The chained bar in school girl mode

Isn’t is just like me to be a school girl mode with this week’s stitch, the chained bar, just in time to get out for the holidays. I don’t know what sent me into this more experimental mood for this last post. But I had fun trying out various materials.

The hard thing about it is that none of the experiments are up to snuff in one way or another. I was almost thinking it was a good thing that Photoshop Elements balked on me and that posting was not a good idea. However, when I gave it another try, I tricked it into opening for me. So here are the experiments.

A ribbon where unfortunately the cooper thread wasn’t able to hold the angle I was working with so there is a little slippage.

In the photo below, I loved the sparkles. The blue cord is very fat and firm but the cooper thread failed to hold up under pressure. I think I may need a cooper cord or braid. I need to hunt up my gold cord and see if that does the job. Gold might be prettier anyway.

With those two disappointing trials I switched to other materials.

Petite Very Velvet with woven chain couching.

Perle 5 using the same color thread for couching as the middle couched thread.

Then I began my felt experiments–couching felt to felt? That is what I tried. I don’t have any felt on hand to make something with a large contrast to the background but this was a lot of fun. The straight strips of felt were thin; they laid flat and curved very well. I didn’t go as far as finding out the breaking point with them. However, I’m going to definitely try more experiments with them.

Merry Christmas!

I’m on holiday and will be posting again the day after Christmas (usa, west coast).

More with the chained bar

I tried to work on curved and circular chained bars but I honestly didn’t make much headway. Maybe it’s the holiday mood but I’ve just been relaxing and enjoying this stitch.

Below is the only full circle I tried. Not exactly successful, but it give me something to practice on in the next few days.

The photo below shows how I stitched this little doodle…

but when I was editing the photo I wondered if it should look like this instead.

It seems like if I put some light blue lines and a few short yellow lines of thread I could make a sunset or sunrise scene with trees or some growing “things” outlined against the horizon.

After two great suggestions in comments yesterday, I’m off to see if I can turn yesterday’s green circle into a Christmas wreath. My thanks go out to Maureen and Karen for a great idea!

Fun with lines

Today’s post reflects the fun I’ve had making chained bars. I’ve been busy stitching some other things and just relaxed when I got to these. But I have some of the trials from yesterday and a few more things that I tried out today.

A series of rose over green.

Per my usual, the difficulty is with the circle. (And a few slipping chain links due to the angle.) Those circles and curves will be my challenge for tomorrow.

TSTC Week 51: The chained bar

Today’s post has a couple of “on grid” samples from some work I did about a year ago on chained bars. Because of the gray, close to rain weather here I couldn’t do much new work on the bars today. SharonB announced the chained bar and the Spanish feather stitch as TSTC stitches for weeks fifty-one and fifty-two respectively. If you haven’t dropped by her blog to see it yet please do. She’s done great step-by-steps for both stitches.

I remember what challenging fun the chained bars were last year and apologize for these of you who are seeing some of this work again. I consider it a couching technique so my posts will be mounting up in that category this week.

A small variation in the chain and on hiding some of it behind the bar. I’ve done a few more samples along this line today. However, it was in time to photograph them.

Now I need to turn my attention to another matter. JoWynn had tagged me for a meme earlier in December. I promised to do it and some how it flew right out of my mind until yesterday morning. I felt so badly and emailed JoWynn apologizing and promising to do it. I don’t want to fail to follow through this time. I’m warning you that it’s probably more fun for me to think through than for you to read through.

When JoWynn tagged me she said “Elizabeth I hope you will come out from behind your stitches and show us some of yourself.” I count her as one of my good on-line friends and I realize in some ways she’d made a valid point. I’ve done away with my about page in favor of a welcome page. I think I’ve done only one other meme that let others know a little about myself.

Despite what may seem like some evidence to the contrary this last week, I really do want to keep the stitches front and center. I don’t work at that, it’s just my own focus and perhaps my natural tone or bent. Sometimes I see far too much of myself coming out in comments I make along the way. Please feel perfectly free to skip on to another blog if you don’t care for this type of thing. But here it is for those of you who would join in with JoWynn’s wish.

