go back down through the fabric at the point where you want to place the bullion knot, it doesn’t have to be at the same place as you started. Also I don’t warp the thread closely together. I use a bigger needle and wrap in a spread out (slightly) spiral on the needle.

You also want to use a chenille needle, because it has a shaft that is the same size up and down its length except of course for the point. And the eye isn’t larger therefore distorting your wraps as you pull it through the bullion.

Now we come to the designers suggestion of using two threads as Emie has done. Keeping in mind that this is advanced or intermediate work and the designer is only suggesting ways to do stitches and her design. This discussion is for a beginner and has to have a beginning with some rules. So a beginner to the bullion knot would probably be more successful using a perle cotton thread to earn this stitch. After practicing with perle cotton size 8 or 12 then going on and trying 2 strands of cotton will make a lot more sense than trying 2 threads to begin with.

In closing on this topic, I want to add that I know there are a lot of stitch diagrams around, but most of them don’t seem all that helpful. There is a reason for this. Back in the late 1970’s someone started patenting all the stitches. So that every time a designer wanted to use a stitch like the bullion knot, they would have to pay the patent holder. The designers countered this by including stitch diagrams in every book or pattern, because patent law states that you can not patent something that is in common everyday usage, hence the diagrams in every book and pattern. Thank the designers for doing something about that mess! Where would we be today without their foresight. We wouldn’t be learning these stitches over the Internet freely, but paying someone for a patented idea.

Lesson Seven, Row Two
Once again we are back to The Garden and I will be referring to those diagrams found in The Garden. Please use Janice Love's books if you need more help with the Hardanger. Both of them are at Idle Hands, 281 469 5485. The books are Basics and Beyond, around $15.00 and Fundamentals Made Fancy, around $20.00. The V shapes on either side of the floral ring and above the ribbons is a cable stitch shown on page 12 of The Garden instructions. The faggot stitch is defined under the Double Row Faggot on page 13. And the larger squares under the ribbon are quite likely four sided stitches, see page 14. Go from step 8 down 8 threads to repeat steps 1 through 8 of the four sided stitch. Do row two this week. Only the green ribbon has a backstitched edge. I might add that the diagrams for the ribbons are exact. (Just love Emie for that!) Use two strands of thread and railroad them. See how to do the satin stitch in my lesson 3 and 4 of the Garden. Do your Klosters in #8 Soft Green Pearl cotton and double check them to insure they line up on the same threads. (See Hardanger 101, Lesson Two) Don't cut anything yet. For Row Three practice the queen stitch on a scrap piece of linen before you do it on your Garden. This is a difficult stitch to remove if you have to. You might want to make a small tuck away pillow insert if you are successful with your practice. The leaves around the grapes would be nice with the queen stitch practice flowers. Be sure to practice lining up the second Queen stitch flower. An easy way to do the side ways queen stitch is to turn your diagram (page 17) sideways or in the direction your flower is pointing. Emie advises using one thread for the queen stitches, (see #4, Row 3). I use 2 threads, it's just a matter of taste. See you next week. linda in texas

Lesson Eight, Row Three
Doing row three is this week's assignment. There is nothing new except the Queen's stitch and it's a beautiful addition to this design. And the Palestrina Knot that I just loved. They look just like baby's breath. Have fun and left me know how you are doing. linda in texas

