Back at Work...

So I dragged out the 'having the summer off' for nearly 5 months... not a bad effort really.  But back at work now so less time to sew 😞 but more money to buy stuff to sew 😍

Here's what I've made since my last post

Scrappy hearts - 

TAST - butterfly chain, buttonhole wheel, buttonholed cable chain, cable chain & coral stitches.

and last but not least #52tagshannemade

 

Thanks for stopping by!

TAST Week 10

This weeks stitches are Chevron and Inverted Feather and with the weather being rather wet along with being currently unemployed I've already knocked these two off this week.  

I made the tops of the chevrons touch to give a solid line.  It came out OK, but it looked better in my head when I imagined it.  Oh well.

The Inverted Feather I used 3 strands of floss to make it a bit chunkier and this seemed to improve on previous attempts at this stitch.

Scrappy Hearts

I've also made a couple of scrappy hearts this week.  I've had a play with the heart shape itself and think I finally have a shape that I like which is a good start.

• Heart 1 - I redid my beach heart as a flat heart and thinking I'll continue to make them flat from now on.  I'm much happier with this one.  I'm sure Miss P will find a use for the original one 😀
• Heart 2 - There was a challenge to make a purple and brown heart as these aren't a popular (or easy) colour combination - turns out I only have one purple fabric.  But thats OK I just used both sides to fake it haha.
• Heart 3 - Another member suggested St Patricks/Green hearts so I've woven three green fabrics together to make the base of my heart and used a simple running stitch in the same colours to decorate it.  I was going to add another heart in the centre in the darker green but couldn't decide if that improved it or not.  A quick 'with or without?' conversation with the hubby decided it.  No extra heart.

#52 tags - Suffolk Puff and some Lace

And last but not least here's my tag for the week.  Prompt was 'A Suffolk Puff and some Lace'.

Thanks for stopping by! 😀

TAST & Scrappy Hearts

So last week's TAST stitches were running stitch, which I'd already done.  And twisted lattice band which really doesn't seem to work well with DMC floss.  With Sharons example the herringbone stitches seemed quite wide so I tried that.  When I first started lacing them I thought Uh-Oh this is going to be a resounding fail.  But they actually laced up pretty well - phew!

This weeks stitches were couching and chained bar

So I joined the Scrappy Hearts FB group this year.  The idea being that you make a heart a month.  I'm still trying to figure out the perfect heart shape for this challenge.  And whether to stuff them or not stuff them.  My first heart I made for Miss P for Valentines (can't recall if I posted it or not).  This week I've made two hearts in different shapes.  This one for my wee niece made from some fabric from one of her old skirts and pair of shorts.  Including a couple of bits of sea shell that I got hubby to drill holes in as a bit of an experiment which worked in rather nicely with the wee pre embroidered whale on her shorts and the wee blue whale button that I had from a pile of novelty buttons I bought years ago.  Hopefully she likes it!

And this one to celebrate summer.  I really wanted to use this dyed cheesecloth as ocean.  Unfortunately either the shape is wrong or I overstuffed it as its very hard to photograph and still see the 'beach' at the bottom.  Or maybe my ocean is just too big.  Dunno.  Might try it again with the longer heart shape. Either way its all about seeing what happened and being a little less hard on myself and that I did achieve.

Next task is for make my tag for this week.  The theme this week is 'Suffolk Puff and a bit of lace"

Thanks for stopping by! 😁

I'm still here!

So not a lot of stitching being done of late.  But lots of crochet!  I'm not sure what it is about cold weather but it makes me feel like crocheting.  That and my daughter shaved her head to raise money for people with Leukaemia, so I made her something like 7 different beanies!  And I made sampler blanket which was supposed to be for me but is currently covering said daughter who isn't feeling well and has been seen covering the hubby when he has a Nanna nap on a Sunday afternoon.  At least its being used right?!?!  I have used it myself and it is so lovely and warm... totally worth it!

