Saturday, January 28, 2012

TAST Weeks 3 and 4

Just popping in to add my week three and four progress for the TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) Challenge run by Sharon from PinTangle.

Feather stitch and variations
The feather stitch is one of my favorites. I like the airiness of it. I must confess though that I haven’t used it very much. I tend to stick to a few basic stitches in my work. That is changing as I work on my other projects. Here is what I have for the feather stitch (left to right). Single feather, double feather, chained feather, closed feather, Spanish knotted feather, and maidenhair stitch. My favorite of these is the Spanish knotted feather although it doesn’t show that good in the photo. As I’ve stated before I am left-handed and sometimes have trouble figuring out how to do the stitch. The advice given by others especially right-handed embroiderers does not work very well for me. So I have to experiment and as you can see from my samplers I don’t always get it right to begin with. The other thing I have noticed in the written books that I have is they don’t always tell you how to end a row. Again I don’t do my best when I am trying to follow the holes in the weave of the cloth.  

Cretan stitch and variations
This week we were given the Cretan stitch to play with. I did the basic and a few variations. Included in my sampler are the Cretan stitch, open Cretan stitch, Scottish Cretan stitch, knotted Cretan, and raised Cretan. I really like these last two. I had some difficulty with the Scottish one so will have to practice it some more. You can work it as a single stand alone stitch or in a group. The end of the sampler shows my practice using the Cretan stitch on a sort of leaf shape and then the bottom has an open Cretan filling stitch which I like.
I haven’t used these stitches on an actual piece of work yet like I did the fly stitch and the buttonhole stitch. I plan to use the first four stitches on my first crazy quilt block for the CQ challenge. It’s due up by Tuesday so I’d better get to stitching. Be back later with the results of that plus some WIP’s to show you.

Happy stitching!

Rose

13 comments:

jenclair said...

Very pretty! I especially like the Cretan stitch squares!

FabricFascination said...

Very pretty Rose

Sparklyjools said...

These samples are lovely! Thank you for leaving such a nice comment on my blog Rose.

Kathleen said...

Great work. Kathy

Laura Beth Love said...

Sooo pretty! Love them.
Laura EBT
http://dishfunctionaldesigns.blogspot.com/

libbyquilter said...

your stitching is beautiful and i love seeing the variations.
gorgeous thread too~!

:-)
libbyQ

shirley said...

i have enjoyed both your stitch samples, they are very good.

Raphaela said...

Beautiful stitching. Your checker board pattern is really interesting.

Isabelle said...

very pretty samplers. great work

New Leaf said...

Gorgeous samples.. the bottom right is my favorite I think. Even weave seems to give a much neater look to the stitches too. :)

Maggi said...

Lovely sample. I really like the Cretan squares too. Thank you for dropping by my blog and leaving the lovely comments.

crazyQstitcher said...

These are all really lovely examples of Cretan.
The only hint I've heard about left-handed help is to use a mirror.
I'll be looking for more of your work.

I also add my thanks for such a nice comment on my work. :-)

Northbrook Designs said...

Good job Rose. I don't get around to see all the TAST sites, but I try to see a few each time. I'm glad you enjoyed seeing my stash. Good thing I can stuff it away in two smallish places but in my own defense, it's been growing since high school.... ;o)) Take care, Romona