Friday 25 May 2012

TAST 21 - Butterfly Chain Stitch

This stitch is a new one for me and it was quite simple and easy.  I tried this with stranded cotton threads of 3, 4,5 straight stitches in different directions.  I drew 5 circles 1 centimeter apart.  The inner most circle has 3 tiny straight stitches.  The outermost circle was done with 4 straight stitches of varying lengths.  Here is the picture.



Saturday 12 May 2012

TAST 19 - Half Chevron


This is a new stitch for me.  It was easy as I had earlier done the Chevron stitch in TAST.  Here are my trials with the stitch.

1) Half chevron stitch in dark blue was a trial learning this stitch

2)I went through Sharon's stitch guide to learn this stitch.  It was mentioned that unlike Chevron, this stitch curves very well.  So I tried doing this stitch  in a wavy / scallop pattern.  Two scallops of  Half Chevron was done and in the middle Chain stitch is done with the black color floss.



3) I tried this stitch around two circles.  Half Chevron stitch in the two circles not facing each other.  In between   I have stitched a outline of this circle with the back stitch and the centre of the circle is stitched in round button wheels stitch.

4) I tried using this stitch as a filling one.  So, drew a small tree and tried it...



Here is the overall sampler for this stitch.




I have missed TAST 16,17,18 due to professional commitments and I need to catch up fast.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Lesson - Chikan SAL completed!!!!

Hi,

I have completed the final Lesson of Chikan SAL today.  I was fascinated by this new Eyelet stitch....consisting of simple running stitch around the circumference and filling the radius with the satin stitches.  Eyelet stitch is really cute.  This stitch reminded me the round button wheel stitches.

I tried the wave filling stitch some 3 times in my doodle cloth.  The white voile fabric which I am using is very delicate, so when I tried to place the grid points near to each other, it did not look that very appealing.  So, I have placed the grid points little apart in this paisley design heart.

Here are few photos.




Thank You so much Anita for this opportunity to learn Chikankari work.  I thoroughly enjoyed these two months of Chikankari SAL.  It is a very professionally done course with all necessary documentation and timely posts , patiently replying to all my queries over email along with your feedback & guidance.  Your tutorial was very simple and clear as well.

Sometime in the future I will stitch me a tunic with this Chikankariwork.




Saturday 5 May 2012

Lesson 6 & 7 - Chikan SAL

Hi,

After a month long break from embroidery, I am back with the thread and needle.  I had to appear for a professional exam which is quite tough as the pass mark is 90% .  I have paid this certification money in dollars (I earn in Rupees),  so put my heart , soul , time and effort.. (and everything else too) for the past month in this preparation.  It was an online exam, and after pressing the submit exam and those couple of minutes when I waited for my result , I decided - "If I fail this exam I will never appear for any other exam in my life".... Wow...I cleared the exam with 92% aggregate..and hooray.. All tensions relieved and this even motivated me for a BIG BANG exam.. which I may take within a couple of years.  None in India is certified in this so far, If I clear this BIG BANG exam I will be the first one .. .... (sounds good.. but I am already dreading the hours of effort, preparation, tension, frustration, shouting at children, getting irritated easily....  Its a part and parcel of exam... )

Over this weekend, I focussed on completing this Chikan SAL.But managed to complete only Lesson 6 and Lesson 7.  I could not take separate photos of lesson 6 and lesson 7 as I stitched this while I was waited to pick up my son from his violin class...and forgot to take the camera with me.

I really enjoyed stitching Lesson 6 & 7 as these are new stitches to me - Straight Stitch variation, Over Cast Variation and Satin Stitch Variation.  The Straight stitch variation was really a lovely one.. with this simple stitch you are just creating a unique motif.   I have never tried / liked the idea of stitching with all 6 strands..however this stitch was looking really cool with all 6 strands...

 Over cast stitch variation was appearing like machine embroidery stitch after the finish.  My stitching is not so perfect, as the shapes of the tear drops and straight stitch motifs are not similar, but now that I have completed this I am feeling confident to use them properly in my next project.

So, here is the picture of Lesson 6 and Lesson 7.

I will complete Lesson 8 this week and post the pictures soon.

TAST 7 & Beyond TAST 7 - Detached Chain Stitch & Barred Chain Stitch & Alternating Barred Chain stitch

 Here is my TAST 2021 sampler with this week's stitches.