WIPW - Focus on Trinity Green

The focus on Work In Progress Wednesday for this week is only on

Trinity Green

I have filled 13 paper strips of 351 triangles, and now have a total of 5.103 triangles.

Fabric in Focus

Batik is very popular with quilters and the marbled effect gives life and variety to anything dull.

 For me it means a lot of fussy cutting to get at the green colours.

TASTy Tuesday Second Helpings 117 - 122

Now that the TAST stitches are grouped in three each I will make six stitches per week, instead of seven - it gives me a day off once a week, and will slow down the progress!

117) Bullion Vandyke Stitch

118) Beaded Buttonhole Stitch

119) Woven Trellis Stitch

120) Double Herringbone Stitch
121) Twisted Lattice Band Stitch
122) Chained Bar Stitch

WIPW - Three Cheers for TAST

Work In Progress Wednesday no longer includes the HC (Himeji Castle) quilt as I completed it last week. This will give me a chance to speed up progress on Trinity Green - I thought. There was another birthday, though, and I made a card.

Trinity Green
I added another 270 triangles and the total is now 4,752:

Fabric in Focus
I don't know if you can call this 'designer' fabric, but it is sold at IKEA, the Swedish furniture giant whose shops pop up like mushrooms all over the world.
Typical for Swedish prints, and maybe especially IKEA, is the large scale of the design. It makes it hard to use for small pieces in patchwork. So I fussy cut the green areas, ignored the cute animals and just salvaged the green.

Birthday Card

I wanted to make a simple birthday card and picked a few of the TAST stitches I have recently been having Second Helpings of.
Three Cheers for TAST!

Light blue is #95 Linked Chain Stitch
Turquoise is #14 Stem Stitch
Blue with orange links is #104 Buttonholed Cable Chain Stitch
Blue with beads is #26 Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch
I also added an appliquéd dot (with a plastic cup inside)

TASTy Tuesday - Second Helpings 111 - 116

In the last post you saw that I have run out of space at the bottom of the sampler for more stitches. I have divided the sides into ten sections where I will stitch three stitches in each.

 Here I serve up the six first stitches in this new section:

111) Zig-zag Coral Stitch

112) Feathered Chain Stitch

113) Beaded Feathered Chain Stitch

114) Long Tail Chain Stitch

115) Whipped Long Tail Chain Stitch

116) Beaded Vandyke Stitch

WIPW - A Finish

Oh, it is so nice to tick off a WIP (Work In Progress) on the Wednesday list! The H C Quilt is completed!

First, let's look at the update for

Trinity Green
It wasn't a very green week! Only 81 triangles added. Total count 4.482.

I had to take this photo while the daylight was still sufficient - since then I have stitched those remaining triangles, and have three filled paper strips..

Fabric in Focus
Dots, another favourite pattern that quilters often use, are many in my collection. Some dots sneak in with other patterns (stars e.g.)

Now for the completed

H C Quilt
H C standsfor Himeji Castle. Together with Kumamoto and Matsumoto castles it is one of the most famous medieval fortresses in Japan and is visited by crowds of tourist every year. It is also known as the White Heron Castle, and in the recent renovation the roof was restored to its original white colour. In the old photograph I used for my drawing on the quilt, however, the roof is greyish, and so I used grey crayons.
You can read more about Himeji Castle and its long history here.

The progress I made this week:

I quilted some rays of sunshine with metallic thread.

Then the wind in the sky.

A bit more greenery.

I settled for black and white stripes for the border.

Without too much trouble I made neat mitred corners.

Then framed the quilt

and hung it next to 'Kafferepet'.

It's rather small, the measurement is 54 cm x 65 cm.

The quilt has been given to an armchair traveller, with the hope that one day a real visit to the castle will be made.

TASTy Tuesday - Second Helpings 106 - 110

I must be on a diet - or have I lost apetite in the hot and humid climate of Tokyo? This week I have only worked five TAST stitches. The real reason is that I have run out of space at the bottom of the fabric:

As I don't want to add another piece of fabric, the next 30 stitches will be squeezed in at the sides, and stitched in a vertical line. Five blocks on each side with three stitches each.  Hopefully these blocks will frame the first 110 stitches:

 

So here are the five stitches I did manage to stitch:

From the top:

106) Looped Cretan Stitch

107) Beaded Looped Cretan Stitch (with bugle beads)

108) Rice Stitch

109) Square Boss Stitch

110) Rope Stitch

WIPW - VL

There is Very Little Work In Progress Wednesday to report. The reasons? A forgotten birthday, a visit to the hospital and then a wake to attend.


Trinity Green
I started cutting new triangles.

I did not, however, have the time to stitch any of them. The total number of sewn triangles on the paper strips for the Trinity Green quilt thus remains at 4.401.

Fabric in Focus

Why is it that we love floral prints so much? I have shown some of these prints before, but you will notice that seen together there are many different shades of green, various styles and different scale, and the impact of the addition of colour.
The fantastic print in the left foreground with both tiny leaves and larger spotted leaves and grey-green flowers is a print I was given by Julie of My Quilt Diary. As soon as I saw it, it just popped up and begged me to be added to Trinity Green. Julie kindly said Yes. Thanks, Julie.

H C Quilt
I am beginning to run out of time and have worked hard to make the cherry trees, which to me looks more like plum trees!, blossom.
French Knot and Colonial Knot Stitches

 I also quilted some lines for the greenery in the foreground.

A Birthday Card

Birthdays at the beginning of the month are so easy to forget. On September 1 I turned the page of the calendar and saw that there in the beginning of the month was a birthday I should have prepared for weeks earlier.
It was a rush to stitch up this card and have it in the post before the last collection. Letter boxes are emptied four times a day on weekdays, and two or three times at weekends, here in Tokyo. It is a blessing, especially for the forgetful Queenie! Viva Japan Post!

I tried to add several TAST stitches: Stem, Fly, Feather, Chain, Cretan, Detached Chain, French Knot, Whipped Running and two coloured Berry, for which I got the idea from KippysSoMature. Blogging is a blessing, too! 

TASTy Tuesday - Second Helpings 99 -105

What TASTy food would be light blue, turquoise and purple? It must be something artificially coloured and flavoured, children's sweets, bubble gum or plumb jam and mint icecream, or what do you think?

A portion of seven stitches, from the top:
99) Eastern Stitch
100) Beaded Eastern Stitch
101) Triangular Buttonhole Stitch
102) Beaded Triangular Buttonhole Stitch
103) Beaded Butterfly Chain Stitch
104) Buttonholed Cable Chain Stitch (on the right)
105) Alternating Buttonholed Cable Chain Stitch (on the left)

The cool colours are cooling me down in the sweltering heat of Tokyo.