tast29 – arrowhead stitch

This week’s take a stitch tuesday challenge is arrowhead stitch . This was one of the stitches we were taught in elementary school, and of course I haven’t forgotten it since then. But somehow, I was kind of lazy this week. I really admire all the people who put the same effort into this challenge week afer week after week for more than half a year now. So I’m showing some pictures from an old tryout cloth where I played with arrowhead stitches.

In the first sample,arowhead stitch was used as drawn thread work stitch. On the outside, it was donefrom the back, this makes it look like Herringbone stitch done from the wrong side and allows it to tie the tread bundles in the same manner.
To form the middle line of the drawn thread band, two threads in the very middle were removed, two were left on each side. Then, arrowhead stitches were worked arround the tread bundles. Arrowhead stitches can be used the same way to replace regular drawn thread hem stitch, and tend to be less time consuming.

In this piece, I really tried to get creative. The violet parts are closely stacked arrowhead stitches, but you could probably get the same effect easier with satin stitch. The openwork parts are unrelated ot arrowhead stitch. The big yellow forms are weirdly stacked detached arrowhead stitches that were then tied at the sides like you do with curtains. I tried to show how they are done in the following schema. Same numbers mark the needle in / needle out holes belonging to one row of arrowhead stitch. I hope this is clear enough, if not ask for instructions.

tast28 – sheaf stitch

Last week there was a medieval reenactment festival in town, think whole downtown surrounded with red tape and turned into a festival are for the weekend. I helped selling tickets and so was really busy all week. Like always the festival itself was hilarious and left me with a hangover (why the hell is mead so delicious), so no good time for stitching.

But now to business. Last week’s take a stitch tuesday challenge was . I don’t know jet what to think of this one. It is somewhat big and clumpy, but there are sure uses for it. I played arround a bit and tried out different structures and patterns. This is going to be a picture of sorts, although I’m not yet entirely sure where I’ll be going with it.

tast 27 bullion stitch

This weeks tast challenge was bullion stitch . Of course I have tried this before, but never successfully.This stitch looks so great in books and on the inet when done by people who know what they do, but I certainly don’t. Also, I’m still busy with the long and short stitch. Anyway, I did try. Here is a little flower in bullion knot.

long and short stitch progress

Ok, only a quick post today. During the last few day I have been working slowly, but steadiely on my long and short stitch project. The beginnings of it are blogged here . I have to say it doesn’t turn out as good as I thought it would. Maybe the colours are not exactly well chosen, the dark red is too red and dark, the brightest parts could slightly more bright. I wanted to use what I had in stash. Also, I should have hand-drawn the rose and made it a bit more stylized. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Aprupt change of topic: A big thanks to all those who visit my blog and comment. Sorry if you feel neglected by me. I’m still busy working out the etiquette and technical details of blogging, commenting, following other’s blogs and so on. Please bear with me while I learn.

tast26 – Half chevron stitch

So it’s halfway through the challenge, I can’t belive how fast time is racing. I enjoyed it very much until now, and have decided to make another attempt to post somewhat in time. half chevron stitch was another new one, I wasn’t really sure what to do with it and I still haven’t finished many of the older pieces, so all I can offer here is a doodling cloth with a few lines of it. There is also an organza strip couched with buttonhole stitch and two rows of crossed buttonhole stitch. I do like this stitch and will probably doodle with it some more.

The two rows of back-to-back half chevron stitch were wipped over in the middle. Here, I’m showing how since that is not easy to see in the finished piece. This is another stitch that offers endless possibillities for wipping and lacing.