Kiko's flower

This morning I made the last stitches on my sampler for Kiko's flower. Of course I started with a flower. I added French knots and pistil stitches. Then I made a row of Kiko petals and flipped them from side to side. I used a variegated Stef Francis perle 5 and added some green French knots.

This row has a base of Chevron stitches. I stitched the Kiko petals in the V's.

Yesterday I wrote about the snow on the Hedera in my garden. It looked like a row of bullion stitches at the edges of the leaves. It inspired me to make a Christmas tree. I used a buttonhole stitch with perle 5 for the tree and stitched bullion knots at the edges with perle 12. The bottom row is a raised cup stitch. My complete sampler is at my Flickr-page.

I wish you all a

and a Happy New Year.

It's cold!

It's very cold and I'm glad I don't have to go outside today. I only stepped into the garden for a few minutes to take some pictures of my Hedera. The snow made some beautiful crystals on the leaves.

It inspired me for my next TAST-stitch, Kiko's flowers, but it's not finished yet.

Gingerbread men

This morning I finished these cute gingerbread men. It's a variation on a Tilda pattern. For the embroidery I used cross and chain stitches with 2 threads of stranded floss. The bow is made of raffia.

Work In Slow Progress 10

This time I want to show you a quilt I started about 2 years ago. I used scraps from my quilting friends and made squares (4 x 4 cm or 1,5 x 1,5 inch). From the smaller scraps I made 4-patch squares in the same size. I hand sewed them randomly in rows of 14 squares, but after a few rows I started something new and put it away. A few months ago I found it again and decided to work on it every week. Now my quilt is 14 x 18 squares (56 x 72 cm or 22 x 28 inch) and I only have 4 squares left. I found a matching fabric in my stash for the border and decided to add some embroidery (maybe one of these). This project will be the first one for January, so I need to add the borders before the end of the year!

Spiked knotted cable chain

The spiked knotted cable chain is the TAST-stitch for week 35. This is my first row with Stef Francis perle 5. With the pink variation I alternated the spike from left to right. To do this I had to mirror the first part of the stitch too! The burgundy variation is DMC satin. Here I made a chain stitch instead of the first part of the stitch. The bottom row is a variation with a twisted chain instead of the first part of the stitch. I just skipped the 4th and 5th photo of the tutorial.

Then I experimented with the buttonhole part of the stitch. In the green row I used an up and down buttonhole stitch and added some French knots. The pink row is a variation with the crossed buttonhole stitch.

The blue row is another variation with the up and down buttonhole stitch. I like this variation very much. I think it's a nice seam decoration for CQ if you add other stitches and/or beads. The pink row at the left is a variation with the bullion buttonhole. I used perle 8, but I think it will look better with a perle 5. The pink row at the right is a variation with the knotted buttonhole stitch.

I wanted to try this stitch in a curve too. It works nicely and it doesn't matter if the spikes are on the inside or the outside of the curve. The threads are blue perle 5 and pink perle 8.

I enjoyed exploring this stitch. If you want to see my complete sampler, just visit my Flickr-page.

Zentangled R

This was my last swap of 2010. The zentangled alphabet will continue next year. Lindy made a pretty zentangled R for me . . .

. . . and I made a zentangled R for Janine. For the background I used the tangle Cadent. I tried this one several times and now it finally clicked!

Yoda 2

I've made some progress on Yoda. For the filling I use a stem stitch with 3 threads of stranded DMC. The darkest brown at the bottom is nearly finished. I already used a skein of it! At the left side I tried some shading with the help of Mary Corbet's tutorial about color control. Next time I try to take a better photo, this one is a bit blue (the fabric is off-white, it was almost dark when I took the photo). This time I also want to show you what inspired me to start this embroidery. I wrote about the Stitch Wars last week and that made me Google for pictures. This sihouette was the foundation for my embroidery.

A few weeks later I found the matching photo. Now I use this photo as the foundation for the shading.

It's quilted!

