TAST: Chevron Stitches

I had to try a few beaded Chevron stitches…


And here is a little more work on my beaded Cretan stitch sampler, although the last row looks a bit herringbone-esque…not sure where I went wrong…

TAST: More Beaded Cretan Stitches

More Embellishing…

I played with my embellisher today. How I love that machine and the purr of its little motor! In the first experiment, I added some yarn (that I recently purchased at a hefty discount at Michael’s!) to two (4x6 inch) pieces of painted and stamped Peltex (got the idea for using Peltex from Kay Susan).


Next, I used the same yarn, in a different color way, and applied it to the background I created a couple of weeks ago using painted paper toweling on wool felt. I added a couple narrow scraps of painted lutradur here and there…

TAST: First Attempt at Beaded Cretan Stitches

I received Margaret Ball’s beautiful book, Embeadery, as a gift the Christmas before last. Although I read it cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed it, I didn’t try any of the stitches. I hope to remedy that this year.

TAST: Detached Chain Stitch

The leaves were based on a drawing I made of some vetch, a weed in my garden. On either side of the central floral motif are some tulip stitches. The floral forms above and below consist of berry (double detached chain) stitches. I used a piece of a decorator fabric sample as the base.

A Couple of TAST(y) Buttonhole Stitch Ideas…

Here is a quick sketch of some rose leaves right outside my studio door. Below is my interpretation of the sketch in fabric using the embellisher machine to “appliqué” the felt leaf shapes to the wool felt background. Veins were embroidered using the buttonhole stitch.



For the heart, again I “fused” the basic shape to the felt with the embellisher and added beaded buttonhole stitches. I used a single strand of DMC embroidery floss, doubled, for the beading. I found the directions for beaded buttonhole stitches in this PDF file on making a cute beaded and embroidered evening bag.

More Fun with the Embellisher…

Here is a little experiment using one ply of a painted paper towel (leftover clean-up towel from a past fabric painting session - I don’t throw anything away!), a couple of scraps of a painted used fabric softener sheet and some painted cheesecloth – on a piece of wool felt.

More Herringbone Stitches…

Here’s a little more work on the herringbone sampler. I found this stitch combination (double Tramé couching with herringbone fill) here and thought it would be fun to try… Not at all sure I did it correctly but since when has that stopped me? I used fine Sulky gold metallic thread.

It’s 63 degrees here, today, and rainy. It feels like an April rain…

Thinking about Taking a Stitch Tuesday…

I haven’t formally signed up for Take a Stitch Tuesday because I’m already over-committed every which way but Tuesday! But I’ll sure be lurking and playing along whenever I get a chance. Here is a start of a 4x6 inch herringbone stitch sampler on 28 ct. Irish linen.