Lock stitch

While I'm catching up on TAST, I start to learn how to use my new camera. The last few days I enjoyed experimenting with the lock stitch. These are the first rows I made. The top one is in perle 5 and 8, the second one in Stef Francis perle 5. The third row is a buttonhole stitch with perle 12 with a lock stitch in perle 8. In the next row I tied a Chevron stitch with lock stitches. I'm not sure if I like this, but I really like the green row. I made lock stitches at both side of the straight stitches, but not over the same ones.

This row is not knitted! It's just 3 rows of lock stitches with Stef Francis perle 5.

For the last row I made groups of 3 long tailed detached chain stitches with perle 5 & 8 . . .

. . . and tied them with lock stitches in perle 5.

My complete sampler is at my Flickr-page.

Shell chain stitch

Nefertiti is finished, I made the last stitches last Friday. Unfortunately I cannot show her yet, because my camera died. I bought a new one, but I'm still learning how to use it. In the meantime I started with the first TAST-stitch I needed to catch up, the shell chain stitch. First I made a few rows with this stitch. The first row is perle 5. The second row is a buttonholed variation with perle 8. My thread was not long enought to stitch the complete row, but I left it that way, so I could see what I had done. The third row is perle 12 with 2,6 mm beads. I put it on the thread before making the second chain stitch. The bottom row is Stef Francis perle 5. It's a bit difficult to see, but I alternated the second chain stitch from left to right. Then I made a cup of tea and saw what my husband was doing. He was gathering his supplies for our new bathroom radiator. One of his supplies was a bundle of hemp! He had enough of it, so I could use some in my embroidery. I couched it with shell chain stitches in perle 5 and 8 and added some beads. When I showed it to my husband, he told me I made sushi!

If you want to see my complete sampler (or a better look at the last row), just take a look at my Flickr-page.

Personal Library of Stitches 14

Nine years ago I made my first quilt with a weathervane block and some 4-patches in the corners. It's a small one (50 cm or about 20 inch) with big quilt stitches. It's on the wall of my workspace and I use it . . . . . . as my design board. Right now all samplers for Sharon's class are pinned on it. Nefertiti at the bottom right is nearly finished, I only need to add some finishing touches.

If you want to know more about my samplers, just follow the Plos tag.

Buttons

Last year I started a doodle cloth to try some embroidered motifs. I found it again and thought I could use some of them for buttons. The singleton button tutorial was very helpful, but I used old buttons instead of rings. I started with a small button. The embroidery was a first try with Madeira rayon thread. I wanted to know if I could use the thread for Brazilian embroidery when I was in Sharon's Encrusted Crazy Quilting class. She encouraged me to give it a try, so I made a flower with bullion knots, cast on stitches and French knots. I like the flower, but the thread was not easy to handle with these stitches. This button is 1,5 cm or 0,5 inch. Then I made a buttton with my bee. I wrote about how I made it here, it's a pattern of Aimee Ray. This was my first bee, because I wanted to use it on a quiltie. Later I stitched one on a crazy ornament too. This button is 2,5 cm or 1 inch.

My last button has a ladybug on it. I designed it for a friend, who made a quilt for her grandson. She wanted ladybugs on it and I embroidered 5 of them for her. This was my first try. It's made of spiral trellis stitches, satin stitches, French knots and couching with 2 threads of stranded DMC. This button is 3 cm or 1,25 inch.

This is one of the blocks on the quilt with the ladybugs. My friend appliqued the leaves (a Kaffe Fassett fabric) on a blue polka dot fabric and I made the ladybugs. I have seen the finished quilt, but I don't have a picture of it.

Tatted wreath

In August I tried my first tatting and after that I didn't had time to try again. But with Nefertiti nearly finished I wanted to try another wreath. The first time I used perle 8, now I used a Sulky cotton 30 and a smaller tatting needle (size 7). It's a variegated thread I bought for embroidery, but it works for tatting too! The result is a lovely small wreath (2, 5 cm or 1 inch), my first wreath was 4 cm or 1,5 inch.

