Back to playing with the basics! Lacing is such an easy way to enhance a fundamental stitch.
Start with a row of Buttonhole Stitch.
This is such an enjoyable stitch. Have you ever filled in numbered lines in a children's drawing book ? Done any zentangling?
Well, filling in a void with Straight (or Back) Stitch going in all directions, here and there and all over the place, is both fun and relaxing. Working the All-Over Stitch is a kind of stitch meditation.
Aida Sampler
This was a bit difficult as I had to create new holes to get an irregular, shattered glass look. The Aida grid was of no use, really.
Red Kimono Silk Scribble Cloth
It is once again time for a Work In Progress Wednesday report.
Mourning Card
A dear friend recently lost her husband, and it felt right to send her a fabric card.
I used a remnant from one of my mother's most elegant evening gowns - a piece of rich blue silk.
On it I stitched stars with metallic thread:
TAST #77 Woven Cross,
and Sunday Stitch School #176 Buttonhole Cross Stitch, #208 Star Filling Stitch and #332 Irregular Algerian Eyelet Star Stitch.
The embroidery was mounted onto a piece of card and then inserted into a window card. This card had an oval hole, but I cut it into a heart shape.
Mandala
I have completed the garland!
Hexablooms
As the sweltering summer heat has subsided a bit, I replaced a thin, airy piece of fabric that has hung across the glass wall all summer with my Morning Glory quilt.
If you remember, it is a Log Cabin design, in lovely aqua and teal with golden hearth centres and plenty of metallic embroidery quilting.
The Morning Glory quilt was meant to be a bed cover, but I usually hang it so the morning light can play with the metallic thread quilting.
There is a problem, though, it is too small to cover up the glass wall it is displayed against.
That is why I want the Hexabloom quilt to be larger. I needed to see if the width was OK.
I simply hung it with pegs from the same wooden bar as the Morning Glory quilt.
Looking at it carefully, I think I will add one more column on the right to fully cover the glass wall behind.
This means making more hexagon blocks!
Well, before I do that, I will add more of the blocks that I have already prepared, and that will go downward.
Maybe something like this:
Bookmark
This is the front of the 'mysterious' bookmark I have been hiding from you for such a long time.
I found the cross-stitch pattern on the internet. The birthday gal is a friend of cats.
Through an article by Mary Corbet of Needle 'n Thread I got to know 'Embroidery Stitches' by Mary Wilkinson. Among the many stitches in this old book I found All-Over Stitch on page 4.
I thought we would use this filling stitch for today's lesson. The result will be something like a broken mirror or a window pane.
Here is Queenie's photo tutorial:
Homework:
Break a window pane here!
This couching stitch should be worked over several long stretches of thread, but why not couch down a piece of ribbon?
Aida Sampler
Look at the beautiful sheen of the red silk.
As for the challenge of marking the silk fabric. It was easy to mark it with an ordinary lead pencil. It remains to be seen if the silk will take well to a charcoal pencil, too.
Bookmarks
I stitched a new bookmark with a floral motif, but I will only show you a limited picture for now. Come October, and you can see all.
After completing it, I stretched it under a damp cloth, and arranged a fringe on the top and the bottom. The reverse is covered with a piece of green felt.
I finished the other bookmark, which I completed the stitching on earlier, if you remember,
in the same way. It is neatly stretched and has a fringe and felt back. The motif will be revealed next week.
Mandala
The last but one section of the garland is in place.
Next week, I will put in the final section and start experimenting with some yellow stitching or beading.
The yellow in the garland needs to be balanced somewhere inside the Mandala, I think.
I have stitched what I think will be the width of the wallhanging. I still need to join some seams before I can test-hang the whole upper part of the tapestry and check if it really does fit the designated area it will be hung in. If it does, I will then proceed by working downward.
Here I have laid out the blocks on the floor.
Today's new stitch is #338 Persian Border Stitch.
I picked up this couching stitch from Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials. Click here to see her tutorial.
Below are my photo instructions:
Here is Barred Witch Stitch, a threaded stitch based on Herringbone Stitch.
Aida Sampler
Sunday Stitch School
Step by step, I am progressing with my stitching and have this to report for Work In Progress Wednesday.
Mandala
The garland in six segments is done, two more to go!
Sunday Stitch School Indigo Sampler
#325 Long and Short Stitch (red, orange and light blue), #326 Alternating Cross Stitch (purple and orange), #327 Fire Stitch (orange) and #328 Old Florentine Stitch (pink and light blue).
Hexablooms
I managed to add another ten blocks and have 122 hexabloom blocks in the flimsy.
