Still no TAST, but.....

I have been sick, but I have also finished about 20 ornaments.  Here is a picture of some of them:

I still need to make at least 10 more.

Below is a thread painting that is for one of my sisters for Christmas.   I don't think she reads my blog, so I am OK to show it.

I would like to do more of these with needlefelting as the background and more hand stitching when the machine stitching is done.

I hope that everyone is getting their Christmas projects done.  I had to give up on one of mine because of my illness.  I will get that daughter something else.

No TAST, Just Christmas ornaments

I am putting aside Take a Stitch Tuesday for awhile to do some Christmas projects.

I have finished enough to make 8 ornaments.  Here is what I have:

Here are a few close ups:

Now all I have to do is put two together and buttonhole stitch around them while adding stuffing and a ribbon!

TAST 2012 Week 43 Buttonhole Wheel Cup and more catch up!

I am actually on time this week with my TAST Stitch.  Here is a picture of what I have done.

I love how this looks with thicker threads. I really like the rayon ribbon on the bottom right.  I also like the shine of the silk in the top right.

Here are 3 more stitches that I finished in the last week or so.  

My eight year old son thinks the one above looks like a water bug.

I used beads instead of a french knot for some of these stitches.  

Now I only need to do one more, and I will be all caught up!

TAST 2012 Week 40 Beaded hedebo edge and Week 32

I finished this week's stitch: Beaded hedebo edge and also did week 32: cast on stitch.

You can see them both below.

First the beaded hedebo edge:

This stitch was satisfying to do as I saw the results--especially when adding the beads.

This next one is the cast on stitch, which I love to do.  I really love the texture of this stitch.  What I really want is a very long and large sized milliners needle so that I can make them really long.

TAST 2012 Week 39 Knotted Buttonhole Stitch and another catch up

I actually did the Take a Stitch Tuesday for this week as well as doing week 34.  If I have time, I will do more "catch up" but my sister is in town and other things need to be done as well.

Here is Week 39:   Knotted Buttonhole Stitch

And here is Week 34:  Linked double chain

I am enjoying doing this on a regular basis again.  I was glad to finish my large project, but I will really consider well next time before I choose to make something that will take so much time.

TAST 2012 Two catch up stitches

I didn't do this week's stitch for TAST 2012, but I did do two from previous weeks: sheaf stitch from week 35 and pistil stitch from week 37.  I will try to do at least two stitch pictures each week until I have caught up.

Tree of Life project is done!

As you can see I haven't been posting any Take a Stitch Tuesday for 6 weeks.  I had to finish my Tree of Life project that was for a crazy quilting contest on Evening Star Designs.  It was to be finished by September 15th.  Well, I did it. But I couldn't have finished it without stopping TAST 2012 for awhile. But I used a number of the stitches from TAST in this quilt.

Here are some pictures of what I did:

This project is 20 inches by 24 inches.  It is mounted on foam core (I used Allison Aller's book as a reference for this).

I used my own design for the four crazy quilt blocks that I put together. The fabric around the blocks was dyed by me.  I also designed the tree that I embroidered on the blocks.

But I pretty much let the rest of the process just come together as I embellished the blocks.  I decided to keep the embellishments mostly the same color as the pieces of fabric that I used because the colors were already so vibrant. I didn't want to cover up the colors of the fabric, but I still wanted to embellish them so that they had a lot of texture.

I used lots of threads for this project (silk, rayon, wool, cotton--flat, perle, ribbon, etc.)

I used some buttons and hundreds of beads, spangles, and crystals.  It really sparkles in the light.  

I also made my own leaves using wool fabric, embroidery, and beads.  Then I attached them with more beads.

I encountered a number of problems.  Some of these I was able to fix.  Some I just have to live with.  Over all it was a great learning experience for me.

Now I can start doing TAST again!!!

TAST 2012 Week 31 Algerian eye stitch

I finished my sampler very early this week.  I thought it wouldn't take long, but it took longer than I expected.  I used lots of different threads and ribbons.  I even put my felt into a hoop for the first time--otherwise it just didn't work out.  Thanks for looking.

TAST 2012 Week 30 Oyster Stitch

I've been busy with babysitting, seeing my mom, household duties, and making a baby quilt for my 8th grandchild who will be born soon. I didn't really want to do this stitch, but once I started, I really liked it. It didn't take long to finish.