Lesson Nine, Row Four, Row Five, Row Six, Row Seven
The Row Four is well explained on page 5; page 19, Withdrawing and Reweaving; and page 15, Interlace. I would like to add that if you bring your thread up through the last satin stitch row on Row Three and do a tacking stitch (see the last page of Hardanger 101) you will be really pleased with the eveness and straightness of the interlace stitch. Do the tacking stitch right in the middle of the edge where you are withdrawing the threads. And end you stitch the same way. Wow! Row Five has a larger diagram on page 6. Row Six is explained on page six and page 15 shows the Ladder Hemstitch. Row Seven, the Herb Garden is explained on page 6 and page 8 has a detailed diagram. Do all the Satin Stitches and Klosters. DON'T CUT ANYTHING YET!! If you have time do the Algerian Eye, see page 11; Waffle stitch, see page 18; Sprat's Head, see page 18; Smyrna Cross, see page 17; Rhodes stitch, see page 17, and Woven Cross Stitch, see page 18. You will need to read and study my last page in Hardanger 101 and see page 11, The Garden, Adding New Working Thread. I prefer my method of adding thread, but you may not. So take a look at both of them. If you have gotten Janice Love's books now would be a good time to start studying the different stitches that Emie is using to fill these boxes. I can not detail these because of my equipment limitation. As I have said before, these books, particularly FUNDAMENTALS MADE FANCY, are excellent investments for you advanced stitchers. Let us now how you are doing.

Lesson Ten, Row Seven, Row Eight, Row Nine
In todays lesson I want you to finish the klosters and specialty stitches in Row Seven. DO NOT CUT ANYTHING until you have finished them!!! Save the pulled work until after you have completed all the other specialty stitches. Row Seven directions are on page 6 and alternate colors etc. on page 8. There is also a nice diagram of the Herb Garden on page 8. You could use this to mark and identify all the different stitches used in the Herb Garden. DO NOT DO ANY OF THE CUTTING AND STITCHES IN THE KLOSTERS. If you cut the threads in the Klosters and then go and try the pulled threads you will more likely than not pull some fabric threads loose and have to make some major repairs. You can not weaken the fabric by cutting threads in the Klosters and then go and yank on the fabric threads in the other areas. Of course, you will pull the threads out of the satin stitches! But I digress. On the pulled threads Emie suggests you try any others that you like besides the ones she suggests. Needleweaving in Bars is shown on page 16. This stitch is not worth doing in my opinion, I preferred doing Coral Knot Festoon Trips as shown on page 14 of Linda Driskell's Heirloom Drawn Thread Sampler III. The Diamond Filling is shown on page 13 of The Garden. The Connecting Buttonhole Bars are shown on page 12 of Emie's instructions. I preferred the Divided Twisted Threads on page 20 of Linda Driskell's Heirloom Drawn Thread Sampler or you could try the Honeycomb variation with pulled Satin Stitch on page 20 of Linda Driskell's Favorite Borders, Corners, and Motifs. The Ladder Hemstitch with Interlace Split Legs are shown on page 15 of The Garden instructions. Woven Circles (I love this stitch!!) is shown on page 19 of The Garden instructions. Stop at Row 15. DO NOT DO ANY OF THE CUTTING AND STITCHES IN THE KLOSTERS. ROW EIGHT is a Double Pekinese stitch shown on page 13 of Emie's instructions. My advise on this stitch is to pull the thread moderately tight when you do the figure eight part of the stitch. You do not want to distort the back stitches! But you do want to pull all the slack out of the figure eight part of the stitch. Then it will look smooth and uniform. And I would note to you that Emie doesn't weaken the fabric by using a cut work stitch in this area. Again cutting threads and then yanking on another area will court disaster! But all is not necessarily lost. Janice Love has a wonderful discussion on repairing major disasters on page 46 of Fundamentals Made Fancy. It's under the topic called Admnedments (just in case you have a new revised edition). ROW NINE has a discrepancy between the chart and the diagram of the Palm Leaf on page 16. I turned the graph on page 16 upside down and it worked fine. I would also like to tell you that I almost always start in the center of a chart and work to the edges and then do compensating stitches at the edges. But that is just a personal preference. The Garden Path graph is shown in a larger version on page 14. That's it for this week. ~see you next week, linda in texas

