Open Needle Woven Picot

Last week I joined in TAST to try doing something with needle-woven picots. These are fun stitches, but I really haven't used them in projects too many times.

This whole little project is a little accident! Even the fabric was a painting experiment I never intended to use for a project. I was going to cover it with the picot stitches, so you couldn't see it. But after making a few rows, I thought it could work as a crown for a tree, so I put down a little scrap of fabric as a ground, and there I had a little tree!

Fun stitch, be sure to give a try. There surely are many more interesting applications!

Chevron Stitch Sampler

I've completed my chevron stitch sampler. This is for this past week's TAST.

I numbered my variations, so I could easily describe them.
1. The basic stitch
2. Chevron stitch can easily be varied in height, width and width of the horizontal stitch. I just have a few example shown, there are many more possibilities.
3. Here I have woven through the bars with a contrasting thread.  There are many other ways to whip, wrap and thread this stitch.
4. In these two examples I have made the stitch in discrete units.
5.There are many ways to make rows of this stitch that line up in different ways in order to fill an area.
6. Overlapping rows make a denser filling and have a lot of interesting texture.
7. A row with varied heights.
8. A row of irregular stitches.

This type of sampler seems to suit me, so I plan on continuing with them. I am up to 14 little samplers now. And I do actually find myself referring to them when I am looking for a stitch to use. I would encourage everyone to do some sort of sampler where you just focus on making variations as they are a great way to get an idea of the possibilities the stitch offers, and you will learn a lot about how it looks on the fabric.

A note about the fibers I use: For these samplers I use linen thread in different thicknesses, wool in both crewel and tapestry weight, and soft cotton yarn. I like these threads for their thicknesses and the texture they add.

TAST in a row

Everyone is making such lovely compositions with their stitches! If you haven't seen them, you can pop over to Pin Tangle or Stitchin Fingers and have a look at some of them. I sat down and wanted to try a composition too, but I just wasn't excited about what I had drawn, so I just picked up my needle to see what I felt like doing. It turns out I just wanted to make some simple rows with the stitches.

So far we have feather stitch, buttonhole stitch, cretan stitch, herringbone stitch, and fly stitch. I think it's great to see them side-by-side. It gives you the chance to see how each has a different movement and feeling. (Remember to think of them as brush strokes!) I will continue making rows of stitches on this cloth. I may add variations, I don't know. Sometimes you just have to wait and see what feels right. I didn't re-post my sampler that I had made for summer stitch school for cretan stitch.

Tomorrow is a new stitch. We will see what fun there is to have with it!

Feather Stitch: TAST Week 3

I made a little sampler. This time I used tapestry wool yarns. They are soo nice for making these sorts of samplers. Nice, fat yarns, so you can really see the stitches. And I discovered that I really like these yarns because they sit up on the fabric and give lots of extra dimension. This sampler is different!

Basically, I threw out the idea of making nice even rows of perfect stitches. Why not let some of the chaos that surrounds our lives come out in the needle. I know there is an instant left-brain reaction not to like it, but you can't help looking extra, trying to find the patterns. I just stitched, I stitched right over other stitches if they were in the way. I really like the layering in any case. It's complicated and sometimes hard to see what's underneath. Ok, maybe I am reading a lot in, but I just couldn't be "neat" with this one.

You can refer to a previous sampler I made if you want some really nice laid out variations of this stitch:

Fly Stitch TAST Week 1

This year I signed up to follow along with TAST run from Pintangle. This is the first week, and the stitch is fly stitch.

Here is my sampler. I just sat down with a needle and thread and tried a few different ways of lining up the stitches and spacing them. It was fun. There is no better way to really learn and understand the possibilities each stitch offers than to sit down and practice the stitch and try a few variations. I've said this before, embroidery is an art form, and the stitches are our brushes. Learn to use them like an artist would, and you will be on your way. I'll be revisiting this idea again, so stick around.

I've worked this sampler with a fine wool yarn (2-ply like crewel yarn) that I offer in my etsy store. It's the thinnest wool I have ever seen, and it's a delight to work with. It's just barely the thickness of two cotton strands.

Last year I made another fly stitch sampler as part of Summer Stitch school. Here is that sampler:

 

You can read more about these fly stitch variations here.