Blackwork Moon

At the risk of sounding nerdy (heh) I've always had a thing for the moon. When I was young I remember seeing "harvest moons" where the moon was big, low, and large in the sky. When I got a little older, I was fascinated by the moon landing (a made-for-TV movie about Apollo 11 was my favorite movie ever). Lately I've been enjoying exploring the moon from a visual/aesthetic perspective.

Pattern/Technique: Blackwork Moon by Lucie Heaton. Stitched with glow-in-the-dark DMC floss on charcoal evenweave linen.

Lessons: Glow in the dark floss is made from many fine synthetic fibers, so it isn't twisted as tightly as cotton DMC floss, and doesn't produce the same fine lines as cotton floss. Also, because it's synthetic it can't be ironed (or at least, I didn't risk it after finishing the piece).

Evenweave linen is loosely woven so it's actually quite transparent and requires some kind of backing fabric so that the wall / frame isn't visible.

What I'd do differently: I knew that keeping the piece in an embroidery hoop for a long time would crease it permanently. The next time I work on a cross stitch piece I'll probably release the hoop after each session so that I have the option to frame it and not have creases.

I'd like to try making this with conventional floss (I think it will look a bit cleaner than the glow floss because it's more tightly twisted) on a standard aida cloth (more opaque).

One thing I won't change: I was careful to weave in the beginning/ends of each thread and I'm pleased with how clean the back of the piece looks.

Blackwork Gradient

This project was started while reckoning with the injustice of systemic racism and processing a family tragedy. For a few days all I could do was stitch tiny black circles and hold space for grief.

Pattern: Blackwork Gradient by Purple Rose Embroidery

New skills: Blackwork embroidery, finishing embroidery on hoops.

Lessons: Stitch using a hoop 1 inch larger than the pattern calls for, and then transfer the finished work to a the recommended hoop size, to ensure clean borders. This was the first time I’ve left a finished embroidery piece on the hoop, and this tutorial was an excellent resource on how to trim and hide the cross stitch canvas.

This was also the first time I used Anchor embroidery floss. It worked well enough but it seemed to be fuzzier than DMC floss, so for future projects I’ll use DMC.

What I’d do differently: Next time I’ll start stitching from the middle of the pattern so that I end up with symmetrical edges—my design is slightly off center.

Because this piece was going to stay on the hoop I wasn’t very diligent about minimizing knots on the back of the work. I didn’t encounter any problems with this, but I’d like to work on the habit of weaving in the beginning/end of threads.