BILLIONS OF BULLIONS IN Thred

Alright, just two so far

I love bullions. I hate hand-stitching. I have a fantastic machine (a Pfaff 7570) which consumes my time and emotions. (And no, it doesn't sew on buttons!) (Actually, it does, and rather well, but don't tell my husband.)

With Thred, available from www.thredworks.com, satin stitching is a breeze. So, although my rose isn't really a bullion, and wouldn't fool my dog (he's a Maltese, and they're pretty smart), I like it, and I hope you will too.

The secret ingredient is to add Puffy Foam. It's not necessary, but it raises all the ridges. It can be quite hard to remove bits from the middle - use tweezers.

HOW TO CREATE THIS ROSE STEP BY STEP

(Click image to see enlargement - the one on the left uses Puffy Foam)

You can print this page or save it for work off-line. If you are brand new to Thredworks, I would suggest that you do the Celtic Knot Step by Step first.

  1. Download Rose Bitmap

  2. Open Thred. If it is already open, left click 'File' (menu bar), left click 'New'.

  3. Left click pref (menu bar).
    Fill spacing should be 0.30.
    Satin border size 2.00.
    Satin form Ends Tapered (this one's really neat).
    Hoop Width 25mm, Height 25mm. (This is a very small rose.)
    Right click to make pref go away.

  4. Left click File (menu bar) / Load Bitmap. Open the bitmap you downloaded called cbrose1.bmp. If you can't see it then you need to change the bitmap settings - Left click View (menu bar) / Set / Bit Map Color. Change the colour to one that is opposite to your background. (You can also change the background colour - Left click View (menu bar) / Set / Background Color.)

  5. Left click Form (menu bar) / Line. Make 11 line forms in approximately the places on the bitmap in the order indicated. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST 3 POINTS IN ALL THE FORMS, including the two in the middle. The bigger squares on the bitmap indicate the form starting point. At the end of each line form right click away from the design to make sure you have nothing selected before starting the next form.

  6. Neat feature coming up.
    On the very left of your screen underneath the colour boxes you should see the words Box Select. Left Click this. Your cursor will become a cross-hair when it's over the design. Put a marquee (a box) around your entire design by dragging the mouse around it. Make sure that everything is inside the box.
    All your forms will be selected.
    Left click Fill (menu bar) / Border / Perpendicular Satin. Hey presto, all your forms are filled.
    The forms marked 1 and 2 on the bitmap would look better not tapered, and all form details can be changed at any time.
    Right click near a form point on one of the middle forms to select it. Press the F key. You should get a box displaying the form properties. Click on the word Tapered in the Start and End boxes to make them read Blunt. Right click away from the design to remove the box from display. Do the same for the other middle form.
    Isn't the tapering a great feature?

  7. This rose looks best with 3 different colours. On the left of your screen there are 2 columns of colour boxes. The left hand box is used to select the colour. The right hand box defines the colour. To change the colour of a form, right click the form to select it, then left click the appropriate left hand colour box.
    If you have inappropriate colours appearing, left click the right hand colour box. A colour palette will appear, and you can define your own colours.
    (Although colours are important to you, the computer doesn't care what colour you are using. If you have your rose in black, blue and green, you still get to choose the thread colour you put on the machine.)
    Note on the right hand side of your screen the colour bar indicates the stitching order.

  8. Now you've probably got lots of jump stitches - don't worry about them yet. Move your form points so that the stitches are just not quite touching the stitches from the adjacent form. You will occasionally get the message 'Stitches in the form are edited, refill anyway?' This just means that you've accidentally moved a stitch at some time instead of a form point. (When you move stitches, if the form refills it will forget about those individual stitches you have moved.) Click OK.
    Note you can control the tapering. This happens between the two end form points. Move them further from each other and you get more of a taper.
    Remember if you accidentally move something, click undo (menu bar) straightaway.
    Remember Z is zoom in, A is zoom out, S is zoom sideways (mouse cursor is center).
    Remember that you can add a form point by putting the cursor next to an existing one and press W, then move the point to where you want it to be. To add several, press E and right click when finished.

    You can stitch this out at any time to see what you're making. The advantage of small designs is that they take less time to stitch!

  9. Now for those jump stitches.
    (Don't worry about jump stitches between colour changes.)
    Right click away from the design. Press the up arrow. This should highlight the first form. If it does not, press the / key and enter the correct number less 1. I say less one because form numbering starts from zero. So although you have 11 forms, the highest form number will be 10. Keep pressing the up arrow to make sure all your forms are in order. The current selected form number is indicated on the left hand side.

  10. Left click edit (menu bar) / Sort / By Form.

  11. Still got a few big jump stitches? Watch the movie by pressing the I key. See where the jump stitches are. Would the stitch be closer if the form stitches were reversed? If yes, then right click the form to select it, left click Edit (menu bar) / Flip / Order.
    (Note, on the bitmap I put number 9 reversed, so you could try this.)
    When you do this, repeat the previous step to sort by form again.

  12. Stitch out and fine tune all the curves before doing the next step. Remember, when you change stitches in forms, then move a form point, the form will recalculate and replace all stitches in that form.

  13. Now all the jump stitches should be fairly close. These jump stitches can be hidden underneath the satin stitches. For each jump, Right click away from the design. Left click frm+ (menu bar). This makes the forms go away temporarily. Zoom in a couple of times on the start of a jump (Z key) and right click the stitch to select it. Press the space bar. You can now insert stitches to position the jump stitch under the satin stitch of the next form to stitch out. You should only need one stitch to hold it. Right click away from the design to finish inserting. (The insert is an 'insert after' rather than an 'insert before'. This means that you select the stitch before where you want to insert.)
    Remember the undo (menu bar).

Stitch out your rose. Okay, so it's really small. (I think it should actually be much smaller, but that would be hard for a Step by Step.) But how about a group of them with some satin stitch leaves around? (Future Step by Step is how to create them! Hint - Create a straightish form line with about 8 points then left click edit (menu bar/ Convert / To Satin Ribbon - I love that feature.)

You can start a new Thred file, then insert the rose file several times anywhere (File / Insert). When you insert a new file, note the colour order on the very right hand side. You will need to do edit (menu bar) / Sort / Auto to get the stitches stitching out by colour. And, yes, you will have jump stitches between the roses to deal with!

Please contact Caroline Begbie with comments and suggestions.

Rose to Download in Thred format

Click on the image to download

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