Couching on the Couch: An Exploration in Couching Stitches

When Melissa and I were brainstorming blog post ideas, the pun-lover in me could not get the phrase couching on the couch out of my head. She already had plenty of couching stitch tutorials, but not an ode to the couching stitch as the star of a stitch sampler, and especially not a project stitched completely on a couch. She challenged me to think outside of what I might normally stitch and to use as many couching stitches as possible. It's been such a fun challenge! Let me introduce you to my couching on the couch project, full of couching stitches (7, to be exact), colors, and textures.

Materials for Couching on the Couch

For this project I used basic embroidery materials from my stash such as

• Ruby Stary Speckled fabric

• Embroidery hooop

• Embroidery needle

• Yarn in a worsted weight wool

• 6-ply cotton embroidery thread

• Embroidery scissors

• MCreativeJ Florals Stick and Stitch pack

My Exploration in Couching Stitches

My virtual dictionary was the post 13 Couching Stitches to Use in Your Next Embroidery Project, and oh how I used the heck out of those linked videos! I started easy, using the basic Couching Stitch, with a worsted--weight wool as my base, and embroidery thread to couch the yarn down.

Then I decided to play with more advanced couching, doing the Trailing Couching stitch around a length of six-strand floss for some texture. It looks almost like cording laid down over the daisy-type of flower. Once the couching was complete, I added a bit of French knot action to the middle of the daisy!

Next, I decided it was time to dive in to some more advanced couching techniques. I love the look of the Plaid Filling stitch, so decided to work that stitch, in bright and fun colors of emrboidery floss, over a flower. Once I was done, I added some more traditional couching around the outside of the floral border to more fully define the flower.

The little leaf motif near the daisy flowers was just begging to be a multi-layered stitch, and the Persian Border Stitch felt like the way to go. I laid down a foundation of 6-strand floss using the satin stitch, following the shape of the leaf as much as possible, then used a lighter green thread color for the zig-zagging stitch and a yellow for the actual couching/anchoring stitches. I love how it turned out!

As I was already thinking outside of the box regarding following patterns exactly, I decided to add some branches to my piece to fill in some of the space around my flowers. The Thorn Stitch was perfect for that. I used all 6 strands of a brown floss as the base. I created my couching stitches in 3 strands of a lighter green, and let the branches bend as they wanted to.

I decided to add a sweet little Tassel in some of the blank space on the right of my embroidery near one of the branches using vibrant pink and red embroidery thread.

I finished the sampler off by making the last daisy a Couched Circle instead. Pro tip (and by pro I definitely mean adventurous stitcher): if your flower center turns out a bit funky/don't turn out exactly how you'd hoped, you can't go wrong with covering it up with a bunch of French knots!

A quick rinse with hot water to get rid of the stick and stitch paper, then air dry, and this sweetie pie was done!

And in case you were wondering where my couch was this entire time, here it is in the background. I can promise you it got plenty of use during this project!

I hope this project of mine has inspired you to try out new stitches. I know I had a blast and learned some new things along the way as well.