Okay, I'll admit it. I never thought I'd be interested in embroidery. Too cutesy, too hard, too many guilt-ridden memories of middle school cross-stitch projects I never finished....
I should have known better:
When I got back into quilting a few years ago, I told myself I would be a piecer, exclusively. I would NEVER appliqué (too cutesy, too hard, too...). And now? My last three quilts have more appliqué that pieced strips.
Here's the thing: I keep imagining quilts I want to make, going so far as to draw and graph them out--only to realize afterward that what I see in my head is do-able...but only for someone who knows how to embroider (I wish I could train my head to want only what I already know how to do...)
Other than the aforementioned cross-stitching experiences from long, long, long ago (which don't inspire continuance, frankly), I know NOTHING about embroidery. Zero, zilch, nada. And my googling on the topic furthers my confusion--instead of clarifying meanings, it just add more to the list of things I don't know. Crewel? Stumpwork? Goldwork? Knotting? Purl? DSM? It's a whole new language and I'm getting very overwhelmed.
Goldwork looks the closest to what I want to do, but it seems a little bananas to begin with something so specialized (besides can you even
do something like that in a quilt??).
Does anyone remember how they got started with embroidery? How long did it take you to feel confident and comfortable?
Is there a book out there that gives clear definitions of the different kinds of embroidery and what kind to use when (i.e., "crewel is X kind of embroidery and is used for Y")? Is there any kind of embroidery that quilters particularly use? Don't use? Do we embroider just the top or is embroidering part of the quilting process?
Okay, I'll stop now.
Thanks for listening and please, anyone, let me know if you have any words of wisdom.
(Don't know if it means anything, but I generally quilt on either one of my two Juki's--F400 or TL2010--I assume I should start embroidering by hand)
On a final note: I don't know how I would quilt anything without you all....
xo,
Aso