Moving from a lost thread to…

I was practicing on the arrowhead stitches while away from home. I used up my red thread and found I hadn’t any more in my travel pack. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll move on to something else and finish up when I get home.” How did that red thread get in my travel pack? And how could I have taken the last of it with out noticing? I’m sure it’s hiding somewhere, but where?

Here’s the unfinished work.

Well, almost all of it. Because it was unfinished it was out of kilter. I thought, “it’s a perfect time to play with cropping.” In my design class last year, one of the important things my teacher stressed was you decide were the borders are. I’m definitely not good at it. My papers came back corrected a lot of times–and I should add very kindly so. So I had fun with a few trials on this piece. Please feel free to skip over the next three photos, if this doesn’t interest you. Beyond them I have a few more experiments with the arrowhead stitch.

The other fun part is deciding what direction. For instance, what a difference if the middle photo were rotated a quarter turn counterclockwise. Or the last one a quarter, clockwise.

Here’s the rest of my practice.

Oops, once I started cropping, I didn’t know when to stop.

Here I am back to normal.

Threaded arrowheads, an idea from Sharon b‘s stitch dictionary. My second take on this is that it would have been more effective with thicker thread or a ribbon as Sharon suggests. I plan to revisit some lacing ideas before the week is out.

Off grid and on grid with the arrowhead stitch

I need to get hard at work on this arrowhead stitch, instead I’m just play and having fun with it. Hard work is more rewarding!

Off grid

On grid

Yes, it is all arrow stitches! I like it, but what should go in the middle squares? Satin stitches, rice stitches over two, woven stitches, eyelets, buttons or beads? I can’t make up my mind.

TSTC Week 29: The arrowhead stitch

The twenty-ninth stitch in Sharon b‘s TSTC is the arrowhead stitch. It’s a simple, fun stitch. Sharon has written a lovely illustrated introduction for it. I enjoyed seeing the work she had done with it on her crazy quilt seam treatments. The last piece is so rich in color and texture that I wished to know if what was in the photo is the full piece or just a slice. I love grids and her use of arrowhead stitches on those grids was intriguing to me.

Another thing that impressed me as I looked at her stitching is how easily this stitch creates the illusion of a line when the stitches are not that close together. And then they not only create idea of a line but give it direction. The arrow is such a common symbol in our culture, I read it without thinking. How long has this stitch been around I wonder? Two simple straight stitches that meet to form one point. It seems like it might go back to immediately after the flood of Noah’s day, if not before.

Well, I must hurry; my boss is on vacation again. One day only!

In some preliminary trials, I’m trying to reacquaint myself with this stitch.

altering size, reversing direction

doubling up on the larger size with direction according to size

the simplest flower

How can I be making such poor French knots again after such recent practice? It looks like I’m still at square one with them.

Fun with off grid work. The combination of the arrowhead and the fly stitches on the right was an attempt at a making pine cone like texture. I better try again. I can see a hint of it but it doesn’t speak for itself, yet. Nothing special here, I was just relaxing.

I was most shocked that in the middle left section everything quickly began to look like I was just playing with cross stitches rather than squares made of opposing arrowheads and intertwined with others in the row. It made me think about how I was first taught to cross stitch, I see a lot of similarities.

BTW, the dark corner in the upper right is a variation in the felt’s color. When I first looked at it I thought something had gone wrong with my camera. Thankfully, not.

Did I say I was to hurry? Yes!

Blogs and explorations new and revisited

Blogs

This is a word of welcome to help acquaint any newcomers to a few of the many blogs I enjoy. However, as a twist this week I’m not mentioning a blog but the flicker account of Vero de la Fare. I first got acquainted with her work through taking Sharon b‘s class about stitches last fall. I’ve continued to enjoy watching her work with Sharon’s TSTC. Since Vero has done so much work that I love, it’s hard to select just a few to highlight. Her work also covers a wide range so I’m attempting to give you a flavor of that in my selection, also. Here is a charming cat, a wonderful sampler, an up-close look at a colony of virus and a beautiful piece of boutis. Please, take a look at the rest of the photos there, there are many other interesting and beautiful things.

Thank you for all the wonderful work, Vero! It has been a refreshing delight to see it.

If you are a newcomer, the TaST flickr account always has interesting work pooping up. And it is a great way to get acquainted with much of the work being done in Sharon b’s challenge.

This is the last week of the two month trial, so I’ll be examining what to do about this weekly spot.

Explorations

New

You may be wondering why so little new work. It’s simple; I tested a lot of bad ideas. I wish I could cut down on doing that!!!

Revisited

I just couldn’t resist doing something with this whole in the improved circle. It is just interlacing but it satisfied my thoughts about this circle.

This was my disappointment. I’d wanted to put a rice stitch rather than a cross stitch in the center spots along the line. I tried it; it looked terrible. I compromised, kept the more lacy look and did a cross stitch. Maybe it just needs a bead. I see more tests ahead for this line.

I just remembered, I need help deciding what family the sheaf stitch falls in. Is a looped stitch? Something else? Thanks!

Sheaf stitches: continued explorations

This sheaf stitch has so much to it that I’m barely scratching the surface of what I think it is capable of doing.

Here is a simple line that I liked and then mirrored.

I think I liked the simple line best, but it’s always interesting to see what a mirror will do. If the mirrored line were embellished I think it would be more appealing. Yes, I can almost imagine it now. Sometimes when I’m posting my samples, I get ideas about what to try next.

One of those things from yesterday was an idea of perfecting the circle that I’d tried. Here it is. Just a thread or two one way or another on this size makes a much rounder shape.

