CQJP 2012 May Block

I have finished the work on my May CQJP 2012 project.  I am pretty happy with it.  I think that filling it up more and making bigger stitches has made a difference.

May CQJP 2012 Block

I tried to do a version of a crinoline lady.  I tried to fill in the background with some flower stalks made of buttonhole wheels. There are flower bushes made of French Knots and French knots were also used to embellish the Fly stitch seam treatment on the left. You can also see a closeup of one of the butterflies that I have mentioned in previous posts.  The butterfly pattern can be found here. You can find other butterfly patterns on my Crochet page. Here is a close up of that section:

Close up of CQJP2012 May Block 

I get so much inspiration from the web.  In the picture below you can see the bottom lace piece was embellished with a Cable Chain stitch.  This was the stitch for week 25 of the TAST on Pin Tangle  The pink flowers running vertical along the right side of the crinoline lady were inspired by an article about Granitos on NeedlenThread.  You may like to know, that Mary Corbett has created an alphabetical listing of her stitch videos which she talks about in this post.

2nd View of CQJP 2012 May block

I have really enjoyed this block. Now I am going to get my June block started.

Theresa E

TAST Week 4 - Cretan Stitch

TAST Week 4 is the Cretan Stitch.  Here is some of my cretan stitches that I did earlier on my sampler.

Cretan Stitch on Sampler

Sharon has put together some highlights.

Interesting links:
Needle N Thread Cretan Video Tutorial
Sharon b's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework  - Cretan
YouTube - Cretan

TAST Week 3 - Feather

TAST Week 3 stitch is the Feather stitch.  As usual Sharon also has a highlights post.

Here are the usual intersting links:

Needle N Thread Feather Video Turtorial
Sharon b's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework  - Feather
YouTube - Feather

TAST Week 2 Buttonhole

Just a quick post to show my sampler for Week 2 of TAST 2012 - Buttonhole stitch.

TAST 2012 Week 2 Buttonhole

Here are some buttonhole flowers that I did earlier on my sampler.

Button Hole Flowers on Sampler

Pin Tangle also has a posting of the Week 2 Highlights.

Interesting Links:

Needle N Thread Button Hole Video Turtorial
Sharon b's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework  - Buttonhole
YouTube - Buttonhole

TAST 2012 has begun!

TAST 2012 is a great opportunity for me.  I first found Pin Tangle a couple of years ago.  I admired the author's contemporary sampler enough to start one of my own.  I thought then and still think that it is a genius method for learning and recording embroidery stitches.  I couldn't help but also associate the traditional meaning of a stitch sampler to the project.  So with visions of the Lady of Shalott in mind,  I started one of my own. While I have worked on it to try out new stitches, it has not been a priority.  With TAST 2012 beginning and my new enthusiasm for Crazy Quilting,  I have revived my interest.

The first week of TAST 2012 began with the Fly stitch.  The format of my sampler had already been decided.  What I thought about at the beginning of this new project was what my goals really were.  I decided on these 4 main goals that are:

1. Learn new stitches
2. Be exposed to and think about creative ways of using these new stitches.
3. Design CQ seam treatments
4. Learn how to copy, transfer and mark my designs on the fabric.

It is interesting that I would be starting on a striped cotton which was not AIDA cloth.  My striped cotton would not have the grid quality that is so useful although the stripes would be helpful. This means that I would have to mark the fabric to try to get somewhat even stitches and to translate the idea onto the fabric.  This is something that I will need to get much better at. 

Here is my version of the Fly Stitch.

TAST 2012 Week 1 Fly Stitch

These are very basic fly stitches.  Within the group of participates, there were many creative uses. 
Sharon of Pin Tangle and host of TAST 2012 put togther some week 1 highlights.

Here are some other useful links:

Fly stitch from Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches
Fly stitch Video Tutorial: Vertical Fly Stitch from NeedlenThread
Fly stitch Video Tuttorial: Horizontal Fly Stitch fron NeedlenThread
Bing Search - Images of Fly Stitch

Bookmarks, Updates & New Year Opportunities

 A long silence and then two posts in one day.  Well I have been busy, but I wanted to post some updates. 

Garden Trellis Bookmarks

I have finished my bookmark project.  I made two each of these.  One set was for me and the other set was added to the bookmarks that you can see here and contributed to the Arts and Craft Auction with proceeds going to the Sub for Santa campaign. With these 5 and 11 butterfly bookmarks, a total of 16 bookmarks were contributed. The starting bid was $5 and most of them have bids already.  The auction will continue for 2 more weeks.I did make an extra pink rose bookmark for my daughter. 



All of my bookmark supplies have been put away.  I always find it a little sad to finish up a project and put all of the supplies away.  But then, that is only for as long as it takes to pull out the supplies for the next project.  What now, you ask?  I have all of my red, white and green thread out.  The plans are to make some clothes pin angels for Christmas decorations.



November Progress on the Butterfly in Chains Pillow Cases



I have also made a little progress on my pillowcases.  Not as much as I had hoped, but then I've been making hats.  Both cases are at the same place and look like the photo on the right.  I find that I have to work pillow cases simultaneously or I finish one and not the other.  The final result is want I want to see so as long as they are both kept up, I keep moving along.

If you remember, I am doing a study in Chain stitch.   I filled in the central butterfly with Chain stitch.  The outline of the two end butterflies was done with Cable Chain stitch and the scallops have been embroidered using the Heavy Chain stitch.  Next I want to brush up on Rosette Chain and Detached Chain on some of the flower groupings.

Which reminds me. Sharon B is going to run a new year of TAST! See this Pin Tangle blog entry for more details.  I know that I have signed up.  This is an opportunity to work with others learning new embroidery stitches and developing one's embroidery skills under the expert tutelage of Sharon.

I m also very excited about the Crazy Quilt Journal Project - 2012.  Please be sure to click on the link for information about signing up.  I have also included the banner on the  right side of the blog. I first saw information about this new project on Kathy Shaw's blog, Shawkl.  According to her website, J. Marsha Michler is an honorary Chairperson for the year 2012.


November Progress overall on CQ crochet hook roll-up.



I love working on my current CQ block.  This is going to be a crochet hook roll up and I have made a lot of use of crochet applique. The center has been covered up by a crochet basket and some crocheted flowers. Currently, I am beading the crocheted butterflies.  There are also embroidered butterflies that flit around the basket.  I still have seam treatments to do.  The plan is to embellish the crochet hearts with some silk ribbon embroidery.  Here are some closeups!





November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Right





November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Center

 

November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Left


Theresa