Tangled turtle

Last week I made a second tangled turtle on a postcard for a birthday. I used the same pattern as last time on this ATC, but now I used the original quilting by Dijanne Cevaal as inspiration for the tangles. I found a photo of her quilt in one of my older quilt magazines with a drawing of some of the turtles. I used one of the outlines of those as a template for my turtle. It's not such a good photo, my camera doesn't like red!

Sword stitch

It was difficult to vary with the sword stitch. On top of that I made the stitches of the first 2 variations wrong, so they don't sit nicely. I took the thread under instead of over the first half of the stitch. My first variation is a row of stacked sword stitches with 1 thread of Caron Watercolours and purple perle 12. Then I made a mirrored row with perle 12, beads and sequins.

This variation is done in perle 5 and laced with Caron Rachelette.

For my last experiment I used a metallic thread and a thread of DMC 80. I made fly stitches at the bottom with perle 5 and a tied herringbone stitch under the sword stitches with Caron Wildflowers.

I made a few more examples on my sampler for week 17. Just take a look here.

Chained cross stitch

I enjoyed exploring the chained cross stitch. I started with 3 rows with blue perle 5, pink perle 12 and yellow perle 8 to see the difference in threads. Then I made 2 rows of a woven variation with Stef Francis perle 5 and burgundy perle 8. It's very easy, I just took the thread under the first half of the stitch before I made the chain. I like the braided look of this variation! There's a doubble mirrored row of this variation on my sampler.

These half chained cross stitches are done in yellow perle 8. I made a normal half cross stitch and started the chain stitch at the centre of the stitch. From a distance it looks like a Palestrina stitch. I like this variation too!

This variation is done with perle 12 and 2 mm beads. I put the bead on the thread before I started the stitch, so it's on the first half cross stitch. I made the chain stitch around the bead.

My last experiment is a variation with a twisted chain stitch in perle 5.

These are only a few of the examples I made on my sampler for week 26 of TAST. My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Tatting needles

Last month I made my first tatting with a shuttle and needles. I didn't like to use the shuttle, so I tried to find tatting needles in my country. In the meantime I tried a few more samples with the trapunto needle and the needle for mending socks. Suz pointed me to Georgia Seitz's Online Tatting Class and that helped me a lot. Thank you, Suz!

The pink butterfly is made with thick cotton yarn (size 4 knitting needle). For the red one I used a size 12 thread and 2 mm beads. The flowers are just 6 double stitches with 2 bugle beads instead of a picot. The ecru lace is my first try with split rings and chains. I found a Dutch web shop and bought a size 5 and 7 tatting needle and a beginners tatting book from Barbara Foster: 'Learn Needle Tatting Step-by-Step'. It arrived a few days ago and I made a few patterns from the book with perle 8 and the size 5 needle. First I made the pink and the blue lace. Then I tried the green wreath, I like it! And I like my new needles, they work great.

Vandyke stitch

The Vandyke stitch was not completely new to me. I used it on 2 crazy ATC's I made in 2008 and on my last Crazy Monday block. But I never experimented with it and TAST is a great challenge to do so. But first I made a row with Stef Francis perle 5. I didn't like the bottom of the line and decided to make a small stitch at the end of the row to keep the stitches straight. Now the beginning and the end of the row looks almost the same, I like that. This next experiment is done with perle 12. I added some 2 mm beads to both arms of every second stitch. It was not so easy to keep the thread from tangling in those beads!

On this last sample I couched a buckle on the fabric with Stef Francis perle 5. Then I made another row on both sides to fill the shape. I decorated it with some French knots with DMC broder special. I think this will look good on a crazy block too!

These are only a few of the examples I made on my sampler for week 25. My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Red shawl

While I'm waiting for my tatting needles to arrive, I finished an old experiment. In May I started with some hairpin lace with red acrylic yarn from my stash. I found several tutorials online, but this one helped me to get the swing of it. This is a picture of the start of the first row. After that I made 2 more rows, but I made them smaller. I joined those on both sides of the large row with the cable join. For the edges I used the edge cable join. Then I made some fringe at both ends. The size of this shawl is 14 x 110 cm (about 5 x 42 inch) without the fringe.

It was not difficult to learn this technique and I'm sure I'm going to use it again. Stitchdiva is a good place to start if you want to know more about this technique.

Work In Slow Progress 8

The last time I wrote about my Gorse Fairies was in April! I didn't touch it until our long weekend holiday a week ago. It was the only embroidery I took with me and I started on the wings of the girl. I didn't make much progress, but I enjoyed working on it again.

