Susan: More June Seams

A bit more done - winding down block and month, trying to get no further behind!

Here's how Seam 41 played out, and the Corner 18 part with it.

And that's all that happened this week!

Cy - Crazy Quilting at last

Phew! Finally I have some stitching to show you. 

We've been so busy here on the farm lately that I've not had much time left over for sewing.

The grass is almost ready for cutting and bailing again and that will be another busy time here at 'Lewis Acres'.

But for now, here is what I've been up to.

Crazy Quilting with 'Kathy Shaw' inspired seams plus a few 'personal flourishes' of my own.

Plenty of room left on these seams for the addition of beads and SRE.

I'm just waiting for the postman to bring my new supply of Silk Ribbons.

I had to order more because my original stash is packed away in sealed boxes in the shipping container, and no way am I going in there to start opening up already packed boxes, lol, assuming, of course, that I can find the 'correct' box.

And just in case you are wondering about the background fabric.... it is all my own hand dyed neutrals.

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Susan: May Block started

That's it, folks. But it's a start. I have until the 15th to finish this one, and then I have to do the June block. That is my solution for not doing any stitching on the May block.

Susan: Flower Fairy Border 1

I have made some progress this week. In fact, if it were a block, I'd be half-way to finished, except for beading! You should be able to click to enlarge photos, if Blogger is working right today. Here are some peeks, not shown in the order they were done.

This started with a buttonhole stitch, and I just kept messing with it.

Italian Knotted whatever. I liked this one.

The thread is a silk perle and the shine keeps it from photographing well.

Chains and straights. Triangle beads will go on the ends.

Same shiny thread, same problem. Copied 100% from a Sharon Boggon seam I liked.

I'll bet you can guess what this is.

Judy~Almost Caught Up~Chain Stitch and Friends

Just now realized that this is the last Saturday in February and that SBS should be done. EEK!!She isn't.....maybe before next Thursday she will be? We were gone for 10 lovely days to Florida, but no stitching happened until we got back home. Fortunately, the stitches I missed weren't too difficult. In fact, I combined my practice of the detached chain and chain stitches to one session as you can see. (tried a zigzag chain and a broad chain as well) Then I did the chevron stitch and a variation called the raised chevron.


It was a bit of a challenge to use the chevron stitch on Sue's outfit. I read that chain stitch made a good outline and tried that and had fun experimenting with the detached chain as a filler.


Now I have to get crackin' and finish the rest of the block.....stay tuned.

Deborah: TAST Week 6 - Chevron

Chevron

Susan--Chevron Sampler and CQJP update

I really enjoyed playing around with the size of the Chevron stitch. Here's the sampler. I love the triple overlapped one and need to find the right place for it. The tall and short will show up somewhere, too.

Here's the latest work on the CQJP. I need bazillions of beads, but I'm going to hold off on those until the end. There's more stitching to do on the stairstep seam, too, but this is as far as I got on Saturday night.

Barbara's Week 6: Chevron Stitch

It's been very inspirational to work the TAST and the Crazy Quilt Journal Projects alongside my sister stitchers on the Tuesday Stitchers blog.  This week I shameless stole was inspired by Jane's post from last week about using wool felt to make a tree.  I had some felted wool, and I applied Heat n Bond Lite to the back, took some rough measurements of the space I wanted to fill, and drew a tree in reverse of the image I wanted.

I had to trim the tree branches a bit to make it fit the space, but after I was satisfied with the placement, I ironed it down.  Now there was no going back.

I've also been inspired by the way several of the Tuesday Stitchers have stacked their TAST stitches, and also the free form approach some have taken.  I filled my tree with chevron stitch in a rustic way.  I added some heart buttons that Debra sent me, which provide the pop of red I was looking for.  I'll add more later after I add a bird to the long branch on the right.

Because others have posted their work tables, I'm posting mine here too.  This is the mess I had to clear away in order to do my stitching today.  At first I wondered how I would ever think up enough ideas to fill 12 blocks.  Now I wonder how I'll ever fit it all in.

Angela: TAST ~ Chevron Stitch

This week's stitch for TAST was Chevron.  I found in a vintage embroidery booklet that this stitch is also known as the barred herringbone.  The booklet was written by Marguerite Randell who was head of the Training School, Royal School of Needlework, in South Kensington, England.  

I had to really think about how to incorporate the stitch in this week's design that I had already chosen.  I opted to keep it really simple especially since I was not able to stitch for 2 evenings due to sinus headaches.  I created the sky with graduated color, the center section is a mix of 2 colors.

