Flag Friday - Embroidery

Incorporating hand stitching into a prayer flag helps me to pray
and ponder over the person(s) I am creating the flag for.
Hand embroidery can be used to create text, as Sue Rideout did in her flag, or. . .

. . .to emphasize shapes, as Jamie Fingal did in this flag, or. . .

 . . .to create images, as Annika Lund and her embroidery students did in these lovely flags.

There are a plethora of stitches that can be used on prayer flags. Many more than just a straight stitch and french knot (even though those are both great stitches).  Rather than rewrite the book on embroidery tutorials here on the Prayer Flag Project, we are sharing some links to some top notch hand embroidery tutorials.

Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Stitch Video Tutorials - Over 70 easy to follow videos!

Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials - Picture Dictionary with links to Tutorials

The Purl Bee Embroidery Basics - Tutorials of basic stitches

The Purl Bee, Two-Color Techniques

I hope they will inspire you to incorporate a new stitch or two into your prayer flags, and then fly your flags by sharing them on the blog.  If you know of a tutorial not listed, please feel free to leave a link in a comment.

Flag Friday - Crocheted Flags

Lisa asked me to explain how I use crochet in my prayer flags after seeing these pictures:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

The joke is that I used a different method in each one.

Picture 1: I begin with a length of chain stitch before simply crocheting along the hanging edge with half crochet stitch. If its a single flag I then do more chain stitch before turning and crocheting back along it.
If it's too difficult to pass the hook through the fabric you can make a hole with an awl first such as in the following picture

Picture 2:   I stitched a row of blanket stitch across the hanging edge and then crochet a line of chain stitch before crocheting into the blanket stitches and again doing a chain stitch, before turning and crocheting back across it.
As in this pic you can see the blanket st in red thread and the crochet in yellow thread.
You can also see the first amount of chain st.

Picture 3: I used an old piece of pre-existing crochet and stitched it to the flags by hand but a zigzag machine stitch would work just as well.I have used a strip of lace edging in the past as well.

Here you can see I left gaps between the flags and decorated the gaps with buttons.This one hangs in my studio.

Q&A:
Crochet stitches used?  Any stitch you are comfortable with.
Number of rows crocheted?   Any number you want and it can be solid or lacy style crocheting.
Do you join a few together or make then singularly?  I make what is needed, be that one flag or a number of flags.
Do I need to be a crochet master? I like to use crochet because it fast and easy to use, and you don’t need to be a crochet master to do it. As long as you can make a chain and do one type of crochet stitch, anyone can do it.
The whole point of making prayer flags is to send love and positive thoughts out there to the universe and you can’t do that when you are stressing about your work……well I can’t.

I do hope that helps and will answer any questions, but I will say it now after years of following patterns I make things up now as I go.
Happy flag making!
 Cheers, Faye

Flag Friday

For this weeks Flag Friday we wanted to share a couple of links to stories about Prayer Flags being made for Nepal that we thought might be inspirational.

SAYING A PRAYER: Little Hallingbury Church of England Primary School pupils Oliver Engehan, 8, and Amelia Lellow, 9, with their prayer flags for Nepal - from the Herts and Essex Observer

Read more: http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/Prayers-sent-struck-earthquake/story-26410590-detail/story.html#ixzz3Zcj3JDXy 
Follow us: @HertsEssexObser on Twitter

Children in Chichester UK make flags for Nepal victims

Prayer Flags Serve As Tribute To The Fallen

If you have seen something of interest, please share it in the comments!  If you have made a prayer flag you would like to fly on the internet, please email us at prayerflagproject@gmail.com

Prayer Flags for Nepal

Hello!

My name is Sue and I live in Maine.  I am an old friend of Vivika Hansen’s.  She shared your idea and I had to sit down and make a prayer flag for Nepal.  There were so many things that the people there need and I couldn’t decide on just one to focus on.  So I decided to make a prayer flag full of many prayer flags!  I chose the gray background to represent the ash in their sky.  I chose bright colors for the mini flags to emphasize the goodwill that is coming their way from around the world.  What a wonderful way to show the people of Nepal that we care.

Flag Friday

Creating prayer flags is not about making a perfect piece of art, or finding the perfect words and images.  It is about putting our hopes, feelings and prayers into the world and having the faith that they will be heard and answered.  There have been many terrible and great things happening in the world this week and we are hoping you will find uplifting words to share with the world and create a flag (or two or three) to put into the wind, whether that wind is outside or across the internet.  Below are a couple of word clouds we hope might inspire you.  

 If you can think of other resources for words or sayings, please feel free to share them in the comments.

And as always please feel free to email us at prayerflagproject@gmail.com to share your flags on the blog.