With the reverse teardrop crescents in place, we can stitch the teardrop crescents around the filling stitches. I’m using one strand of Caron Collection Watercolours 007 Pistachio Nut for my overdyed. I’ve used this color before, and it’s one of my favorites with the shades of purple, teal and beige. I worked with about 34″ at a time. The original color way used Access Commodities Trebizond 695 Persian Blue.
I anchored with a pin stitch, three times over a single canvas thread, and placed indicated by red in the diagram. The first two stitches share a hole in the center of the canvas, 1 canvas thread below the tip of the reverse teardrop crescent.
Continue as shown in this diagram. The stitches come up on the outside of the first two stitches and cross over them before ending.
Stitch alternating sides as shown, with numbers at the beginning and ending of each stitch – come up at the odd numbers and go down at the even numbers.
The next stitches, shown in yellow, come up in shared holes with the beginning of previous stitches, and end in shared holes with the end of previous stitches.
Again stitch alternating sides, until you get to the last stitch. For the last stitch, stitch 41, come up on the same side as the previous stitch. This last stitch will lay nicer across the top of the teardrop crescent if it comes up on the same side as the previous stitch.
End off with a pin stitch, shown in green in the diagram. This pin stitch is also 3 times over a single canvas thread. With your fingernail or needle, move the stitches of the crescent aside to see the canvas underneath, make the pin stitch from the front, then snip off the thread. Use your needle to stroke the stitches of the crescent back in place.
Stitch the other three crescents as shown in the diagram. The crescents are all stitched with a single strand of Watercolours 007, but I’m showing the lines in different colors to help you find the right number for each crescent. Numbers are only shown at the beginning of the stitches, and the stitches that share holes are shown in yellow just like the first one. All of these crescents share holes with each other along the diagonal sides, and all of them start in the shared hole at the center of the canvas.
The finished teardrop crescents form a nice compact center, with the reverse teardrop crescent filling stitches.
I used a new strand of Watercolours for each teardrop crescent. You may carry the thread from one to the next if you want, but bear in mind that the Watercolours is a tender thread and will sometimes separate if taken through the canvas too many times.
4 thoughts on “Teardrop crescents”
I need a list of threads.
Barbara, you may use any threads you choose, but I posted the threads I’m using in a blog post from March 23: https://debbeesdesigns.com/selecting-threads/
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
When you add a new stitch, could you reference what thread you used in your original turquoise piece? Thank you!
Excellent suggestion – thanks! I’ve gone back and updated the original posts to reflect the colors used for the original project. The original colors are in italics. I’ll make sure they get added to the rest of the posts.