Dotee dolls

I swapped some dotees recently. I made the red one for a red dotee swap and called her Rosa. Sarah made a lovely red one for me, with lots of buttons on her body. And this cute little dotee was made for the Itty Bitty Dotee swap. Her body is 2 inches and she is made by Debbie.

Chicken scratch 3

Yesterday I made the last examples on my Gingham square. For this one I used cotton no. 12 and I laced it with loops. It looks much better with this thread. Then I made some blue stitches with 2 threads of DMC and I laced them with white. In the centre I made an Algerian eye stitch.

And this is the last one on my Gingham fabric. There's no embroidery space left on my square! I made 8 running stitches with cotton no. 12 and laced them with loops. I added the numbers, so you can follow the thread.

This morning I did some stitching on embroidery fabric. I think it's called aïda. I first made the original pattern with 4 threads of green DMC.

And then I duplicated the stars I made on my Gingham fabric. I filled the spaces of the stars with lighter green. I made a double cross stitch, but the standing one is bigger than the diagonal one.

Portuguese stem stitch

No chicken scratch this time. First I had to finish my example for TAST in the Portuguese stem stitch. I used a part of a pattern to make a flower. In the centre I made French knots. It's a great stitch, it follows all curves very well.

Chicken scratch 2

I continued to experiment with chicken scratch on the same fabric. This time I made cross stitches with white DMC and laced them ones. Then I made a small example in two colours. When I laced it, I inserted the needle in the opposite direction to make loops.

I wanted to know how it looked with a different colour, so I used blue on the white areas . . .

. . . and blue on the red areas for a different look.

The last thing I tried was a square set on it's point. First I did the white parts on the red areas.

Then I filled the white areas with red to complete the square. I think it looks good.

I made these ATC's for a purple swap a few days before the start of stitch explorer. I used fabric with shapes of diamonds. The top one is done in chicken scratch, the bottom one in trellis. You can take a closer look at them here.

Chicken scratch 1

Years ago I bought some Gingham fabric with hearts. I'm not sure what I wanted to make, but now was the time to use it for the first challenge of Stitch Explorer. I started on a 12 inch square with 2 threads of white DMC. I used this tutorial. Then I did the same with red DMC.

I tried some cross stitches and made a woven square without the running stitches.

The next one I tried was double cross stitch. I laced them diagonal. The second diagonal was woven into the first one. On the left I used red and on the right white, for a better look.

For the next one I used the arrowhead stitch. But I was not so happy with the setting.

When I changed the setting, stars appeared!

France

Dit waren de laatste ATC's, die ik vorig jaar kreeg. Ze zijn gemaakt door Jana voor de ATC of the World swap.

These were the last ATC's that arrived last year. Jana made them for me for the ATC of the World swap.

Itty Betty

. . . maakte ik voor de Itty Bitty Dotee Doll swap. Het borduurwerk heb ik hier al in detail laten zien. Itty Betty woont nu bij Amy in Engeland.

. . . was the dotee I made for the Itty Bitty Dotee Doll swap. I already showed the embroidery here. Itty Betty now lives with Amy in the UK.

Dear Jane is back again!

De laatste weken heb ik af en toe een driehoek gequilt. Deze zijn van de bovenste rij.
In the last few weeks I quilted some triangles. These are the ones from my top row.

En dit is de hoek links boven.

And this is my top left corner.

Scroll stitch

De krulsteek was de volgende steek van TAST. Eerst lukte hij niet zo goed, maar toen ik een dikkere draad gebruikte lukte het wel. Dit voorbeeld heb ik geborduurd met 4 draden DMC.
The scroll stitch was the next stitch in TAST. It didn't work at first, but when I used a thicker thread it worked very well. I stitched this example with 4 threads of DMC.

Groninger deken

Vandaag heb ik blok 12 van deze deken afgedrukt, maar ik had blok 10 . . .
Today it was time for block 12 of this blanket, but I still had to show block 10 . . . . . . en blok 11 nog niet laten zien.
. . . and block 11.

Embroidery

Maanden geleden kwam ik voor het eerst chicken scratch tegen. Dat wilde ik graag uitproberen, maar het kwam er niet van. Gelukkig gebruikte Diane deze borduurtechniek op een paar van haar dotee dolls om me eraan te herinneren! Ik had nog wat restjes ruitjesstof en daar borduurde ik met 1 draad DMC op. Het geborduurde deel is 0,5 x 1 cm, mijn ruitjes waren een beetje klein!
Months ago, I discovered chicken scratch. I wanted to try it, but I forgot all about it. But Diane used this technique on some of her dotee dolls to remind me! I had some gingham scraps and used it to embroider with 1 thread of DMC. The embroidery is 0,5 x 1 cm (1 inch = about 2,5 cm). Daarna was het maar een kleine stap, om eindelijk weer wat aan TAST te doen. Ik was in oktober al begonnen met de crested chain stitch en dat heb ik vanmiddag afgemaakt. Deze steek is een combinatie van een kettingsteek en een koraalsteek.
Then it was a small step to do something about TAST. I started the crested chain stitch in October already and I finished it this afternoon. This stitch combines a chain stitch and a coral stitch.

Ik ben van plan om verder te gaan met TAST, om de rest van de steken hiervan ook te leren. Daarnaast ga ik meedoen met Stitch Explorer, de nieuwe uitdaging van Sharon voor 2009.

I want to continue with TAST, to learn the rest of the stitches too. And I'm going to participate in Stitch Explorer, Sharon's new challenge for 2009.

Happy New Year