Recent TAST Stitches

Catch-up continues with the Butterfly Chain. The stitching is on 28 ct blue linen and the first sample I did is shown on the lower left. The "butterflies" are worked with five strands of DMC spring green floss and the chain is with four strands DMC black floss. The "butterflies" would show up better if they had been worked larger but this was the first time I had tried this stitch and I tend to work smaller with something totally new to me. The top sample is stitched with #5 red perle cotton and I made the center stitch lightly longer and the third sample is stitched in #8 gold perle and tied with # 12 multicolor perle. I really need to work with this stitch more. It was interesting but I don't think it will become a favorite.

This sample completes my 'catch-up' stitchings. If it looks a little familiar that is because I had just started working with the Wheat Ear and the Crossed Buttonhole on the same sample showing it last week and decided to stitch more of the Wheat Ear instead of doing a totally separate sample. I did complete the #5 gold perle cotton to resemble a stalk of wheat. The #8 red perle cotton shows some side by side Wheat Ear with Running Stitches. The #5 turquoise perle shows a nice variation that would work well as a border or couching treatment. I did use some silk ribbon in two of the open spaces but buttons would work nicely here as well. For the last sample I used #20 black crochet cotton to try my hand at stitching bunnies which used a combination of detached Wheat Ear and Lazy Daisy/Detached Chain stitch. The bunnies look a little out of place but I thought they would be interesting to try. I like this stitch and can see some wonderful possibilities.

To bring me up to date is week 26 Half Chevron and I really felt like I was getting back into the 'stitch of things'. Since I enjoy working the Chevron I figured the Half Chevron would prove interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed working this sample on 18 ct Aida. The top sample is "copied" from Sharon's (inaminuteago) stitch dictionary and I used a #12 multicolor perle cotton and love how 'my' colors turned out. The middle sample is stitched with a varigated machine embroidery thread used to couch a piece of satin ribbon. The colors don't show up on the sample very well but the dark wine ribbon (looks red here) is couched with a purple/turquoise/blue thread. The last sample is again stitched with the #12 varigated as the top sample and was worked with the fabric turned sideways. This, too, would make an interesting border.

It has been a year now since I began my crazy quilt stitching journey in ernest by joining ChainsOfHearts and CrazyQuiltingFriends. It truly doesn't seem that long and next week marks the first anniversary of my blog. I have added several other wonderful groups including CQForNewbies and Hand Embroidery to my stitching list as well. The special friendships that have developed over this past year have made a very difficult year easier to bear and with your encouragement life changes are smoother. Thank you, my angel friends, for being here for me through the extended illness and death of my hubby. This past week included the first month without him as well as his birthday and my own and as anyone who has been through a time such as this the "first" celebrations are the hardest. There are many good things ahead for me as I look forward to growing stitch-wise with the rest of the year's TAST stitches (although the Bullion does intimidate me slightly, as I've only stitched one, many years ago) and I'm looking forward to Sharon's newest class starting on July 11th. See you in class!