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It's been a week since I showed a total picture of Nefertiti and I made a lot of progress. This first detail is at the bottom of my embroidery. It's a whipped wheel surrounded by Sorbello stitches and French knots. This is a part of what I stitched today between the border and the crown.

And this is Nefertiti today. The border is a Portuguese stem stitch.

If you want to know more about this embroidery, just follow the tag Nefertiti.

Fabric beads

Last week I wanted to make a little present for a quilting friend, but I had no idea what to make for her. Then I remembered these cute fabric beads. I used this tutorial for mine. The biggest knitting needle I had was a never used plastic size 10, so I used that and it went very well. Before I knew it there were 5 fabric beads ready.

Then I put the fabric beads on a piece of ribbon and alternated them with some bigger beads from my stash. Yesterday I needed to wrap them as a gift, but I had no nice bag for it. I made one from a scrap of lace curtain with a scallop edge. For the rope I used a piece of organza ribbon with a smaller bead at each side.

Zentangled C & J

Two weeks ago I sent 2 zentangled alphabet ATC's to Coleen. I made a C for her and a J for her husband. Both are shaded a little.

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Today Deepa asked me what I'm planning to add to Nefertiti. This embroidery, like most of my embroideries, goes with the flow. I know how I want it to look when it's finished and the last 2 days I worked on the line below the pulled thread. When that was finished I knew what I wanted to add next and I'm working on that now. You can click the photo to see it bigger. If you want to know more about this embroidery, just follow the tag Nefertiti.

Personal Library of Stitches 11

I enjoy stitching on Nefertiti, it's very addictive! This first detail is her shoulder: pulled thread, Portuguese stem stitches, Eastern stitches and French knots. This detail has a lot of stitches: a buttonhole wheel cup, buttonhole bars, Sorbello stitches, Eastern stitch and French knots.

And this is Nefertiti today.

I wrote about the start of this project last Saturday.

Hairpin lace circles

I didn't stop experimenting with small hairpin lace, but there was no time to blog about it. This first circle (1,5 inch or 4 cm) is made of a small strip of hairpin lace. I made single crochet on the inside and the outside of the circle and attached the beginning of the hairpin lace to the end. My next experiment is a spiral (2 inch or 5 cm wide), made of a large strip of hairpin lace.

I have a few more experiments to show, but I still have to weave in the thread ends of those and take picturees. So the story will continue again. You can take a look at my first experiments here.

Zentangled B, F & K

My zentangled ATC alphabet is growing again. Yesterday I received these beautiful ATC's. Janine made them for me.

Personal Library of Stitches 10

After finishing my floral sampler, I had to tidy up my workspace first! I found an Egyptian template and a new idea for the last week of this class was born. I started stitching the outlines with a whipped backstitch last Sunday. The rest of the week I added more stitches. This detail is a whipped wheel, a buttonhole bar and French knots.

More French knots . . .

. . . and some pulled thread. I used the same pattern as for the trunk of my casalguidi tree last year, but it looks completely different with the linen I use now.

This is the result of the first week stitching on Nefertiti. The size is 13 x 16 cm (about 5 x 6 1/2 inch) and I'm working on a 25 count white linen.

The class has ended, but I want to finish this project before I'm going to catch up on the TAST stitches again. It's so much fun to work on this and see it change with every stitch I add!

Personal Library of Stitches 9

Saturday I finished a floral sampler for this class. I started it with the stitches of week 5 and added some stitches of week 6 to finish it. This first detail is a flower made of crested chain and French knots. I used pistil stitches for the flower bud with the same Stef Francis perle 5.

A daffodil with woven picots.

This dragonfly is made the same way as the one on my woven trellis sampler.

I stitched this sampler on green linen, the size is 4 x 6 inch.

There's a bigger picture of it here.