A Bit of This and a Bit of TAST

I managed to get my lazy self sufficiently motivated to do a few catch up stitch samples for TAST 2012.  The samples I did for weeks 11 and 12 are not very spectacular:

This is a small ribbed wheel, shown here rather larger than life, which I know next time to anchor the foundation stitches of better!  I was forever having to hold onto the first stitch as it had nothing to grip onto on the back.  It worked out passably for a first attempt and I do think this one has some potential, which I must explore more fully later on.  I liked the way Sharon had used part of a wheel to create shells and one of the other TAST participants used a half wheel to make a fan.  I want to try those out some time.

These are the samples for week 12, one each of barred chain stitch and alternating barred chain stitch.  I couldn't find this one in my stitch guide, so it was a new one for me on all fronts!  I used Sharon's instructions and had to keep referring to the photo for the placement of the working thread as the direction you have to have it going is rather counter intuitive!  Anyway, they worked out OK and I'm quite pleased with them.  I think I finally got the hang of it in the end.=)

Week 14 (or is to be called week 13??) is satin stitch.  I know this one very well as it's one of the very first things I learned to do when I learned any embroidery as a child.  Rather than work a few needle strokes on my naff Aida scrap, I thought I'd just share a few samples from past pieces that are worked in satin stitch.

This first one is worked in Pipers Silks and, with the exception of the stem stitch stems (!!), almost the whole piece was done in satin stitch.  As you can see here, the leaves were picked out with some straight stitches and the little wild strawberries with a couple of seed stitches in gold.

This one is from the ladybird and blackberries stumpwork piece (see Stumpwork page for the whole thing).  The leaves are basically directional satin stitch with a few touches of contrasting purple.  I rather like them.=)

Finally, here's some satin stitches worked as part of a hardanger WIP from back in 2005.  You can see the whole finished project here.

Now then, onto something else.  Cynthia asked me to show the pattern for the threads etc that I displayed in my last post.  I've posted it a couple of times, but there are already enough links to others posts etc, so I took  a new photo and, although the colours haven't come out too well (the main, framed piece here is actually lilac, but it looks more grey here.  I'm doing the green one instead), you can see the design OK.  Don't miss Cynthia's blog by the way.  She's recently completed one of those glorious Jane Nicholas stumpwork tile designs and is now back on with a sumptuous pomegranate piece.

And the above is what we woke up to this morning!  I was so surprised that I actually exclaimed out loud!  I'd read something about snow on the BBC website, but thought it would be just northern Scotland.  So, that put paid to my trip out to the Meadowhall shopping centre and retail park (Hobbycraft!) today.  At least I got my TAST stuff done and even finished some mending.  It's melting away now after having come down for much of the day, so I may be able to get out for my shopping trip tomorrow??

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012