If you follow Jude’s blog, Spirit Cloth, you know that she has been talking a lot about weaving lately. She’s mentioned and shown how much stitching and weaving are the same, So, the other day, when I was looking for something else and came across this bookmark I’d made (either for TAST or for an embroidery class, 10+ years ago), I immediately thought of that. It’s a perfect example of stitch as weave. (Click to open full size image in…
Because it was definitely inspired by it, I call this one Jude’s Hole in the Wall. (The thing I like most about this name is that it sounds like the name of a cozy pub.) All it is is French knots in a cotton knitting yarn and some perle 8 with some beads and shells. A narrow strip of the muslin it’s sewn on was stitched around a circle, first. After this was almost done, I thought I should have…
We’ve had a lot of rain, but no ice. However, my webhost is in Montreal and they were clobbered by a massive ice storm last week. Apparently everything at Crosswinds was in working order, but about 75% of the city was without power for a couple of days, including all the Crosswinds servers. As a result, I had no website for a couple of days and no e-mail. I discovered this when I wanted to post here. Not to be…
I was sort of watching a soccer game. I drew the outer circle around a large spool of thread. After having so much trouble keeping the size even (I redid it twice), I found my circle stencil and drew two more for the orange and the inner yellow. The green, gold, and orange are week 8-buttonhole stitch. The center yellow is week 9-buttonhole wheel cup, although, I liked the look of the cup sides flattened in, so it ended up…
This is also TAST week 9–buttonhole wheel. It’s about the size of a quarter, done in perle 5. I don’t think this would be good on a functional quilt. The spokes (even the rim, actually) are too easily caught and pulled. Perhaps smaller circles and/or finer/heavier thread would work. I suppose I could also further embellish it or simply tack it down with a fine thread. I probably will use it on something “arty,” so it matters not.
Last week: I forgot to take a picture. Then today, when I tried to upload the picture, it was somehow more than twice the size as the one below it (same phone, same setting, more light?) and wp wouldn’t accept it. It so irritates me that I can’t change that limitation. A quarter’s worth of French knots, outlined in stem stitch. I tried to put the knots in in an order like a sunflower’s seeds. I can’t see it, but…
This dot is approximately the size of a quarter. It was a challenge to stitch, to say the least. The fabric’s top layer is apparently the same as the thread–plastic and rayon (maybe polyester). I traced a quarter then pulled the sequins off a length of thread and stitched the circle in stem stitch. I thought it would be easier to couch the thread to fill the sun side. With couching, I didn’t have to remove the sequins. The sequins…
I doubt I’ll be doing one a day and I didn’t use wrap/satin stitch (as Jude did). Because of the size (the base of a 5000 meter spool of machine embroidery thread–maybe about two inches), I thought chain stitch would be good. I was hoping for a more random variation with the thread, rather than the look of concentric circles (it’s actually a spiral), but that would probably require shorter color variations on the thread, and/or a much larger circle….
This is just a few seconds. The rain itself lasted only a few minutes. I love this kind of rain. And it wasn’t raining in the backyard. I finally got all my Christmas decorations put away. Well, boxed and ready to put on the shelves. I wondered why I took so long, but I think it’s because I knew that Iqbal does not understand the sentimental value of the decorations, and sure enough, I found some that were broken, and…
I forgot to take a picture on Wednesday. They’re not too crisp because they are taken across the room at full magnification and the HD seems to turn off and on at random. (It seems to be on on Monday’s shot.) It should be raining. I prefer the sunny days we’ve been having, but we are technically still in a drought, apparently. This ragged little plant is one of my Bergenia. They bloomed in December. A few days of freezing…