More slivers and slices

In my on going review of Sharon b’s TSTC stitches via the French knot stitch in week 24, I’m hitting weeks 16 through 20 today. I wish I was flying through my day so fast but I’m way off schedule. I waited until the last minute to do Father’s Day shopping (in the USA on Sunday). I think a lot of other folks did, too, if the line I was standing in was any basis for making a judgement about such things.

Still no positive identification on the variation. I’ve heard of a couple of possibilities. On one I’m trying to a little more research; this one does not look like it is shaping up to be match. On the other I’m waiting for a response to my inquiry for more information; it’s too early to make any evaluation about it. I’m keeping Sharon in the loop and will post as soon as we have any more news. I certainly appreciate all of those who have stopped by to look and pulled out books or checked other sources for information. If you’re looking and find something, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Thank you very much!

Week 16 Palestrina stitch

Week 17 running stitch

Week 18 woven and whipped wheels

Week 19 Basque stitch

Week 20 butterfly chain stitch

More French knots — exploring ideas with the new variation

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The last of the Basque borders

I’m winding up my Basque borders with this post. This has been a fun stitch for me. But I’m glad Sharon b will have another TSTC stitch coming up for us today.

Sometimes I get stuck in what might seem like endless variations on the same idea. That’s what happened to me on these next three borders that are a continuation of the same idea as the previous post.

With Sharon’s new TSTC stitch coming up I will hopefully get “unstuck” from the two line Basque border ideas!

Here is a grid I tried and never found a spot in my posts as some times happens.

This grid was key along with one of the flowers I came up with earlier in the week for the next border. Here are the results of three loops on top of each other. It reminded me of the oyster stitch. I love the little bars between the loops.

Here is the present state of the Basque “off grid”.

Flowers and a border

I experimented with flowers yesterday but they didn’t fit in with the group I had earlier this week.

These two are set for a grid pattern.

This is the same base as above but I used a fly stitch to expand the petals.

Next I tried the expanding the petals with the Basque stitch only. I need a little more work on this! But I like the concept of wrapping those petals. And I think it could be carried over into a border, too. I want to try that later today.

My last flowers were just for fun. I kept adding as many Basque stitches around the center for petals as I could. I wish I’d made the leaf tie downs vertical instead of angled but they are still a cherry little line for a border.

Now to switch over to another type of border.

This idea popped into my mind.

It’s rather dense. I tried expanding it.

And then I tried separating the two lines.

There are a lot of possibilities with this, too. Here the stitches in each line are close together. Either packing them closer together or setting them farther apart would make a huge difference as would changing the length or angle of the tie down.

I finished Stitch Magic by Beaney and Littlejohn; it was good read for thinking about exploring and using stitches. It was sitting on a shelf in my LUBS (local used book shop). I picked it up not really knowing whether or not to buy it, but I’m so glad I did. In some ways it seems to be at the opposite extreme of The Proper Stitch by Darlene O’Steen (another find at the same LUBS). Her book lead me to earnestly started exploring stitches about five years ago.

Although there seems to be such a gulf between the two books, I see some principles that hold up in both books. And to me there seems to a couple of sharp contrasts that don’t fall out where I would have suspected.

Off grid to on grid transfer

Here’s what has happened to my “off grid” work with the Basque stitch.

I’m a little worried about how the blue thread will fit in. But I got started at the mid right and found no place to stop until I’d stitched nearly around the bottom. This made me realize how little I’d really experimented with the angle of the Basque.

So I went back to “on grid” work

stitched in front of loop’s beginning after doing the tie down

stitched behind the loop’s beginning after doing the tie down

And then the flattest with a tie down of six horizontal threads. I love the texture here. A really strong line.

I always am amazed how a week can start with a few ideas. And as the week moves along I keep finding out how much “scope for imagination” there is in a stitch.

The last “off grid” idea that I translated to an “on grid” trial is concerning the tie down length only. On the first section the tie down is three threads vertically, on the last section, three at forty-five degrees. My favorite is the last section.

Twists, turns and scales

I’m still having a lot of fun with the Basque that has a twist in every stitch.

Here is a scale. As you move toward the right the bottom “v” diminishes and the tops of the twists are more and more level with each other. My favorite spot along the scale is around the fourth lower stitch. Playing with the number of threads between the stitches could have an impact on what is most pleasing to the eye. However, here that element is static.

Here is another type of scale

I suppose it was the first scale that caused me to come up with the idea below. Although the top of the twists are level, the “v”s are there. I wish I’d come up with a good filler for the diamond shapes between the two lines. I think this border line needs sparking up.

Another try at turns with the alternating stitch line. I overstitiched with an orange herringbone stitch.

A couple flowers added to the group (left and top). The bead is turned back on the left blue flower so that it is clear how it was made. Rather than moving in a circle I moved around a diamond four threads high and four wide. Then directly over that moved around a square of the same size and made the loops a little smaller. Since I still don’t get along with circles very well, it’s a good alternative. Compare it to the lower blue flower that I worked around a circle.

Exploring the Basque stitch

I’ve been playing around with this stitch and having a lot of fun.

I tried some interlacing…some cross stitches

From there my thoughts move on to alternating the sides of the twisted loops on the Basque stitch.

I’m not sure if this becomes some other stitch or is still a variation on the Basque stitch. It is made it exactly like the Basque. If you know the name of this variation or if it’s some stitch, please let me know in a comment.

Another version of alternating. And again, I’m not sure if this makes it some other stitch or is not used because some other stitch does the same thing more efficiently.

A border — straight stitches filling in the center.

Off grid. I used straight stitches to fill in some of the loops and some of the spaces between lines of Basque stitches.

Layers

Recently I’ve been reading in Stitch Magic by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. I think it may have influenced my thoughts on a couple of ideas I tried last night. At the moment I can’t imagine piling on stitches as they have illustrated. Still I enjoy poking about in the book and reading what they have to say. I’m about half finished reading it. The photographs are wonderful.

TSTC Week 19: Basque stitch

This week Sharon b has written an introduction to the Basque stitch for TSTC. I enjoyed reading this and looking at her photographed work. I always learn so much from her introductions. She starts my mind turning on what that stitch could do before I even pick up my needle and thread.

This week I had to start at the beginning with this stitch because I don’t know it. Everything today is school girl mode! I’m basically following out things suggested in Sharon’s introduction.

Making sure I can do the stitch and trying out various sizes and slants

Trying to apply that to a border

This could be a plant or or border

Trying to follow a curve

A couple of circles–more practice needed!