Tag: TAST challenge

For the second Beyond TAST embroidery challenge we had to take an isolated stitch, or part of a repeated stitch and rearrange it into different patterns. Having already investigated many of the isolated stitches dueing the 2015-2017 TAST challenge, I decided to take a single repeat of some stitches and see what I could do.

Firstly, open chain. At the top you can see a line of open chain, with a single repeat of the stitch next to it. I then took the single repeat and arranged it into fillings, square, hexagonal, circular and oval motifs (which I turned into flowers because I usually end up turning everything into flowers at some stage).

Next, I did the same with maidenhair stitch and threaded, or interlaced running stitch.

You can see on this sampler that I also tried a single unit of interlaced running stitch as a random filling stitch and a couching stitch, to hold down some yarn. I ended up threading each running stitch twice to make the stitch bolder.

While I was working on these samplers, I came up with an “investigation language” to use on other stitches.

Firstly, some basic ways to try repeating stitches to make motifs and repeats. Then some ideas for ways to repeat stitches in borders. You can see that I used the “half circle on top of a line, followed by a half circle underneath the line” repeat with the interlaced running stitch to make a very decorative border.

Sometimes, as with the open chain border sketched below, it was immediately obvious there was a better way to make this stitch, so I didn’t end up stitching it out. In this case, back stitch is probably a better idea. I think that would make a great border with the addition of some beads or satin stitched blocks.

Then I thought of different ways to change each stitch, using chain stitch as an example. Whilst I didn’t use most of these ideas in my current samples, they’ll be very interesting to play with in future.

These ideas can be used with almost any stitch.

1. Add more parts to the stitch by repeating sections. For example, adding a second chain stitch to the other end of the little “tie down” stitch on a detached chain stitch. Tying down a chain stitch with three tacking stitches instead of one.
2. Replace part of the stitch with something else. E.G. tying down a detached chain with a french knot instead of a little tack stitch. Using a bullion stitch to make the looped part of the chain stitch.
3. Add beads to different parts of the stitch.
4. Take any variation and make part of it longer.
5. Use any of the variations to couch down another thread, ric-rac, or fabric.
6. If you change the order of the steps to make the stitch, can you then use more colours? For example, make the tack stitch of a detached chain or fly stitch first, then make the loop in another colour.
7. Can you weave part of the stitch?

There are probably more ways to change a stitch. If you can think of any, please leave a comment with your idea. I may end up giving them a try!

This year, as well as rerunning the regular TAST, Sharon Boggon is also running “Beyond TAST” for those of us who finished TAST already. In Beyond TAST, we spend 4-6 weeks investigating a stitch family or technique.

The first technique was pattern darning. Being me, I ended up making 5 of my 8″/20cm square samplers. For my first piece I wanted to use darning as the background. I layered fabric scraps, basted them with sewing thread and then darned, and darned, and darned some more. You may be able to see that I changed colours so the darning looks like patches as well, but they’re in different shapes to the fabric patches underneath.

When I got tired of that, I added a flower, and finished the whole piece by zig-zagging all the way round with my sewing machine. I zig-zagged with two threads together in a large needle (I think it’s a denim needle). Even though my machine will sew through almost anything, it struggled with thick fabric on the left and thin on the right hand side, so I had to pull it through a bit. I really love the effect of using two threads in the machine together, I’m going to try it with some free motion machine embroidery in future.

My next samplers were inspired by Kantha embroidery.

Border patterns and fillings. (See my Kantha Pinterest board for more). I drew the basic lines for each border with a water erasable pen before stitching.

Then I tried pattern darning used as fillings and to make flowers. I made some double folded hems around the brown fabric and stitched them down with running stitch. I also kept to a very limited colour palette of yellow, green and blue. Limited colour palettes are unusual for me, as I usually restrict myself to using all of them 😉

Finally, in my Kantha inspired samplers I made parallel rows of darning with threading through the stitches to form the patterns. I used an unusual fabric for this, glazed cotton with a floral pattern on it. I think it worked well.

And of course, no investigation into patterned running stitch is complete without a little Sashiko. Embroidered on the same glazed cotton as the previous sampler using two strands of variegated perle cotton. I ran out at the last row and substituted other plain threads of the same colour but they ended up being a bit thicker. Oops.

I used Sew Easy templates and a water erasable marker to draw out the design

Next up I’ll show you my latest Dropcloth sampler. I’ve almost finished, although it’s currently drying because I spilled something on it. Hopefully tomorrow it will be dry and I can finish it.

Welcome to part four of my, “Oh crap, I forgot to blog about all these TAST samplers” catch up series.

Revisiting stitch 86: Knotted cable chain

I only worked a couple of lines of knotted cable chain when the stitch was first announced, so I took an opportunity to go back and work it the way I had originally intended. I used every type of blue thread I had to work an ever decreasing square spiral, starting with the thickest threads and working towards the thinnest. I also worked the chain much closer to the “knot” than I did the first time. I much prefer it worked this way. I think every type of thread looks great, and it has a great texture that I was missing the first time. I filled in the spaces with a spiral of yellow running stitch because a little contrast always looks nice.

Revisiting stitch 45: Portuguese border stitch.

I really like Portuguese border stitch, so when I saw this video on YouTube, I knew I wanted to try embroidering it in a flower shape. I used a range of threads, working one, two, or three lines of the whipped part of the stitch to fill (or not), the petal shapes. For one leaf and part of the border, I added beads to the stitches that form the ladder part of the stitch and left just enough space to work the whipped section at either side.

I’m glad I revisited this stitch as it’s gone from “that’s pretty”, to be one of my all time favourites.

Leaf stitch is not a TAST stitch, however, when I saw this video on YouTube, I knew I had to try it. I found that it looks best in smooth threads. I’d love to try it with a thread similar to the one in the video. The colour changes are a lot more fun than any threads I had at the time. Have you noticed that I like flowers just a little bit yet?

Stitch 95: Zig-zag coral stitch.

I had an absolute blast with zig-zag coral stitch. I did little more than try out a load of different threads and a little bit of couching, but it looked great in anything I tried. I particularly like the way crewel wool turns the knot of the coral stitch into a little loop. (The peach line on the left, 8th row from the bottom if you don’t count the border).

Come back tomorrow for my final TAST 100 stitches instalment!