Jobs I’ve had: a bit of everything with a strong current of investigation and co-ordination running through everything I do.

Films I’d watch over and over and TV shows I watch: I don’t do film or TV. I love the Bible. I’ve found it bears reading and re-reading. When I’m stitching I listen to classical music, audio books, sermons and lectures except during those times when I must put all my attention on the stitching. I love the sound of silence, too.

Places I’ve lived: central Vermont, central Ohio and central California. My dad worked in state government so that’s why the word “central” plays a part in the first two locations. Central California? No reason known to me.

Favorite foods: This category made me laugh because every item except one specifies color. And as to the exception in my book the only credible color for broccoli is green. Ruby red grapefruits, sweet red peppers, red potatoes and broccoli. I’m not a vegetarian like my sister, but I could probably happily be one.

Favorite colors: I love color but I also love black and white along with the gray scale. I don’t notice any partiality in myself. But I’m aware of some things I avoid because of problems photographing the finished product.

Places on earth I would love to be right now: sitting in the kitchen table at my grandparent’s Vermont farmhouse talking with my mom an aunt or walking in and out among the sheep and the barns. Or I’d enjoy being in New Jersey visiting my design teacher and seeing her work in person. Maybe visiting my sister and a couple of other good friend that live away. I’m pretty happy where ever I am. I love to travel and don’t mind going by myself. A good thing since I’ve not married.

Names I love but would not use for my children: The last sentence is a dead give away about this question since it must be all supposition. I suppose I would give my husband the right to name each child. Not that I’m saying I wouldn’t voice my opinion about a name. I know myself too well to say that!

I’m not sure who to tag next. If anyone would like to take on this meme, please do. Thanks!

Circles and a bit more

I tried several more circular shapes with the thorn stitch. I definitely had to use templates for two of them. And I wish I’d used a compass for dividing the circumferences more evenly. But perhaps it gives a rather organic look.

I used a contrasting thread here so the stitches could be seen in the sample, but it would be ideal to do the tie downs with a matching thread to make them almost invisible in normal work.

I also tried to perfect one of my ric-rac experiments.

This is an “off grid” grid where I tried lacing the thorns.

When I found my green beads I started in again on this sample from earlier in the week. It still needs a bit of tweaking before I’m going to feel satisfied but it on its way.

Below are the results of taking a grid, putting it on an “off grid” ground and then threaded between the thorns.

Grids and the thorn stitch

It seems like a long time since I’ve done many grid patterns when experimenting with a stitch. For me the thorn stitch is perfect for exploring on a grid. I took advantage of it a few days ago and did the following samples.

A mirror image with an overlap. Here, and in the last two samples below, I’m playing with the length between the tie downs on the straight stitches.

The two samples directly above are “on grid” (counted fabric/ground) experiments that came to mind due to some of the curves I stitched “off grid” (non-counted ground) earlier in the week.

Here I think the distance between the tie downs got too long. But this pattern may easily be adjusted to shorten that length.

Lines and circles with the thorn stitch

Many thanks to those of you who visited the post about Anne Gailhbaud and especially to those who left comments for her. I was delighted myself to be able to see her work up close.

I’m still in the midst of my experiments with the thorn stitch. I’m getting so spoiled since this stitch is so easy to work with. My only real challenge has been trying to use it with in a circular form.

I want to fill in the other half but can not find my green beads at the moment. It didn’t seem like anything else would work. This sample was freehand, no markings. But as you can see I must pull out a marking pen and templates next time.

As for lines, here is some of my “on grid” work.

Once I saw this single line, I had to try mirroring it.

I loved what Anne did with the interlacing of the thorns on her trees. It re-inspired me to try to work on that area a little more after my rather disastrous attempts with the sun earlier in the week.

The last two samples use ric-rac as the straight stitch line. I did take some liberties in piercing the ric-rac in the second sample, but the principle is the same.

