Take A Stitch Tuesday - Herringbone

As I mentioned yesterday, the Herringbone Stitch is not by any means one of my favorite stitches.
While trying to turn it into something that I find visually attractive, I realized what it is about this stitch that I don't like. To me, it looks like a bunch of giant cross stitches!

Many of you have probably discovered, that as far as my designing career goes, I've been moving in new directions. This not to say that I won't continue to design charted patterns, it's just not what I do on a full-time basis anymore.

Counted cross stitch is quite limited and designing it is limiting as well. I've found that I need to move beyond the grid.

On a personal level, perhaps I've found that I don't need to live by so many rules anymore. I've gone from the confinement and rules of working in "squares" to the freedom of absolutely no rules whatsoever in the form of crazyquilting. One extreme to the other yes, but they say, when a person gets into their 40's, they become their true selves. Well, I'm 45 now and I can see where my attitude has changed alot in the last few years. I've reached a point in my life where I just don't care what anyone else thinks about how I dress, what music I listen to and so on. And those are just examples.

Isn't it funny what came into the light from a simple stitch?

So, on to what I did with this stitch:



Yes, I pretty much beat up this poor little Herringbone stitch and over powered it with fan stitches. The fan stitch is one of my favorites!

One nice thing about the Herringbone stitch is that it can easily be combined with other stitches.

Quite honestly, I still don't care for this stitch. At least now I know why!

After stitching this example, I sat down and charted out what I stitched in case anyone here would like to use this version. I will continue to do that with my variations throughout the TAST Challenge. Just click on the image above to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version of the pattern. My suggestion for this one would be to use 10 count Waste Canvas.

You can find this, all past seam treatments and future stitch variations in my Flickr album set titled, Charted Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments.

Crazyquilt Purses

I did alot of stitching yesterday and finished up my Pansy Purse:



The bee is a vintage pin that I found at a flea market last Summer. I've been saving it for just the right project! This is one of my rare pieces that didn't start with a focal point!

Although I feel quite a bit better today, my husband asked me to promise him that I would take it easy again today and just sit and stitch. Ow, ow! Oooh, twist my arm!!! Ok, so that's the plan for today.

Thank goodness I keep a few extra blocks all sewn up and tucked away just for situations like this!

I pulled out this piece and have already tacked it to my frame. Yes, it's another purse:



I haven't decide on a theme yet and don't know if I'll use a focal point or not. I'll have to dig through my bits of junk and do-dads to see what I have. I do think this one would pretty with yellow embellishments and maybe a twinge of some pink.

Stop by tomorrow to see where this one goes!

Dryer Sheet Pansy Tutorial Part 2

Now that your pansy is assembled, it's time to stitch!

On my sample, I did several variations of the Blanket Stitch. This was intended to give you some options. You decide which variation you like best and work yours that way:



I used DMC embroidery floss to stitch my sample pansy. You can however use #5 or #8 Perle cotton instead if you like.

On the yellow part, I used 3 strands and kept a fair amount of space between my stitches. On the side petals I did the same the thing but used 6 strands of floss instead. And on the top of the pansy, I used 6 strands and kept my stitches close together.

Personally, I like the stitches tight.

For the center, I did a tiny tatted ring and sewed that on. If you know how to do tatting, it's just a simple ring:

5 DS, Picot, 5 DS, Picot, 5 DS, Picot, 5 DS, Close Ring.

If you don't know how to do tatting, you can embroider a center or try the Cast-On stitch. I then added a 5 mm Czech glass bead.

To finish, I stitched on a few a straight lines with 2 strands of DMC black embroidery floss.

For the leaves, again I used the Blanket Stitch around the outside and then did a simple running stitch down the center for a vein. Feel free to stem stitch the vein instead.

To attach the leaves to the flower, I use fabric glue. You can sew them together if you like. And then to attach this to a crazyquilt or whatever item you choose to use it on, again, you can glue it on or sew it on.

And that's it! If you need help with the stitches, visit Sharon's Stitch Dictionary.
Sharon has excellent stitch tutorials with really good photos!

I hope some of my readers try these pansies. They're so pretty and are a wonderful addition to all sorts of quilting and craft projects. If you do one and have a blog or Flickr site, please let me know. I would love to see your photos.

And, if you have any questions regarding this tutorial, please don't hesitate to leave a message for me here or you can email me.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Dryer Sheet Pansy Tutorial Part 1

As promised, here is the tutorial for making Dryer Sheet Pansies. You can find the tutorial for painting the dryer sheets in my post of December 21, 2006. If you would like to make some of these, but don't care to mess with painting the dryer sheets, there are still a few packs available in my Etsy shop.

The supply list for this project can be found in my December 22, 2006 post.

First, here is the pattern:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version. When printed, the pansy at it's widest point should measure about 3 inches.

The dotted lines are stitch marks so don't worry about those for now.

Trace 1 of each of the pansy parts and 3 leaves onto paper side of your fusible web.



Cut them apart and iron the leaves to your green dryer sheet, the large part of the pansy to the purple dryer sheet and the small part of the pansy to the yellow dryer sheet.



Next, iron a piece of lightweight interfacing to your cotton fabrics.



Cut out leaves and pansy parts, remove paper backing and iron to right side of fabric.



Now cut your pansy pieces out around the edge of the dryer sheet.



You'll need a dab of glue to attach the yellow part of the pansy to the purple part of the pansy. Just use what you have, it doesn't have to be fabric glue. White household glue will work fine. It's just a temporary hold.

Tomorrow, I will have the final part of this tutorial for you.

Sharon's Take A Stitch Tuesday Challenge Has Begun!

Good Morning everyone! I am still a bit under the weather here. Well, actually more than a bit! Today I will be parking myself on my sofa, stitching and watching movies. I am hoping by tomorrow, the worst of this will have passed and I can get on with my usual routine of buzzing around the house and doing my thing. I'm not one to sit still for long periods of time but I guess that's how today will have to be.

Sharon started off her "Take A Stitch Tuesday Challenge" with the Herringbone stitch. I'll admit, this has never been one of my favorites. I'm not sure why I never really liked it. I use it on occasion but it always looks too straight to me. I think I like stitches that have a scallop to them.

I gathered a bit of strength a few minutes ago and dug through my stash in search of a piece of 14 count Aida. I decided to actually play with this stitch a bit and see if I can't make the Herringbone into something that I do like.

I'm really not a formal person and would prefer not to keep a stitch dictionary or start a journal on this. I just thought I'd work these stitches like a sampler on fabric and see what I come up with. So please check back tomorrow to see what I do with this.

Also, stop back shortly for Part 1 of the Dryer Sheet Pansy tutorial. I'll have that ready and published in a few minutes. First, I need to drag myself into my kitchen and get some juice!