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.

Artistic Gardens

 Some days ago, I joined Kathy Seaman Shaw 's Artistic Gardens course. Few years back, I had done a couple of her other courses and I really enjoyed the new learning and finishing each task and there by gaining knowledge and confidence.  Needless to say, this course too was fun and packed with new learnings like trying out freezer paper, art supplies on the fabric, painting the background, weaving techniques, burden stitch, embroidering wee little garden creatures, narrating a story through painting and embroidery, embroidering hair.  Thankyou Kathy for offering this course.  Without this course, I would never have tried out these new things.

Task 1 was organising the supplies.  I had most of them handy in my craft shelf apart from the freezer paper, which I ordered and got it in few days time.

Task 2 involved using art supplies on the fabric.

This one was done with crayons

This one was done by using water colors

This one was done with oil pastels.

This one was done with fabric paints.

This one was done with color pencils.

Task 3  involved playing around with fabric paints and freezer paper masks.

Task 4 involved stitching on these painted backgrounds with feather stitches.

Task 5 involved simple garden scences.  To pique the interest of the viewer, I added a small snail in between the bushes. 

Here, I added a tiny spider busy weaving its web.

Task 6 involved a weaving sampler followed by the creation of Topiary with weaving stiches and burden stitches.

Task 7 included a garden visitor.The hair is embroidered with  the Turkey stitch .  For the dress I used fabric glue and stuck the fabric in place and a couple of straight stitches for the belt. The little girl is very careful not to step on the tiny lady bug, patiently waiting for the lady bug to cross the garden pathway. :)-

Task 8 involved creating flowers with simple straight stitches and French knots. 

Squirrels bury nuts to prepare for the cold weather, as the availability of food is limited during winters.  If this squirrel named Ojoe forgets the hiding place, Would you be kind enough to remind him that he buried it in between  the plants Kumquat (orange flowers) and Chinese Forget-me-not (blue flowers)?

Avenue de Breteuil - Paris

I admire architecture.  I like to travel.  I love embroidery.  This embroidery combines all the three - virtually traveling to Paris, fascinated by architecture and presented in the form of embroidery.

I follow Charles and Elin and a few months back I bought the kindle version of their book Mindful Embroidery.  I stitched this pattern  Avenue de Breteuil - Paris from the book.

It was a joy to stitch this pattern with very simple stitches - Back Stitch, Straight Stitch filling for the trees, satin stitch and some French Knots.  I like the way , how this design has little pop of color ,with Eiffel tower in the back ground, the details in the balcony railings.   Instead of filling everything with satin stitches,  only few areas are done with filling stitches which adds to the over all beauty.

TAST 6 & Beyond TAST 6 2021 - Herringbone Stitch & Raised close Herringbone

 Here is my 2021 sampler after adding this week's stitches.

TAST 5 & Beyond TAST 5 - 2021 - Feather Stitch & Feather and Chain stitch.

 The TAST practice doodle cloth , after adding Feather Stitch & Feather and Chain Stitch.

TAST 3&4 - Beyond TAST 3&4 - 2021

 Here is my TAST practice piece after adding TAST 3 & 4 (Buttonhole stitch,Reversed Buttonhole bar)   Beyond TAST 3 &4 (Reversed Buttonhole Bar,Portuguese Stem Stitch).

TAST 2 - 2021 - Fly Stitch & Italian Border Stitch

My TAST & Beyond TAST practice piece sampler after adding Fly Stitch and Italian Border Stitch

TAST 1 - 2021 - Chain Stitch & Linked Chain Stitch

 I did not intend to do TAST this year, as the  entire 2020 was spent focusing completely on TAST stitching.  However, I realised , I have already forgotten some of the TAST stitches I learnt.  I understood a revision of these stitches is mandatory  to memorise them with my 40+ year old brain.  At the same time, I want to keep this TAST practice a simple task, just spending under 30 minutes per week.  I am not following any set pattern.  The colors and placement of stitches are going to be random 

Here is my practice piece after TAST 1.

TAST 48 & Beyond TAST 48

 TAST 48 - Rice Stitch

  Its time to say good bye to TAST 2020  as this stitch is the last one .  TAST 2020 played a major role in uplifting me during Covid - 19 lock downs.  Looking at the  TAST stitches on Tuesday mornings, was a ritual I enjoyed thoroughly this year.

My sincere thanks to Sharon Boggon of PinTangle for hosting TAST 2020. 

