02.03.12
Posted in TAST at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Catching up. I had a couple of amazingly busy weeks in there.
I realized, looking at these stitches that my issue is not so much “how do I learn this?” or “what weird things can I do with these stitches in a straight line?” but rather, “How the heck could i use these in a finished piece of embroidery?” My samplers are full of variations. The transition to stitching in a finished piece is sorely lacking. Hence the bouquet in buttonhole stitch, and my use of these three stitches to finish my little complimentary Elmow of my parrot-squid-cthulu! I think he turned out cute. 
And because I’ve become fascinated by the look of photos of embroidery from odd angles, here’s my beauty shot of this one! 
Click any of these to see them in more detail! 
These are all stitched on fabric samples I received from an interior designer that was going out of business. They’re the perfect size for trying out designs and stitches, and have a built-in margin at the top to bind into a book when I’m done with the year.
Permalink
02.02.12
Posted in What I'm Working On at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Imbolc, or St. Brigid’s Day… Spring is springing. And with the weather yesterday hitting the upper 60s, it feels like it. It’s not supposed to feel like it! I’ve been working on a spring design. Or maybe a Summer design. I know there are going to be four, and this is either spring or summer!
This one is an intermediate-level freestyle embroidery design. It’s intermediate mostly because Peking knots in gold thread are a pain to do; not because of any real difficult stitches. 
But it’s almost tested, the fabric is ordered to stitch a model, and hopefully that means I can offer a kit to all of you sometime very very soon! 
The knots around the bee have been removed, along with the gold running stitch (the latter by accident while removing the knots) because they were just too big in the Kreinik braid. So now the dotted line is in the braid, and the knots are in one strand of DMC metallic – thought THAT is going to change, as I detest working with the stuff, and wouldn’t impose it on anyone if I can avoid it! But I don’t have any pictures of the new version. Click on either of the photos to see more detail.
Today is also my TENTH wedding anniversary. Wow. Who’d have thunk it?! The EO is a wonderful guy, my inspiration, and a good part of my strength. I’d probably do just fine without him, but he makes life so much better by being here. I hope I do half as much for him. We won’t be celebrating today. For 10 years, every time we’ve tried, something has interfered – often physically (like me breaking my elbow on the way to the sushi restaurant…). We no longer give it the opportunity-maybe in a couple weeks. Maybe. But we won’t tell the universe what we’re doing!
Permalink
01.13.12
Posted in TAST at 5:14 pm by deRomilly
I don’t believe I stitched this much. A stitch I used to hate with a passion because I could never get it to lie flat, I mastered it last year, and this challenge just gave me a chance to play with it — a lot. And there are still ideas that aren’t’ going to make it to this sampler! Click to see details!
The flowers and leaves are all buttonhole stitch. Stem stitch flows easily from buttonhole, and can be seen as a very shallow buttonhole stitch, if you really stretch it!
Stems are stem and chain stitch. I especially like the little yellow-green leaves with the open buttonhole, and the buttonhole flower tips are a traditional crewel technique. Stitched in silk and cotton.
Permalink
01.10.12
Posted in TAST at 4:20 pm by deRomilly
I’m going to shift my TAST posts to Fridays/Saturdays, I think, so I can get them up faster so people who are perusing them can. I think I can manage that.
Last week’s TAST was Fly stitch. I did a small sample, but I’m afraid this is a stitch that I’m just not very creative with. It’s not one of my favorites, and it really felt like an extension just to get this little bit done. I’m happy with the results, though, and have ideas for dandelions done in fly stitch now… so I did get quite a bit out of it!
And yes, all the lettering was done in fly stitch. THAT I may work out a whole alphabet in! With more care than I gave it, it could be really cool.
I think what I really liked here was the opportunity to work with Vikki Clayton’s silk threads again. The red is her 6 strand floss. The purple is from a skein I picked up at the needlepoint shop – it’s called “High Cotton,” and is a six strand matte floss that is thicker than normal strands. It doesn’t shine, but it didn’t knot up either. I can see quite a few things this thread would be really good for, and I look forward to trying it out on them. It’s a bit spendy, though.
This coming week is buttonhole stitch. Yay! options. LOTS of options for creativity with that one!
Permalink
01.03.12
Posted in TAST at 2:47 pm by deRomilly
So today is the first day of TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday on Sharon B’s Blog). Which actually means that the stitch choice was posted last night (she’s in Australia) and I won’t be posting my results until NEXT Tuesday. Kind of hard to post something that isn’t stitched yet!
But Watch this Space! I am determined to take this opportunity to experiment and expand my design abilities…
Join us! (This week is Fly stitch).
Sharon has also updated her Squidoo pages on Hand Embroidery and on Needlework Samplers. Some very interesting links there!
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
Catching up. I had a couple of amazingly busy weeks in there.
Click any of these to see them in more detail! 