The well known image from the Abbey Road album was my first choice as a design since February 7, 1964 was when The Beatles arrived in New York for the first time.  The Beatles pretty much defined an era, especially of music during my early growing up years.  

My stitching is not all that inventive this week but that's probably a good thing as I  frogged out the first 3 tries on the sky before I got it right.  The fabric is a cafe au lait colored even weave  and the aqua colored threads really look pretty with it.

Cy - CQJP & TAST reveal

TAST Week 5 - Herringbone Stitch

I managed to catch up with Week 5 TAST that I didn't get done last week.

Here is the unstitched hand dyed evenweave linen panel that is for February's stitches. 

The working area is 9 inches square and will eventually be put in a journal book along with the other 'pages' of stitches. There could be any number of different stitches on each panel. It all depends on how much time I have for stitching and whether I experiment a lot or a little with the various stitches.

 

The Basic Herringbone stitch worked in stranded cotton floss.

 

Stacked Herringbone

 

 Rows of Overlapping Herringbone

An experiment with curved edges

This next one was meant to be Long and Short Herringbone stitch, but I think I ruined it slightly by trying to do it on a curve. I probably should have at least drawn a guide line for the curve and spacing first, but I hardly ever plan ahead. 

Now this next one is actually called Ladder Herringbone, but I think it is very like a 'laced' Cretan stitch.

I really should not have used three different colour threads in my needle at the same time as it is difficult to see the stitch. Sorry about that. 

And here is a Closed Herringbone stitch.

Started off a wee bit uneven on the left for a couple of centimetres, but then once I got the hang of 'what-happens-where'  things got neater.

And to experiment some more with the Closed Herringbone stitch .....

(I like the solid look of this stitch)

I wondered what effect a variegated thread would have with this stitch.

I rather like the result. Only problem was that it uses up a LOT of thread, but sometimes it is necessary to use quantity just to get the right look to a project.

I shall definitely be using this textured stitch in my CQJP.

So here is my Journal Page so far with all my TAST week 5 stitches.

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TAST Week 6 - Chevron Stitch

A nicely productive week for me so far. 

Didn't get too many Chevron stitch samples done, but I shall add some more to my journal page at a later date when I get some time to experiment some more.

Chevron Stitch

Double row of Chevron stitch in two heights

Raised Chevron Stitch

And all together on my journal page they look like this

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CQJP February Block

Here is my "NAKED" block for February's Crazy Quilt Journal Project

(please excuse bits of loose thread I forgot to remove before taking photo)

 

And just a little bit of stitching completed so far this week.

I am so looking forward to more stitching on this block. I have some lovely beads eagerly waiting to be auditioned. And that butterfly in the middle patch is begging for embellishment.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions on any of the above projects.
 

Happy Stitching

Suz-CQJP and TAST-week 6

February CQJP

You can read a bit more about it here










I think it's finished!

http://suztats.blogspot.com/2012/02/tast-week-6.html

 As always, your comments and ideas are appreciated.
Hugs from Suz

Debra--TAST: Chevron and WIP

This week everything I embroidered had the Chevron Stitch on it!  I would like to add more detail to the stitching on my Christmas wallhanging blocks but I think it would be better to wait until I have all 9 done with the basic weekly stitch first.  I don't want to raise the bar too high on one black and then be stuck doing the same for the other blocks.  I am reminding myself this is a wallhanging that will be on display 2 weeks at most.

I can see this stitching is not nearly as bold and dramatic as I want it to be--which leads me to think I will be doing some layering with other stitches.


I started working on the smaller of the 4 CQ pillows I have planned for the living room.  I love the look of the herringbone combined with the chevron and lazy daisy.  This makes a statement!

 

I could buttonhole stitch elements to cloth all day long.  Maybe I should do that with a CQ one of these days!  This bouquet was harvested from a thrifted linen dress.  I am hoarding every single bouquet!

I like having tidbits from my life and from my friends in my work.  The bottom trim has been in my stash close to 30 years.  The trim across the top came from Angela recently.  I have some button clusters planned for the bouquet and a small arch across the top.  I am resisting stitching in the checks.  I have to draw the line somewhere.  My new question is: "Will doing XYZ significantly add to the value of the project?"  Not surprisingly, the answer is sometimes a resounding No!   Next week I'll show the finished pillow (25"). 

I'll be gone all day but will check in later in the day.