Chicken Little Number 89 - Italian Border

Ok so in order to catch up to 89 stitches for the current round of TAST I've done an extra stitch this week - Italian Border.  Still from the list at Pintangle but not in the current TAST list.  Sharons tutorial is here.

I'm really pleased with how this wee guy came out.  Italian border is a variation of Fly Stitch and when I was wondering what to do with it and scrolling through all my chicken images, I wondered whether it'd work one of top of the other and well I reckon it works pretty well as a grass skirt!

TAST - Woven Trellis

This weeks TAST stitch is Woven Trellis, the tutorial is found here.  I've have a plan for it, but haven't started it yet.  Yes I know I better get moving, but I still have a couple of days to get it done.
Here's a pic of the stitch from Pintangle.

Encrusted Calico

Miss P has been sick this week which isn't good but it has allowed me some extra sewing time.  So I've made some good progress with this.  I was a bit worried about the rather big lump of rubber (bottom right) and what I was going to do with that, but after doing some Picots further up, I figured there wasn't any reason why I couldn't use those to cover something.  I'm sure there is a proper name for it, but I don't know what it is. 😊

You know how when you have these 'great' ideas and you launch forth and find that while they look OK they don't fit quite right, or one is way thinner/longer/wonkier than the others?  Well that didn't happen.  They fitted just right, they're all of a pretty even size, I didn't catch one with my needle or anything!  I thought I'd just run a darker colour either side of each woven bit up to the centre just to break the large expanse of the same colour and that looked great too.  Topped it off with a few French knots to fill in the centre in the same darker colour and voila!  I'm so pleased with it.  I'll try and get a closer picture when its daylight.

Weirdly while the TAST stitch this week is Woven Trellis, from a completely different website I came across Spiral Trellis stitch.  The two stitches, don't really bear a lot of resemblance to each other, but once I get another one or two done as practice I'm going to use that for the last of the 3 same shaped 'bumps' on the left there. (just by my thumb).

Anyway I'm rambling, thanks for visiting 😁

TAST - Wrapped Coral

So after a bit of a rough start Chicken Little 88 is done.  I was originally going to give the chicken hair and use the Wrapped Coral as plaits, but once I started it I hated it.  So I undid it.  Second try I decided I'd go with more of a hat approach and messed up the bend from the plait to the hat.  Third time was a charm though and if I do say so myself I reckon it looks pretty good.

I have realised that I am somehow a stitch behind in TAST they're up to stitch 89 already.  As I started from the list from the previous TAST round I've done some that aren't on the current TAST list and have always been a few 'ahead'.  But as I usually don't do the beaded version of a stitch  (because of my bead aversion haha)  I've gotten one behind - oh no!  As this round of TAST is only going up to 100 stitches I really want to finish with everyone else.  That and I may or may not have already picked out the chicken for number 100 haha.  

Anyway, so as well as whatever the new stitch is tomorrow, I'm also doing Italian Border stitch this week.  Link to the tutorial on Pintangle here.  I just have to hope now that Sharon doesn't pick that before we hit 100, otherwise I'll have to pick something else.  Italian border stitch is like Fly Stitch but instead of using a wee stitch to hold it down you use a French knot.  I've already managed to chicken-ify it so watch this space to see it in action.

Here's a picture of the stitch from Pintangle.

TAST - Wrapped Coral

So this weeks stitch is Wrapped Coral.  Sometimes I look at the stitch for the week and I know exactly how to chicken-ify it.  And sometimes theres nothing.  This week is one of those, although I thought maybe an edging to a dress?  Sometimes once I start practicing the stitch another idea will appear.  But once I re-read the tutorial Sharon had suggested doing each stitch closely together so I squished them up a bit further and it gave quite a solid braided look.  So thats what I'm going with.  You'll have to wait and see the chicken-ifying, I'm not sure its going to work, but time will tell .😀

If you want to view the tutorial over at Pintangle the link is here.  Here's a photo of the stitch from Sharon's site.

Encrusted Calico

Lots of filling in mostly over the last few days.  I've added in two new stitches, some cast on stitch up the top amongst the French knots.  And I've covered one of the lower bumps with satin stitch.  

I also had a dig through my drawer where I keep all those spare buttons that you get with new clothes and found some nice bronze looking metal buttons that I think I'll incorporate, I've added one already and I'm liking it.  I have no idea what clothes the buttons have come from.  I found about 5 similar looking ones but all slightly different so they're obviously all from different items of clothing and not one of them looks familiar.  Goodness knows how long they must've been in the drawer!

Learning Number 7:

Make sure to draw your edge on the top fabric - It mind sound obvious but I drew mine on the back fabric when I was playing with the bumpy bits and bobs deciding where they'd go.  But it never occurred to me to then at least put a few marks on the top fabric as an approximate edge. I'm not going back to fix it though and it did help me decide that the piece won't have a 'hard' edge which if I'd gone with my original edge it would've had. 

Learning Number 4 (again)

Yep I didn't learn this one obviously.  I had a bit of a disaster and caught one of the woven wheels with my needle and it wasn't fixable this time.  After saying some colourful words that aren't suitable for polite society I tried to wriggle the threads to pull the catch back in but was totally unsuccessful.  So I pulled the whole thing out instead.  I was a bit unsure about it to start with to be honest.  I'd done a buttonhole type edging to start with and then done the woven wheel over the top and I just wasn't 100% happy with the way it looked, the two stitches were obviously still two stitches, rather than easing into each other as I'd hoped.  (Maybe more spokes would've helped with that?). I was hoping I'd like better once I started filling in around it.  Oh well the decision was made for me.  I'm much happier with the replacement needlelace filling.