TAST 2010 - Lock Stitch

Bit more catching up - lock stitch. You can change the look of this stitch by varying the length of the satin stitches, and by changing which stitches you "pinch" together with the lacing.


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Lock stitch worked in a block; short satin stitches and alternate pairs of satin stitches "pinched" together by the lacing.


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Longer satin stitches in a lighter weight of thread. Pairs of stitches "pinched" at both bottom and top.

I haven't tried it in wool yet. And I also think it would look good worked over a block of solid satin stitch.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

Bringing up the rear! TAST 2010 Eastern Stitch

Way, way behind now. I didn't do much with this stitch, so I had another go at it:


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An exercise in scale, using different weights of cotton threads.

I think it has a "blackwork" look about it.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

Fallen behind, but not yet by the wayside.......

a bit of catching up:

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A bit more vandyke stitch, raised this time, worked in a block. Eastern stitch as spot motifs.

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Chained cross stitch. Raised vandyke leaves.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - just about caught up!

On here: raised chain stitch, woven trellis


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I did both methods of raised chain, but only one row in each because I wanted to keep the spiky look. Raised trellis flowers led to a bit more needleweaving.

I decided it was time to have a look at this and decide where to go next.
Here it is on my batik frame, waiting to be stretched:


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It looks a bit pale, because the light is behind it.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST2010 - Triple chain and Wave Stitches

Still catching up:

A bit more siennese stitch, worked in a block:


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Wave stitch - first bit with cross stitch


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and then with sword stitch and french knot:



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Triple chain stitch:


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I worked a little bit but decided it wasn't spiky enough so I substituted fly stitches for the second and third chain.

Here's a photo of the sampler as it is now:



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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - Siennese and Vandyke stitches

Lacking and slacking! Catching up, but not taking the stitches in the right order:


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Both stitches worked on a curve. The Siennese stitch embellished with fly, the Vandyke Stitch embellished with trellis on the inner curve.

It's a bit of a challenge to make all the TAST stitches fit into this piece now - I think I shall pick and choose the ones most suitable, and finish the challenge on another piece of fabric.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - Sword Stitch

Back and catching up.................


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - italian border stitch

Here's a couple of shots of this week's stitch:


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Basically a row of fly stitch with a knot at the bottom instead of a straight stitch. I've done it in a circle. One normal row in grey perle cotton, and another in blue, with a long legged knot stitch at the bottom.


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The photo above is to show the stitch in relief.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - ladder stitch

Just a little bit of ladder stitch:


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - buttonhole herringbone stitch

Just a little bit of this weeks' stitch added to the sampler. There are some family problems taking up a lot of my time just now, so I'm likely to get a little bit behind at times.


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - backdated!

Added a bit of knotted loop stitch here:


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - getting better with the camera!

This piece has a lot of texture in it, but when I photograph it flat, so show the stitches, you can't see it. I tried to photograph it to show some 'relief'.
Here's a sideways shot:


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I put a bit of diamond stitch, from a previous week, on it too.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - sorbello stitch, raised cup stitch

Still catching up.

I rummaged in my reject bin and found some more scraps of this fabric, so I've made it a bit bigger. While I was at the sewing machine, I stitched some scraps around the edges, so that I can work right to the edges and to make it easier to hoop. You never know, it might last the year out.


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You can see, if you enlarge the photo above, a couple more bits of sorbello stitch in there. And I did a little bit of raised cup stitch too, but really this piece isn't 'flowery', so I left it at that.


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - bullion buttonhole stitch

Well, it's Belated Bullion Buttonhole! I've been a bit busy with family stuff, but I'm catching up. Here's last week's offering:


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I decided to save a bit of time by alternating the bullion with a standard buttonhole stitch on the inner row. I like the effect.

Here's what the sampler is looking like now:


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You can see I've just started to put in some of this week's sorbello stitch. This ratty piece of fabric is filling up. I think it is the messiest piece I have ever produced, but I'm having fun with it nevertheless. I don't think it will last until the end of the 52!


