Pink Crazy Quilt Pillow with TAST Stitching - Completed!

It feels so good to be finishing projects.  This pillow is made from a CQ block I created in 2012.  On the block I incorporated  35 different TAST stitches.  You can read about it HERE.  

I added fabric around the edges to fit the 12" pillow form I had in my stash.  I am determined to use some of what I already have on hand and that is what I had.  It would have been too easy to have a 10" pillow form in my stash.

I used moire fabric for the back, stitching a lacy doily over it first.  I have a lot of doilies in my stash that I need to begin using too and this seemed to work well.

On to the next (UFO) unfinished project...

All 2012 Tags

Here they are, all layed out, some pretty lean and simple and some loaded with stitching.  I was sorting and had to take a photo to share.

 

 

That's all :-D

TAST, My New Etsy Shop and Shrinky Dinks

First off, I finally got the nerve to open an Etsy shop.  I have only added one item at this point, but I have several pieces and prices to add to it, so please do check back.  I always value your feedback, so let me know what you think and maybe suggestions on any changes I could/should make.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/CEOriginals

This week's stitch for TAST was the Portuguese Border stitch.  Another new one, among many, for me.  Sometimes you don't know how much you don't know until you start learning.  I am learning there is a lot I don't know!  I'm not sure what type of tree this is or if it even qualifies as a tree, but I am calling it a tree.  The Portuguese Border stitch was a fun one to do and really pretty easy to control.  It is definitely going to find a place in my future projects. 

I had visitors overnight on Thanksgiving so my daughter could take her oldest and some friends Black Friday shopping.  I refuse to leave my house and join the craziness in the stores.  My twin granddaughters spent the night with me and they know I will always have something new to teach them.  Yesterday we played with Shrinky Dinks!  Actually I had never used them before and was looking forward to seeing what the girls came up with.  I had them do their drawing on paper and then trace it onto the Shrinky Dink page.  They then used colored pencils to color in the design.  It was fun watching them in the oven as they curled up, shrank and layed flat again.  It only took three minutes in the oven and they came out about one fourth of the original size.  Grace made a package with a bow on top and Sarah drew a cross.

The finished projects are going to be ornaments for their tree.  Their mom loved them and the girls were pretty proud and excited - as was I.

Small Quilt - Block 2 and TAST

I have just a small amount left to do on this block which I will finish up later on.  I am a bit undecided as to how I want to finish up the plant.  What are your first thoughts?

Part of me thinks a pot would detract.  A small vase with an added couple of rose buds might fight with the roses on the tea set.  I'm leaning toward just adding more leaves below what I already have, leaving a pot or vase to the imagination of the viewer.  Thoughts? 

I was going to add a small tea bag, but decided against it.  I think silver tea strainers would fit the early 1900s theme better.  The lace edged napkin was an afterthought that adds some nice dimension.  The little teaspoon with attached heart is a pin that I had in my stash.  A few of the green stones and pearls along the edge are missing, but I'm not too worried about that.  I simply pinned this piece on and it can easily be removed if I choose to do so later on.

I am going to mull this over and get started on the next block.  I'm sure something will come to mind or maybe one of you will have an idea I can run with.

I had totally forgotten about the TAST challenge until Thursday.  It was fortunate it was just a variation of the chain stitch we had done earlier, so I added it to the chain stitch tag as a variation.

I had already created two trees for the Chain stitch and decided another wasn't necessary, especially since I was in the middle of another project.   You may need to click on the photo(s) to see that I actually did use two different threads since one of them is very close to the color of the tag itself.



TAST - Knotted Loop Stitch - Week 41 and Blog Scraping

Can you believe that!  It has been 41 weeks already and you have endured 41 weeks of me learning new stitches.  Thank you all who have stayed with me!  It really does mean a great deal to me when you share your insight, excitement, interest and wonderful comments.

I must have had too much coffee this morning because I created a scene rather than a plain, lonely tree.  I like to limit my stitches to the straight stitch or stem stitch and the stitch featured for the week, so it is not always the easiest thing to do much with it, or maybe to be inspired to do much.  Once I got the hang of this stitch I really enjoyed it and couldn't seem to stop.

TAST Drizzle Stitch and Jewelry Progress

First I will start off with the weekly TAST tag.  This is kind of a quirky little stitch called the Drizzle stitch.  It isn't a good stitch for a border or seam in my opinion.  I'm not crazy about it for a tree either, but I'm committed to doing a tree with each stitch and can't quit now!

Below is a closeup of the tree.  These little stitches are pretty uncontrollable, or at least they were for me.

The stitches do add great texture, maybe more suited to another subject however such as a furry lamb or something..  I'm not sure it was worth all the time I spent on it for this little tree.  Only time will tell if I use this stitch again in the future 

If you follow me and read a recent post, you are aware I have been having anxiety about doing some custom jewelry.  My client did not like the first pieces I created.  After a bit of redesigning and some resizing I presented the pieces below to her and she seemed really pleased with them, so I am thrilled to have that off my 'to do' list.  Actually, the first necklace I designed did not lay right for her.  I solved that by simplifying the design more, adding more weight at the bottom with a cast off section of a bracelet.  The bracelets have a little more of the earthy colors added to tame the crystals a bit.