Here is my oyster stitch sampler:

TAST 2012 Week 29 Basque Stitch

It's funny how sometimes you just need to start something, and then you really enjoy what you are doing.  That was the case with the basque stitch.  I didn't really feel like doing it, but once I started I really enjoyed myself.  As you can see I really like to do floral motifs.  I used cotton perle mostly, but also some silk ribbon (2mm), wool, cotton floss, and other thread.
I also thought of making something that had to do with gears but decided to do flowers instead.

Remember that you can see other people's work by going here and checking the comments.

TAST 2012 Week 28 Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch

I finished my sample of Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch earlier than usual.  It is a nice looking stitch--but a bit confusing for me--especially the one variation I did where the 2 legs are up and then down.  I need to look at some other stitch dictionaries for instructions for that variation.

I used quite a variety of threads: wool, cotton, silk, and rayon.  I am pleased how it turned out.

TAST 2012 Week 27 Bonnet Stitch

This "Take a Stitch Tuesday" was bonnet stitch.  I enjoyed doing this. I used perle cottons in different weights, some floche, and silk perle as well as some other threads.  This time I marked my design with a water soluble pen. Of course I didn't think about what might happen when I removed the marks with water.  Some of the silk threads ran.  But it doesn't look too bad anyway.

TAST 2012 Weeks 25 and 26 plus another ornament

I have been behind a bit with Take a Stitch Tuesday 2012  found on pintangle.com .  I finished my week 25 and 26 today and am also posting a picture of another ornament I made and gave away.

Here goes:

Week 26 is the palestrina stitch.  I really liked doing this in the thicker threads.

Week 25 is the Cable Chain stitch.

I wasn't sure if I would like doing this stitch--but it was OK.

I really enjoyed making this ornament and wanted to have a picture of it incase I wanted to make one like it again.

The side above is my favorite.

TAST 2012 Week 24 Buttonhole Wheel

Here is my sample for Buttonhole wheel stitch.  This is a fun stitch to do. Remember, you can see other people's work here or here .   This is all thanks to Sharon Boggon at pintangle.com .

Week 23 was a catch up week, and since I was busy with other things, I decided not to do extra :-)

TAST 2012 Week 22 Knotted Cretan Stitch

Here is my sampler for knotted cretan stitch.  I didn't really know this very well but I believe I have learned it by making this sampler.

TAST 2012 Week 21 Butterfly Chain

Here is my week 21 Butterfly Chain stitch sampler.  This was a lot faster than last week's stitch.
When I first stitched with the silk ribbon on part of the outside it was nice and puffy--but after I used water to get rid of my blue water soluble marker--I realized that I kind of wrecked that part. Oh well. Live and learn.

TAST 2012 Week 20 Bullion Knot

I love the bullion knot.  I didn't finish on time, but I did finally finish last night.  I had too much going on at home.

Here is my sampler.

TAST 2012 Week 19 Half Chevron Stitch

Here is my sampler for the half chevron stitch.  This is the second of two samplers I made.
I realized the first one was not quite right so I did this one instead.  My first one is like the week I had--chaotic.  My mom had fallen at her memory care home and broke her upper right arm.  She was in the hospital until Thursday.  It was a bit hard being with her--but necessary.  I should have probably been there more.  At least I could read her from the Psalms.  That seemed to calm her down a bit.

 And here is the first sampler I made (notice the straight part of the stitch doesn't touch like it ought to):

This definitely is how I felt about this week.

I really can't complain since God has given me such a great family.

TAST 2012 Week 18 Crossed Buttonhole

This was also a fun stitch to do.  It is really great to try and use these stitches in a more nontraditional way.  I used flat cotton thread in the middle and then some silk perle and a couple of different sizes of cotton perle.  The outside circle is rayon ribbon floss.

TAST 2012 week 17 "Wheat ear stitch"

It took me a few days to start, but I finally finished my wheat ear stitch sampler. 

 I really enjoyed doing this stitch.  

Here is what I came up with:

Go here to see other people's work.

Embroidered Flower ornaments

In my spare time I like to embroider stylized flowers and then put beads on them.  After that I cut the felt around them into a circle and put two of them together with the buttonhole stitch, adding a little stuffing and a ribbon to hang them with.

Here are the ones that are finished:

I am going to start giving them away as little gifts.  

Meanwhile they hang on my ornament tree on our piano.