Anyway... TAST is still ticking along and last week there was a stitch that I hadn't done before - Scroll stitch.  So thought I'd give it a go.  Its not a stitch for 2 strands of DMC, its definitely better suited for thicker threads.  But I managed a small sample.  And here is Chicken Little number 103!!

Raised Close Herringbone

This stitch was made for feathers I think. 🐓🐓🐓.  And leaves, but feathers are pretty cool and you don't need to pack the stitches in quite as tight if you are doing leaves.  

I've also finished sewing back up my DMC colour chart fabric book which I'm pleased about.  I've replaced the spine and the pages actually only a lot flatter as well.  I'm not 100% sure why the spine wasn't opening properly, but it is now.  So yay a good job done.

And thanks to getting all the new DMC colours the other week I even had the perfect red to do another window on my quilt project this weekend - nice!  In saying that I haven't finished the curtains that I'm supposed to be making but shhh don't tell anyone!  😊

Thanks for stopping by!

Chicken Little 101 - Rice Stitch

I don't think Rice Stitch was part of the TAST list from the last round and I had told myself if there were new stitches then I would try and make time to do them.  And what fun!  There was something comforting about doing another Chicken Little, like getting into your PJs after a bad day at work even though its only 530pm (which makes my hubby roll his eyes but I still do it!).  That and creating a wee project that only took a couple of days was good for the soul after all the arguments I've been having with my other chicken project.

Anyway....

Rice stitch made me think of those golf jerseys with the diamonds on them.  You know the ones with the diamond patterns usually in pastel colours??  I did the large cross stitch in a single strand of pale pink and then did the 'legs' in two strands of the pink or purple to get the golf jersey look.

I like this wee guy quite a bit, firstly the original jpg is quite sweet.  And for some reason it made me think of my grandad.  Grandad always had a hand knitted jersey on and if it was warm then he wore a knitted vest.  Nanna always knitted his jerseys (and vests) and while I can't imagine him ever wearing one this colourful - this Chicken Little is for him!

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress - Yes!

I seem to be making some progress on my Beyond TAST rooster.  I think coming to the realisation that he was going to be eternally awful in his unfinished state has given me enough courage to carry on with him even though I have no idea what I'm doing and I could very well make a terrible mess of it.  But he's definitely going to look awful half done.  Anyway the wattle is done and I've begun work on his comb.

I'm still not that happy with the reds... but you can only sew with what you have or what you can get. And even though they're a lot 'redder' than the original image I'm pleased with how its turned out.  I wish I was more artistic and could relate the colours for the shading better... but I think I've got enough colour differences in there to at least not have it appear totally flat.

I think I used about 5 or 6 different reds in the wattle.  At one stage I had them all going at once.  What a nightmare, tangles everywhere and the colours are so close in value that at times it became simply a case of 'ok lets throw a bit of that one in there now' without any real clue which one I was using haha.  Its definitely not been a section I have been able to sew at night, even with my sewing light.  Maybe I should start working on the beak during the evenings... hmmm maybe.

Anyway here he is so far.

The next Beyond TAST stitch or stitches have been announced and they're individual stitches.  Not sure I'll get around to trying something with those, not for a while anyway.  I want to get this guy finished.

Oh! and yes he is as wonky as a wonky thing.  I'll see what I can do with him once he's done... The stitching on the comb seems to be pulling that section in as I go... so its obviously just the mass of stitches causing it.   I still love him, wonky bits and all.  I really should try some form of backing next time.  I'll learn eventually haha.

Miss P's TAST progress

Did I mention my sister gave Miss P a huge case of threads?  We're busy working our way through it, putting it all on nice new plastic bobbins and relabelling it.  Seems my daughter has the same pedantic ways as her mother and prefers it all looks nice and neat.  Anyway, she's doing pretty well.  She's finished Fly and Detached chain.

I think I mentioned that we're doing TAST together and that she's picking the elements we include for each 'motif' on our sampler.  So for this one we've got a felt Letter (no idea why she picked an H) and a bit of ribbon, and 3 buttons (not in the picture) along with the two stitches, Fly and Detached Chain. 

