TAST 2012 - Week 49

Week 49 - Buttonhole Eyelet Flower Stitch

Sharon found this stitch in the A-Z Embroidery Stitches: v. 2 - it is called the Buttonhole Eyelet Flower Stitch.  

You first work a buttonhole wheel and then you work bullion knots around the edge of the wheel. I got a little carried away wrapping the thread around the needle for some of the petals... the loops are a bit loopsided...

I used 4 strands of floss for the orange flower, Perle #12 for the purple and perle #5 for the orangish flower.  You can see many more samples at TAST 2012. 

Bella's Christmas Quilt

This is the finished quilted wall hanging that I gave to our granddaughter, Bella, this Christmas.  It is the 'Storybook Snowmen' quilt from the Stitch Connection.  I hand embroidered and hand quilted it and it is 48" square.  She is only 20 months now, but hopefully she will treasure it when she is older - I had fun embroidering while watching TV at night.

It's not the greatest picture - I had just finished it Christmas Eve afternoon!! so I could only photograph it Christmas night after she had opened it.  

TAST - Week 48

Arrowhead or Arrow stitch

Finally a very simple embroidery stitch - Arrowhead Stitch.  Can create snowflakes (if worked in a circle), decorative border work, etc.  

Not my greatest work - in a hurry to catch up - now that I look at the picture of my work, I can see that I cannot count as they are quite uneven!  

You can view many more samples ( all of which have even stitches - they obviously know how to count better than me...) at TAST.

TAST - Week 47

Portuguese Border Stitch

The Portuguese Border Stitch forms a textured braid like stitch - good for strong lines or stacked side by side to produce textured areas.

I used 3 strands of floss for the green sample; pearl cotton size 5 for the middle and size 12 for the end.  I did learn a few things:  do not pull the stitches, width of 'ladder' matters for the size of thread (to wide for the first sample and too narrow for the middle); not easy to go around curves.  

But I did enjoy the stitch and Sharon at TAST as well as 'The Embroidery Stitch Bible' were both a great help. You can view many excellent samples at TAST.

Stain Glass

When I retired one of the things I wanted to try was stain glass, but I was so busy with painting classes, photography, quilting and embroidery - plus all the lunch and physical activities.  Plus I really did not feel like driving back and forth to the city.  Then a local stain glass person, Carol Hiebert at Catch Yer Eye offered to instruct me - she had me come for four - 3 hour classes.  I really enjoyed the experience - probably as it is so close to quilting.  This is also very unfortunate as I discovered that this new 'hobby' is also very expensive!!  So this one hanging is worth a lot unless I get back there in 2013 and create more pieces - by the time you buy the cutters, pliers, solutions, etc., etc.

Right now it proudly hangs in my window and looks wonderful when the sun shines through it!

TAST - week 46

Checkered or Majic Chain

This week's stitch was fun to complete, after I was able to coordinate my fingers - it required the use of two threads in the needle and it is the Checkered or Majic Chain stitch.  I used pearl cotton #5 as trying to use floss would have been a mess....

More samples and wonderful creations with this stitch can be viewed at TAST.

I would like to thank the wonderful people who have been so kind and leave encouraging comments - one day I will take the time to see how to set my blog up to reply to comments - will need to add this item to my to-do list.

TAST - week 45

Open Base Needlewoven Picot

The Open Base Needlewoven Picot was the chosen stitch of the week.  I had (mistakenly) stitched a few of them in week 44, Closed Base Needlewoven Picot - now I do know the difference and I was able to stitch them much better.  I used 4 strands of floss for the first three, #5 for the next two and #12 for the last two.  I even tried to do a long one at the end - some of you must have used really long needles to wrap around or your sample was really small.

Sharon B at says it is a great stitch for lichen type textures on motifs of trees and bark; stacked in semi circles for great pinecones or worked in circles to form petals for flower like motifs - the leaves stand free from fabric in a 3D manner.  You can see many more samples of this stitch and some really great creations - corn, bananas, water creations, etc at TAST.