Sunday 21 September 2014

TAST #130 Double Lock Stitch - turns into a birthday card

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday.
Sharon teaches you a new stitch on her blog, Pintangle, on a Tuesday. You learn it, photograph the result and post it on your own blog. You then leave a comment on Pintangle with a link to your blog so other members can see how you interpreted the stitch. Why don't you join in?

Having said all that, I must admit that for TAST #130 Double Lock Stitch, I felt like not blogging about it at all!
It is a version of #129, and equally hard to get the tension even.

On Aida, using yellow Cotton a Broder and blue Perle #8.

Here is a strange thread combination, black Perle #3 and variegated nylon thread, or is it string? It is something I picked up at Festival of Quilts some years ago.
I thought that one day I will try these stitches again, and hopefully they will fall into place in my mind and hands!

Well, that day is already here! Thanks to encouragement and inspiration from other TAST members (read the comments on my previous blog posts and you can see how much support I get from my online friends) I decided to put in some more work into this stitch.

Annet, always a source of knowledge, advice and inspiration, mentioned that she prefers doing the second part of the stitch from left to right. So I gave that a try, hmm, yes, easier but still the tension was not good, and I was using a hoop.
Then suddenly the name struck me, Lock Stitch, of course that could mean that you 'lock' the stitches by pulling tightly on the thread!
After looking through my library of embroidery books I finally found one that contained the Lock stitch; the Danish Jytte Harboesgaard's Brodera - Stygn, sömmar och tekniker (Swedish translation). She stitches from bottom to top, like this:

See how the direction of the needle moves and that the thread is always behind the needle.
I think my tension was poor because I was confused about the direction of the needle and the thread!

Chitra is often using a paisley design, or making flowers or curves for her TAST samplers. Maureen made some fantastic Christmas wreaths. It was time for me to try some other shapes and different tension.
In the green hexagon shape I worked two rounds of white thread. Instead of Straight stitches I tested the stitch on orange Buttonhole stitches. By pulling the thread tightly, 'locking' the Lock Stitch, you get almost an Up and Down Buttonhole look like in the variegated circle. However, can you spot the mistake I made?

Then I felt I wanted to use the Lock stitch in a project and made this birthday card for my uncle:
Check out the flowers made up of orange and yellow Lock stitch, and the green leaves! Are they all the same stitch? YES!

Isn't it great when a stitch you did not like becomes something you love? NEVER give up!

Fore more fantastic Lock stitch eye candy, have a look at six days work of Quieter Moments.

17 comments:

margaret said...

so good that you persevered with this stitch Queenie as you have certainly perfected it now, a beautiful birthday card and the sample with various shapes looks great.

Chris(craft) and Dave(photos) Richards said...

Oh my god Queenie, you mastered the lock stitch.......Now you have it locked in your mind !
Well done you, its perfect..........You have just passed on VITAL information for me.......I shall try it again and hope it works for me ! I feel quite excited .....Thanks Queenie, you are clever.........
hugs
Chris Richards
xx

Séverine said...

Thank you for having shown us all your tries to master the lock stitch. Your postcard is beautiful; Now, I have to try this stitch..

https://linsartyblobs.blogspot.com said...

You've stitched a wonderful card using lock stitch. I think the stitch looks much better in shapes and curves than in just straight rows.

Annet said...

O yes, you mastered this stitch very well! Thans for adding the link to my blog and Quieter Moments. Elizabeth's blog is filled with inspiration!

Queeniepatch said...

To me, once something becomes easy, it is much more fun to work with, and I truly enjoy the Lock and Double Lock stitches now.

Queeniepatch said...

Yes, I feel as if I HAVE mastered these two stitches. I did some more work last night and felt like going on forever! Isn't it fantastic what a change in the stitch direction can do. And then there is all that wonderful support you give me, too! Thanks Chris!

Queeniepatch said...

Thank you for your kind words. Do try the Lock and Double Lock stitch. Try them in the three different directions, right to left, left to right and down to up, and see which one you like best.

Queeniepatch said...

Yes, it becomes much more spectacular if worked in shapes and curves. Also you can change the look dramatically with how much you pull, and 'lock' the threads. I am sure you will love to experiment with it!

Queeniepatch said...

Thank you for always being such a support. It is worth checking out the web for others' work, especially with a stitch that does not feature a lot in stitch directories.
Since this post I have added #129 and #130 to the Swedish Cushion as well!

Chris(craft) and Dave(photos) Richards said...

You are an artist Queenie and I love what you come up with....it inspires me, so thank you xx

Janie said...

At first I wasn't impressed with that stitch but as I scrolled down you did some amazing things with it and used some contrasting colors and wow! Who would have thought that
stitch could turn out like that? thanks for sharing.

Queeniepatch said...

We need to use imagination for some stitches; it is so easy to dismiss a stitch at first sight, and never think up variations. That is why looking at others' efforts is so important. You are quite right, sharing is great.

JennyPennyPoppy said...

What a lovely card you made from a stitch that you started out not even liking. Thank you for the explanation on how you did it.

Queeniepatch said...

I don't know about you, but I find it good to take a break when I find a stitch difficult and then come back to it a day or so later. Often I feel it has sunk in. If not, I might work it on a scrap of fabric, check out other directions from books or the internet, and usually the stitch becomes a bit easier, even if I still don't like it. I have this problem with the Bullioned Vandyke... Maybe it is time to put a few more stitches into that scrap of fabric...
Have a beautiful day!

JennyPennyPoppy said...

Hi Queenie, I'm so glad that you explained and put up great photos on doing the lock stitch. It is the TAST stitch #57 this year and your explanation on how to do it helped tremendously. Thanks!

Queeniepatch said...

Wow! I had forgotten about the Lock stitch and my struggle with it. I am so very glad you found my ancient blog post of use. I need to re-read my own posts. Maybe I can learn something, ha, ha!