Yellow

These ATC's are made by Helen (left) and Hannah for the yellow fabric atc swap.I made these for Brenda and Ingrid. There is a larger photo on my Flickr-page with details about the stitches.

Trellis stitch 4

For my next example a made a row of backstitches and made rows of trellis stitches on them, till there was no thread left. It looked like a flap, so I made a pocket beside it. When I was looking for something else, I found some rainbow thread. I made a rectangle and a square. I filled the rectangle with rows of trellis and the square with rounds to see the difference.

This daffodil and the lovely teacup from Annie inspired me . . .

. . . to make a daffodil in trellis stitches. First I made the horizontal and vertical petals in rows. In the centre I made a square of 4 backstitches and used them to create the centre of the flower. I was not happy with the result, so I made the diagonal petals. I filled them in rounds. There was only room for 3 of them, for I already stitched 'trellis stitch' on my fabric!

Here you can see the flower in a different angle.

Today I was making an ATC and tried a small fish (1/2 inch). I used 2 threads of DMC for it. The tail is made of straight stitches.

Groninger blanket 18

I skipped block 17 and made block 18. It looks as if it's not a square, but it is! It's not a difficult pattern, you only have to count every row.

Groninger blanket 15 & 16

I finished 2 more blocks for this blanket. The one with the cables was not so difficult as it looks!

Trellis stitch 3

In the last few days I had a lot of fun with the trellis stitch. This purple example has a square base of 4 backstitches on each side. I worked from the inside to the outside and increased in the corners. I made 4 rounds. On this diamond base I made a spiral trellis. I made 7 rounds and decreased a stitch in the pointed corners in every row and in the other corners every other row.

Below my green triangle I made a blue one. I started in the straight corner and made 7 rounds. In the straight corner I decreased every other row and in the other corners every row. My triangle is 3/8 inch high!

I also tried a spiral trellis on a base of chain stitches. I started to decrease in the third round. When it was finished I made one round on the loops of the chain stitches on the outside of it, 2 in every loop. I think it looks like a hat.

My last example is made on a base of 5 chain stitches. I started in the second chain stitch and worked around it. In the first round I increased 5 stitches on both ends, in the second round 2 stitches and the third 3 stitches.

I tried to make a picture of my stitches in a different angle, so you can see it dimensional.

So far I only used cotton perlé for my examples. The tutorials of Mary Corbet and Jeanne where a great help for me!

Strawberry Cupcake

. . . is the name of this dotee. I made her for Heather for a cupcake dotee swap. This lovely dotee was the inspiration for mine.

Trellis stitch 2

Today I made 3 more examples. Elizabeth of Quieter Moments wrote about the chain stitch as a base for the trellis stitch. So I tried it on the blue one. It gives a nice edge. I also tried another spiral trellis, a red one. This time I counted the stitches and it is more regular now. And I wanted to make a different shape, so I made a triangle. This was the base for that, 10 horizontal back stitches and 2 times 5 diagonal back stitches. Each row I decreased at both sides and I finished with 1 trellis stitch in the bottom point.

I used cotton perlé for all these examples.

Trellis stitch 1

The trellis stitch is the next challenge for February. I never tried this stitch before, but it was on my to do list for a few months. First I tried a rectangle in pink, but I pulled the thread to tight. The second one in green went well. Then I made a spiral trellis stitch in yellow. It's not as regular as I wanted it to be, but it's my first one. I think practice will make it better.

Chicken scratch 6

This is the last example I did on aida. I made cross stitches and laced them on 3 of them. I saw this on a crazy heart and gave it a try. I did some chicken scratch on Gingham with small squares in 2 colours. First a classic example.

And then one with cross stitches, laced with a thick cotton thread. It's about the size of 4 threads of DMC.

Then I made some standing cross stitches in blue and laced them in brown in 2 different ways. I think it's a nice border design.

And I had to try some chicken scratch on fabric with chicken wire! I made some double cross stitches with the thick thread and laced it with brown.

Now it's time to try the next challenge: the trellis stitch.

Hearts

Last month I did a Valentine swap with Dee. She made this lovely heart ATC for me and she sent me a dotee-kit. This is the ATC I made for her. I cut some hearts from different fabrics and put it on the background fabric. Then I put some tulle on top of it and embroidered the hearts in the Portuguese stem stitch. I also added the beads and a yarn binding.

I made a matching Itty Bitty Dotee Doll for her birthday. Her body is 1,5 inch high.

Purple

This beautiful ATC is made by Brenda for a purple fabric ATC swap. She made a colouring iron transfer and put it in a pocket! I like the way she used the rickrack ribbon. This is how it looks out of the pocket. It's a lovely fairy!

Chicken scratch 5

I tried some chicken scratch with different stitches. First I made a square of buttonhole stitches. Then I laced it vertical with 4 threads of DMC with light green. I did the same horizontal with green, but I wove the threads.Then I made a border with herringbone stitches in 2 green colours. I laced it with 4 threads of DMC over 1 and 2 stitches. The large lacing is filled with a cross stitch.

Yesterday I decided to make a fabric book from all the stitch explorer examples. So I added the name of the first challenge to my fabric in cross stitches. I think I will frame it with some borders in chicken scratch.

Alvin McClure

. . . is block 10 of the Civil War Diary Quilt. I used templates to make it.
Block 11 is the last one of the first row, 1 down 10 to go! This one was very easy. The only problem was the difference between the pattern and the example in the book. So I looked around on the internet, to see what other people did with it and decided to use the example. Last weekend I cut the fabric for my next block, the first one of the second row. I want to make the blocks in the sequence of the book, so I don't have to decide which one is next every time.

And there was a surprise in my mailbox this morning: a beautiful Kogin ATC made by Miriam. She sent it in a lovely matching envelope.

Groninger blanket

This morning I finished block 14 of this blanket and I discovered I didn't show block 12 en 13 yet. So here they are. Block 12 was hard to knit, because I had to purl 4 stitches together! But I like the result. Block 13 was not so hard and block 14 was a piece of cake!

Chicken scratch 4

This weekend I did some chicken scratch again. I made some cross stitches with 2 threads of DMC and laced it with cotton no. 8. The second one is inspired by the fourth example Sharon made. I only did a part, but I think it's a nice border. I used 2 threads of DMC for the cross stitches and 4 for the lacing.

This is also inspired by something I saw, but I cannot remember where. The cross stitches are done with 2 threads of DMC and the lacing with 4.

And I saw some lovely chicken scratch squares on Flickr, just take a look at them here.

Rabbit B

This lovely rabbit arrived yesterday. He is made by Maria. She choose my ATC 'Herringbones'.