I've set her up a FB account so she can post to the TAST group herself which she's pretty keen to do. So now we're just waiting on approval.  

I have possibly opened up Pandoras box with the FB account I know.  But she's under strict instructions on how it will be used and how it will NOT be used.   😀

Speaking of which why is she so quiet??  Thats never a good sign.  Sounds like I better finish my ramblings and go check.

Anyway thats it for now, thanks for stopping by.  

Oh! I almost forgot, feel free to leave a comment, I suddenly seem to be able to reply to them which is new.  Whoop! Whoop!

Chicken Little #100 - Drizzle stitch

Here she is, Chicken Little number 100.  I think this is my favourite chicken yet.  

Drizzle stitch is of course usually an upright stitch but in order to get her hair to sit 'nicely' I gently tacked each drizzle down in a couple of places.  If I was going to moan about anything it'd be the second 0 in one hundred, it just didn't want to be the same size as the other numbers.  But if thats my biggest complaint then I reckon it came out OK.

If you go to the Chicken Little page above you can see the whole flock.  (next to Home)

Kantha

Just thought I'd throw another photo in of the Kantha piece now its washed and ironed.

Whats Next?

Well yesterday I found a cool sketch of a bear, basically done in just dashes.  So with my running stitch kick I'm currently on I thought I'd have a go at translating that into stitch.  Spent a good wee while finding the right image, making my pattern, having a think about how best to go about it, getting my fabric all ready and then.... NO black floss!! Argh.  I used it all up on the Kantha piece and  didn't have any spare.  Insert rude words here!.

So what to do?!?  Well I spotted some pictures of embroidered cheese cloth the other day, or what we call here Muslin.  Very thin, very loosely woven.  The idea being that you can pull your stitches tighter of looser depending on the look you're trying to achieve.  Now I'm not a big fan of buttonhole stitch (well the whole family of them actually) but this kind of thing doesn't require any great tension, you definitely don't want your stitches to be of a uniform size.  The piece I saw also used running stitch just to pull various areas together but I actually liked the look of buttonhole wheels best.   No idea what I'll do with it (and now I'm out of white floss as well), but maybe it can form part of my fabric book if I ever get that off the ground.

No plan, just making buttonhole wheels until I'm done with it. 😁

Kantha Progress

Well its done.  All bar the washing of the pens marks, ironing etc, so I guess what I mean is the stitching is done. 😀  And yes I unpicked most of it and re-did it, even the white birds at the top which I liked. But I like them even better totally filled in.

Some things I've discovered about myself during this:

• I like embroidery thats 'coloured in', all my Chicken Littles for TAST are generally outlines, but I prefer embroidery that fills its space.  It doesn't make sense to do that for my chickens because I just wouldn't have time to crank one out each week and I'm not trying to create a 'work of art' I'm just trying to display the current weeks stitch.
• While this isn't a great example of Kantha at all, I really like the simple design.  I love the fact that I've created something with a simple running stitch.  And I'm eager to do more.
• Straight lines are for even weave fabric only.  Not cheap calico.  Enough said.

TAST - Drizzle Stitch

Well we're finally here, the 100th stitch of this round of TAST - Drizzle stitch.  I actually played around with this stitch a few months back while working my way through the various stitches/techniques in the A-Z of Stumpwork.  And I then used it quite a bit for my encrusted piece.  

I did have a chicken image all picked out for stitch 100, but when I saw it was Drizzle stitch I knew just the image to use and it wasn't the one I'd picked out.  Oh well, the best laid plans and all that.

I've made a start on it and I'm pleased so far with how its turning out.  I think it may well end up being my favourite chicken yet!  🐔

The tutorial for Drizzle stitch on Pintangle is here and I've borrowed one of Sharons images below.  It looks a bit weird sitting there all by itself, but they're usually sewn in groups and can be as long or as short as you like.

What Next?