Crazy Monday 23

Before I started with Sharon's class encrusted crazy quilting, I added a burgundy border to my Crazy Monday quilt and started to sew down the seams with a herringbone stitch. I wrote about that here, with a picture of the quilt. Now I'm finally finished with the seams. But when I wanted to sandwich it, I noticed a spot that needed some flowers. I had planned to do those after adding the border, but totally forgot about it. (I made this block a year ago!) I made detached chain stitches and straight stitches with 2 threads of stranded DMC to the flowers at the bottom of the parasol.

If you want to know the story of this quilt, you can read more in my Crazy Monday posts.

Zentangled M

No embroidery today, it's time to show you some zentangles! I found swaps for a zentangled alphabet and I jumped in with the M. Last Friday I received mine from Janine. She made a pretty purple zentangled M for me. This is the one I made for Deveri. I tried some shading on it with a normal pencil and a white pencil.

Italian knotted border stitch again

The TAST stitch for week 16 was the Italian knotted border stitch. I only used this stitch on my ornament Snail in the garden, because I was working on my encrusted crazy blocks in June. Now I have time to catch up on the older stitches. In this first example I couched an acrylic knitting yarn with perle 8 and mirrored every second stitch. I used Caron Wildflowers for my next example. The stitches are wider and I worked them from left to right inside each other.

This example is done in Stef Francis perle 5. The pattern just appeared when I was stitching.

For this butterfly I used perle 12. The large wings are made of 2 small Italian knotted border stitches inside a large one.

I have seen a lot of flowers made with this stitch in the Flickr TAST-group, so I had to make one too. All threads are perle 12. The center of the flower is a woven buttonhole wheel.

These are only a few of the examples I made on my sampler for week 16. My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Siennese stitch

The TAST stitch for week 24 is the Siennese stitch. I enjoyed it very much! This stitch reminded me of the Sorbello stitch and that made me stitch this example in 2 colours with perle 8. When I was stitching this, the next variation popped up. I made the stitches next to each other, but I turned every second stitch a quarter to the right.

In this next variation I made the second part of the stitch on both sides of the straight stitch.

This is a simple drawing of that.

These are only a few of the examples I made on my sampler for this week. I also used it in freestyle embroidery! My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Waved chain

There was not much time to do some embroidery this week, because we were on a holiday for a long weekend. But this morning I finished my sampler for the waved chain. I had already started with a few rows last week. The first 3 rows in perle 5 and the green row with beads in perle 8. My butterflies are inspired by these and the one in the last encrusted crazy quilting lesson. I made a bullion knot with 2 pistil stitches to finish them.

Laksmi inspired me to make a cactus with her sample of the waved chain. I used the square knot drizzle stitch for the flowers.

There's a picture of my complete sampler here.

Triple chain

My crazy blocks are ready, so I have time again to work on the TAST-stitches. I like to work on them before seeing a lot of examples, so I did the triple chain first. It was a great excuse to use the new yarn I bought. This first example is done in a variegated Stef Francis perle 5. I think I need more of this yarn, I like it! Triple chain is a great stitch for the stem of a flower. The big one is done in perle 12, the small one in DMC Jewell effects. This thread looks very pretty, but it's an awful thread to use! The big flower is a buttonhole wheel with 3 rounds of trellis stitches. I already had this idea when I was working on the buttonhole wheel cups, but no time then.

The next 3 examples are variations of the stitch. The left one in perle 12 has side stitches pointing to each othere to make a closed triangle. The middle one in perle 12 has side stitches pointing away from each other to make a zigzag. The right one in perle 5 looks like bamboo! I made the side stitches on one side pointing up and down. With each of these 3 examples I had to alternate with a chain stitch without the side stitches, because there was no space for them!

There's a picture of my complete sampler on my Flickr-page.

Encrusted Crazy Quilting 11

This is the second block I made for Sharon's class encrusted crazy quilting. The size is 10 x 10 inch. I already wrote about the embroidery of the seams, my floral spray and the spider. The slipped detached chain was the inspiration for the floral spray and my spider. The tree was the first motif I added to this block. I used the tutorial of the easy breezy trees. The yarn for the tree was a knitting yarn with cotton, silk and linen. I started the tree at 3 different points at the bottom to make the roots. I embroidered French knots around them with DMC color variation to make the moss. Close to the roots with 4 strands and further away with 2 strands. I used silk ribbon for the leaves. There's a more detailed picture of my second block here.