Ok... so as I said before I've just I've discovered 'Encrusted Calico' (or 'encrusted muslin' in the USA) on Pinterest.

For those in the dark, like I was a few days ago, Encrusted Calico is a method of embroidery that is all about texture on a piece of calico .  They are usually in just one colour range (like whites/creams) so the star of the piece is the texture rather than the colours.

A beautiful example that pops up at nearly every google search for encrusted calico is one by a lady called Catherine Rosselle (her flicker album is here although she appears to dabble in a lot of diff styles of embroidery/fibre art).  She has actually embroidered over her 'lumpy bits' although a lot of people see to leave the raised bits un-embroidered.

Gorgeous huh?  Well if you start googling about this type of work there are many, many, many links to a free Embroidery Guild tutorial but once you get there you (or at least I) couldn't access it.  Frustrating!!  The other thing that comes up again and again is 'encrusted pebbles', where the theory being that the fabric is then wrapped somehow around a small rock.  Again there are multiple links but all lead unfortunately to a now defunct website stitchinfingers.ning.com.

The best I could come up with was this PDF for 'A Mermaids Chantelaine'.  This gives some idea of the idea behind encrusted work and what stitches may be useful.  And some uses for creating scissor cases etc.  Nothing to do with pebbles though.

I'm going to give it a go based on what I read in the PDF and the photos I've seen around the net.  I'm not sure if I will try and wrap it around a pebble.  I think for the minute I'll just work on creating something and then figure out what to do with it.

The theory is that you sandwich bumpy/lumpy items like buttons curtain rings etc between two pieces of calico and then stab stitch the two pieces together to hold the item between the two layers.  Well I didn't do that did I? No I stitched them to the background fabric... and THEN stab stitched them through both layers.

Why does it matter? Well the idea being that by stitching them down first you're creating extra texture that may show through to the top layer.  But thats the point right, creating texture?  Oh well I've done it now and I'm not going back.  (note to self: don't do that next time).

The PDF suggests using sewing machine cotton for the stab stitching as its thin but I just used one strand of DMC floss (white).  They also recommend only using plastic types things, not metal as it can rust or discolour the fabric.  But there are some out there who have used metal, and some who even used rusty metal to add additional colour to the piece.

Here's a photo of the types of lumpy things I have used.  I've got buttons, a couple of beads, a couple of curtain rings, 3 of those plastic things you put in to hide screws (I think these are from a cheap book case), the bone shapes are from an old scrapbooking kit.  The big grey thing is actually out of hubbys' garage they're used with roofing screws to keep things watertight.  And there is another thing there with a hole in it that I'm really not sure what it was for, I think again its something to do with screws.  As you can see I've put one of the beads inside a small curtain ring.  And one of the weird white screw things is actually sitting on top of a button, I figured it'd create some additional height.

My fabric area that I'm working to is a 10cm x 10cm (4" x 4") square.  Although my fabric is prob about twice that.  I've outlined the 10 cm square using a water erasable pen, you can just see the pen in the photo (I think).

I didn't take a picture after I'd sewn these all the background, as the photo was just so I could remember where I had planned to put each bit, but I just lightly stitched each item on.  Through the holes where I could and I did a rough kind of cross stitch over the non button bits.  But as I said you're not really supposed to do that, but after now attaching the top layer of fabric I'm not that worried about it to be honest, it hardly shows.

This next photo shows how the second layer looks stitched on.  I haven't put the top layer in the hoop, it doesn't appear to need it as yet.  There are a few ripples in the fabric, this is quite normal apparently and can be used to add extra texture.

I have started to add a few French knots and a couple of raised cups, nothing very exciting yet.  I have no real plan as to what I'm going to do with the stitching... other than texture (of course) and in this kind of neutral colour palette.  They also suggest using a variety of different threads, I don't have much laying around here at the moment, so I think I'll probably just use different numbers of floss strands to get some variation.

Picots, buttonhole wheels, bullion knots, couching, beads, etc are all good texture type stitches to include.

We'll see it how it goes I guess :-)

(will try and take the pics during the day next time)

Ciao!