To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - cloud filling stitch

Just in time, because it's still Tuesday here! Cloud filling stitch:


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Slowly filling up this piece of fabric. I'm experimenting with using a restricted colour palette, unusual for me. Very tempted to add lots and lots of bright colours.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - raised herringbone band

This week's stitch is Raised Herringbone Band, sometimes also known as Raised Lattice Band. I've tried out some different lacing variations on the herringbone stitch. I also laid down some horizontal foundation rows for the satin stitch to raise it a bit more.


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I've separated the raised band rows with a double row of herringbone stitch.

The first two rows are the basic stitch. Row three and four are two rows of herringbone stitch in crewel wool laced with cotton perle. Row five is laced double herringbone stitch.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - Fancy Hemstitch

This week's TAST stitch is fancy hemstitch. It is quite easy to do and I can see lots of possibilities, although having been struck down by a vicious virus, both me and my computer (McAfee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I haven't tried them all out. I put it on last weeks sampler:


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Not a great photograph - but I'm sure I will do more to it and take another in the not too distant future..........

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - 2 in 1

I almost missed the buttonhole wheel bullion flower - I wasn't keen on the stitch, probably because I didn't have a use for it. But when I saw the work done by other Tasters, I thought I really ought to have at least one sample. I put one in with the latest challenge, rope stitch.


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The fabric is a piece of muslin that I used as a slop cloth beneath a nappy (diaper) liner marbled with oil paints. First I stitched a circle in knotted buttonhole, just because I liked that stitch so much. Then I did two smaller circles in buttonhole stitch, and I finished one in trellis and one in bullion knots. I decided that although I wanted a raised effect, I didn't like them 'sticking up', so I tied them both down with fly stitches.

Then I did another circle in rope stitch in perle cotton and some lines in 3 strands of embroidery floss.

In an attempt to be both economical and co-ordinated, you can just see that I've done another circle in rope stitch, ready for the next few weeks.

Then I got bored sitting in front of the TV, and filled up some of the spaces with bullion and french knots, fly stitch and back stitch, just to keep my hands busy.

TAST 2010 - knotted buttonhole stitch - UPDATED

I found this week's knotted buttonhole stitch under a different heading in one of my books - "German knotted buttonhole stitch" - and a different stitch under "knotted buttonhole stitch" in several places I looked. I find this often happens, stitches being known by different names in different countries or by different authors. I decided that the best way out of my confusion was to do them both - so I did!


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The version of the stitch with two "ears" had a nice rhthym and was quite easy to do. The other version was much more difficult. It was hard to keep the tension even and get all the knots the right size and I found it very difficult to work the stitch in one smooth step. In the end, I gave up and worked it in two parts and that was much easier.

I found the "other" version of knotted buttonhole stitch
here.

UPDATE******

I did a bit more to my sampler:


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UPDATED again ******

thanks to Lakshmi and Walden, I looked again at my sampler and Sharon's instructions and realised that the two stitches, German Knotted and Knotted are different. I did a bit of the correct stitch on my sampler:


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The knotted row is the dark row near the top. You can see that it makes a much more definite line.

TAST 2010 - Portuguese Border Stitch

I'm a bit late with this week's Portuguese Border Stitch:


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Still with the same piece of fabric and threads - I've filled it up now!



To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - beaded hedebo edging stitch

Another new one for me:



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so I carried on working with the same piece of fabric and set of threads. This looked complicated to me and I thought it would be easy to count it and keep it even if I worked it along a row of cross stitch. I worked it first with the beads in the way Sharon described. Then I worked a row without the beads and decorated between the scallops with a cross stitch.

Then I tried working it, without beads, along a row of herringbone stitch:


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and got this nice lacy effect.

Then I thought if I stacked several rows they might look like waves:


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and they did! (sea, fish scales, mermaid's tail?) Then I found that if instead of taking the stitch at the end of the scallop through to the back on the bottom of the cross stitch, you take it through at the top, you get a kind of a twist and a more raised scallop, like this:


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I decided I liked that effect after I did it with the bright green row with the red beads, so I did it again with the light green and the green beads!

I made the green row at the bottom by varying the position of those beginning and ending anchoring stitches, so that the scallops face alternate ways.