Anne Gailhbaud

I have special thorn stitch samples for you today. These are stitched by Anne Gaihbaud. She has been reading SharonB’s blog for years and recently started stitching some of the TSTC stitches that she wasn’t familiar with.

One of the benefits of blogging along with SharonB’s TSTC has been meeting other stitchers from around the world. Sometimes they are fellow bloggers, but not always. Anne Gailhbaud does not have a blog, but she has a website that shows some of her needlework, quilts and so forth. She says a blog must wait until she has more time. I suggested flickr, but “no” for the time being to that as well. As she says, she must preserve time for creating and connecting with her family and friends. She teaches French in France and is married to a doctor. They have four children most of whom are grown and out of the home.

Anne has recently sent me a packet of lovely things that she has done. Her grandmothers and great grandmother taught her to embroider. She says that her grandmothers were excellent embroiderers. Anne has made two quilts from their embroideries. She dyes fabric and thread as well as doing many handcrafts. I asked her if she would allow me post some of her needlework to give others the opportunity to enjoy them. She said yes. These are smaller more sample type works than appear on her website but the needlework may be seen more closely than those pieces. Unlike my usual photographs, please see the detailed view by clicking on them.

I would never have meet Anne except that she left a comment for me. Through this means, I have meet an number of very good stitchers who do not blog or use flickr. And unlike Anne they do not have a website. From the little work that I’ve seen, I sometimes think that some of the best and maybe the larger portion of the hand embroidery work that Sharon has helped facilitate through the TSTC may be that which is not showing up some place on-line. What do you think?

Perhaps what we see on-line is like seeing the tip of the iceberg. That is a very exciting thought to me. I wrote this up yesterday for Anne’s review and was just polishing it up when I clicked over to see Sharon’s new post reminding us that there are many people interested in and no doubt doing wonderful handwork. And that is only the portion that we may perceive because they are pursuing their interest on the internet.

Next week I will be posting about a new-to-me stitch that Anne has taught me. Anne, thank you very much for sharing your beautiful embroidery with me and for teaching me both just as I see the work you have done as well as more directly as is the case with this stitch.

Going forward with thorn stitch experiments

These are my trials with the thorn stitch. It does seem ideal for making tree like structures as SharonB suggests in her post. I had fun pulling the couched thread out of the straight line look on some of today’s samples.

In some cases you will see that I’ve used a previous thorn as the straight stitch to add yet another thorn stitch. This increases the branching possibilities. Although I’ve used it very limitedly here, I’m sure others may be taking much larger advantage of this very adaptable stitch. The sample on the left I call my long leaning tree, on the right, my spring tree.

Oops, I missed moving a stray thread out of the way.

Since the first of November I’ve been doing more with expanded and displaced squares. Out of that work I’d stitched all these green lines and then realized they would work for this week’s thorn stitch.

TSTC Week 47: The thorn stitch

Yes, indeed, the thorn stitch that SharonB has assigned for this week’s TSTC stitch is my idea of easier. Thank you, Sharon! After last week with the chain braid stitch that I still need to conquer, I’m looking forward to a lot of fun with this week’s sample stitching. Please see Sharon’s great introduction for a step-by-step and tips on this stitch.

And please note the lively discussion Sharon has going on in that same post about a new challenge for 2008. Please do take part in the discussion. This is not just for those who are involve in TSTC 2007. To me, this upcoming challenge looks like it could be geared to involve even more people than TaST. If you’re like me and need more time to sort out your thinking before commenting that’s fine. Just reading through the discussion is stimulating.

Now back to the thorn stitch. First I tried something “off grid”. I see now that I made a mistake in editing my photographs. This “off grid” work is more than thrice the length of the other stitch samples below it. I used a Perle 12 to couch chenille, two strands of a cooper-like thread and a 100/3 silk.

The other samples are “on grid” work. My main objective was to experiment with patterns.

I might try to embellish this further. It looks like an ideal candidate for beading or more decorative knots. What appears to be a blue thread is actually purple.

Because I think of this stitch as a specialized way of couching, my posts this week will be showing up under that category. I may change my mind when I’ve learned more, but that the plan at the moment.