dinsdag 29 oktober 2013

Turkman & raised cup stitch

TAST stitch 85 is raised cup stitch and TAST stitch 86 is Turkman stitch
TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday, a challenge at Pin Tangle.

First I wanted to skip the raised cup stitch, because I used it recently on my garden sampler. But when I saw the triangles in the Turkman stitch, I changed my mind. It was the perfect combo for my white cloth. Here I stitched Turkman stitch with perle 5.
This is the first raised cup stitch on the base of the Turkman stitch. I didn’t pay attention to the corners, so I disturbed the Turkman stitch.
And the complete row. It was very important to connect the threads in the corners in a knot from the raised cup stitch. All raised cup stitches have 2 rounds, normally I only use 1 round.
A detail of my cloth with the new stitches on the right side.
Just click the photo’s to enlarge them.

zaterdag 26 oktober 2013

A piece of Escher

This month’s theme for the ATC swap at Fibre Fever is Escher. I made my ATC for Kate in the UK.
This swap was a great excuse to flip through this book.
Escher’s snakes was one of my favourites, but way too big to translate to ATC size in fabric. So I only took a small piece from the bottom at the right side of the snake’s head and stitched it in stem stitches with different threads.
After sending my ATC to Kate, I went to the Tropenmuseum to see Escher’s work. One of the first things I saw was Escher’s original study of his snakes!
I shared more photo’s of my visit to the Tropenmuseum in this Wordless Monday post.

For my Dutch readers:
De Escher tentoonstelling in het Tropenmuseum is nog te zien tot en met 
3 november 2013.

vrijdag 25 oktober 2013

Liese Lotte

This is Liese Lotte, made for me by Anne. She arrived a few days ago and she already feels at home. Anne told me she made Liese Lotte like she made her Waldorf dolls. Her clothes are great, I like those little flowers in the fabric very much.
Anne crocheted a lovely basket . . .
 . . . and made some pretty shoes.
I’m very happy with Liese Lotte, she will get a nice place in our home. 
Thank you Anne!

dinsdag 22 oktober 2013

Old Turkman stitches

TAST stitch 86 is Turkman stitch AKA double chain stitch or closed feather stitch. This is one of those stitches I used on a TAST sampler and forgot all about it. TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday, a challenge at Pin Tangle.

The first row on my TAST 2010 Turkman stitch sampler is stitched in perle 12.
This stacked row of Turkman stitches is done in perle 8 and 12.
A row in Stef Francis perle 5.
Another stacked row, big stitches in perle 5 and smaller stitches in perle 12.
Here I made 2 mirrored rows close together and attached them with trellis stitch
I like the knots in the trellis stitch!
This is a stitch combo of Turkman stitch, Chevron stitch, detached chain stitch, straight stitch and herringbone stitch in perle 5, 8 and 12. It could be a pretty 
CQ seam.
A row with 2 threads of stranded floss in different colours.
And some freestyle Turkman stitches in perle 5.
My last detail is part of my buttonholed double chain stitch sampler. I played with the name buttonholed double chain. I stitched Turkman stitch AKA double chain in yellow and buttonholed the zigzag in purple. Both threads are perle 8.
There are more old samples of Turkman stitch from other participants in the Flickr TAST group.

zaterdag 19 oktober 2013

Hannah

Remember my first stumpwork faces? They were the trials for a small quilt for Anne, we had a private swap. With the help of Maureen I could make a nice face with a good nose. Thanks, Maureen! Then it was time to add hair. Luckily Queenie wrote about her first male stumpwork figure, which she made with the help of the book Embroidered Portraits by Jan Messent. It was a great excuse to threat myself and a few days later the book arrived. I was not disappointed, it’s a great book which helped me to knit Hannah’s hair. I’m sure it will help me later to turn my other stumpwork faces into portraits.
Back to Hannah, she needed clothes and a body. Her body is made of Timtex. 
I added pink fabric for the neck, hands and feet.
After dressing Hannah, she needed shoes. I had some nice matching leather and stitched her some boots. Luckily I had special needles to stitch leather, but I had to use a thimble too!
It wasn’t easy to stitch fingers on this small size!
Here I prepared my quilt to turn it into a quilt sandwich.
After stitching running stitches with tacking thread I added 2 extra strips of fabric,
. . . so it would fit my 10 inch embroidery hoop. The tacking thread is already removed in this photo. I stitched stem stitches with Permin Lingarn to represent the ground and hand quilted some of the lines on the batik background. At the right side I added small beads. I shared the photo’s of the finishing part and the backside of this quilt in my last Wordless Monday post.
Here’s my finished quilt. The size is 6 x 8 inch and it’s completely done by hand.
Take a closer look at Hannah here and here.

dinsdag 15 oktober 2013

Old raised cup stitches

TAST stitch 85 is raised cup stitch. TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday, 
a challenge at Pin Tangle.

It’s one of those stitches I use regularly, so it was difficult to decide which samples to share today. This daffodil is part of my TAST 2010 sampler. It’s a raised cup stitch made of 2 rounds with woven picot petals. The thread is perle 5. It’s my only example of more rounds of the raised cup stitch, I normally stitch only one round.
Raised cup stitch is the perfect stitch for flowers, but you can use it for other circles too. Here I used it for the wheels of a car. I stitched it on my TAST 2010 sampler in perle 5.
This detail is part of my last TAST 2010 sampler. I stitched the raised cup stitches in the spaces of the diamond stitch. The thread is perle 8.
I hope you can see two hidden raised cup stitches between French knots, bullion knots, drizzle stitch and beads. It’s part of my embroidery Touch.
A detail on my crazy patchwork ECQ1. I added raised cup stitches in the curves of the whipped chain stitch and decorated them with pistil stitches and beads.
This is my ornament Beezzz. The floral spray is made of blue raised cup stitches in perle 5.
A floral spray on my ornament Snail in the garden. It’s made of raised cup stitches and woven picots.
And here’s my most recent sample, I stitched it a few weeks ago on my garden sampler.
There are more old samples of raised cup stitch from other participants in the Flickr TAST group.