{"id":5834,"date":"2010-02-25T23:44:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T04:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=5834"},"modified":"2011-08-05T21:19:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T01:19:32","slug":"guesttowelfiltire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/25\/guesttowelfiltire\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming Guest Towel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.\u00c2\u00a0” Ralph Waldo Emerson\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
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Blue paper has been placed behind the towel so the fil tire' would show up in the scan. The towel is white.<\/p><\/div>\n

Or make pretty guest towels, like this one.\u00c2\u00a0 Ralph is so on target as he observed\u00c2\u00a0 that we all want to go the extra mile to make our house pleasant for guests.\u00c2\u00a0 To that end, most readers and the writer of this blog \u00c2\u00a0usually go the shorter and more pleasant mile to our sewing machines rather than driving to the grocery store to please our\u00c2\u00a0 guests.<\/p>\n

The linen towel in the photo was lovely even before the addition of machine embroidery.\u00c2\u00a0 Threaded with silk ribbon, two rows of hemstitching border a row of classic padded satin stitch dots.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It was pristine.<\/p>\n

Further embellished with Suzanne Sawko’s design, it is lovelier still.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0hand-look fil tire’ oval is\u00c2\u00a0stitched\u00c2\u00a0 with a wing needle and 80 wt. Madeira Cotona thread.\u00c2\u00a0 The oval is surrounded by greenery and\u00c2\u00a0pinwheel roses hovering over an entredeux vine with more\u00c2\u00a0 flowers.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Strands of the same green thread\u00c2\u00a0are woven through the entredeux stitches\u00c2\u00a0afterlazy daisy flowerettes have\u00c2\u00a0sprung from the vine.<\/p>\n

These two designs, the fil tire’ wreath and the entredeux vine, are part of the Fil Tire’ and Fancywork Combinations <\/em>embroidery design collection done by Suzanne Sawko and me.<\/p>\n

I have taught this project in Huntsville, AL, at Martha Pullen’s School of Art Fashion as well as\u00c2\u00a0in Myrtle Beach, SC, San Juan, Puerto Rico and various other locations.\u00c2\u00a0 Without exception,\u00c2\u00a0as students examine the sample before class, their first comment is an incredulous query about the apparent bullion rose at the center of the vine.\u00c2\u00a0 Was this done on the embroidery machine?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The answer is both yes and no.<\/p>\n

This is actually a web rose costumed as a bullion rose.\u00c2\u00a0 If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see it more closely.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The “yes” part of the answer is that the spokes of the web rose are laid in place as part of the embroidery design.\u00c2\u00a0 By hand, this step takes some time as it is hard space the spokes and make them equal in length.\u00c2\u00a0 So the embroidery machine saves some time.<\/p>\n

Without an embroidery machine, you can duplicate this web by dropping your feed dogs,\u00c2\u00a0 setting your machine for a wide zig zag–it really should be at least 5 mm but 7 is better as\u00c2\u00a0 this is the radius of the circular rose–and stitching zig to the right and zag to the left, into the same hole, the pivoting and placing the 3, 5 or 7 spokes.\u00c2\u00a0 This will\u00c2\u00a0 give you a web approximately the same size as the one shown.\u00c2\u00a0 Fewer\u00c2\u00a0 and shorter spokes will result in a smaller rose.\u00c2\u00a0 Be sure to tie the spoke threads securely as there is a lot of stress on them\u00c2\u00a0as the rose is created.\u00c2\u00a0 Floating a piece of Stitch N Ditch or water soluble stabilizer under the fabric will keep the zig zag from tunneling.\u00c2\u00a0 Regular tearaway will pull the stitches loose when it is torn away.<\/p>\n