Fun with diagonals.

I haven’t done nearly half of what I’d like to in playing with two colors on the sheaf stitch. It is an ideal candidate for such experiments because the tie is so easily made a different color than the straight stitches. And the straight stitches are so easily switched from one color to another.

This is not that kind of experiment but it certainly did involve two colors. I think my results would have been more pleasing if I’d handled the group of three sheaf stitches as one sheaf stitch. A large sheaf with the switch to green in the center of the straight stitches and one purple tie would create a much smoother look. And I think the tie would have held that many straight stitches securely enough if it was four or six threads wide. If it didn’t I think two hidden back stitches and one over stitch would do it.

And my favorite line from today’s stitching.

Lines and a circle

I tried to make the center tie downs in the middle of the sheaf stitches work with me rather than work against me in couching. Not wildly successful, but still a lot of fun with the trials.

The basics

around and around we go (a Christopher Robin quote?)

I loved the way the darker thread peaked out from beind the sheaf stitches in the upper row. BTW, this is three strands of DMC cotton floss.

I couldn’t make anything work with this variation of the sheaf stitch until I tried a loop like a detached chain.

The circle — not a perfect circle, but headed there, I hope. I dreamed up one more little variation to try. If I can pull that off with out throwing off the rest, I’ll be pleased.

In between school girl mode and inspired

This week, I’ve neither settled into a school girl study nor been inspired to tackle some off grid work with the sheaf stitch. I’m somewhere in between and still stitching.

And I think that’s the important thing for me. I don’t want to stop stitching until I’m in one mode or the other. When I keep stitching, ever so slowly it’s yielding information about the stitch. And am thankful for that.

I have one major disappointment with sheaf stitches so far–couching. This evening I’m going to be doing some more experiments along those lines. Perhaps the stitch lends it’s self to lacing more easily than to couching. If so, I need to be content with that.

Here’s what got done last night.

A reflection or two on the sheaf stitch

By a reflection or two, I don’t mean something written out about the sheaf stitch, but something stitched out. Sometimes my stitching is just a way of reflecting what I’m learning about the stitch without a word being spoken.

Here are the thoughts from today.

How could I put more energy into a line?

I love diagonals, why haven’t I tried any yet?

Why limit the stitch to one tie down?

Does the tie down really have to occur in the center?

What if I turned the grid from the other day inside out?

Oops, almost looks like I was seeing about turning beads on their heads, too. No! Just forgot to check my bead before I snapped the photo.

My reflections in order of stitching.

TSTC Week 28: The sheaf stitch

This week is the sheaf stitch in Sharon b’s TSTC. In her introduction, Sharon presented such interesting variations and a step by step of the stitch that I’ve been longing for more spare moments with my needle and thread. Many thanks to Sharon for taking pity of those of us who struggle with stitches like last week’s bullion knots. However, I do appreciate her even handedness and balance in stitch selection. I think I’ve been growing through it.

I was thrilled over some of the work I saw during the week and feel glad that the bullion knot is on some stitchers’ favorite lists. Many thanks to those of you who left me a word of encouragement in the midst of my struggles. Due to my boss being out of the office my posts may still be a little erratic and struggling the next couple of days. But I’m here and stitching away.

My favorite trial with the new stitch was this one.

This is a plain grid, stacked like bricks. For me the diagonals of the two outermost stitches over shadow the two remaining straight stitches and I like the look. But it needs dressing up.

Straight column stacks with a little dressing up, but it didn’t fire up my imagination like that first simple little line did.

Beads acting as the tie down. Brick stacked again.

A fun little point inspired by the third photo in Sharon b’s introduction (first link above). My French knots went a little crazy but I could not see where I went wrong counting. It’s more likely that my tension is bad. I still prefer not to use q-snaps or a hoop if I can avoid it. It may be time to rethink that preference since there is one grid I won’t ever post today because of tension problems!

Blogs and bullions knots

Blogs

I’d like to extend a word of welcome to any newcomer to the on-line needlework community. To help acquaint you with other areas in needlework blogs, I’ve added Robin Atkins of Beadlust to my blogroll. It was a category of needlework that I neglected thinking about earlier when I put the list together.

I found Robin’s blog full of practical information and inspiration. Her website (first link above) has a wonderful gallery and to me it seemed to be full of resources. Robin recently started a Bead Journal Project (BJP). It got underway in June 2007 and is a year long commitment by well over 200 beaders world wide. What treasures I’ve been seeing!

Many thanks to Sharon b for pointing Robin’s BJP out to her readers, which is how I came to know about her.

I’m coming close to the end of a two month trial on pointing out various blogs that I enjoy to those readers who might be new to needlework blogs. If anyone has any suggestion, comment or feedback on this, please let me know. I would like to take everything into consideration as I evaluate it. Thank you!

Bullion knots

I’ve only a few things to add to my work with the bullion knot and close out the week. My boss is out of the office and I’m taking up the slack. I should have been stitching since my schedule didn’t have any room for me to get carried away by dipping into The Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework by Theresa de Dilmont. I started out to see what she said about bullion knots. But what caught my attention were the illustrations and explanations of various ways to add texture to needlework that she documented in the 1880s.

When I started reading I’d just done this sliver using the satin stitch (not very successfully) to create a lower level in the texture.

The book showed how to put down stitches to build up layers and then cover them over with satin stitches or buttonholes. I’d read this section several times before but there is nothing like reading something you have just had practical experience in. I found my mind was much keener to take in and think about the information. Daily blogging has certainly been a humbling thing during this TSTC week. And I have no doubt, that is a very good thing.