Tag: TAST challenge

A quick flashback to ten weeks of the Take a Stitch on Tuesday embroidery challenge.

1: Fly stitch

2: Blanket and buttonhole stitch

3: Feather stitch

4: Cretan stitch

5: Herringbone stitch

6: Chevron stitch

7: Detached chain stitch

8: Chain stitch

9: Couching

10: Running stitch

Ten weeks, fourteen 8×8 inch samplers. (Plus a few other projects)

Now I know why I have those callouses on my finger tips…

 

(Click the photo for a larger view).

This week’s embroidered sampler features various types of couching in a little flower garden scene.

For the border I used pattern couching (with plain couching on the right). Pendant couching and silk ribbon couched with French knots for the clouds.

The ground is worked in puffed couching and lattice couching. I always forget that you have to be very careful when laying the grid for lattice couching because it can go wobbly very easily so I left it wobbly to remind myself next time I try it. That, and I used up the last of my favourite dark brown and didn’t want to undo it and throw it away.

😛

This little basket of flowers is from a sample I worked earlier this year. I managed to fake making it straight by adding a little bit to the bottom of the basket on one side and added French knots to the spaces in the couching for added interest. You can download the pattern for free if you’d like to try it.

The rest of the sampler features a lot of couched spirals, with plain couched leaves (and chain stitch leaves on the little flowers), and couched satin stitch for the filling in the main flower.

On the right hand side of this week’s sampler there’s also a bit of couched ric-rac braid. Ric-rac can be couched in many different ways but my favourite is to run a line of thread up the middle and using a zig-zag stitch so you can barely tell it’s ric-rac underneath.

I couched a lot of ric-rac on this Dorset feather stitchery sampler that I made a few months ago.

I’m really fond of couching so this week’s sampler was a lot of fun. Now, on to running stitch!

Some useful links:
TAST on Facebook
Sharron’s TAST FAQ on her website, Pintangle.
Free vintage stitch book downloads.

This week’s Take a Stitch on Tuesday sampler is detached chain, or lazy daisy stitch. Since detached chain works so well with flowers, and flowers are one of my favourite motifs, I really had a blast.

Before I started I drew a selection of motifs using a Clover water erasable pen. I’m on my second one already. I use it a LOT.

(Click on the photo to make it bigger)

There are many different variations on detached chain stitch but I only used a few because I wanted to concentrate on the motifs themselves, rather than working lines of different stitches.

On the full sampler I used lazy daisy to couch a thread on the top border. On the right in groups of three, threaded chain stitch on the bottom and twisted detached chain on the left. Other stitches include slipped detached chain stitch, berry stitch, picot stitch (long tack chain stitch in groups of four) and long tack chain stitch (also known as long tail or long tail chain).

These flowers were inspired by one of the chapter headings in the updated version of Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. I especially loved how full the leaves are and they make a great corner for borders. In fact, you could repeat them all the way along the border on a large project like a tea cloth or the bottom of a vintage inspired skirt.

I worked long tack chain in groups of 5 and wove around the centres for these flowers.

Another favourite idea I came up with was to turn slipped detached chain upside down with the little “leaves” pointing up to make carrots. For my tree I worked the detached chain leaves with a variegated green thread. I think it would look cute with little french knot apples or oranges too. I wonder what stitch would make lemons?

I think these butterflies look best in a thicker thread like all six strands of embroidery floss or size 5 perle cotton. At least I think that’s size 5. It might be size 3. I’m not sure because I dyed it many years ago and didn’t keep any labels 🙂

Other thoughts I had while working my sampler:

• I think the suffolk puff/fabric yo-yo motif would look better with  smaller puff.
• Flowers flowers flowers. I can never get enough of them.
• I see a garden sampler in my future…

Oh, and I already used the butterfly on this birthday embroidery I did for Mr Knittingand! It’s his birthday today.

Some useful links:
TAST on Facebook
Sharron’s TAST FAQ on her website, Pintangle.
Free vintage stitch book downloads.