In the last few days I did some quilting on my Dear Jane quilt before I worked on Yoda or a TAST-stitch. Today I quilted the last triangle. I removed the tacking stitches before I took a picture. Now I need to find the fabric I wanted to use for the binding!

Buttonholed double chain

I returned to the buttonholed double chain again. I wrote about my first try here. This time I just stitched it on my TAST-sampler. I started with the yellow row at the left side. I had the same problems as the first time, but after a few stitches I saw how it was supposed to look. Then I stitched the purple row and made it wider. This looked much better, but I didn't like the beginning and ending of the rows. I started the variegated row the same as the Turkman stitch (aka double chain). The orange row is started with 2 open chain stitches and ended with the buttonholes. I started the last purple row at the right side with a buttonhole bar. This was how I wanted it to look! Then I played a little with the name buttonholed double chain. I stitched the Turkman stitch (aka double chain) in yellow and buttonholed the zigzag in purple.

And I tried some freestyle stitches too, I like it!

My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Turkman stitch

The next TAST stitch I wanted to catch up was the buttonholed double chain. I have looked at examples at the Flickr-TAST-group and read the comments. So I knew it was a tricky stitch! That's why I tried it on aida first. I followed the instructions, but I couldn't get it right. Then I remembered that the Turkman or double chain stitch was one of the next stitches. I tried a few of those and that was much better. I decided to catch up on the Turkman stitch first and return to the buttonholed double chain later. First I experimented with perle 5, 8 and 12 and the size of the stitches.

This is a detail of my next experiment. I made 2 mirrored rows close together and attached them with a trellis stitch.

This is a stitch combination with Turkman stitch, Chevron stitch, detached chain stitches, straight stitches and herringbone stitch in perle 5, 8 and 12. I enjoyed watching this variation grow with every stitch I added.

This last detail is a freestyle Turkman stitch in perle 5.

My complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Zentangled Q

The next letter for my zentangled ATC alphabet. Laura made this pretty yellow Q for me . . . . . . and I made this Q for Lindy. I was inspired again by the tangle Betweed.

Work In Slow Progress 9

The last time I wrote about my Dear Jane quilt was in January. After that I neglected her again, because I was very busy with TAST and the online classes. A few days ago I wanted to quilt again, so I quilted the last patched triangles of my Dear Jane quilt. This triangle is the last one on the right side of my quilt. In the original quilt it's on the bottom row. And this is the corner triangle at the bottom right side. In the original quilt, Jane A. Stickle used it to embroider her info on it. I'm not going to do the same, I just make a label for the back of the quilt.

This is a detail of the corner triangle.

Now I only have to quilt 7 triangles between the patched ones. My quilt is not as big as the original. I made 16 squares, 16 triangles and 4 corner triangles, all handpieced and handquilted. I recently found a photo of the original quilt here.

Yoda 1

In August last year I started an embroidery (16 x 26 cm or 6 x 10,5 inch) for my oldest daughter. I was inspired by the Stitch Wars. It took me only a few days to stitch the outlines in backstitches. And then . . . . . . nothing until now. I knew how I wanted this piece to look, but I didn't know how to do that. Last Thursday Mary Corbet posted a tutorial about color control and then I knew what I had to do! I filled the bottom left side with stemstitches. This part is stitched in dark brown and I experimented with the direction of the stitches. In other parts of this embroidery I will try some shading with the help of the color control tutorial.

These are the colors I'm going to use. It's a challenge to use only stranded DMC again!

Nefertiti

This is my last project for Sharon's class Personal Library of Stitches. It started with a whipped backstitch outline of Nefertiti on October 31 and I made the last French knots on November 26. The size is about 5 x 6 inch (13 x 16 cm). The pulled thread is a Finnish stitch. The crusted part is made of these stitches: buttonhole bars, buttonhole wheels, buttonhole wheel cups, cast on stitches, cross stitches, drizzle stitches, Eastern stitches, French knots, Palestrinas stitches, Sorbello stitches and whipped wheels. The border is a Portuguese stem stitch. There's a bigger photo of Nefertiti on my Flickr-page.

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.