Sunday 30 September 2018

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 75: Maidenhair Stitch

Thank you for letting me take a two-week break.
Now let's get started again with a simple, yet attractive and impressive stitch, the Maidenhair Stitch.
Update:
Mattia tells me the French name of this stitch is : Point de Capillaire.

Maidenhair Stitch is of the Feather Stitch family, and worked as a set of three Single Feather stitches on one side of an imaginary line. The next set of three is worked on the opposite side of the line.

Look at the pictures, and you 'get the picture':






Homework:
Aida Sampler
Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart
Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth

and Queenie, why don't you use it for one of the crazy quilt blocks? You HAVE started on a new one, haven't you?

Wednesday 26 September 2018

WIPW - Dill Pickle for Birthday

Work In Progress Wednesday.

Thank you so much for kind comments. I hope to have more time for blogging, and replying to comments soon. However, my free time is still very limited and my energy is running low.

There is no progress whatsoever on 
Crazy for Crazy
to report, 

but I had to make a 
Birthday Card

From the same book 
the lavender and chives designs came from 

I picked that of dill, the most popular herb in Sweden.


The French Knots took longer to stitch than I had estimated, but hopefully the card will reach its destination in time for the big day.

Tonight I will start digging out fabric for the next Crazy for Crazy block. Something autumnal I think...

Sunday 23 September 2018

Sunday Stitch School - Closed Today

NOTICE:
CLOSED TODAY

Sunday Stitch School will have to be closed today, too. Sorry about that, and let's hope we can restart the lessons again next Sunday.

The needle is taking a rest.

Friday 21 September 2018

Friday Homework for Lesson 74: Boucle Stitch

Teacher: Good evening
Student: Good evening
Teacher: You are very late. Why are you out of breath?
Student: I'm sorry, I've been rushing.
Teacher: Well, have you any homework to hand in, or have you another excuse for not having done your assignment?
Students: I've just finished it. Here it is.
Teacher: Hm, I can see you have been rushing, the tension is no good.
Student: It WAS difficult, especially as I have had so many other things on my mind.
Teacher: Let that be a lesson for you - stitching under tension makes it difficult to keep the tension - of the thread!
Student: Ha, ha, very funny!
Teacher: You are dismissed!
Student: Sigh!

Aida Sampler






SSS Reference Chart




Fake Canvas


Student: Pst! You can see that the smaller the stitch the better the result. Boule Stitch would make a nice filling stitch if only one could keep a nice tension.

Wednesday 19 September 2018

WIPW - Thank You

Thank you for kind comments and words of concern and encouragement.
I needed extra time to care for and support people around me who have been fighting various problems. It has been very emotional and exhausting, but now many things are settled and life can slowly return to normal, or at least the way it was before.
I am sorry I have not been able to answer your comments or visit blogs.

I had to choose sleep over stitching/blogging and that is why I have very little of progress to show you.

However I think I have finished the olive and watermelon
Crazy for Crazy
quilt block by adding a few beads:

Sets of three 'fingers' of pink seed beads on the seam.

An edge of the same pink seed beads on the Dorset Button.

Result:

I feel the block is completed. What do you think?







Friday 14 September 2018

Friday Homework and Sunday Stitch School

Thank you for your kind comments on my previous blog post, I have not been able to answer any of them.
Nor will I manage to post Friday Homework, or Sunday Stitch School for this weekend, I am sorry to say. I hope to be back soon.

Wednesday 12 September 2018

WIPW - Too much...

No there is not too much to report on Work In Progress Wednesday.

There has been too much other work to do, and too little energy and time in which to do it, so there is very little progress on

Crazy for Crazy
I have just added a sprinkling of sequins and beads. They are so few you can easily see them.
I am very disappointed I have not managed more, but just have to accept that life has been too hard recently. Sigh! 
See you next week, and I hope to have more to show then.

Sunday 9 September 2018

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 74: Boucle Stitch

Welcome to night class at Sunday Stitch School.

After having learned more than 150 TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) stitches from Sharon Boggon's fantastic website Pintangle,  I was still hungry for more.

That is why I started this Sunday Stitch School in November 2016. I wanted to work my way through the many, to me unknown stitches, in all the stitch dictionaries in my collection, and any interesting stitch I had found online.

Today's stitch was found online, at no other place than Pintangle! Among the stitches in Sharon's Stitch Dictionary there are some that have NOT found their way into TAST - yet, as far as I know anyway.

So here is a nice Canvas stitch called Boucle Stitch.

You can either have at look at my photos below, or for better quality, go to Sharon's Stitch Dictionary - Boucle Stitch.

Anyway, here goes:
Make a line of slanting stitches.



Then turn the work upside down.
Make a loop under the last slanting stitch I - J, without catching any of the fabric.

Then travel from K to I. Make a new loop around the next slanting stitch, and so on.

Turn the work upside down (e.g. right way up)
and make a new set of slanting stitches A - B and so on.

Turn the work upside down again and 
loop the new slanted stitch I - J and so on,

until you have a full set of stitches.
Try to keep the tension better than I did!

Homework:
SSS Reference Chart
Aida Sampler
Fake Canvas Sampler

Friday 7 September 2018

Friday Homework for Lesson 73: God's Eye Stitch

This stitch is not difficult, but it is time-consuming and you might feel dizzy after turning the fabric around while whipping the cross.

Also I noticed that a thread with a good twist, like Perle, gives much better result than Coton a Broder. See for yourself in the samples below:

Aida Sampler (Coton a Broder)

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart Perle)

Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth
These sit nicely, and look good in variegated thread (perle).


Wednesday 5 September 2018

WIPW - The Fragrance of Lavender

It was my intention to have much more to report on Work In Progress Wednesday.
The heat, the humidity, the disastrous 21st typhoon, in English named Jebi, as well as a truck-load of other obstacles have had a negative impact on my progress.

I had to make a special
Birthday Card
and made one based on the instructions in Sachiko Morimoto's book:


This time I selected the lavender.

Making all those purple Bullion Knots took up a lot of time, but I am pleased with the result.

Crazy for Crazy
I just added five lines of Sunday Stitch School #46, Corded Coral Stitch.

 I placed the new Dorset Button I made on top of the block.


By next week WIPW I hope to have added some beads, sequins and other 'bling'.






Sunday 2 September 2018

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 73: God's Eye Stitch

It is Sunday and time to learn a new stitch at Sunday Stitch School. Today we have a variation of the Whipped Wheel Stitch, called God's Eye Stitch.

Stretch the fabric in a hoop. 
Then make a cross.


Change to another thread and come up in the centre, between two of the arms of the cross.
Take the needle underneath the arm behind and the one in front, thereby whipping one arm.
Don't pick up any of the fabric.

Continue your way around the cross, taking the needle underneath two arms.

For the last stitch, whip only the arm behind the needle, and then

anchor the stitch underneath the diamond of blue thread.

Read more about this stitch at Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials .
Pumora has made an interesting alternative embroidery stitch. 
At Layers of Learning you can read about the original God's Eye, Ojo de Dios, and how to make such an object out of sticks and yarn.

Homework:
SSS Reference Chart
Aida Sampler
Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth