Crazy Quilt Spider Web Tutorial

I was recently asked why I use spiderwebs on so many of my crazy quilt pieces.  Well, the Victorians used spiderwebs quite often on their quilts.  The Victorians loved anything exotic and ornate!  They had a great love for nature.  Not only that, they considered spiders in their homes to be a sign of good luck.

Back to the reason that I use them on my crazy quilts so often is that many of mine have a garden theme to them.  Spider webs seem to work well for me.  And I really love doing them!!

If you look closely at real spider webs, they're mini works of art!  Each is unique, no two are alike and they are perfectly imperfect:

Spider webs are incredibly fragile and those little spiders work so hard and diligently  to create them:

I vaguely remember one day late last Summer, while I was still completely out of my mind, standing in my living room looking out the window and watching a spider build her web on the corner of my house.  It was mesmerizing to watch her go round and round, connecting the threads that support the spokes of the web.  It took her 2 hours to make that gorgeous web:

For today, I thought you would enjoy a tutorial on how to make embroidered spider webs.  And I guarantee, it will not take you 2 hours to do!

For my spider webs, I like to use Kreinik #4 or Kreinik #8 Braid.  You can use whatever you like.  DMC #8 Perle Cotton works nicely as does 1 or 2 strands of embroidery floss.  I like the Kreinik Braid because of the sparkle and it shows up well on my blocks:

Obviously, the first thing you'll need to do is to decide where you want to put your web.  Mine is going in the bottom left patch of this piece.

Next, you'll want to start in the middle and make the long spokes of the web:

Just make long straight stitches.  Keep in mind, that perfection is not part of this process.  Real spider webs are usually not perfect and you won't want yours to be either.

Next, you'll need to connect the long spokes with the connecting threads:

This will also couch down the long spokes.  Look at this photo closely.  You'll want to bring your needle up on the far side of a spoke thread, cross over it and put your needle down on the far side of the next spoke thread:

Make some of your stitches close together and some further apart.  Do a few on an angle and skip one occasionally.  Here is my finished web:

When I get my spider on this piece, I'll show you how I make my spiders with buttons or beads and thread for the legs.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo of my Autumn Spider Purse which I completed the other day.  Yesterday, I crocheted the trim for the bottom.  I plan to get this sewn up today and in the shop tomorrow: