Yesterday on QUILTsocial I showed you how to do bobbin work using Dazzle thread from WonderFil. I loved how the bobbin work turned out using the shimmery Dazzle thread AND how I could put my free-motion quilting skills to use to embroider a beautiful butterfly design on the crazy quilt base.

Today we’re going “sewing machine free” and I’m going to try out these threads for one of my favorite hand stitching techniques – Punchneedle embroidery.

I’ve done A LOT of Punchneedle Embroidery but I almost exclusively use embroidery thread. I’ve designed many patterns, had lots of projects in different magazines and have written my own pattern book called“Fresh and Fun Punchneedle”. 

I’ve had quite a few punchneedle projects in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine too – a few of them are available as pattern downloads on their website:

Seven years ago, I added a series of videos to YouTube which explain how to prepare your fabric design, how to thread the punchneedle and how to do the basic punchneedle stitch. I’ll add links to each of these videos throughout today’s post.

Supplies

To do punchneedle embroidery you only need a few supplies. This makes it a great technique for summer stitching on a trip, at your cottage or on your back deck! Basically you need:

• fabric such as weaver’s cloth
• an embroidery hoop
• a punchneedle
• a threader
• small, sharp scissors
• thread, such as embroidery floss, perle cotton or Razzle and Dazzle thread from WonderFil

That’s it! No machine, no electricity!

Transferring your design

Once you have your design chosen, you need to transfer it to your weaver’s cloth. The cloth is quite easy to see through, so I just put it over top of my design and trace it with a fine tip marker or mechanical pencil.

Threading the punchneedle

There’s virtually NO WAY to thread a punchneedle without using a threader! So make sure you have a spare, because if you lose or break it, you’ll be out of business! But luckily, using the threader is super easy – just check out my video:

Here’s my punchneedle, all threaded and ready to stitch!

Helpful hint: Since we’re using the Dazzle thread on a spool, it helps to put the spool in a mug to keep it from rolling away while you’re stitching.

Stitching

The puchneedle stitch is very simple and with a little practice, easy for almost anyone to master! Watch my little video to see how you go about stitching with the punchneedle.

Here’s what the first stitches look like from the BACK of the punchneedle embroidery. Remember, you’re working from the back, so don’t get too discouraged if it doesn’t look all that great at first.

Here’s the front, with just the outline of one flower finished. I LOVE how the Dazzle thread looks! That little glimmer of metallic thread is so different from what I typically use to do my punchneedle stitching. I can’t wait to see what the embroidery piece looks like when I’m all done!

The back of the punchneedle piece shows how the lines of stitching are placed a needle’s width apart. On the front of the piece, the threads fluff out and take up more room, so you can’t tell that the lines aren’t right beside eachother.

Here’s my collection of Razzle and Dazzle threads!! My friend Jean Boyd made me this wonderful sewing bag a couple years ago for our quilting group’s Christmas exchange. I just love how I can see all of the colors that I have through the clear pockets!

So, I’m going to sit out here on my back deck and keep on stitching. Another great thing about punchneedle is that it doesn’t take long to stitch a small piece, so tomorrow I’ll have the embroidery done and I’ll show you a couple different ways that I incorporate my punchneedle pieces into quilted projects.