Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 361 - 365

It's time to review five stitches, and for homework, make another Sunbonnet Sue Sampler.

361 Vertical Herringbone Stitch

These stitches do look like individual, detached stitches, but they are made in a continuous line.

362 Roza's Ladder Stitch

This stitch is useful for quickly covering a larger area. 

363 Torocko Stitch

I think this is a beautiful trellis filling.

364 Kashmiri Ball Stitch

Here is an impressive stitch that is actually really easy.

365 Link Powdering Stitch

When you fill an area with Detached Chain Stitch, aka Lazy Daisy Stitch, the result is called Link Powdering Stitch.

Homework:

Let Sunobnnet Sue, without the help of Mr AI, make a nice sampler of the stitches.

Friday Homework for Lesson 365: Link Powdering Stitch

 It was very relaxing to stitch all these Lazy Daisy/Detached Chain Stitches.

Aida Sampler

Here they are arranged in neat rows.

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Red Silk Kimono Scribble Cloth

WIPW - How A Typhoon Can Slow Things Down

In this Work In Progress Wednesday report I have to mention the approaching typhoon and how it is slowing me down.

The good thing about a typhoon, compared to an earthquake, is that you know it is coming, approximately when and how severe it will be. 

Typhoon #6 (we give numbers, not names, to typhoons in Japan) is now on the threshold of Tokyo and will pass tonight and tomorrow. The air is thick with moisture, and the rain is beginning to pelt down, while the wind is picking up strength to tear things apart.

To prepare for the approaching storm, yesterday I was set to clean out gutters and drains around the house. Unfortunately, I had a lot of other things to do, so the deguttering had to be done in haste. 

So sad to say, I injured my right thumb. It is not a serious injury, but bad enough to slow down anything I do with my right hand. One of those things is, of course, to stitch. 

So my WIPW progress is not as impressive as I would have wished.

Hexablooms

I have assembled 8 blocks and have three more to do before row 16 is complete. They should have been finished, and the row itself, well on its way to being attached to the flimsy.

Thumbs down to an injured thumb!

SDGs Mending

The elastic in two pairs of training pants had dried up and gone slack. The stretchy fabric is still OK, so it was an obvious choice to change the elastic.

However, the work-out wear had been constructed in the same way as my winter fleece trousers (that I changed the elastic in in November last year). 

Meters and meters and meters of thread must have been used to overlock and assemble the waistband. In the picture is just a small amount of the unpicked thread.

The good thing is that, now that my gym wear is up to par, I can't skive off the daily workout routine!

And I do not need my thumb for stretching or physical workouts.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 365: Link Powdering Stitch

 Link Powdering Stitch should be easy, as it is a repetition of one of the most common embroidery stitches - Detached Chain Stitch.

I found it at the Textile Research Centre, at Arts&Design, and in Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches.

Here are my step-by-step photos:

Homework:

Powder the three samplers!

Friday Homework for Lesson 364: Kashimiri Ball Stitch

I started writing this blog post with this sentence: 'This is an easy stitch, as we have already learned the Straight Stitch #317, Smyrna Stitch #94, and the Spid...'

Then I had to stop; the Spider's Web or the Woven Wheel, two names for a very basic stitch, have not been included yet in either my TAST or Sunday Stitch School's collection of stitches! I DID do the Woven Long Tail Chain #116, but the weaving is over a Chain Stitch, not a Straight Stitch.

And of course, I did it in the tutorial for Kashimiri Ball Stitch last Sunday.

Oh, I learn so much by collecting these stitches! I learn to see all the mistakes and misses I make!

The Spider's Web (aka Woven Wheel) will soon be added to the collection under its own name, but for now, it is used in today's homework of Kashimiri Ball Stitch.

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Red Kimono Silk Scribble Cloth

One wonky and one traditional.

WIPW - More SDGs Mending

 It is already time for another Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Hexablooms

I now have a pile of 16 completed blocks for row 16. The fabric for the remaining 11 blocks is prepared, cut, and numbered, awaiting basting and assembling.

Gifts

The luncheon mats are finished. I also made a Swedish 'tablecloth roll'. It is a cardboard tube that has been covered in fabric and used to roll up table runners and the like for storing.

SDGs Mending

While sorting out and packing away winter blankets and flannel bed linens, I discovered that my pillow liner (a plain pillow cover used between the pillow and the pretty pillow cover) was torn. 

It's a very old liner, probably from the 1970s, but of high quality and still clean and fresh. Frugal as I am, I thus decided to mend the tear in the same way as I did the tear in my black jacket - by using iron-on tape. I will be able to use the pillow liner for some time yet.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 364: Kashmiri Ball Stitch

Today I want to let Shami Immanuel of My Craft Works teach us how to make the Kashmiri Ball Stitch. On her blog post, she has a link to the video you can see below.

Or you can have a look at my photo tutorial.

Homework: Add Kashmiri Balls to the three samplers.

Friday Homework for Lesson 363: Torocko Stitch

 This was faster and easier than I expected!

Aida Sampler

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Red Kimono Silk Scribble Cloth

WIPW - White and Metallic Hexagons

White,  Metallic and odd pieces of fabric that have been turned into Hexagons, that's what this week's Work In Progress Wednesday report is all about.

Hexablooms

I have mainly made parts, e.g. the white hexagons that fill in gaps in the pattern and the metallic hexagons used for the middle of the flowers.

Gift

The other hexagons, those I am using for the luncheon mats that will be given to some friends, have been assembled into two flowers.

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 363: Torocko Stitch

Today, we have a canvas stitch of the trellis type that I picked up from Shannon Downey at Badasscrossticher. The stitch is called Torocko Stitch and consists of a grid and a number of upright crosses that are couched down in the middle.

You can also check out Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials. Or KimberlyOuimet. Or have a look at Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, if you have the book.

Here is my photo tutorial:

You need to measure out a grid of squares of odd numbers. On Aida or other types of fabric, it is easy to count the holes, and aim for squares of an uneven number of holes. I used 7 holes.

First, make the long, straight horizontal stitches.

Then add the vertical stitches.

Place upright crosses over the grid, like this.

Finally, couch down the middle of the crosses.

Until you have completed the grid.

Homework: Add to the samplers