Lesson Eleven, Row Ten
Work Row Ten through Step Nine (9). You are going to love the Mosaic Stitch flowers! Wow, what a wonderful design element and variation to all of the above. Be sure to finish all the stitches, particularly the Rice stitch between the klosters and the buttonhole stitch. You want to finish all the specialty stitching, klosters, and buttonholes before we start cutting anything. And I intend to roll my fabric back up to the floral ring and start there for the cutting and wrapping part. The buttonhole stitch is my favorite stitch, I would like to share my knowledge with you, but I will have to upload diagrams and the net is too slow today. So next week we will begin cutting. Please take the time to count and check all your work, it is much easier to correct any mistakes before you cut your linen. You might want to read my Hardanger 101 instructions to insure that you understand the techniques that I will be using. And finally no matter what I say or do this is your work and you will have to understand what is intended by the designer. Take a few moments to count the threads to be cut and the threads woven and to understand Emie intent in the beautiful design. ~Bye until next week, linda in texas

Lesson Twelve, Row One, number four
Cut and removed the marked threads in Row one. A detailed discussion of this procedure is in Hardanger 101. Woven bars are discussed on page 18 of The Garden and also in Hardanger 101, that can be accessed by going to the top of this site and hitting Hardanger 101. The diagrams for the three sided Dove's Eye and Corner Dove's Eye are on page 13 of the Garden. The webs are discussed on page 18 and another discussion for absolutely perfect webs (everytime!) is on page 3 of Fundamentals Made Fancy by Janice Love.

And finally, Buttonhole Circles Wrap the bars to the mid point of 4, then take your working thread from points 1 to 4 twice. These foundation threads will be the base for your buttonholes stitched in the air! At 1 do about 3 (this varies) buttonhole stitches over the foundation threads, at the 'X' between 1 and 2 do a tacking buttonhole into the bar. Repeat this procedure until you are back at 1. Do a final tacking buttonhole at the 'X' between 1 and 4 and sink your working thread into the little loop of the first buttonhole. You don't want anyone to know where you started or finished! Then take your thread on the back of the stitches to the next bar and start wrapping bars again. Copyright, Linda Fontenot, 1999 www.AmericanFolkArts.com Permission granted to copy and distribute, but please give me credit.

Lesson Thirteen
Row Two, number 3, the woven bars and picots are explained on page 16 and the Dove's Eyes is explained on page 13. If you don't like the picots try a matching bead. Row Seven, number 15. For changing threads see page 11 or my method in Hardanger 101. For H the wrapped bars are explained on page 19. There is a diagram of the square on page 8 in the Herb Garden. The flower for box H is explained in H, and the Ribbed Web on page 17. And for the half full definition/explanation of the ribbed web, that means on the crossed spokes not the diagonal spokes. The diagonal spokes will be less than half full. The Coral Knot is explained on page 12 and the coral base knot is explained in Queen Anne's Lace with Ribbed Web on page 17. For I the Maltese Cross is explained on page 15, don't pull the stitches too tight, but do try to keep an even tension. For J the Blanket Stitch flower is explained on page 11. Remember to count your stitches and try to do about the same on each petal. linda in texas

Lesson Fourteen
To continue the lesson on Row Seven, letter K, extending spokes is explained on page 17 under the topic Spokes. (I think page 15 is a typo.) For the bullion Knot Center flowers see page 11 and you might try bringing your thread up and leaving one end away from your work on the top of the design and use the other end for the bullion stitches. Then tie off the two ends on the back, that will save you having to pass the working thread through the wrapped bars on the back of the work. For L the Buttonhole Bar is explained on page 12. Don't worry the woven leaf will pull it into a square. The Woven Leaf is explained on top of page 19 and also there is an explanation in number 11 on Row 10. I had a lot of fun with this stitch, I over-wrapped it so it curved up like a leaf and then made both ends pointed by skipping the wraps over the outer threads at the ends. For M the Three Quarter Flower is explained on page on page 18, remember to count your passes and keep them about the same for each petal. For N, the Antique Clover stitch is explained on page 11. And the Edelweiss stitch for O is explained on page 14. Again don't go over half way on the crossed spokes for the Ribbed Web. You will need room to make all the petal the same. And finally row 10! Number 10 has an explanation of the Three Quarter Flower on page 18. Number 11 has already been covered above in the Bullion Knot Center flower and Woven Leaf Flower is explained on page 19. And the Maltese Interlace stitch is explained on page 15 and above. That's all!