CQ RR 2013 - bare block

Last week I made my first 12 x 12 inch block for the round robin at Fibre Fever. Three ladies are going to add their stitches and then it will return home again.

TAST 61, 62 & 63

I've been playing catch-up on my Take a Stitch Tuesday stitches! 

TAST stitch 61 is up and down feather stitch. I stitched it on block 8 for Karen's class Embroider, Embellish, Create. I stitched oyster stitches inside the up and down part of the stitch. The threads are cotton a broder.

TAST stitch 62 is raised cross stitch. I’ve used many different threads, ribbons and a fluffy yarn on my Aida sampler.

At the left is perle 5, at the right a funny fibres ribbon.

This is the base of a design I found in my book The stitches of creative embroidery.

The finished design. I added fly stitches, straight stitches, detached chain stitches and colonial knots. Perle 5 for the raised cross stitch and perle 8 for all other stitches.

A double cross stitch as the base for my raised cross stitch.

The finished raised double cross stitch with Caron Watercolours. Take a closer look at my raised cross stitch sampler in a different angle here.

TAST stitch 63 is scroll stitch, this time I’ve used perle 5. In the centre row I added beads after seeing this sample.

This is my way of adding the beads to the scroll stitch. Take a closer look at this detail here.

I still don’t like the scroll stitch, it disorganizes very easy as you can see in the blue row.

What’s on my needles?

Last week I started a new knitting project, the Ten Stitch Blanket. It’s so much fun to knit! The start is a small square and then you knit 2 corners, here I made the first half of my first corner.

The first completed corner.

And the second corner.

Then you knit and join as you go, so no sewing afterwards!

It already start to look like a spiral.

This is my progress until today.

I have no idea how big my blanket is going to be, I’m using the remaining yarn from my Hitchhiker shawl.

Work In Progress Wednesday - April 24

After 2 weeks neglecting my quilt it thought it would be a good idea to work on it for the next 2 weeks. So I cut my binding, ironed them in half and marked my sewing line.

I pinned the first binding at the right side of my quilt.

Then I could sew it by hand.

And voila, the first binding is done!

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Old scroll stitches

TAST stitch 63 is scroll stitch. I stitched this TAST 2007 sampler 4 years ago with stranded floss, the only threads I had at the time.

I started with 2 threads of stranded floss and didn’t liked the result.

Then I switched to 4 threads of stranded floss and made some scroll stitch doodles. 
I still wasn’t happy with the result. Not sure why, but I didn’t try stitching with a full thread of stranded floss.

This spiral was the last experiment on my sampler, it's stitched with 4 threads of stranded floss.

It was fun to read my old notes, I struggled with this stitch! I’m looking forward to give this stitch another try with different threads.

Spring!

Today I worked in the garden and enjoyed the sun and my flowers.

Pansy

Daffodil

Tulip

Grape Hyacinth

Diamond stitch

TAST stitch 60 is diamond stitch. I already stitched a lot of experiments on my TAST 2010 sampler and didn’t think I could come up with something new. Luckily I was inspired by Barbara’s experiment with diamond and herringbone stitch. 
I started with a diamond stitch in Stef Francis perle 5.

Then I added a herringbone stitch as if I was stitching a double herringbone. The thread is perle 5.

Now I could weave another row of herringbone stitches through the first herringbone row and the diamond stitch. Here I put the needle over the diamond stitch and under the herringbone stitch.

In the second part of the herringbone I put the needle under the diamond stitch and over the herringbone stitch of the previous row.

My finished stitch combo.

Here I did almost the same, but now with 2 rows of diamond stitches. The threads are perle 5.

Again almost the same, but now I stitched a combo of woven diamond and Cretan stitches. The threads are perle 5 and Caron Wildflowers. It would have been nice to add French knots or beads, but there was not enough space for them on my sampler.

Take a closer look at my diamond stitch sampler here.

Spikkeltje

Fairytales from your country is Evi’s theme for the book page swap at Fibre Fever. I choose a fairytale written by Annie M.G. Schmidt called Spikkeltje. One of the characters in this story is witch Akkeba, who lives in a pear tree. The tree and the tree house are hand appliquéd. The leaves are woven detached chain stitches with cotton a broder. Luckily I had some pear buttons in the right size! Take a closer look at this page here.

Work In Progress Wednesday - April 17

There wasn’t much time to work on my WIPW projects this week. Adding a binding to my quilt is not something I enjoy, so I decided to finish the 7^th element on my long and short stitch sampler. The size is about 1 x 1 inch or 2½ x 2½ cm. Take a closer look at this flower here.

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.

Hip to be Square

. . . is the name of zentangle challenge #113 at I am the diva. This time we had to draw a few more squares inside the border to use as our string. From the outside I’ve used Wiggle Waves, Argh!, Quandary and Jester.

Block 7 & 9

I finished 2 more blocks for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. 
This is block 7. In the top right corner is a cuff from my daughter’s old blouse, for now it’s only appliquéd to the block. I already wrote about the first details here.

At the left side I made an Assisi flower garden of French knots.

The lace next to it has a whipped chain stitch with cotton a broder.

There was a small space left on my cloth and first I wanted to make a small pocket. Then I found the pleated fabric, perfect for this. I appliquéd a small circle and decorated it with French knots. The size of block 9 is 1½ x 8 inch or 3½ x 20 cm.

My unfinished cloth. Now I only have to finish block 8 for the bottom right corner.

My blocks are only attached with tacking stitches, so there are a lot of new seams to embroider!

ATC’s from Canada

Last month I had a private swap with Debbie in Canada. She sent me 2 gorgeous ATC’s. Her watercolour ATC was inspired by the sailboat races in Drew Harbour.

Her second ATC is Silk Fusion. She explains how she made it here.

The envelop had a very special stamp and she challenged me to use it on an ATC. But I don’t want to cut it up, so I’m thinking to use it in a different way.

Be sure to take a look at Debbie’s art.

Geslaagd!

Yesterday was a special day, my oldest daughter is now a Master of Science. 
I’m very proud of her!

I made this lucky doll for her. The pattern came from the book Gelukspoppetjes haken by Annemarie Arts.

Work In Progress Wednesday - April 10

There wasn’t much to time to be creative with needle and thread this week. 
But I managed to start the 7th element on my long and short stitch sampler.

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.