So yet again, I'm back around to what next?  I'm still feeling quite enamoured with the whole running stitch idea.  But I'm also keen on the blackwork idea, in particular showing shading with only black.   So I'm thinking I might start some experimenting with both/all of those.  Black, shaded running stitch.  What could possibly go wrong?!!? 😜

I'll post Chicken Little Number 100 in a day or two.  Until then Ciao!

Chicken Little # 99 - Woven Chain Bar

Quite a fun wee stitch this one.  I believe in theory it's supposed to be a considerably longer chain used to couch down threads, ribbons etc.  In this instance I actually couched down the threads using a single strand of floss so they were fairly secure and then used the woven chain over the top of that.  They make pretty good chook feet I reckon.  :-)

TAST Stitch # 99 - Woven Chained Bar

Number 99 this week... sigh...  what am I going to do without TAST each week?  I haven't got a definite plan for this weeks stitch but I'm thinking the woven pieces look a bit like feet.  So some chicks perching on a bar maybe?  The tutorial on Pintangle is here and I've borrowed Sharons photo below.

Kantha progress

This was initially going to be the first piece for my fabric book but now I'm unsure.  

I think I've probably done more unpicking than stitching on this so far.  There seems to be a lot of books available, but not a lot of information online unless you're making a quilt, rather than a picture style embroidery.

What I know:

• Running stitch using two strands of silk thread (I'm using DMC floss because its what I have)
• Colours - traditionally reds, rusts and golds, but as time progressed any colours.
• Stitch length, no real guide to actual stitch length but the gaps between stitches should be half the length of the stitches.
• You can pile the stitches up side by side, or slightly offset between the rows.
• Seems to be a lot of work where the outlines are done in black.

What I've found:

• Getting my stitches to be of an even size is hard, but no doubt just practice.
• Getting the stitch rows close enough together is also hard, but again probably just practice.
• Not sure that 2 strands of DMC floss translates to the types of silk threads traditionally used.  It seems a bit thick, especially for the outlines.  I wonder if a single strand would work better.
• I've decided rather than placing the rows of running stitch slightly apart (almost like seed stitch filling) I prefer more of a double running stitch for the filling and thats what I'm going to go with now for the filling (hence all the unpicking).

The image I'm using as my 'pattern' I found on the internet, although I can't find a proper source for it.  The best I could do was an Indian folk art blog that once you get there takes you off somewhere else.  Anyway the image is out there, its not a great quality image so I had to tidy it up.

Now the perfectionist in me after about half an hour was going crazy and I was already thinking about needle painting it instead to get a smoother finish.  But I persevered thinking its practice, my stitches will get more even, etc, etc.  As you can see the top birds bodies have rows of running stitch and I actually quite like them like that (although I'm going to unpick those wings).  But I was much happier with the larger fish bodies where the two colours have in effect created a double running stitch.  So after I had sewn the lower birds in the same method as the top birds I decided to try the double running stitch for the bodies in a single colour and I think it looks much better.  (I've no idea if thats 'allowed' but oh well)  So I'm going to go and unpick all the various running stitch fillings and do that I think.

I actually really like the picture, yes its a crude simple design but its supposed to be.  There is something about it that really appeals to me and I can't put my finger on it.  And yes I could start again and needle paint the life out of it, or fill it with fancy stitches but I think it'd lose its charm.  Hmm.. dunno.  Time will tell I guess.

Right back to the unpicking 😁

Chicken Little # 98 - Triple Chain

Another cold and dreary day here today, which is the perfect excuse to sit and sew.  Who am I kidding? It doesn't take much to convince me its a good time to sew, but at least on a cold and wet day I feel less guilty about it.  😄

So close to the finish line now, number 98.  Triple Chain, tutorial on Pintangle here.  

Triple Chain almost has a feather look to it I thought.  Although it'd also be good for leafy stems I imagine.

Kantha

One of the ladies in the Year in Stitches Facebook group posted a photo recently of a piece of Kantha work she'd done and it was amazing.  So I've been doing a bit of googling about Kantha and have come up with a project of my own to try.

