Carolynn--Practice catch-up!

Saturday was Sew Day at Nancy's house. Our group spent the day stitching and chatting and looking at Nancy's beautiful, beautiful garden! She is one of the stops on the Gig Harbor Garden Tour next weekend, and her garden is truly an oasis!

The others spent the day on Jelly roll 1600 quilts, but I used it to catch up on all the TAST stitches I've avoided for the last month or so.

The results aren't pretty; I went from stitch to stitch, giving each a try.  Somehow I just couldn't get the hang of knotted cretan--look how many awkward tries! But at least I've tried each, and I've got a new block to start adding them to.

Carolynn--Finished!

My Family Wall Hanging is finished!!

The whole project is 29"x29".  Each block is about 11x11.  I say "about," because one of the lessons I learned on this project is to be much more precise about where my seam basting lines are placed!

To quilt, I stitched in the ditch of each square.  Then I added beads and buttons as an additional way to secure the large squares to the backing.

The little white buttons in around the watch are attached with French knots.

I'm glad this is finished!  I learned some good lessons as I proceeded, but now I'm ready to start something new that will allow me to use the weekly TAST stitches.

Barbara's May CQJP and Buttonhole Wheel

I caught up with the CQJP challenge and finished my May block.

On the blue patch I did the butterfly stitch from last month's TAST challenge.  I took out a bag of crewel embroidery thread, which I used here to tie the "butterflies."  I'll be using this more, it adds some nice texture.  I added minimal seam embellishments behind the vine, just to balance things out.

I figured out the knotted cretan stitch, shown above in coral, and embellished it with some French knots and lazy daisy stitch.  I found this birdcage in the jewelry section of a craft store, and hung it from the vine.  It's pinned in place temporarily, and I'll stitch it down when I piece the final project together.

Here's my semi-naked June CQJP block.  The cardinal print was a gift from Debra.

In stitching the buttonhole wheels, I stitched it once in a dark gold crewel thread, and then repeated the stitch over the completed wheel with a lighter gold thread.

The hand is also a jewelry component.  I'm going to figure out a way to camouflage the rings at either end of the piece.

...Some half wheels.

Not a bad start on this block.

Deborah: Catching up: Week 21 - Butterfly Chain Stitch

Finally I have something to show.

The straight stitches look much redder than they actually are - they are actually more of a coral and the green thread is variegated.

This line of stitching did not turn out as planned so I"ll probably pull it out but I kept going because it took me so long to get anything done the past week.

As for the bullion knot, I'm still working on that one. I have to admit it's got me a bit flummoxed. 

I've got updates on the CQJP at my blog.

Cy - reveal - TAST Butterfly Chain - and.....

Here is my TAST Butterfly Chain

Strange that I used the yellow and orange colours too. 

I was going for a rustic look while using this stitch. 

And then I used it on ribbon.

And........

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do....

My 'other' project for this week is - a Cross Stitch Biscornu pin cushion. Just because I want one (and I have been secretly envious of Angela's Biscornu since she showed us a pic of her workdesk).

I adapted and added to a basic one-colour chart for this cross stitch piece and made it 'mine'.

I wanted a jewel-like colour scheme to brighten the coffee table next to where I sit and stitch.

I have stitched some of my CQ too, but have not taken photos yet so you will have to wait for next weeks reveal for the finished photos.

So that's me for this week.

Happy Stitching

Angela: Butterfly Chain Stitch

Here we are with my embroidery journal page for this past week.  Butterfly chain stitch is pretty easy and looks great too.  Lots of decorative uses for this stitch.  It should technically have had a black background but I didn't have any dark material so I just went with what I had, more aida cloth.

The subject is Pac-man, the game was released on May 22 in 1980.  I think pretty much everyone has played this game.

This photo at an angle shows the butterfly chain the best.  If I had had that dark or black background they would have shown up so much better.  White on white gets rather lost.  I did try a color but it just didn't look right.  I used cotton floss on everything but the butterfly chain which is rayon, 2 strand for the bars and 1 strand for the chain.

Carol: TAST - Butterfly Chain Stitch

Having finally sorted which way to wrap my thread I was good to go and found this a quick and easy stitch.   Tiny rectangles of silk were attached to my base fabric and linked with butterfly stitches and a bead then added to the silk.  Perle 8, size 10 bead.

 

Susan: TAST 21 and PINK!

Yes, pink, my least favorite color, but there seems to have been a lot required for these blocks. It is not growing on me. If there's a CQJP2013, I will pick something that needs NO pink! Or orange, either.

The beads in the corner came in a package someone sent, and I intended to pass them along in a package to someone else, knowing I'd never use them. However, here they still sat, and it seemed a good place for them, pulling pink over to this green side of the block. This isn't individual beads, but one of those chain-of-beads things.

The dragonflies were inspired by one of Kathy Shaw's recent seams on a RR block. The butterfly chain is from an example on PinTangle. I really liked it, and probably will use that again somewhere. There is more I'm adding to that treatment, in PINK, but I didn't get to it yet. I had to think it up first.

I have one larger area left for this week (probably some V-stitching in there!), and some smaller stuff to finish, too, before the block is ready, but I think I like it.

Judy~Butterfly Chain Stitch and Other Bugs, TAST

This stitch landed on the yoke of Sue's dress. It's probably easier to do with thicker thread? After last week's post, I had fun trying a couple of ideas from my A-Z of Bullions book. Can you find them? Finally got around to stitching Sue's backrest as well as the leaves. The latter was a rather feeble attempt at the raised  fishbone stitch. At this point, I'm hoping that the next stitch will be useful for the tulips.....time will tell! Today is our grandson's third birthday. In case you'd like to see what he's getting from us, check my blog. If you also look on the sidebar, there's a choir link to a video of our presentation of Gjielo's Sunrise Mass; it's a wonderful piece of music.

Debra: TAST- Butterfly Chain Stitch

Very easy and very fun stitch!  It is going directly into my Stitch Stash as a Go To Stitch.

TAST: Week 21-Butterfly Chain Stitch

The TAST Stitch for the Week of May 21 is the Butterfly Chain Stitch.

For more information and examples, check here on Sharon B's blog.
The Stitch dictionary link is here.

Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorial has a nice variation.

Photo courtesy of Pin Tangle

Video Courtesy of Best Embroidery Designs, com (via YouTube)