WIPW - You are so good!

You are all so good at answering correctly to my quizzes! Yes, it is indeed a horse! What I showed last week was the first stitches on the ear:

Swedish Cushion
In traditional Swedish embroidery, especially wool embroidery, birds or animals are often featured. As this year, 2014, is the year of the horse in the Japanese zodiac I wanted to add a horse (to include my Japanese connections). What better horse to add than a 'Dalahäst', a Dalecarlian horse, one of the most famous symbols of Sweden.

I have used a variety of stitches:

TAST #8 Chain Stitch for the body

#111 Zig-zag Coral Stitch (blue)
# 89 Twisted Satin Stitch (yellow)
Surface Long and Short Stitch (green)

#55 Buttonholed Herringbone (green)
# 28 Oyster Stitch (yellow)

#5 Herringbone Stitch (green)
#3 Feather Stitch (blue)
#4 Cretan (yellow)
# 14 Stem Stitch (white)
Straight Stitch (black)

Kafferepet
Another row of Rope Stitch quilting:

Work In Progress Wednesday is an project to encourage progress in your needlework. Read more at Pintangle.

TAST #113 Beaded Feathered Chain

Here is the beaded version of the previous stitch.
TAST #113 is appropriately called Beaded Feathered Chain.
As usual I first tested it on Aida and then added it to my sampler.
Go to Pintangle to learn.

 Please ignore the fact that I have started the pink thread in the wrong hole!!!

A note on working the Feathered Chain stitch on Aida:
On the left, in the picture below,  I made a 'back stitch' one hole above where the straight stitch was inserted to be able to anchor the Chain stitch.

On the right (the beaded version) I caught just one thread of Aida so the 'back stitch' is not so obvious.

Annet of Fat-Quarter has worked this and another version of the Feathered Chain on her blog. Check it out here.

TAST # 112 Feathered Chain Stitch

TAST #112 is called Feathered Chain Stitch and makes a nice zig-zag line.

First I worked on Aida, one line in blue and one in pink :

Next I added these on my sampler, with different size Chain stitch:

It was an easy stitch. Thanks to Sharon of Pintangle, who will teach you, too, how to make this stitch here.

WIPW - Paying attention

Dear all, you are so good at paying attention, and Sharon of Pintangle has all the reason to be proud of you!
Yes, the stitches I worked last week and quizzed you about are indeed TAST #106 Looped Cretan Stitch. Click here to see Sharon's tutorial.

I worked the stitches like this, making them look more like Feather stitches than Cretan!:

 

After having made one rambling vine of stitches I added a straight stitch in the centre of each loop.

I then added a second set of stitches over the previous ones, in a different colour.

While taking these pictures of the process I added a new vine on the Swedish cushion for this week's WIPW progress report.

Another progress on the cushion is the leaf in Whipped Buttonhole Stitch.

Finally I have another quizz for you!
What have I begun to stitch here?

Hints: Dalecarlian, coppery red, symbol of 2014

Kafferepet
Boring, but easy, another line of #110 Rope stitch for the quilting:

To read about and/or take part in Work In Progress Wednesday, read this.

WIPW - Twice Around The Park

How time flies! It is WIPW report time again. You can read all about what this abbreviation stands for at Pintangle.

Kafferepet
I simple worked a new row of TAST #110 Rope Stitch of quilting - 'Twice Around The Park'.

The Swedish Cushion
It is spring and the cushion has three new leaves:

 With antique stranded floss from my mother's stash, I worked this leaf in Surface Satin Stitch.

This is TAST #2 Buttonhole Stitch worked in a curve in light blue and light green and then whipped with reddish pink (although the colours are not true in this picture).

For the third leaf, I have a quizz for you: What TAST stitch is this?

TAST #111 - Zig-zag Coral Stitch

The Zig-zag Coral Stitch, TAST #111, is  based on Twisted Chain Stitch and easy to do. It looks great, too, so you get a lot of style for very little effort.
As there is not much thread on the back, this stitch is not a 'thread eater', which is good news if you want to use an expensive thread.

On Aida it looks like this:

On the sampler like this:

If you want to have a go at it yourself, head over to Pintangle.

WIPW - Gas Flame Flower

Work In Progress Wednesday for week no 19 of 2014. To learn all about WIPW and see the progress reports of others, visit Pintangle.

Kafferepet
All the blocks in the centre of the quilt are now quilted with embroidery stitches, and I have begun the rather tiresome job of quilting the border. To make it more fun, I started by using one of the recent TAST stitches, #110, the Rope Stitch.

It is such a delight to work. Thread the needle with a length of 'COATS Dual Duty Plus' hand quilting thread, put the needle in auto stitching and the rest looks after itself!

Swedish Cushion
Tokyo is ablaze with flowers this year; I don't think I have ever seen so many various flowers blooming at the same time before. So my cushion wanted to spring some new flowers, too, and the one that sprung this week was the 'Gas Flame Flower', so named by me due to its colouring.

I have used TAST #1 Fly Stitch, #15 French Knot Stitch, #110 Rope Stitch, and Surface Long and Short Stitch.

TAST #110 - Rope Stitch

 This was a stitch I had been waiting for! I needed a new version of a linear stitch suitable for stems, curves or filled in work. That is just what TAST #110 Rope Stitch is. It is easy to make and quick, a real winner!

I tried it out on Aida first.

On my sampler,  I worked two lines in black and white. After that I drew a set of curves with Sharon's Crazy Quilt stencils and use variegated perle 8 to fill in the lines.

To learn and take part in TAST, go to Pintangle.

TAST #109 Square Boss Stitch

For TAST stitch #109 we have a variation of last week's Rice Stitch. It is called Square Boss and is very similar.

Here again I first tried out the stitch on Aida using stranded floss:

As you can see, it is simply the placement of the stitch across the foundation cross stitch that is changed.

Here it is in Perle 8:

In the second row I changed the angle to an upright Cross Stitch.

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday, but you are welcome to take a stitch any day of the week! Learn more at Pintangle, where Sharon will teach you TAST tricks with the needle.