The complete medallion

I added more orange flowers and some twigs in featherstitch.

More twigs and a few bullion violets. The complete medallion, allthough I am thinking about adding some beads. I'll decide about that when the triangle is finished.

The block looks now like this. Next I will work on the tatted triangle.

TAST week 25: Cable Chain Stitch

The stitch for TAST week 25 is the Cable Chain Stitch.

I used this nice stitch to create stamens. The leaves are Cretan stitch, also a TAST stitch. Here is the post about the leaves.

I used the "chain part" of the stitch to add the beads. First the bead, then the stitch.

Two stamens and a pistil.

I felt the leaves needed something more, so I added a stem stitch edge. The thread is Kreinik very fine braid  #4.

Cushion: a leaf

The right side of the leaf is stitched the same way as the left side, only with darker greens.

The centre vein is worked in split stitch with one strand of DMC 3371.

Right of the black-brown is a row stitched with DMC metallic gold.

The black-brown is hard to see, but believe me, it is there ;-)

Medallion update

Last time I talked about the medallion I showed you this picture.

As I was pretty pleased with the result I added more violets and embroidered the hearts of the yellow/orange couched flowers. I also added two yellow/orange flowers on the right.

The heart on the right I filled with horizontal straight stitches with one strand of DMC floss. That were a lot of stitches to fill the heart. The heart on the left I stitched first a layer of vertical straight stitches.

And than a layer of horizontal stitches. It looks much better than the right heart.

I unpicked the right heart and while I did that I thought: "why not unpick the whole heart and replace it by a darker orange one?"

I put the medallion aside for a few days to work on the pebble because something was bothering me and I didn't know what to do about it.

When I returned to the medallion I knew what was bothering me: The yellow/orange flowers weren't a part of the flower spray. They dissolved as it were in the medallion. I unpicked all flowers and couched them again. This time I used an orange perlé 5. While couching with one strand of DMC floss in the same orange I tried to follow the twist of the perlé so the stitches wouldn't show.

The centres were filled with french knots, two wraps. I used one strand of DMC floss mixed with Kreinik blended filament to get a little sparkle.

Now there is a better balance in the growing flower spray.

Sometimes it is very useful to let a project rest for a few days. I felt it wasn't "right" but didn't "see" what to do about it. When I looked after a few days it was clear what was wrong.

TAST week 24: buttonhole wheel

The TAST stitch of week 24 is the buttonhole wheel. I made three felted "stones" and attached them with this stitch.

The purpose was to try to create a marble look. I started with a piece of felt on the left, a piece of fleece on the right and some brick red wool roving.

To create a line I twisted the wool roving and started felting.

I also laid some wool roving on the fabrics, very loosely and felted just a little.

It was not the look I wanted.

I ended with just wool roving and felted it. I cut a small piece of craft felt, put the wool roving on top and felted it. Next I cut the excess wool along the edge of the piece of craft felt.

Next I sewed up a slightly smaller piece of craft felt,

 

layed the felted piece on top and embroidered a buttonhole wheel to attach it.

It is not like marble but the color is nice.

Because the top layer is larger than the bottom one, you get a nice 3-D look.

The whole pebble as it looks now.

Needle felt experiments and planting vegetation

I started needle felt experimenting with some wool roving and different fabrics for the base.

On the left a piece of flannel, in the middle craft felt, on the right backing for nuno felting and at the bottom just wool roving.

These are the back sides.

I didn't like the felt on the flannel. To get a better result more wool must be added. The piece of felt was much too thick for my purpose, but looked good. The nuno ... yuk. Number one was just the plain wool roving.

This little patch of grass can simply be secured by a few pricks.

Next I blended different colors and felted them.

This is the backside. It is very hairy because the wool is pricked to this side.

I'm not sure it will actually become a little lawn.

Than I thought, why not making a little shrub? So I cut a piece.....

....made a ball...

...felted it...

...on the right side a lot more to form a firm base where I could sew it on....

....I clipped the excess hair and sewed it on. I made two of them, standing happy together in the shelter of a few boulders.

Some french knots in different sizes and seed stitches, embroidered with a variegated perlé 5.

The first fold.

The pin indicates the edge of the pebble. I secured the fold with seed stitches.

With a needle I pulled the fabric....

...to create a second fold...

....and filled the gap with grasses made of ghiordes knots.

Too much grass?? I don't know yet, I might cut it back here and there.

cactaceae

The hidden beads are turned into cacti by embroidering whipped spiders wheels on top of them.

This stitch can be found here.

I started with a jade colored thread, it was the best a could find. I thought I knew how to do that stitch, but after a few laps I realised there were no ribs. On the picture you can see what I did wrong. I worked from left to right, instead of from right to left.

Now we've got ribs. The thread I used is Appleton crewel wool. I suddenly realised I had another drawer full of threads. This color is much better than the jade for a cactus.

I exaggerated when I talked about mountains and hills. The cacti are much too big in proportion to the "mountains". The mountains are reduced to heaps of sand or  boulders.