Kantha embroidery is basically a style of running stitch embroidery originating in West Bengal.  Its used for both artwork and quilt making.  Often done in yellows, golds and reds, but any colour goes really from what I can make out.  What I like most about it is the beautiful designs achieved with the simple running stitch.  Although I'm sure once I get started I will soon find out that achieving a consistent look with a running stitch is not that simple at all!

Part of the appeal of Kantha is the texture created by the multiple layers of fabric and how the running stitch creates an almost puckered look.  (Crazy that I've spent the last couple of weeks crying over puckers in my embroidery and now I'm trying a style that creates them!! I'm fickle, what can I say).  For this, my first foray into Kantha, I'm not using multiple layers of fabric.  I want to just try the technique and see if I can create something even close to the beauty I've seen created with this style of embroidery.

There's a link here to a short article about it and some beautiful Kantha embroidery photos.

Chicken Little # 97 - Feather & Chain

Another chicken closer to the end of this round of TAST.  This weeks stitch was Feather and Chain, which as the name suggests is a mix of both Feather and Chain stitches.  The link to the tutorial on Pintangle is here.

I love the look on her face, you can almost hear her gasp.

I'm often asked where I get all these chickens from and I'd love to be able to taken credit for them, but alas I can not.   I have squirrelled away a ridiculous amount of chicken clipart over the last 18 months and I just browse through my 'chicken folder' until I find something that either fits or I can adjust to fit the current stitch.  

While a magician won't tell you their secrets, I'm not a magician so I've also included a shot of the original clipart.  As you can see I've only really used half of her, and I've used a mirror image to get the whole chicken.  Or there abouts anyway.  I really wanted a good expanse of belly to show the feather & chain stitch and that other wing was just in the way mostly.  😀

The Dyeing & the Fabric Book

The other day I was busy playing with tea, coffee, paint and some lemon juice to see what kind of colour results I could get.  Well lets just say its probably just as well I only used some small swatches to play with.  😁

The coffee by far gave a much deeper colour than the tea, I love the drip effect.  The paint came out well, I especially love the bubble wrap pieces.  The lemon juice was a total bust which was disappointing, but not unexpected.  The Tumeric produced a vibrant lemon yellow colour, the paprika and cinnamon, not so much.

Needless to say I ended up going shopping.  Yes I know I said I wasn't going to, but I'm weak.  

I can't say I'm too much closer on the idea for my fabric book.  But I do have some ideas for my next project, I think my sticking point now is that I don't want to hide the results away in a book that will probably just end up in a drawer somewhere.   Which is ridiculous considering I have 97 chickens siting in a shoe box haha.

I ordered some frames & mats this week for a few pieces that I've done recently (like my tree and the encrusted work) and I think I want to continue to frame up some bits, maybe create a wee montage above my sewing table.   So do I use my idea for the book or for the wall - ugh dilemma!  Although I guess I could start with a small version for the book and if that works out go larger for the wall.

Anyway so in short, progress on the fabric book idea, not much.  Plenty of options but nothing I deem worthy so far of sharing with the group.  The dyeing, meh, so so.  Will try and use the bits I dyed, you never know they might be just the thing.

Chicken Little #96 - Reversed Buttonhole Bar

I've had this chicken drumstick in my stash of chicken images for ages, just waiting for a chance to use it.  I'm sure some will think 'but thats not a chicken' but well this is my 'Chicken Little' project and from the start the idea was that somewhere in the project there would be a chicken.  Not necessarily a whole chicken, just a chicken.  And besides it makes me giggle to include it.

I don't think I mentioned this stitch earlier this week.  The tutorial on Pintangle is here.  I've used it to create the circle around the drumstick.

The Tree

The tree is done.  Its definitely got some issues with puckering and I don't think they're due to the fabric.  I think its all me - dang it!

Learnings:

• I had to add some fabric to the edges to fit my 8 inch round frame, which meant I had two different types of fabric and I only did a single row of straight stitch to join them.  So they weren't that well secured.
• I really should've used a rectangular frame.  Or been a bit braver about squashing stitches.
• With the tree trunk to one side and then the mass of French knot flowers completely covering the width of the image I probably should have either used a stabiliser on the back, or even used a second layer of fabric as a backing fabric.