The “no” part of the answer is that the actual fill of the web rose is done by hand, with a needle and\u00c2\u00a08-10 strands\u00c2\u00a0of the pink sewing thread, depending on the thread weight.\u00c2\u00a0 The web rose is like a spider web and\u00c2\u00a0 requires an odd number of spokes to work.\u00c2\u00a0 After the web is placed, the threaded needle comes up almost at the center and\u00c2\u00a0weaves the threads over and under, over and under until the outer limits of the spokes are filled.\u00c2\u00a0 By doing this,\u00c2\u00a0you will get a very nice looking web rose.<\/p>\n

But if you take just a little more trouble, and practice, you can get the\u00c2\u00a0effect of the wrapped bullion stitches.\u00c2\u00a0 For the first round or two, you just weave.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the 8-12 strands of thread are twisted tightly at the end near the last “under” spoke\u00c2\u00a0that the threads\u00c2\u00a0ducked under.\u00c2\u00a0 With your fingernail, you hold the loops in place, lying them over the next \u00c2\u00a0“over” spoke as you slip the needle\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0under the next “under” spoke.\u00c2\u00a0 This creates a faux bullion knot.\u00c2\u00a0 The spoke under which the needle just ducked holds those loops in place.<\/p>\n

You continue around the web in this manner until the web is filled and the spokes will not bear the burden of another faux bullion knot.\u00c2\u00a0 Be sure to end with an under spoke and then slip the needle to the back of the fabric and knot off.<\/p>\n

There will be a bit of a hole at the center from which the spokes radiate.\u00c2\u00a0 I usually put a French knot or 3 to fill the space.<\/p>\n

For those who are very proficient at bullion roses, it is probably faster to do one in the conventional manner.\u00c2\u00a0 I can do an acceptable rose, but for me this is much faster.\u00c2\u00a0 For those with arthritis or other limitations, certainly the untwisted\u00c2\u00a0 version would surely be easier and very attractive.\u00c2\u00a0 For others, for whatever reason, this faux bullion can be very useful.<\/p>\n

With the hand worked hemstitching, padded satin stitch dots and the cotton machine embroidery threads, the viewer is easily led to believe that it is done completely by hand.\u00c2\u00a0 A good part of that illusion is created by the\u00c2\u00a0cotton thread used–the\u00c2\u00a0Mettler 30 wt. and\u00c2\u00a0Madeira’s 80\u00c2\u00a0wt. Cotona.\u00c2\u00a0 Additionally, the design’s faithfulness to\u00c2\u00a0replicating hand stitches\u00c2\u00a0furthers the deception.<\/p>\n

If any readers would like this\u00c2\u00a0useful\u00c2\u00a0web rose design file, just leave your request in the comments section.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d be happy to share it with you.<\/p>\n

I know the\u00c2\u00a0 towel is useful.\u00c2\u00a0 It now hangs in my guest bathroom, in anticipation of tomorrow’s arrival\u00c2\u00a0of a beloved friend from my youth.\u00c2\u00a0 During our freshman year in college,\u00c2\u00a0Janice Kay\u00c2\u00a0lived in the room next door.\u00c2\u00a0 She was the first person I had ever met with the same name as mine.\u00c2\u00a0 We used her first and middle name to differentiate from me, just Janice.\u00c2\u00a0But we share more than the same first name–values, love of animals and more.\u00c2\u00a0 I taught\u00c2\u00a0Janice Kay\u00c2\u00a0and every one of the other 48 girls on our floor to knit\u00c2\u00a0 a pair of slippers.\u00c2\u00a0 To this day,\u00c2\u00a0she knits baby caps for third world countries.<\/p>\n

As Ralph said above, I will not rely on wit to make my house pleasant.\u00c2\u00a0 But I am sure that shared memories of a 46 year old friendship, this guest towel\u00c2\u00a0and \u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0tub of ice cream will do the trick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.\u00c2\u00a0” Ralph Waldo Emerson\u00c2\u00a0 Or make pretty guest towels, like this one.\u00c2\u00a0 Ralph is so on target as he observed\u00c2\u00a0 that we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,25,19,15,18,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5834"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13037,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions\/13037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}