Work In Progress Wednesday - October 31

This week I’m halfway quilting the background! It’s not easy to share what my quilt looks like in a photo, so I made a video. You can watch it here.

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Old stitches on my doodle cloth

This week’s TAST stitch is closed woven picot leaf stitch. I remember stitching one for the Stitch Explorer challenge needle weaving, but had no photo of it. Luckily that part of my doodle cloth was still in my cupboard.

And here it is, my wonky closed woven picot leaf stitch in stranded floss. I didn’t like this stitch in 2009 and never tried again. So this week I have an almost new stitch to learn!

I thought it would be nice to share a few details of what’s left of my doodle cloth. This is part of the pulled thread I tried for the Stitch Explorer challenge Casalguidi. I used another part of this (that’s the missing circle in the first photo) behind some cutwork here. These will get the same treatment on another block.

This is part of my work for the Stitch Explorer challenge needle weaving. The petals are woven picots. I think it’s time to give this embroidery a nice place in my studio journal.

A brown interwoven diagonal cross stitch as a trial for my pleister and some pulled thread trials.

Sharon wrote about TAST next year, please visit Pin Tangle to read more about it.

Block 4 finished

Yesterday I shared the last detail on this block, the buttonhole wheel cup. Now it’s damp stretched and ready to add to the other blocks. But first I’m going to embroider my last block and a few prairie points.

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

Buttonhole wheel cups

The TAST stitch for week 43 is buttonhole wheel cup. It was the perfect stitch to finish my rust dyed sampler. First I made a buttonhole wheel cup in stranded floss, 2 threads for the wheel and 4 threads for the edge.

This buttonhole wheel cup is stitched in Caron Wildflowers. The complete sampler is on my Flickr-page.

I also added a big buttonhole wheel cup at my 4^th block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. The thread is cotton a broder. With the same thread I added some French knots and Sorbello stitches. I’m damp stretching it and hope to share a photo of the finished block soon.

Autumn leaves

Work In Progress Wednesday - October 24

Lots of progress again! I quilted all parts between the vase and the flowers. Only a few more lines and I’m halfway quilting the background!

backside of my quilt

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Old buttonhole wheel cups

The TAST stitch for week 43 is buttonhole wheel cup. I still remember what happened when I stitched this for TAST 2010, I couldn’t stop stitching until my 
3 x 3 inch square was filled with stitches! I posted a slideshow about the making of my sampler here. The threads are perle 5, 8 and 12.

This detail is part of my last TAST 2010 sampler. I was catching up on the last stitches and repeated a lot of the others. The thread is perle 8.

A detail on my embroidery Touch. The thread is perle 5. It has an extra round of stitches and a French knot inside.

There are a few different buttonhole wheel cups on my embroidery Nefertiti. This one is stitched in perle 5 and surrounded with a buttonhole bar and lots of French knots in different threads.

A work in progress detail on my embroidery Nefertiti. This buttonhole wheel cup is stitched in Stef Francis spun silk with flames, a lovely thread that changes in colour and thickness.

In her post today, Sharon asked us if we would like it if she continues with TAST next year. Please visit Pin Tangle and tell her what you think of that. 

Mint cheesecake with biscuit base and fine sugar crumble

This is the third petit four designed by Grietjekarwietje.

I embroidered the word mint in Dutch with cotton a broder.

There’s no place for it on my serving platter yet!

Don’t they look lovely together?

You can find the pattern in Dutch and English here.

Italian knotted border stitch

The TAST stitch for week 42 is Italian knotted border stitch. I drew a lot of different ideas and I started with this one on my black linen sampler. Unfortunately I didn’t succeed to take a good photo of it.

Then I continued on my Aida, much easier to count! The first row is a combo of buttonhole stitch and Italian knotted border stitch in perle 5. The second variation is stitched with 2 threads of stranded silk.

I experimented a little more with my first idea in the third row, the thread is stranded floss. The wide border is a combo of a woven Cretan stitch and Italian knotted border stitch. The threads are perle 12 and stranded cotton and silk floss.

The 5^th row is a combo of Italian knotted border stitch and pistil stitch in perle 5. The last row is a variation in Stef Francis spun silk with flames.

Take a closer look at this 2 x 2 inch sampler on my Flickr-page.

Bird inchies

I swapped a few pretty inchies with Dinie. I have sent her a French knot inchie, an inchie with tatting and an inchie with apples.

Years ago I folded origami too, but not this small!

Take a look at Dinie’s Flickr-page to see more of her beautiful art.

Work In Progress Wednesday - October 17

My day started with this beautiful sunrise. It makes me want to grab my embroidery threads to find matching colours!

And this is the progress on my quilt. Last week I quilted the lines at the right side, all the way to the bottom of the background. I start to think I could be halfway in 
2 or 3 weeks! No photo of the front this time, it was very blurry.

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Old Italian knotted border stitches

This week’s TAST stitch is Italian knotted border stitch. The first samples are part of my TAST 2010 sampler. This butterfly is stitched with perle 12. The large wings are made of 2 small Italian knotted border stitches inside a large one.

This sample is stitched with Caron Wildflowers. The stitches are wider and 

I worked them from left to right inside each other.

Here I experimented with Stef Francis perle 5 thread. The pattern appeared when 
I was stitching.

The last sample on my TAST 2010 sampler. Two opposite rows of Italian knotted border stitches with perle 5.

A seam on my crazy ornament Snail in the garden. This is done with 2 threads of stranded DMC color variations.

This last sample is a seam on my ATC Crazy X-mas 2-2. I couched the gold ribbon with Italian knotted border stitches with 2 threads of stranded DMC color variations.

This is one of those stitches I forgot, so it will be fun to rediscover it again!

Pistachio with butter cream

This is the second petit four pattern from Grietjekarwietje. 

The Dutch pattern is here.

Block 4 - scrim

This is the top left corner of my fourth block for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. I attached the scrim with French knots and bullion knots. Then
I made lots of buttonhole stitches to get the look I wanted. I’m very happy with the result!

Halloween ATC

Kate made this pretty ATC for the October swap at Stitchin Fingers. Thanks Kate!

Knotted loop stitch

The TAST stitch for week 41 is knotted loop stitch. I had no idea what to stitch, so 

I decided to continue on the sampler with the Cretan stitches. Cretan stitch has a similar look, so I echoed the shape of my Cretan stitches. I’ve used cotton a broder, perle 5 and 8.

Have a closer look at this sampler at my Flickr-page.

Work In Progress Wednesday - October 10

This week’s progress is hardly visible, I quilted the parts between the flowers. It’s difficult to see at the front, but it looks very good at the back.

 More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Old knotted loop stitches

The TAST stitch for week 41 is knotted loop stitch. It was the second stitch in TAST 2010. This detail is part of the sampler I stitched at the time. It’s very small, only 1 x 1 cm. The thread is Sulky cotton 30. More details of the same sampler here and here.

The knotted loop stitch is a great stitch for leaves. Here I stitched them in perle 5 on my buttonhole eyelet flower sampler.

This detail is part of my last TAST 2010 sampler. These stacked knotted loop stitches are done in perle 8.

A seam on my crazy ornament Snail in the garden. The thread is Sulky cotton 30, the same thread as my first sample.

This is a detail on my ATC Blueprint. The knotted loop stitch in perle 8 is surrounded by Portuguese stem stitches in perle 5 and 8.

My last detail is on a Halloween ornament I made last year. The knotted loop stitches inside the body are stitched with 1 thread of stranded floss. The original pattern was completely stitched in backstitches.