But...  I still love it.  I'm so pleased to have that hilly background.  I'm pleased I used my back to front version of split stitch for the tree trunk as its given it more texture than true split stitch would've done.  The rocks in the front could've done with some padding behind them or even a small darker thread around the edge of them to make them stand out a bit more.  But for a first effort I'm pretty chuffed.  Puckers and all.  I'd definitely use this printable fabric again.

So what to do with the puckers?

I've found a few tutorials to try and remove some of the puckering and I'm going to try this one from Mary Corbets Needle'n'Thread.  I would've loved to have a go at it today but I need to go and buy a cork board or a piece of polystyrene/foam.  I did try the ironing board but its not padded enough.

Here's the post to the 'damp blocking' tutorial on Needle'n'Thread

So here's the finished tree in all its puckered and un-ironed glory.  I'll let you know how the blocking goes.  I'm hoping if it doesn't help too much maybe a professional framer might be able to help, or at least hide the worst of the puckering with a nice mat.  😀  Either way I'm glad I tried it.

Now I'm just feeling a bit lost as to what to do.  The black work idea is there, but I want something I can pick up and do straight away, so I'll have to put my thinking cap on.  

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

TAST - Zig Zag Coral

Chicken Little number 95!! Ninety FIVE chickens.  Only 5 more stitches to go in this current round of TAST.  Although it sounds like Sharon is cooking up some new challenges for next year - yay!

The zig zag coral is the peachy pink zig zag on the kite if you were wondering.  Apparently its also really useful to use as a couching stitch.

Here's the link to all 95.
Thanks Rose for pointing out I had missed adding the last couple of stitches to the album. 😁

Tree Progress

I've been making a lot of progress on the tree project.  I'll be SO over French knots by the time this project is done haha.  The weather is awful here today so the photo isn't too good, colour-wise.

As you can see the puckering seems to be getting worse.  The fabric just won't sit right in this frame.  I'm sure this is due to the larger frame and the add-on fabric to make it fit, sigh.  Well fingers crossed most of them will stretch out once its done.  

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but when you look at the flowers they look quite textured. Not in a French knot texture kind of way, but more that it looks like the French knots are layered on top of each other, or some are larger making them pop out from the fabric more.  But no they're not, it must be from the changes in colour, because when you look across the fabric they're all the same size and height.  

I almost don't want to post this picture because the colours are all wrong, its so dark here today.  But an update is an update right? 😀

What Next?

How did we ever survive before the internet?  For small countries like ours we were so limited in the sharing of new ideas for craft etc.  But the internet, oh how I love thee.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one that loses hours... and hours... and hours to Pinterest.  Although I sure do get frustrated at times with it as well.  But Blackwork... I'm curious about blackwork in particular the shading side of things.  I've found some amazing patterns out there.  There are plenty of sites out there with various 'patterns' for free but I'm yet to find a good one about the shading side of things.  Anyway I think thats where I'll head next for a bit, although I'm not a big fan of counted work I've spotted an amazing ladybird picture in black work that I'm just in love with.  So we'll see... you never know which direction Pinterest will take me in next week haha.

Here's the picture thats got me all hot and bothered about black work.  I know its not strictly blackwork, what with the bright red ladybug and all.  But I love it.  Its terribly intricate looking at the detail but such a simple design overall.  (The links to the patterns are below the photos if you're interested.)

https://www.ajisaipress.com/product/blackwork-cross-stitch-design-ladybug-and-daisy/

The site appears to have some beautiful patterns, check out this Blue Jay

https://www.ajisaipress.com/product/cross-stitch-and-blackwork-designs-blue-birds-berries/

And would life be complete without a chicken of some kind? I think not.  I had a bit of trouble finding where to buy this one.  It almost looks like he was a free pattern from a magazine? not sure.

Anyway thats it from me today.