Candlewick Cat
By Josie May Hodges
My cat Tufty was the inspiration for
this design. Sadly, we had to have her
put to sleep recently because of ill health
and old age. She was around sixteen
years old and lived with us for nearly
fifteen years. I was so pleased to hear
she will be featured in the magazine - it
is a fitting tribute to an old friend.
Materials Required:
20.5cm square of beige polycotton fabric.
Tracing paper.
Masking tape.
Soft-leaded pencil.
Water erasable pen.
10cm embroidery hoop.
Size 8 crewel needle.
Card Mount - AP06G in dark brown.
Wadding (optional).
Pinking shears (optional but useful for
cutting a neat edge to the fabric).
DMC stranded cotton in the
following colours:
Black, White,
Light brown (842),
Medium brown (3045),
Yellow (3078), and Pink (352).
Double sided sticky tape.
Glue.
Making The Card:
It will take approximately six hours
to complete this project.
Transfer Design To Fabric:
Carefully trace the design onto the
tracing paper. Tape the traced design
onto a lightbox or window, place the
fabric over the traced design and secure
with tape. Transfer the design onto the
fabric using a water erasable pen.
To Stitch:
Prepare the fabric by sealing the
edges with masking tape or neaten with
pinking shears. An embroidery hoop
should be used throughout all the
stitching.
Actual Size
26
Candlewick Knots:
Stem Stitch:
Stitching The Design:
Begin by working the
candlewick knots in relevant
colours according to the pattern,
use 2 strands for all of the
knots. Stitch the whiskers in
stem stitch using one strand of
white cotton. Stitch the white
tufts above the eyes in straight
stitch using one strand of white
Bring needle through the
cotton. Stitch the nose in satin
fabric at ‘A’ and wrap the
stitch using three strands of
thread twice around the needle.
pink cotton. Stitch the eyes and
Stem stitch is a series of
straight stitches worked slightly lines down to the nose, outline
around the pink nose and
overlapping to give a rope like
mouth in stem stitch using 2
line. Bring the needle up at A,
down at B, up again at C, down strands of black.
at D etc. work to follow the line
To Complete The Card:
on the pattern.
Gently wash to remove all
Insert the needle back into
Satin
Stitch:
traces
of erasable pen. When
the fabric close to the point it
dry iron carefully around the
was brought up, while holding
embroidery to remove creases.
the thread to keep the loop
Trim the fabric a little larger
around the needle. Pull the
than the card aperture with
needle through the loops and
pinking shears. Place doublefabric until the knot is nicely
sided tape around the aperture,
formed, not too tight.
mount the work into the card
together with wadding if used,
and secure the edges of the card
with a small amount of glue.
(Tip - while double-sided tape is
Satin stitch is made of
great for holding the embroistraight stitches laying next to
dery in position within the card
each other and gives a smooth and avoids any glue spillage
filling stitch. Bring the needle
onto the work, I find a little glue
Bring the needle back up
up at A, down at B, up at C,
applied around the outer edges
through the fabric and begin the down at D etc. Continue until
of the card will hold everything
next knot.
the whole area is filled.
together more securely).
Hints & Tips
When designing a cross-stitch or embroidery project, make sure that your design
will fit into a standard aperture size when finished. Although cards can be specially
made, they cost a lot more than ready made cards.
Anne Anderson, Braintree.
When folding your single or double fold cards, remember that in most cases the
raised part of the scoreline should be inside the card when it is folded.
Debbie Brooks, Edmonton.
27
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We hope you enjoy this free article taken from a back issue of the
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like. You may not use the project, text, pattern or pictures for any
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Ingersoll House, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, EN8 9HD, England.
Tel: 01992 781900 Fax: 01992 634339
The details above are correct as of 1st April 2007, but are subject to change without prior notice.