Cretan stitch–more trials

The picture above shows some trials I did with density. I enjoyed testing this and loved some of the very dense results on the right side. I tried a much longer stitch below and to the left of the circle. This is full coverage without the definite ridge areas as on the right. But I had to use a line of Cretan stitches on the far left to help hold the curve since my stitches got too long. Every thing else I was trying to do with density is pretty evident.

Beads are another thing I wanted to test. I was thinking about when to attach the bead in the stitching and what happens with various sizes of the stitch. It’s raining here in the central valley so my pictures are not “true to life” color today. And unfortunately that is certainly showing up the most in this picture. These are variegated blue green beads with a peach thread! When I have time I want to try various bead placements once the stitching is done. The other thing I would like to try is layers of bead placement for some of these attachments above. In other words, what would happen if I stitched another row 2 threads down or 4 threads down. And what would happen if that row was staggered compared to being an exact match.

I’ve been working on some designs and so I’ve not been visiting blogs or the flicker site as much the past few days to see what every one has been doing. And I may not have time to go through Sharon’s roundup until Monday. I can hardly wait to be past this “crunch” time! But just in working with what I’ve been doing the last few days has been making me think about how much I enjoy the technical part of seeing what a stitch will do. And to have that knowledge available to use when I’m doing a design gives me a greater range and freedom of expression. The designing is much more satisfying than the technical work, but I think I’m beginning to see the interaction between the two as much more vital than I have before.

Well, below are my circles, I’m still pretty amused by them since I still need more “technical” work with them before they are ready for me to use any design! Again the peach colors are way off!

I worked on a few linear things this week.The first one is some couching of the thicker peach thread. The second, layers of the Cretan stitch with some varied interweaving.

And the very last linear one is using the detached chain stitch. This morning I finally snapped a picture that is in focus, so I just tacked it on here at the end.