Old Algerian eyes

The TAST stitch for week 31 is Algerian eyes. Great timing, it’s the perfect stitch for an embroidery I’m working on! But today I only share old samples. This is part of the sampler I made for TAST 2007. It’s stitched with stranded floss on muslin. The complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

This is part of a crazy ATC I made at the same time. It’s also stitched with stranded floss.

A detail on block 8 of my Crazy Monday quilt. I stitched Algerian eyes with stranded floss and attached the beads in a similar way.

This is a detail on my Eastern stitch sampler, a TAST 2010 stitch. I stitched an Algerian eye inside a square of 4 Eastern stitches. The thread is perle 12.

A border on my PLOS border sampler. Chevron stitches in perle 5 and Algerian eyes in DMC 80.

A detail on another PLOS sampler. This is part of my sampler There Is No Spoon. Crown stitches with Stef Francis perle 5 and Algerian eyes with perle 12.

My last sample is part of my Casalguidi ornament. I cannot find the notes of this embroidery, but I think the eyelets are done in stranded floss.

I want to try this stitch on Aida, so I need to prepare a new sampler. A great excuse to use one of the new ones I bought a few weeks ago!

Oyster stitch

The TAST stitch for week 30 is oyster stitch. I stitched a swirl of oyster stitches on my grey linen sampler. It’s done with Stef Francis perle 5.

I’ve also used oyster stitches on a seam on my 4^th block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. First I made French knots and fly stitches with 
6 threads of stranded floss. Then I added oyster stitches and detached chain stitches with cotton a broder.

There’s a photo of all finished seams on this block on my Flickr-page.

Garden update

Yesterday I took some photo’s in our garden. It had rained during the night and the raindrops were still visible on some of our plants. This is our new Hypericum.

Last year we planted 5 Malva’s in our garden, now there’s only one left.

This sunflower surprised us, we didn’t plant any this year. But we had some birds on our sunflowers last year!

I hope to share my oyster stitches tomorrow.

Miauw

I made this ATC for Alida. She likes purple and she collects cat ATC’s, so I combined it in my crazy ATC. The stitches are inspired by TAST. I’ve used stranded floss for the Chevron and bonnet stitch, Caron Wildflowers for the buttonhole wheels and perle 5 for the Basque stitch and the French knots and detached chain stitches on the rickrack. The edge is a fluffy knitting yarn. 

Alida has sent me 3 pretty ATC’s: a purple Hydrangea,

little birdies in a cage

and a Paris ATC.

There’s a bigger photo of my ATC Miauw on my Flickr-page.

Inchie swap

A few days ago I swapped a few gorgeous inchies with Dinie. I already have 3 of her ATC’s. She wanted some inchies in different styles from my collection: 

Blue Eyes, Tatting 01 and Resist & Paradox. 

These are the inchie she sent me: a red flower,

a purple flower

and a yellow flower.

They are so pretty! Take a look at Dinie's Flickr-page to see more of her beautiful art.

Hathor

I made this fabric book page for Ritva for the swap at Fibre Fever. The size is 
6 x 6 inch or 15 x 15 cm. Hathor was a scrap of the quilt Ankh, the other fabrics are scraps from my Work In Progress Wednesday quilt and my double wedding ring quilt. Of course the stitches are inspired by TAST. This seam is a combo of herringbone stitches and French knots in DMC perle 5 color variations.

Chevron stitch with Stef Francis spun silk with flames and straight stitches with 1 strand of DMC jewel effects.

Here I attached the organza with French knots, it’s done with 2 threads of stranded floss.

A double row of bonnet stitches with perle 5, decorated with small bugle beads.

Feather stitch with Caron Wildflowers, decorated with beads.

This is the same Ankh I used for the label of my daughters quilt, only smaller. It’s stitched in backstitches with 1 thread of DMC jewel effects.

There's a bigger photo of this fabric book page at my Flickr-page.

Work In Progress Wednesday - July 25

This week I quilted the flowers hanging on the right side of the vase. Now all flowers on the right side are done.

Here’s my progress photo of the backside.

Sharon wrote about her band sampler for Work In Progress Wednesday. She gathered the pieces she made the last 2 years, stitched them together and added it to the big roll. Her sampler is now almost 30 meters or 10 feet!

Old oyster stitches

The TAST stitch for week 30 is oyster stitch. It’s a stitch I struggled with the first time I tried it and this video helped me very much. It’s a stitch I often use, but it’s not always visible in my work. This first detail is part of my TAST 2007 sampler. It’s stitched on muslin with 2 threads of stranded floss.

The oyster stitch is a perfect tulip. This detail is part of block 3 of my 
Crazy Monday quilt. It’s done with stranded floss.

This is a detail on my woven trellis stitch sampler, a TAST 2010 stitch. 
I stitched oyster stitches with perle 5 to represent leaves.

There are lots of oyster stitches in my sumptuous embroidery Halloween and Relief, but it’s not visible any more. This is a detail on my sumptuous embroidery Touch. There’s an oyster stitch at the bottom of the whipped wheel. I think the thread is a perle 5.

This is the first stitch I couldn’t find in any of my stitch dictionaries.

Block 3 finished

This is my third block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. After damp stretching I tacked the rouleau loops to the edge with basting thread. I wrote about the details here, here, here, here and here.

There’s a bigger photo of this finished block on my Flickr-page.

Block 3 - organza puff

I’ve added cross stitches with ecru cotton a broder to my third block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. Then I decorated it with an organza puff. 
I’m damp stretching my block and hope to share it tomorrow.

Block 3 - cutwork and appliqué

I finally added something new to my third block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. I tried something new inside the cutwork, whipped spokes with a whipped wheel. It was inspired by this video. I stitched buttonhole stitches with French knots around the cutwork. The thread is cotton a broder.

And I appliquéd lace on a 3 inch circle.

This block is almost finished, only a few more stitches before I can damp stretch it!

Red Aida sampler

Yesterday I shared the last stitches on my red Aida sampler, today it’s completely finished. There are TAST stitches for weeks 25-29. I’ve added some 2mm beads, blue ones between the double row of bonnet stitches,

green ones at the ends of the Palestrina stitches and between the crossed Palestrina stitches

and green ones between the triangle up and down buttonhole stitch.

The big picture of this sampler is on my Flickr-page.

Basque stitch

The TAST stitch for week 29 is Basque stitch. In my old TAST 2007 sampler I only used stranded floss. So now I stitched them with different threads, from top to bottom perle 12, 8 and 5.

Then I alternated the size of the stitches in variegated perle 5.

In the next 4 samples I did something different at the bottom of the Basque stitch. Here I added the first part of the fly stitch after finishing the row. The thread is stranded DMC, 2 threads of green floss and 1 thread blue Jewell effects.

Here I added a 2 mm bead to my thread before I made the second part of the stitch. At the second half of the row I added beads between the stitches too. The thread is perle 12.

Here I made a French knot to finish the twisted chain part of the Basque stitch. The thread is perle 5.

The last variation with different endings. Here I extended every second stitch with a chain stitch. The thread is perle 5.

This is the last sample on my red Aida, slanted stitches with perle 5.

I hope to share my finished red Aida sampler tomorrow when I added more beads to dot the i’s. There’s a bigger photo of my Basque stitches on my Flickr-page.

Work In Progress Wednesday - July 18

I didn’t had much time to quilt this week, I had to finish 2 fabric book pages. Last Sunday I quilted the third flower, it took me an hour to finish 12 petals. At the top photo I only quilted the 6 inside petals, quite a difference!

And a progress photo of the backside, it’s growing slowly.

Visit Pin Tangle for more info about Work in Progress Wednesday.