I have been working on a few more pieces for a local shop as well, including those shown below.  The one directly below is created from two vintage choke necklaces joined to create one longer necklace.  I am toying with another idea to add to it as well, but haven't yet made up my mind for sure.

I love the classic look and weight of black faceted crystals.  Here I made a choker length (slightly longer) necklace with drops.

The necklace below is restrung from a double strand vintage necklace that was in need of repair.  It will be a little longer when completed and will be a single strand.  I absolutely loved the metal pieced that surround the red irridized beads.  They are so unusual.  The remaining beads and metal surrounds will be incorporated into another piece later on.

I love redesigning old damaged jewelry and giving it new life.  I am not allowing myself to buy any more beads until I use up a bunch of what I have!  Oh my gosh!  My stash is almost overwhelming ~ lol.  I confess...I am an addict!  Do you "collect" supplies?  I think I could give up almost everything in my home before I could give up my beads, fabrics, and other supplies.  Where does one get help for such an addiction?  Am I alone in this?  Do we need a support group? 

35 Different Stitches On A Single Block

Lots of photos following, so brace yourself.  I decided to do a CQ block - in pink, monochromatic (mostly) - using all of the stitches I have learned in TAST so far plus a couple of extras.  This is the resulting block.  Notice I did not use one single bead!  You have no idea how hard that was for me to avoid the temptation.  Really!

This is the naked block I started out with.

Close-up of the center floral motif.

First, let me point out I added some sheer floral printed fabric over a couple of the shiny sections.  This one is gathered slightly.  I left some of the satin show along the seam.

This is a little darker area from the sheer and is over a darker pink.  Again, the satin shows along the buttonhole stitch area.

I will list the stitches from top to bottom rows on each of the following close-ups.

Cretan, French knot, knotted Cretan, buttonhole wheel (1/2), chain, French knot, lazy daisy/detached chain:

French knot, Herringbone (both light pink and dark pink rows), Algerian Eyelet, fern leaf:

This is kind of mixed up, but there are SRE petal stitch flowers, lazy daisy flowers, French knots, bullion rose and stitch, stem stitch rose and stem stitch, spider web rose:

Web is straight stitch with couched connections; spider is whipped wheel with a little satin stitching over body and straight stitch for extending legs:

Basque, scroll stitch, butterfly chain, French knots and lazy daisy (detached chains), straight stitch, up and down buttonhole:

(From left to right in pie-shaped section) - French knot, buttonhole wheel (1/4), lazy daisy, straight stitch, French knot, running stitch, crossed buttonhole, bonnet:

(butterfly) satin stitch, chain stitch, Fly 'Y' stitch; (below butterfly and in no particular order) French knots, wheat ear, straight, lazy daisy, feather stitch (bottom):

Wheat ear, back stitch: (lace is added)

Barred chain, half chevron, oyster, chain, buttonhole:

Chain (3 rows), zig zag chain, Palestrina, cable chain, Chevron:

There!  I think that should be at least 35 unless I left out a seam somewhere.  I you don't get close to the same count, let me know.  This was so much fun and I will likely do it again, using my tags for reference.

TAG TUTORIAL

Several of you have asked for a tutorial for making my tags that I created and have been using for TAST.  Below are the directions.  You should be able to click on the images to see them better and to print the bottom image full size to use as a guide or a pattern.  It does fit on a standard sheet of typing paper.  I use Aida cloth because it is heavy enough to hold its shape.  I did not use any backing/lining.  When I need to tie off stitching threads I carefully go through just a couple of Aida threads on the backside of the tag and always check the front to make sure it doesn't show.  

I am happy to share these directions and the pattern with you for your personal use, however, I would greatly appreciate your courtesy in requesting its use in any other manner.  I would also love to see what you create using the pattern.  Let me know if you have any further questions.

Weekly TAST and April's BJP

Here is my April BJP.  I am exploring creating lace motifs using seed beads in order to gain experience in bead embroidery.

TAST for this week is Wheatear Stitch.  Below is my tag for this week.  This is a stitch I really enjoy using.

CHIKAN EMBROIDERY and TAST

Another lesson behind me for Chikan Embroidery. It was more shadow work. Even though my stitching is far from perfect, I am enjoying learning how to do it and loving the results.

The photo above shows the front side or working side of the stitchery while the photo below reveals the backside or shadow created. I haven't ironed it yet and you can certainly see the wrinkles and lines. This really does take muslin to a whole new level.

Below is my TAST stitching for the week. (These projects are keeping me busy!) It is the Barred Chain and Alternating Barred Chain. I used variations of my favorite color, purple, and over course did my weekly tree using the current stitch.

