These thoughts come to me as it is Term Test season in Japanese schools. Every morning I see the children at the local school pass by, they are tired after sleepless nights filled with cramming and revising. Every afternoon I see them on their way home, relieved or burdened with feelings of doubt and failure.
Oh, I am so glad there is no TAST test!
Week 50's stitch is the Berry stitch, which basically is a double Chain stitch. Sharon's instructions are here and my sampler is below:
It is my feeble attempt at making lingon berries or cowberries. You can read more about them here and learn about the craze for this Swedish delicacy.
What I am actually trying to capture with this embroidery is the frame of a special calendar; the Lingon Almanacka. It is old and traditional and looks like this.
18 comments:
Beautifully done sampler!
Same with me ...I dont think I wiil be able to do most of the stitches without looking at the instructions :( Need to do revision.
Hi, Latha.
I was actually thinking of testing myself during the winter holiday. The name of each stitch on a slip of paper in a box, pull one slip and work that stitch, then check against the instructions.
Same with me, I actually started to repeat all the stitches.
My whole family and I we love cowberries and in Austria we often can buy cowberries from Sweden.
Your stitchery is wonderful and the colours bring X-mas mood on my sunny island.
Thank you for sharing. Your works are always eyecandies.
Thank you for your kind words, Claudia.
I don't know if there is an IKEA store in Austria, but IKEA's staple dish in the restaurant is meatballs with cowberry jam. I also use it on pancakes, with oatmeal as well as meat dishes.
I'm happy to know I and Latha are not the only ones who will have to revise the stitches! Back to school!
wow that is as task you have set yourself with the stitches, looking forward to seeing how you do, I certainly would have to look a lot of them up again before I could stitch them and I hate to admit am behind on the tast, arrowhead was the last one I have done and not posted that on my blog yet, must pull myself together and get back into the stityching and bloggging mood. Your berry stitch looks great
I am so impressed that you have stayed with TAST for (almost) the whole year, nearly finished. You have mastered (mistressed?) an encyclopaedia of stitches and even if you can't quite remember them all you will know they exist and be able to use them in some wonderful projects. Don't put yourself through testing, why give yourself that stress - you know where to look when you need these things.
Your sample is beautiful, I love the colors of your berries. Like you, I intend to redo a number of points that I've already forgotten.
Love your sample! I don't think you have to remember all stitches. The ones I use most I know, but the others needs a refresher before I start stitching. And over time you learn to see what stitches you used, but I keep notes of stitches and threads I used. That way I can repeat it very easy if I want to. It doesn't take much time, there's a notebook at my side when I'm stitching, next to my camera!
I looked at the calendar frame and you come pretty close.
Feeble! I don't think so. This would look great in my Swedish pocket, when I get to it. It is too hot here to think about wool embroidery.
That was just for fun! Berry stitch instantly made me think of Sweden and its woods full of berries. It is the time of year to display a new calendar and the connection was there!
You are so organised! Well, I joined TAST in January because I wanted to LEARN new stitches. Maybe I will not use many of them, but I do want to be able to recognise them and use other than my old favourites.
I am the eternal student but feel so much more motivated to learn TAST stitches than I did geography or chemistry in school. It is great to be able to choose what to study!
Mistressed! Yes, we need feminine denoting for a lot of words!
I have NOT mistressed enough of the TAST stitches and need to cram!
It is good to know I have a classmate! Let's study hard!
You're right, this would make a good design on a Scandinavian folk costume. Why didn't I think of that?
very nice ! I would be great for a edge of a bigger work, or of a pocket like propose carorose (we had the same idea ^^)
The Berry stitches I made are very 'folk arty' I think and would be great on a pocket or apron border on a folk costume. It is getting popular to try to make new designs of Scandinavian folk costumes.
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