Rice stitch is mainly a canvas stitch.  Two different variations of the Rice Stitch has been worked in the below sample.   I tried adding some beads as well.

BEYOND TAST 48 - Woven Trellis Stitch

This stitch makes beautiful flowers , especially while using thicker threads like Perl 5. The white flower is done with Perl cotton and  the dark pink flower is made using all 6 strands of the embroidery floss.  

TAST 47 & Beyond TAST 47

 TAST 47 - Triangular Buttonhole Stitch & Beaded Triangular buttonhole stitch 

A new stitch to me , both the stitches were fun and easy to explore.  As the name suggests, these two stitches are based on the buttonhole stitch.

The beads could be added to any of the slant stitches , or even to all the slants and the base.

                                              

BEYOND TAST 47 -  FEATHERED UP AND DOWN BUTTONHOLE

This too was a new stitch and fun to try out.  As the name suggests, this stitch is based on both the Feather stitch and Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch.  This stitch is much suitable for creating floral sprays .  

                                                

TAST 46 & Beyond TAST 46

 TAST 46 - Shell Chain and Beaded Shell Chain

This is a new stitch to me.  I tried this stitch with Perl cotton threads.  The beaded version of this stitch is quite appealing to me.

Beyond TAST 46 - Threaded Cable Chain Stitch.

This is a such a fun stitch.  Initially, a foundation of Cable Chain stitch is stitched and then it is threaded in the next step.  With a uniform stitch tension while threading, this stitch would look even better.

TAST 45 & BEYOND TAST 45

 TAST 45 - RAISED CROSS STITCH FLOWER

This is a new stitch to practice.  Such an easy and beautiful flower stitch.   I tried doing this with Perle #5 ,6 strands of anchor embroidery floss and also with  2mm and 4 mm silk ribbons .  As the name suggests, this is a raised stitch and has a texture .

                                                    

BEYOND TAST 45 - Closed Base Woven Picot & Open Base Woven Picot

I have admired this stitch before but this is the first time I tried to stitch.  I wanted to stitch a beautiful sun flower with dark and light shades of yellow color of all the 6 strands of the  floss.  I set out to draw a big sun flower and started with this stitch with much anticipation.   I was able to create only  a narrow and ugly set of petals with this woven picot stitches.  This ugly petals then gave me the freedom to try out each petal with different thread - I have used perle #5, tatting thread, 6 strand embroidery floss and crochet cotton thread (whatever was available in my stash) 

 I should have drawn the petals in a much smaller size.  Though my hands were itching, to cut all the petals and restart from drawing a small sun flower, I decided against it.  This sample will surely keep reminding me to draw small flowers while using this stitch in my future projects.   

TAST 44 & Beyond TAST 44

 TAST 44 -  Twisted Chain stitch & Rope Stitch.

Both these stitches belong to the chain stitch family.  When twisted chain stitches are worked very closely, it becomes the rope stitch.

These stitches are worked from right to left.  The first and second rows are worked in white thin perl cotton thread .   A twisted chain stitch flower in white thin perl cotton and a dark green color stem in rope stitch using thicker perl cotton thread was stitched for this sampler  The vertical rope stitches in orange and green color are created using 6 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

Beyond TAST 44 - Herringbone Square and Laced Herringbone square

Herringbone square is a much familiar stitch to me as the Kutch Embroidery work of India is based on this stitch.  This stitch is the foundation stitch in kutch work on which interlacing is done. The link for my earlier post on Indian Kutch work is here

Laced Herringbone Square is a new stitch to me.  It was  fun to learn a new way of lacing the herringbone square.

There is a difference in the way lacing is done on this stitch and that of the Kutch work.

TAST 43 & BEYOND TAST 43

 TAST 43 - KNOTTED CRETAN

As the name suggests, the stitched is derived from Cretan Stitch. This stitch can be used wherever the cretan stitch isused.  This stitch is very easy to learn, once you know how to do the Cretan Stitch.  

While using a thicker thread, the knotted texture of this stitch is much visible, .  So, my samples are stitched with all the 6 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

BEYOND TAST 43 - RAISED CUP

This is a very interesting stitch which is a new one for me.  I initially struggled with this stitch and this struggle can be seen in my below sampler.

A foundation triangle is initially stitched, and then the needle and thread are passed through the bars of the triangle without picking the fabric.  This stitch looks better with a thicker thread.

For my samples, I have used all 6 strands of anchor embroidery floss.  Few raised cups are done with a single round around the triangle, more of these raised cups are done with two rounds and  only a couple of these cups are done with 3 rounds around the triangular foundation stitch. 