We are into the 12th week already which means nearly 1/4th of the year has gone by. It is gorgeous outside today, so this is going to be a short post. I'm heading out for a bicycle ride later and then do a little more stitching, this time on a crazy quilt block. Tonight is 'Desperate Housewives'. After last weeks being all depressing I'm thinking I am the desperate housewife for watching it. Final season though.

CQJP (Crazy Quilt Journal Project) and TAST

I actually do have my block for the month completed. Here is a sneak peak at the upper left corner. I had worked on some larger silk ribbon flowers for this block, but I found them to be too large. I posted a tutorial for them recently on this blog. They will be used on some future project. I stitched these little silk ribbon flowers onto my block instead. This block will be for the January Garnet which is why I used the deep red. The ecru colored dragonflies were purchased on Etsy. They blended with the background as much as the chain stitch you see along side them. In order to make them more visible I added some metallic DMC thread in a silver/black tone, weaving it through the wings and looping it over the body.


Below is my TAST tag for the week. It is called the Whipped Wheel but I have also seen it referred to as the Whipped Spider Wheel. The wheels with six spokes does have kind of a 'spider' look to it. I used some bright floss on this tag. I am enjoying playing with different color combinations each week almost as much as I am enjoying experimenting with and/or learning a new stitch each week.


Somehow I got started doing a tree on each tag using the new stitch for the week. I know some weeks are going to be a real challenge, but that is what also makes it fun. For this one I was going to do stacking wheels that progressively got smaller but then I read that you can do a partial wheel in this stitch so here is my tree.
I have done 11 tags so far and only one does not have a tree on it. The second week we did the buttonhole stitch and I plan to go back and add a tree to it. That should be an easy one to accomplish. Maybe I will do a composite of all my trees at the end of the year.

TAST - RUNNING STITCH, Week 10

My the weeks go by quickly! This is week 10 of TAST. This weeks stitch is the running stitch. I had planned to use some bright purple, green and blue this week, but the more earthy hues of rusty red, earthy green and bright golden yellow jumped out at me. They have a country feel to them don't you think?

As usual, I did trees, but actually did an entire row of trees. I added some indications of a windy sky above them, but since blue wasn't a color I chose for this week I used yellow instead. It doesn't show up real well on the tan background.

There are so many possibilities with this stitch that my mind just wouldn't shut off, so it is a good thing I ran out of space ~ lol. I created my initials at the top. Looking at it now I could have been really creative and instead of swirls in red I could have added "ATE" with the running stitch to make the word "create". I don't know why I felt I had to explain that last part???

I am really loving the woven blocks and the little hearts. The blocks were created by running vertical rows of red stitches and then running stitches in yellow in a horizontal direction, weaving in and out as I approached the red. The brick wall didn't translate as well as I had hoped and I know it is the spacing, but you get the idea.

I can't wait to see the others. Again, click on the TAST icon on my sidebar to see more.

TAST - Couching

I must admit I have never used couching in embroidery and now I'm not quite sure why. I've used it on my bead embroidery BJP and have used it in papermaking. OK, although it is called couching in papermaking it is admittedly a much different technique~lol.

Of course you would expect there to be a tree of some sort and I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I used a metallic cord (that unravels easily~ugh) and secured it in place with metallic green thread. I then used a scrap piece of threaded sequins to fill in the space. In the bag of bargain thread I had posted about several weeks ago there was this group of floss in different colors. I am guessing it came from one of those kits in which the floss you need to complete a project is included. I liked all the colors and decided to twist it and "couch" it. I finished it off by adding some organza ribbon, couching it along its path. Sorry, no real color theme this week.

TAST - Chain Stitch - week 8

I am starting to work on the week 9 stitched tag and realized I hadn't yet post week 8, so here it is. Week 7 was the Detached Chain which was a good segway into this week's Chain Stitch. Of course I had to add a tree. I didn't add any rick rack this week, but did create a band through the center. This stitch works great for monograms. I actually did this one freehand and without preplanning, so you can see how manageable this stitch is.

Another name for this stitch is Tambour. The colors I used are actually navy and white. I used a white and a navy thread together on the word 'chain' and on the outer chains of the center band. It was a very overcast day when I photographed the tag, so the colors aren't very accurate.

TAST - Detached Chain - Week 7

This is my tag for week 7 of TAST, the Detached Chain a/k/a Lazy Daisy.

I pulled the colors from the variegated thread I used on the tree and the little butterflies at the top. These are kind of Easter colors too, but a little brighter than what I used before.

I thought this stitch worked great for these tiny butterflies, but I especially liked the interest it gave to the strip of rick rack. Rick rack isn't usually a favorite of mine, but I do like this border!

Of course I had to add a tree created with only lazy daisy stitches. The stitch also worked well for the little lavender dragonfly under the word 'chain' don't you think?

I am a little behind in post this tag here and will be posting the tag for week 8 within a day or two. It is the Chain Stitch a/k/a Tambour Stitch.