TAST 2010 - knotted loop stitch

Here's this week's TAST sample - knotted loop stitch:


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This was another new stitch for me. It is loop stitch with an added buttonhole stitch, but I had to work a row in loop stitch first, before I could see the difference! I played around with the spacing, and the length of the "legs".

The green row across the bottom, decorated with orange buttonhole stitch, is loop stitch. All the other rows are knotted loop stitch.


To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

TAST 2010 - diamond stitch - UPDATE

TAST 2010 starts this week!

I had real problems with this stitch until I went to look at Mary Corbet's video and found out I was doing it all wrong! So, I started over again. It's a new stitch for me, so I gave it a good workout in different weights of thread.


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I found I had to be careful not to pull the the knot too soon. If you make a mistake it is quite difficult to unpick because of all those knots. There's lots of opportunity for embellishment with this stitch because of all the spaces and points. After finding out how to to it properly, it is less complicated and quicker than it looks, but I don't think it will be a favourite of mine.

To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

and to find Mary Corbet's excellent stitch demonstration videos go to her blog, Needle'n'Thread and click on the link for Video Library of Stitches. Thanks Mary, you make it look easy!

Update:

I found I had a bit more time, so - I did a bit more:


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well, I couldn't leave it naked and unadorned, could I?!

TAST 2007 - cable chain, thorn, pekinese, pistil, seeding

Still catching up!

I saw this Icicle Doll Swap and of course I immediately wanted to make one, but I wanted to catch up with TAST too. The answer was obvious, icicle dolls embellished with TAST stitches.

I haven't joined the swap, but I've started on these three:


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The green one with the head on has knotted cable chain, thorn, pekinese and pistil stitches along with some seeding for texture. The white ones have pekinese and pistil stitches and seeding.

I feel much better now! It was so nice to sit and do some hand sewing just because I felt like it!

I've finished two of them now:


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I keep forgetting to give sizes. The 'bodies' of these measure about 7 inches or 17.5cm.

TAST 2007 - knotted buttonhole band, reversed buttonhole bar

Knot and bar the buttonhole!

Here's my combined sample for knotted buttonhole band and reversed buttonhole bar.


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Worked mostly in knitting yarns on a coarse evenweave fabric with a sprinkling of french knots, a little laid work and some simple counted stitches.

I worked the two rows at the top in zigzag fashion, over two rows of alternate straight stitches. I also used the straight stitches to work reversed buttonhole bar in green, instead of the foundation buttonhole row.

I went back to the first, rejected sampler I started for knotted buttonhole bar, reverse buttonhole and rice stitch.


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I'm not at all pleased with it, but I couldn't waste the fabric and all those empty spaces! I do like the circle with the laid work inside it, it's almost crewel! And I like the ribbon threaded through the knotted buttonhole bar.

TAST 2007 Still Catching Up.......cable chain, rice stitch

I'm still catching up. This is cable chain, I thought it looked plain, so true to form I added some french knots!


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Then I added some shapes in rice stitch. Some in thick threads, some much lighter. Not sure where I'm going with this now, but you can bet there won't be much empty space left when I've finished it!

Here's an example of where I have used rice stitch before:


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This is a bluebottle. The back is made from canvas with rice stitch in black and blue/grey.

TASTY rice dish

Here's my finished sample for cable chain and rice stitch. Its not really a tasty dish, more of a pig's breakfast! I had fun playing around with the rice stitch, but this might well be one for running under the embellisher and adding some more on top.


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TAST 2007 buttonhole wheels, portuguese knotted stem, crested chain

I'm catching up with the TAST challenge, starting with Portuguese Knotted Stem. I love this stitch. Mostly I use it to divide rows of stacked stitches, like this sample I did for Sharon Boggon's Personal Library of Stitches course:


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Here, I've started a new sample, using portuguese knotted stem worked in variegated stranded cotton and knitting yarn to make curving lines.


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Crested chain and buttonhole wheels.


I've added some more stitches to my portuguese knotted stem sample:


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There are some lines in crested chain and some buttonhole wheels. I have started to fill in the gaps with simple counted work stitches. I've used a variety of weights of thread, some matt and some shiny.

I think it looks a bit 1970s psychedelic!

I think this is done for now - I like the few empty 'negative' spaces that are left -although I feel I will probably come back and do something else to it later.


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