                                                         

TAST 42 & BEYOND TAST 42

 TAST 42 - HALF CHEVRON STITCH

As the name suggests, this stitch is a combination of half chevron stitch and half  Cretan Stitch.   This is an easy  stitch.

Rows of these stitches can be combined together to form various patterns.   

BEYOND TAST 42 - BEADED HEDEBO EDGE

This stitch creates a very beautiful scallops in between the beads.  This stitch was a bit difficult to learn initially.  The first row of my sampler  shows the initial struggle in my learning this beauty. 

This stitch looks quite good when using thicker threads.  The second row is worked with DMC Pearl Cotton 3 thread.  The third is worked with 6 strands anchor floss. 

                                        

TAST 41 & BEYOND TAST 41

 TAST 41 - Closed Herringbone Stitch / Double Back Stitch / Shadow Stitch

    As the name suggests, Closed Herringbone stitch is just a variation of Herringbone Stitch.  In the back side of the fabric, this stitch creates two back stitch lines.  Hence this is also called as Double Back Stitch.

    This stitch is predominantly used in traditional Indian shadow work named "Chikankari".  This is very popular in and around Lucknow.   In Chikankari, the closed herringbone stitch is worked on the wrong side of a thin , see through cotton transparent fabric, so in the right side of the fabric you would be seeing the double back stitch along with the shadow of the closed herringbone stitch in the backside.  

In the sampler below,  the first row is worked with the DMC perl cotton thread.

  The second row (blue waves) are worked with 3 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

   The  third row is worked in reverse manner where the closed herringbone is in the wrong side of fabric and the double back stitch is in the right side of the fabric.

  My earlier chikankari work with the double back stitch can be seen here

I do have a pretty chikankari salwar suit in pink color.  Double back stitch has been  worked in the black color thread in this suit.

                                                        

                                                      

BEYOND TAST 41 - Fancy Bobbin Edging

This stitch is derived from the buttonhole stitch.  The first step  is to work the buttonhole stitch followed by sliding the needle under the vertical line created by the buttonhole stitch. This creates a knot in the base of the stitch.

When I stitched with 2 or 3 strands anchor embroidery floss, it just looked exactly like the buttonhole stitch.  I could not make out the tiny knot created.  So, thicker threads are suitable for this stitch.   I dont think I would be using this stitch in my future projects.  I would be  using buttonhole stitch rather than this stitch. 

 

   

TAST 40 & BEYOND TAST 40

 TAST 40 - ALGERIAN EYE STITCH

Algerian Eye Stitch is a super easy stitch , as it just involves straight stitches. This is worked in aida cloth.  The variation in the arrangement of algerian eye stitches creates different geometrical patterns. 

BEYOND TAST 40 - EASTERN STITCH

        

                        This stitch is new to me.  Its a very simple stitch.  This stitch is worked on aida cloth.  Various geometrical patterns can be created by varying the placement of each EASTERN stitch

                                                        

Bargello Embroidered Bookmark

 I started following  @berrin_sengoz on Instagram few months ago.   Though I don't understand a single word in Turkish language, I had fun doing this project.  It is always easy to follow her videos without the need to understand the language spoken.

I was delighted, when she announced a tutorial on bargello embroidery.  Bargello is one of my favorite embroidery, though I have never tried it before. 

I bought some woven canvas for doing this project.  As I don't have access to DMC Tapestry wool, I substituted it by using all 6 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

The anchor thread colors used in this are -  158,130,162,164 ,169.  I finished this embroidery as a bookmark..  Attached a delightful tassel too. :)-. 

                                           

  

TAST 39 & BEYOND TAST 39

 TAST 39 - Fancy Herringbone Stitch

This stitch is new to me.  It was fun to explore this stitch.  Initially, a foundation of herringbone stitches are worked followed by working upright cross stitches at the crossings of each herringbone stitch.  Then lacing of each of these cross stitches is done. The lacing of these stitches reminds the way we write down number 8.  :)-.

In the first row, the foundation herringbone was worked with 2 strands of light green anchor floss .  This does not show up much after doing the lacing.

In the  third row, the lacing is done with 6 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

BEYOND TAST 39 - Triangular Feather Stitch

This one too, is a new stitch for me.  This belongs to the feather stitch family.   This stitch reminds me of the Turkman Stitch which was done a few weeks back in TAST 2020.