bodner059

For my Work In Progress Wednesday this week, I can show a finish and some good progress. Crazy for Crazy Of the eight Crazy for Crazy cq blocks I have made, the one I call 'Sweet Potato and Roast Chestnuts' was by far the hardest and least enjoyable. The wine red fabric (sweet potato) and the grayish brown fabric (roast chestnut) did not offer any contrast. The brown and beige thread I started out with disappeared on the fabric. The emerald-ish teal thread looked too stark... Whatever I did felt disappointing. Before giving up I had to do something. Finally I decided to add a few sequins and whip the Portuguese Stem Stitch with some light teal thread. I will now call it quits and start with a new block that hopefully will be more enjoyable. Cathedral Windows I added 14 turquoise pieces of 'glass'. These will be on the edge/corner of the bag. Furthermore I cut out thirteen raspberry pink pieces of marbled fabric and patterned batik, and these will be added to the empty s...

There are so many things happening in December as the year comes to a close. So let's have an easy stitch this Sunday here at Sunday Stitch School. Let's take a stitch out of Elizabeth Healey's excellent book Stitch, Fabric & Thread   -  the Mennonite Stitch. This stitch is often used in Utility Quilting, i.e. a simple and fast way of keeping the three layers of a quilt, top, back and wadding together by stitching individual stitches on the surface and letting the thread travel inside the wadding to the next stitch. It is a 'rough' form of quilting, but the Mennonite Tack Stitch can be used for embroidery, too. This is how to work it: Homework: Add Mennonite Tacks to these three pieces.

I finished my homework in the nick of time. It was fun and easy to stitch, but I had to rush so the result is not as neat as I would have liked. Aida Sampler The large space between the holes makes Aida unsuitable for filling, but it was very easy to stitch and I quite like the grid-like look. Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart  It was enjoyable to work free form. On the brown and light blue rectangle I cheated of course, and used brown thread for the laid work and light blue for the couching. Also I did not pay attention to where I placed the stitches so I got a very modern free design there.  Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth For this pentagon design I used an old template. I added five long Straight stitches to define the shape.

For Work In Progress Wednesday this time there is little to report. Cathedral Windows I have stitched on the bottom and the sides (well, a bit is still to do) by hand. That's all I have had time for. No 'glass' inserts yet.

Once again Sunday Stitch School is focusing on couching, this time on the Bokhara Couching Stitch. For this stitch we are not couching one thread in a single line  for an outline, but filling in an area, e.g. a leaf. The finished look has some similarity to the Bayeux Stitch, but you fill in the background at the same time as you do the Couch-As-You-Go stitch. Draw the outline of the shape you want to fill, and some slanted lines inside. I made parallel lines to guide the needle. Come out at the bottom left corner, place the thread across the bottom of the shape to the right corner. Come out on the left of the first parallel line, slightly above the laid thread. Now take a Back Stitch over the laid thread and go in slightly below to the right so you have a slanted stitch. Repeat with the next, and so on, and work your way up I will need to practice to get a tidier result... Homework: I wonder how this will look on Aida! Try it out on the Aida Sampler. The Sunday Stitch School Refer...

Fun, easy and fast. Sunday Stitch School Reference Chart Aida Sampler Teal Wool Tailoring Scribble Cloth I especially enjoyed working them free form with a variety of threads and sizes. On Aida or counted linen they can take on a very geometric look, which is also good. So it is a very flexible stitch.