TAST #63 Scrawl Stitch, er ... pardon me, Scroll Stitch

Time for TAST stitch #63. It is called Scroll Stitch but as soon as I saw it I thought it looked like handwriting and just had to have some Stitch Fun.

Here is a Scrawl Stitch letter, made up of Scroll Stitch and a few straight stitches and a handful of French Knots:

My 'handwriting' is so bad I can't even read it myself. Can you?'

I also thought this would make a good Sumptuous Surface Embroidery piece. There is a lot of structure and the stitches go in all directions, have different tension and angles. A variety of threads were used.

Oh, I like the freedom of Freeform embroidery!

Finally I added a few stitches to my sampler. With better tension they would be worthy of the name Scroll Stitch; these are a bit too scrawly!

If you want to learn how to do this stitch properly, find out more about TAST, or take part in this fantastic stitch project, or see how other participants have interpreted the stitch, then head over to Pintangle.
Happy Stitching!

WIPW - Coffee Pot and Yellow Flowers

Here we are again with Work In Progress Wednesday. Sharon of Pintangle has not only started, but half finished, another beautiful block, and others will post their progress on her comments, too. Click here to have a look.

Progress on my quilt Kafferepet
I have received a lot of comments on my 'unconventional' fabric ink. Yes, I used an ordinary fountain pen filled with Waterman's Florida Blue Ink on the light blue cotton fabric. It worked well. For the brown line on the edge I used a felt tipped pen of fabric ink, Marvy, made in Japan. Both inks have survived a 'bath' so I am willing to use this method again.

In previous posts I have shown you the platter with nibbles, the cup and saucer for the coffee, and here is the coffee pot.

In the 'olden days' in Sweden, coffee  was often boiled.
A (coffee)kettle was filled with cold water and coarsely ground coffee beans, put on the wood burning stove and taken off the heat just as the coffee began to swell. It was then left, to let the coffee grind sink to the bottom of the kettle. From there it was poured into a heated coffee pot of china for serving. Boiled coffee is said to hold a much higher temperature than brewed, percolated or pressed coffee. I don't know if there is any scientific evidence in that, but think that boiled coffee 'feels' hotter. I remember that my grandmother's friends who had popped  in for a casual cup of newly made coffee would drink it from the saucer, thereby helping it to cool down quickly. They often bit a lump of crystal sugar between their teeth to sweeten the drink. Now I have digressed enough...
So back to the coffee pot. Today when most households use a coffee maker, either an espresso machine where individual cups are prepared, or a filter coffee maker with a glass pot, the coffee is not served from the elegant china coffee pots any more. I love my coffee pot I wanted to have it featured on my quilt 'Kafferepet', so included it.

Now what actual progress have I made since last week? Well, there are some more flowers on the border.

They are appliquéd and the leaves are 'floating' away from the stem. When time comes I will attack both petals and leaves with embroidery stitches, beads (?) and probably couching.

The Poppy

I have a friend who told me about an event in her childhood that has meant a lot to her. For a long time I toyed with the idea of making 'something' with a red poppy for her.
Last year I bought Trish Burr's excellent book 'Colour Confidence In Embroidery' and have been studying colour and shading.
Based on some old photographs and a flora, I drew the design. Then I planned how to needle paint the poppy according to the principles in the book.
Although it took some time I am rather pleased with the result of my first needle painting.

TAST #61 Up and Down Feather Stitch + TAST #62 Raised Cross Stitch Flower

Today I have two TAST stitches to show. (To find out what TAST stands for, click here).

Stitch #61 is called Up and Down Feather Stitch and is a combination of Up and Down Buttonhole stitch and Feather stitch. Both of them are favourites of mine and this was a great combination stitch.

#62 goes under the name of either Raised Cross Stitch Flower or Whipped Cross Stitch

On my sampler #61 is in lion coloured Perle 8 and #62 also in Perle 8, yellow, blue and light green

 I wanted to make a picture using both stitches and was looking around for inspiration. Then one evening I was watching a documentary on TV about the gigantic drills used in tunnel digging (they are called tunnel boring machines) and thought that would make a nice, unique design.

Ha! Failure! Mitsubishi Heavy Industries may make great TBMs, but Queenie's Boring Machine was indeed 'boring', and had to be turned into something else, a bit more romantic. How about a flower wheel?
Please note that as spring is so cold not many leaves have opened although the Raised Cross Stitch Flowers are in full bloom. Also for the ones out there with eagle eyes you will notice that I have added a few straight stitches at the top most Up and Down Feather stitches.

Wishing you all lots of FUN while stitching!