Friday Revision Homework - Stitches 186 - 190

Ever since I learned the origin of #187 Catherine Wheel Stitch, I knew it would be difficult to add it to the Sunbonnet Sue sampler. 

How were I to include such a stitch? Should I use just the beautiful design to make a vibrant sun or a magnificent flower, or should I stick to the true Catherine Wheel, the device of torture? 

Surely I could not let Sue be tied to the spiky wheel and turned over a burning fire?! 

Nor could I let her be the tyrant committing the atrocity. 

So she had to be a witness or a bystander, but Sue is a brave girl who would not just stand by and see something as horrid as this happen to someone else without taking action... 

I was really in a dilemma. Then I got the idea of using time and reality to show how horrified, how frustrated and how utterly helpless we can be when faced with a situation that we can't rectify.

What I finally decided on was this scene: Sue is at the Art Museum and comes face to face with an old painting. However much the picture pains her there is no way she can help the victim. 

Isn't this the way we feel when we watch cruelty on TV news and know that the act is already done, and maybe on the other side of the Globe in a place outside our reach?

Sunday Stitch School - Revision: Stitches 186 - 190

It is time to look back at the five stitches we have done recently.

Click on the title to see the instructions.

186 Stick People Stitch

Fun and easy. You can dress up or down the people.

187 Catherine Wheel Stitch

This is a beautiful combination of stitches, but the actual wheel it got its name from has much to answer for. 

188 Quaker Stitch

Perfect for lettering, but difficult to get even.

189 Tied Chain Stitch

Here is another example of how two stitches can combine into a really beautiful one.

190 Ring Knot Stitch

This is a 'LEGO' stitch - you can build all sort of things with it.

Homework:

Use the five stitches in a Sunbonnet Sue picture, based on this sketch.

Friday Homework for Lesson 188: Quaker Stitch

 Although this stitch is not difficult, it IS hard to get it even. It doesn't take the curves too well, I think...

Aida Sampler

Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth

Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 188: Quaker Stitch

Here is another stitch with references to religion - Quaker Stitch. It was used for the Quaker Tapestry. You can see the panels at The Quaker Tapestry Museum at Kendal, England. Read about it here.

Quaker Stitch is basically a Split Stem Stitch. It was created by Anne Wynn-Wilson who, together with a small boy, 11-year old Jonathan, started the tapestry project. There is an interesting interview with her in Friends Journal, April 1989, page 12 and onwards (you have to scroll down a bit), of this pdf file.

I have seen the stitch before, but my memory was nudged by  Carorose, and then I had a reminder look at Needle 'n Thread for Mary Corbet's excellent tutorial.

Make the Quaker Stitch like this:

Make a Back Stitch and come out

of the same hole as you started,

then enter a bit further along the

line.

Leave a loop, and exit the 

needle in the middle of the 

stitch, to split it.

Continue in the same way.

Anchor the last stitch in the 

same hole of the previous stitch.

The shorter you make the stitches the easier it is to use Quaker Stitch for writing.

Homework:

Write or make lines on these samplers.