Treasures from the Sea

I mounted a small collection of delightful vintage carved Mother of Pearl buttons on an embellished and embroidered background I had created for the TAST challenge a couple of years ago. I think the frame (purchased in Michael’s) is evocative of a whitewashed beach cottage. I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop, soon.

The Last of the TAST: Chained Bar & Spanish Feather Stitches

Hallelujah! I did it! From left to right: whipped Spanish feather stitch, zigzag chain over rickrack, chained bar (over rayon floss), whipped Spanish feather stitch, buttonholed arrow stitch whipped with rayon ribbon, two rows buttonholed chevron stitch. I think the Spanish feather stitch may be one of my favorites, but it always seems to beg to be whipped!

TAST: Knotted Cable Chain, Berry & Pistil Stitches

I added more stitches to my little sampler: The fourth row consists of a single line of knotted cable chain stitches laced with perle cotton. Next is a double row of knotted cable chain stitches interlaced with heavy novelty thread, used to “couch” a length of silk ribbon. The last row consists of berry and pistil stitches.

TAST: Braid Chain Stitch

Yay! I finally did it! And I’m doin’ the happy dance! May it never be said I was defeated by a needle and thread – Oooh, I wax poetic – hehe! I think the trick is to make sure to do the little backward loop at the top of each stitch. If you look at this illustration, you can clearly see that the part of the thread that carries the needle needs to go behind the part of the thread that advances the stitch… It’s an awkward and counterintuitive maneuver for me (maybe because of being left-handed?).

TAST: Pekinese Stitch

What a lovely day – very mild – around 70 degrees! I am a little behind on my TAST stitches but was able to take a little time today to play with the pleasantly relaxing Pekinese stitch. In the example below, I used two rows, laced together, to couch down a ribbon.

A Little More TAST: Zig Zag Spanish Knotted Stitch, Twisted Satin Stitch & Drizzle Stitch

TAST: Zig Zag Spanish Knotted Stitch

Here’s my first stab(!) at the zig zag Spanish knotted stitch. I like!

TAST: Lace Border Stitch (Kinda Sorta…)

Well, I'm totally clueless here and any vague resemblance to the lace border stitch is purely coincidental…

TAST: Linked Double Chain Stitch

Love this fast and freewheeling stitch. (The hardest part was trying to sew with three small kittens swiping at the thread!) The background is a scrap from a piece of painted cotton I had used to test a stamp. I backed it with quilt batting to add a little loft to the unstitched areas.

TAST: Boss Stitch & Rice Stitch

Just trying to play catch-up, here. I finished a 4x6 inch sampler I had started earlier this year with a band of boss stitches at the top and a band of rice stitches at the bottom.

TAST: Cable Chain Stitch

This is an ATC - sized sampler with cable chain stitches and one of the Shisha mirror variations I wanted to try from Quilting Arts magazine.

TAST: Shisha Embroidery

This was another fun stitch I had never tried before. When Sharon announced this stitch last week, I looked it up in a back issue (Spring 2002) of Quilting Arts magazine, thinking I would like to try the wonderful variations provided. And, almost immediately, I misplaced the magazine. I looked high and low for it all week and then decided I’d better just produce something. And, naturally, as soon as I finished this simple little ATC, the magazine turned up. Sheesh-a!

TAST: Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch

This is a wonderful stitch for bold outlines.

TAST: Scroll Stitch

Here’s my first attempt at the scroll stitch. I love this stitch! I think I’ve said that (or thought that) about each one - well, almost… It occurred to me that, by the year’s end, I will have been introduced to fifty-two stitches, most of which I’d never tried before (some I’d never even heard of!). And that just opens up so many possibilities…

TAST: Crested Chain Stitch

I was introduced to this stitch in Sharon B’s Personal Library of Stitches course last fall and fell in love with it. Here, I added French knots and experimented with a fall color palette…

TAST: Cast on Variation – Drizzle Stitch

This is a repost of the drizzle stitch (a variation of the cast on stitch) from Sharon’s Personal Library of Stitches course last fall.

TAST: Buttonhole Wheels

Well, my wheels are a bit wonky, but I had a great time messing around with this. The background was made on the embellisher with silk scraps, wool roving and bits of a painted dryer sheet.

TAST: Me and My Arrow...

I’m “cheating” a little and putting up my arrow stitch sampler from Sharon B’s Personal Library of Stitches course I took last fall. I had uploaded a wonkier scan to Flickr back then and never did post it to my blog. Here is a somewhat straighter version.

TAST: Sheaf Stitch

I was curious as to whether the wheat sheaf could be used to anchor a button and decided to combine it with bullions to give the stitch a bit more weight…

TAST: Another Bullion Rose

Here's another bullion rose from The A-Z of Bullions. Too much fun! I mentioned I’ve had this book for a year and was just too intimidated to try anything. How in the world did I think I was going to learn – through osmosis?