TAST and The White Peacock Purse

I didn't complete this last night like I had hoped, but I did get quite a bit done including the beading on the Detached chain leaves on the vine to the right of the peacock:



The beads give it a whole new look! They add more color and dimension to the stitching. I used 1 light green bugle bead in the center of each Detached Chain stitch.

Here's what the entire block looks like:



This afternoon, I'll add the spider web to the bottom left-hand corner and highlight the peacock's wing with some silver thread and then it's complete. I'll have another update for you tomorrow.

TAST - Detached Chain Stitch

As I mentioned yesterday, Sharon chose the Detached Chain as this weeks stitch focus. I use it alot as it's one of my favorite stitches. It's so versatile! Quite often, I use it for leaves like I did on the vine to the right of the peacock:



This piece scanned a little dark today. It's much lighter and brighter in person. And very sparkly!

I decided to leave off that rose applique as I feared it would compete with the peacock. Instead, I did a stem stitch vine and used the Detached Chain (aka Lazy Daisy) stitch for leaves. The next step is to bead it. I always add either a bugle bead to the center of the leaves or 3 seed beads. If I use Petite seed beads, then I'll usually use 5 of those. I haven't decided yet on what beads to use.

The beads add sparkle, dimension and more color to the piece.

I've drawn up the motif that I used in case anyone would like to stitch it:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the larger version. Trace onto tissue paper, pin to your block and stitch through the tissue. Once stitching is complete, carefully remove the tissue paper. I always freehand these motifs but if you want to do an exact replica, the tissue paper should work nicely for you. For the flower, you can outline stitch it, satin stitch it or fill it in with beads.

As you can see, I did alot on this piece yesterday. I added more glass flowers to the branch and a few seed beads. I did the grape vine to the left of the peacock and I did a rose motif on the dark purple ribbon. The roses are vintage Millinary (did I spell that right?) flowers. I found a whole bagful of them awhile back but kept forgetting that I had them! I added some glass beads for a little extra sparkle and did the leaves using silk ribbons from Pat Winters. If you need silk ribbon, visit Pat's Etsy shop! Working with Pat's ribbons makes me want to do more SRE!

Looking at this from a distance, I do feel like the peacock needs a little something to make him pop out more. Maybe I should have done him in purple but I've been wanting to do a white peacock for some time now. I may take a strand of metallic silver thread and outline him with that and maybe highlight his wing with it.

I still need to add my little cat and I'm thinking of a spider web for that bottom left-hand corner. I love doing spider webs!

We Have A Winner!!!

Well, I checked the times on yesterday's comments as well as a couple of emails that I received from readers who have trouble posting to my blog and the winner is, Gail who posted at 11:23 yesterday (Monday) morning.

Yes, the focal point is a peacock:



I sent ya'll over to my Flickr site thinking you'd find the photos of my other peacock pieces. I like to use vintage jewelry as part of the tail feathers.

On this one, I did the tail feathers a bit different than I have in the past. I used white eyelash yarn, couched it on and used some clear pearly sequins to add sparkle. Then I added some large dark green seed beads for the eyes in the tail feathers. I had wanted to use crystals but I didn't have any in emerald green.

If you look closely at the jewelry piece, I altered it a bit. I cut that loop off of it. That part sat over the wing and I didn't like the way it looked so I just grabbed my wire cutters and cut it off!

After getting the peacock stitched on to this block, which took most of yesterday afternoon, I decided that the rose applique was too much. It overpowers this little guy so I'll be leaving it off and doing something else with that seam.

So, Gail who commented at 11:23 on Monday morning, please drop me a quick email with your snail mail address and I'll send your pansy off to you. You can find my email address on my main Kitty & Me Designs website.

In other news, Sharon has chosen the Detached Chain stitch as this weeks TAST Challenge. Also known as the Lazy Daisy stitch which is what my grandmother always called it, this is one of my favorites and one that I use on just about every block I stitch! I must find something extremely creative to do with this stitch! I'll have to think about that a bit and see what I come up with. You've probably noticed that I always add beads to my Detached Chain stitches. I do that because I love the sparkle. In fact, you can see some of my beaded Detached Chain stitches on the seam to the left of the peacock.

Ok, that's it for it today's news! I'm off to sew up some new blocks because after this peacock block, I have nothing else to stitch on. And I can't have any of that going on! I must stitch!

I also plan to run my sewing machine tomorrow in hopes of assembling some of those purses that I've been making.

No Winner Yet

Ladies, ladies, ladies! I can't believe we still don't have a winner yet. I've been holding off on starting the "focal point" until we had a winner but I can't go much further without it so I'll give you one more suggestion.

Why don't you all poke around over at my Flickr site and see if you get any ideas!

Ok, onto the purse itself:



I did some more beading yesterday. I worked on that bottom Herringbone seam. I must say, that is just so pretty! I really like the way the Herringbone looks over the ribbon! I knew if I worked with it long enough, I'd find a way to make that Herringbone more attractive!

I then beaded the bottom right-hand seam.

I do plan to hand-paint that applique as it might clash with my focal point which will be white. I'm just holding off until I get the focal point stitched on.

Ok, I think I've given ya'll a good couple of hints here. Keep guessing! I'm off to organize my fancy threads in a nice rolling cart that I bought at WalMart over the weekend.

TAST - More On Herringbone Stitch

I really loved what I did with the Herringbone stitch on my Green & Yellow purse project so I decided to do it again on this purse:



I added a piece of 5/8 inch wide lavender satin ribbon along the seam but it didn't show up very well so I added another piece along the top edge. This one is a green shaded ribbon 3/8 inch wide. Once I had that attached, I lined up my Waste Canvas up over the ribbon. I did my Herringbone stitch in white, added my favorite little fan stitch along the bottom in green and then some small fan stitches in purple.

Here's the pattern if you would like to try it:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the larger version.

Susan commented last week on the wide purple band near the top right. That is actually 2 inch wide wired Christmas ribbon. I found it a WalMart last year after Christmas for 25 cents! I just loved it because I love purple. I cut the size I needed for the space, and pulled the wires out of each side and then it's sewn into the foundation on the top and bottom. My stitching holds the sides in place. I'm planning to do some SRE on it.

As for our Contest, we still don't have a winner yet. Maybe instead of "guessing the theme", I should have said, "guess the focal point". Does that help anyone?

I'm actually hoping this stirs up your creativity! Look at the jewelry piece that I posted yesterday. What would you do with it? Now, think about what I would do with it!