#instithescreative2020 - Holding tight

Devoted to you (detail) Hazel Ryder

Sometimes it's really hard to resist a skein of beautiful thread, even when you know you can't possibly thread it through the eye of a needle never mind pull it through the cloth,  so in this week's blog we are going to explore couching and find out how you can use beautiful but too-thick-to-stitch-with threads.

Couching doesn't mean sitting on the sofa to stitch!

In embroidery the term couching refers to a laid work technique where a yarn (or sometimes thin strips of fabric, ribbon etc) is laid across the surface of the ground fabric and held in place with small stitches in toning or contrasting threads.

On my quilt Devoted to you I used couched threads to form traditional Welsh quilting patterns.  For the spiral in the photograph above I used a whip stitch in fine toning cotton to hold a thicker thread in place.

Whilst in this image I used small cross stitches to hold the doubled threads in place.  In both cases the couched threads were too thick to go through the ground fabric so to hide the ends I made a feature of them by making a small tight knot at the beginning and end. 

Here I am using a thick cotton slub thread and holding it in place with one of InStitches Creative hand dyed medium weight cotton threads. To enable me to work quick and neatly, as well as holding the laid thread firmly in place, I am using a ladder stitch.

The ladder stitch can be worked evenly and small (bottom row), but you could also try cross stitch (middle row) or even a detached fly stitch combined with a detached chain stitch (top row).

And here I've grouped the straight stitches into 3s, become a little less rigid with the crosses and also the straight stitches on the top row.   I even tried detached chain stitch but I'm not convinced with the option!  Many of the other stitches we have looked at in the blog either worked single or in combinations, would work so don't be afraid to experiment.
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​In all these cases the thicker thread was just laid on the surface of the fabric, and the ends left showing.

Instead of straight lines you could go round in a circle... 

My sample is pretty boring, so I asked textile artist Jennie Loudon if I could show you her pieces that she stitched for the Evil Eye challenge for @frayed_edges_ . Working on a light weight cream wool fabric Jennie has used sheer hand dyed fabrics and a combination of different stitches including couching.

​Carry on reading to see more of Jennie's work below.

Careful you don't draw blood...
...however you won't prick yourself on this thorn!  Actually there's nothing more annoying when you are hand stitching and accidently catch your finger on the needle a get spots of blood on your work.   Don't forget to use cold water to remove and not warm  as that will set the stain!

​Thorn stitch

(Yet) another super easy stitch (have I given you any other? ) which can be worked either straight or curved.

​To make the stitch you first need to take one long stitch then bring the  needle out just below the top , across the laid thread and back up to the opposite side to create a slanted stitch.

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​Repeat towards the opposite side and this time come out a little to one side ready to make the next stitch. 

Sounds complicated but really it's just a lopsided cross stitch!

Why not try:  Stitching a grid of long stitches, in any thickness of thread, and catch them in place using a small cross stitch worked over the intersection or

use a little star stitch as Jennie has done on the triangular grid she's stitched for the bird's wing.

I've had a bit of a circular thing going on over the last few weeks with my stitching, and fortunately couching works well for this too!

For the circle on the left I first lightly marked a circle and began couching one strand of thick thread from the outside in towards the centre.  I stopped when I ran out of thread and decided I quite liked the doughnut look! 

One strand was slow going and fiddly so for the next sample (on the right) I stared in the middle with a folded double thread, much faster.  Also I found working from the centre out a bit quicker and easier.

But my samples still aren't as lovely as one of Jennie's birds.    In fact she has a whole flock of beautiful stitched and printed birds!

Jennie Loudon lives and works in Edinburgh and she is one of the most creative people I have ever met. We've known each other for nearly 40 years (it was from Jennie that I first ever heard of a rotary cutter; at the time I hadn't a clue what it was or used for) and in that time she has worked across a range of textile techniques but now describes herself as a 'maker of textile creatures'. Jennie incorporates anything and everything into her creatures, using dye, paint, stitch and found objects and recently she has been creating a bird alphabet, including amongst others lapwings and pelicans, kingfishers and owls. I just love them all.

Her latest challenge is to create a creature daily from the scraps left over from whatever she has made through the day as part of #100daysprojectscotland. ​You can see lots more of Jennie's work over on Instagram including her 100 days project creatures; she promised me a lion tamer would be coming soon!

As you can see my table cloth is virtually full and so the time has come for me to put it to one side and concentrate on other projects for a while. There's still space for some filler stitches so I'll be popping back every now and then to show you any new stitching I've been doing.

But until then I'd like to thank you for joining me over these last weeks and months, it's been a funny old time with the world as we knew it turned upside down, separated from those we love, the daily rhythm of life unbalanced, hasn't it? But I hope that the blog has given you a spark of creative joy and you were able to take a moment to stop, slow down and make time to appreciate the smaller pleasures in life.

Terry will be back next week with the final paper blog and she's got a crafty and quick way to show you how to join together last week’s little books, so don't forget to join her then!

Don't forget:
Thank you so much to everyone who is joining in with the blog and taking the time to post and share their creative endeavours - we really appreciate it. The creative community is a great one to be part of at any time, but especially now.

We’d love to hear how you got on … take a quick snap and post it over on Instagram and use the hash tags:  #institchescreative2020 and #institches2013.  Don't forget to follow both us and the hashtags to see what everyone else is creating too! 

On Facebook reply to the relevant week's post with your comments and images. And don't forget to actually follow InStitches on Facebook to see what everyone else is up to.

Until next time - keep the creativity flowing...
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 Hazel & Terry ​