TAST No 118 & 119

Stitch No 118 Bead Buttonhole

I am coming to the end of this piece of material, only one more line after this stitch.  As this is an outiside row I used a perle 5 thread to define the edge.  This was a nice easy stitch.

But looking at the whole piece I decided that I hated the black ticking lines.  Far too gothic in appearance.  So I have decided to stitch over every line using past TAST stitches.  I have chosen chain, stem, palestrina and Portuguese stem stitches to do this.  The threads are a combination of silks and some stranded cotton.  Lots of stitching and I still have lots to go but I do think it is starting to lose that dark look.

Now I have to decide what I will use for the coming stitches.

Stitch No 119 Trellis Stitch

Well I did this back in 2010 and I quiet like this example plus I don't think it would look good in the final row I have on the current sampler.  Then again I had forgotten those bird experiments I did, no it isn't right.

There are other examples of this stitch over at pintangle also the instructions about how to stitch it.

 

TAST No's 116 & 117

Up until now I have always liked Van Dyke stitch and I may learn to love it again but after stitching Bullion Van Dyke  - One hundred and twenty bullion knots, I have changed my mind.  I should have skipped this stitch.  I didn't mind the bead Van Dyke stitch, that flowed but Bullion Van Dyke, never again.

Pop over to Pintangle to see the next stitch and what others are doing.

TAST 2014

I feel as if I have made some progress with these stitches.  Also, I decided to change how I stitched beaded feather because my piece seemed to be all zig zags and then Sharon put up 'Long Tailed Chain' and It matched what I had done with the beaded feather, how good is that?

So we have:

Stitch 112 Feathered Chain

Stitch 113 Beaded Feathered Chain (my version)

 

Stitch 112 Feathered Chain

Stitch 114 Beaded Longtail Chain (my version)

The reason I had to change how I stitched the last 2 stitches was that the space available dictated what could be done and my lack of access to my bead stock didn't help much either.  (I will be glad when the builders and painters are finished in this place.)

Have a look what is happening with the other participants over at Pintangle.

TAST 2014

Another couple of stitches added to the piece.  The first 'Rope Stitch' I had to stitch in a zig zag pattern to balance the zig zag coral stitch on the opposite side.  Both are quick and easy to stitch.

Stitch 110 - Rope Stitch

and

Stitch No 111 - Zig Zag Coral
  

If you pop over to Pintangle you will see that I am closing in on the pack!

TAST

I found these two stitches quite difficult because of the base cloth I am working on.  It isn't what you would normally used for a counted stitch.  I had to 'estimate' the distances between the stitches by eye.  I know that they are not exact but it still looks about right. 

Stitch 108 Rice Stitch

When I came to do the second row of stitching the weight of the silk I had used was just too heavy on top of the base cross stitch, so I used 3 strands of a Cosmo variegated cotton and this seemed to balance the stitch.

Stitch 109  Square Boss

By this stage I had sort of worked out the spacing problem but I wanted to keep a balance to my piece so used the same threads again.  Those centre boxes are not all equal but the variegated thread takes your eye away from this.

So this is my piece to date.  All those beads make it difficult to put into a frame but I find that I need the frame to keep the distances equal.

 

TAST

Stitch 106:Looped Cretan
Stitch 107:Beaded Looped Cretan

I am making slow progress with these stitches mainly because the area I have to cover is so big and also because I have to make the stitch fit the space.  Still I like these two.  (I'm totally over threading all those beads.

Over at Pintangle everyone else is streets ahead of me.

TAST

I thought I was finished with this.  I did my 100 stitches and that was going to be the end.  Then each week others kept posting their sample and I kept thinking, "oh that is nice".  But, I was not going to commit myself to this again.

So here I am again!  I held out till the end of April but I'm back, after a false start.  Queenie suggested that I just did lines on ticking so I cut out some chair pad covers like the ones that "Miss Rachel" stitched back when. 

Then I looked at the stitches and decided that beads might be a bit uncomfortable to sit on.  They will have to be made into something else.

With the piece of fabric left over from this idea I am going to make a zippered bag.  I am limited when it comes to the beads because they are packed up in a box somewhere and all I have is 5 different colours in small beads. 

To the nitty gritty.  The first five stitches, from the top.

1. Buttonholed Cable Chain (104)

2.Alternate Buttonholed Cable Chain (105)

3. Beaded Tiangular Buttonhole (102)

4.Triangular Buttonhole (101)

5.Beaded Butterfly Chain.(103)

 I like all of these.  I found that I could keep my stitches even by counting the number of groves in the twill weave.  Really good for those diagonal stitches.

Now I am playing catch up with this exercise.