More tendrils and a leaf

I added another tendril.

On the left side of the stem will grow a branch to the block left of this one.

At the bottom of the stem I drew the outline of a leaf.

Here is the second leaf embroidered in coral stitch.

TAST week 4: cretan stitch

The featured stitch of week 4 of TAST is cretan stitch, which is found here.

I used the more closed version of this stitch for these leaves.

Cretan stitch makes the veins look like twines, I like this effect.

The thread I used is Caron watercolours, color confetti.



Tendrils

The curled tendrils are embroidered in coral stitch spacing the knots 3 mm, you find it here.

I used 2 strands of Soie Cristal 5002 med sage green.

To determine where I want other tendrils I played with a piece of green thread until I was satisfied with its position.

Than I drew a line with a pencil.

And embroidered the tendrils.

Crazy pink: first leave finished

The central vein is embroidered in outline stitch, you find it here.

Thread: 2 strands of Kreinik metallics pale green.

The lower half is alternating chain stitch also known as magic chain stitch.

I used one strand of olive green silk and one strand of med sage green. 

It was difficult to change colors as both greens looked alike a lot.

This variation of the chain stitch turned out to be a TAST stitch in November 2012.

Along the upper half of the leaf I embroidered german knotted blanket stitch, you find it here. 

Thread: 2 strands of Soie Cristal 5002 medium sage green

The whole picture



TAST week 3: feather stitch

The stitch of TAST week 3 is feather stitch, you can find it here.

I decided to create a sort of lavender.

First I embroidered the stem with stem stitch and pearl 5.

Than the first layer of feather stitch, embroidered in the middle and the right of the flower. As I wanted the flower to look round, I stitched on top of the stem.

 

The second layer stitched in the middle and on the left of the flower.

I used two threads of DMC coton. The first four layers were embroidered with a darker shade.

I continued to embroider more layers till it looked like the flower I wanted. I also added some straight stitches where necessary.

Back to the pink quilt: first leave

The outline of the leave is embroidered in closely worked coral stitch, which you find here.

I used 3 strands of Soie d'Alger 2133 light olive green

Along the lower half of the leaf I embroidered alternating chain stitch, which stitch you find here.

I used 2 threads of Soie d'Alger color 2133 light olive green and 2 threads of Soie Cristale color 5002 medium sage green

I found it a tough stitch. I had to take care not to split the thread when I went down through the same hole as silk is vulnerable. There were 4 threads in my needle, 2 shades of green that didn't differ a lot. Every stitch thay have to be swapped. It took me about 1,5 hour to stitch them. I am sure that it would be easier if you use e.g. pearl coton.

CQJP block 1

My first block of the CQJP 2012 is finished.

I am still not completely happy with the orange shape. When you look at this block on its own, it doesn't fit the way I want to.

But if you look at this block between the upper and lower block, it looks much better.

The orange shape is a kind of transition between both blocks.

That is exactly why I added the small flowerspray (bottom left) with the lilac flowerbead. The lilac returns in the block beneath it.

As said before the colors look different than in reality. Lilac seems a difficult color on photographs.

For now I'll leave it as it is.

When the blocks are stitched together we will see how it looks.

First violets block almost finished.

Here I added another basic seam treatment. A zig zag chain stitch with the same variegated pearl 5 as before.

This flower bead looks huge, but isn't that big ;)

I cut apart a peace of lace and sewed it on to form leaves.

In the flowerspray on the right, I added some beads. It really adds something to the picture.

I wasn't happy with the orange shape, it attracted too much attention. I unpicked the orange beads in the center and tried yellow/ochre beads. The ochre beads (the two on top) seem better, so orange beads go out and ochre beads go in.

TAST week 2: buttonhole stitch

For TAST 2012 week 2 the stitch was buttonhole stitch, you can find it here. The seam treatment is embroidered with DMC pearl 5, just a basic buttonhole stitch. The real color is lilac ;)

For the flowers I arranged the long and short buttonhole stitch around the center of the flower.

The stem is embroidered in stemstitch. The leaves in buttonhole stitch, this time used as a filling stitch. For the flowers, stem and leaves I used 1 strand of DMC stranded coton.

The hearts are embroidered in french knots with 4 strands of DMC stranded coton.

The lower part of the middle section is embroidered in a scalloped filling buttonhole stitch.

More about this part of the carnation is found here.

Moving on

Here is the block I am currently working on and the block above it. As I want the 12 blocks to form a harmonious quilt, I carefully look at the adjacent blocks. Than I decide what color I am going to use.

The colors in this block are beautiful but not bright and the block above is very bright.

To get a nice transition between both blocks I decided on the variegated orange.

To get a sparkle I added little orange beads.

Here is the block as it looks after I embroidered the first seam treatment.

In the first block I made I did the seam treatments first and later I found they didn't fit in the look I wanted. Therefore I have worked the other way around....seam treatments as part of the whole block.

The thread I used is a beautiful variegated pearl thread in the colors of the violets.

Flowerspray almost finished

The flowerspray is almost finished except for some beads. I will add them when the other embroidery is finished. 

Look at this delicious silk from Stef Francis. A variegated orange that fits the orange in the block above this one.

I had a lovely piece of lace. As the color of the lace wasn't the color I wanted and the shape was just right, I drew a shape that resembled the shape of the lace.

I did the embroidery in Portugese stem stitch. You can find the stitch here.

I chose this stitch because it gives a very smooth curve.

TAST week 1: fly stitch

It was a coincidence that I had just finished the little twigs with yellow flowers in a sort of fly stitch when the first stitch was anounced in TAST week 1: fly stitch.

As there had to grow another branch, I decided to do it in a proper fly stitch.

I wanted to do something different with a fly stitch, so I thought: "why not a dragonfly in fly stitch?"

Here are the upper wings: a fly stitch with a very short tail.

The lower wings with a fly stitch with a short tail in opposite direction.

Both wings.

I added some beads to create a body and a head. It is a pity that the colors aren't as pretty as in reality.

Big branch

The center piece is pinned in place in order to see how it fits in and how this plant has to grow further. I also pinned some laces here and there.

The branch going up consists of 2 rows of stitching in the same way as two right rows of the stem.

First embroidery

I want to wish you all a very happy, healthy and creative New Year!

The large flowers are embroidered with 1 strand Soie Cristal 5002. This variegated thread has the same colors as the violets in the center. The petals are embroidered with granitos, 7 stitches, the smaller ones with 5 stitches. There is a fly stitch at the tip in DMC coton 758.

Some french knots are embroidered in the center with pearl 5 color 745.

The stems are in stemstitch with 2 strands of DMC coton 3053.

Whisteria: 2 strands of DMC coton 553 and 554 in detached chain stitch and a fly stitch at the first flowers.

Little pink flowers: 2 strands of DMC coton 3778 in detached chain stitch and french knot in the center.

The little branches towards the center are embroidered in fly stitch with bullion knots as flowers.