TAST 2010 - BUTTONHOLE WHEEL CUP

Ole!  Week 20 of Take a Stitch Tuesday:  buttonhole wheel cups.   I started with wheels that were too large  to create, say, a lily of the valley blossom, but I still managed some variations using the basic technique.  I forgot to take a pre-embellishment scan; it would have made descriptions easier.  I did like it plain, and could easily have filled in with small cups and partial fans. I'll explain each flower starting at the top and from left to right:

Row 1: 

1)  Large yellow wheel with picot edging and woven spokes (2 spokes up, 2 down).  thread is a variegated perle (DMC, I think). 

2)  Coral wheel, worked from the inside and pulled tautly to create spikes on the outsidew (most are covered).  Thread is one strand of Caron Watercolours.

3)  Large rainbow colored wheel (Caron Wildflowers "Tahiti").  It's a little hard to see, but there are 2 ruffled edgings.  After completing the first buttonhole round, I began another toward the inside.

4)  Multi wheel with buttonhole worked from the outside as shown in Sharon's tutorial.  This wheel had 16 spokes.  I first tried wrapping them four at a time, but the resulting triangles were not even .  For the do-over I wove up and down four spokes at a time.  I tried changing the up and down positions about halfway, but it looked untidy.  I left it as you see and put a French not in the center.  The thread is another Wildflower colorway.

Row 2 

1)  Small Tahiti wheel, edging to the center.

2)  This wheel has lots of increases in the first couple of rows, then I started decreasing to pull the edging toward the center.  It's like a pouch.  I could stuff it and gain more dimension.  I think it resembles an upside down Rasta cap with its Carribean colors.

3)  Small yellow wheel gets it bumpy texture from working 3 buttonholes in one stitch then 1 in the next.  It is worked from the inside toward the center, the same as the 3 coral wheels. 

4) Coral wheel, see above.

Row 3

1)  Coral wheel, see above.

2)  This is worked like #4 in the first row, except there are 14 spokes, the weaving over 2 spokes at a time.  One round of buttonhole edging.

Now I'm off to pack.  I'm taking a quicky trip to CA to see my dad who is now home after several weeks of hospitalization.  It's a brief visit between DH's chemo treatments.  I'm pleased to say both gentlemen are doing well, and so am I.  I'll be working on Week 21 out there!

TAST 2010 - SWORDS, WAVES, FEATHERS

 I'm sapped.  It's stress.  My work here lacks the sense of stitch adventure I usually try to convey.  I enjoyed the stitches, and it wasn't as though they didn't lend themselves to creative re-interpretation, I just didn't have the energy to think outside the box.  On the other hand, I am caught up!

WAVE STITCH - WEEK 18
I started with a piece of fulled wool.  There was a piece of dyed cheesecloth stuck to it like it wanted to stay.  I spread it out with no particular shape in mind, and I let the rest of the scrim dangle because I didn't have any scissors at the time.  There were also bits of threads stuck to the cheesecloth, so they got to stay, too, and eventually I added more snippets.  With nothing special in mind I started working the wave stitch with a variegated #5 perle.  I liked the way the cheesecloth sort of pouffed through, so I kept going.  After a while I turned the piece upside down and started down from the opposite side.  Not sure where to go next, I rotated the piece and considered the possibilities (remember, there's still a glob of cheesecloth hanging off one end!).  A plumed helmet?  With stuff dangling from the earlaps, perhaps?  A vessel?  There's something about that concave -- a maw.  And teeth!  I'd found my direction.
I worked wave stitching from both sides until I was about a row apart at the center.  I simply laced to join.  For the tail I cut off the excess scrim to leave enough to fan out.  I stabilized the tail with some gathered tulle that I stitched from behind.  I knotted in streamers, and these are longer that what you see above.  Finally I added a button eye so you'd sense it was a creature.  That's as playful as I could muster.

WEEKS 17 AND 19 - SWORD AND UP AND DOWN FEATHER STITCHES

The chain stitch was already on this piece of linen .  If you look at the large blossom you can maybe see where I worked 7 sword stitches, hilts to the center capped with French knots.  I then placed lazy daisies around the blades of the swords.  I'm not sure what the thread is, but it's a boucle cotton.  It was my first time using it, and I like the effect.  The smaller flower is worked like the larger ones.  I used two strands of cotton floss to make sword stitch greenery.  I used a variegated #5 perle to work the first layer of up and down feather stitch, followed by a layer of 2mm rayon ribbon, and finally a few stitches with 2 strands of floss (blue).  To fill space I added a few vintage buttons.

TAST 2010 - ITALIAN KNOTTED BORDER STITCH

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Week 16.  The Italian knotted border stitch looks deceptively like the knotted fly stitch.  Once you work it, though, you realize the major difference is where the knot lies.  In the Italian knotted stitch, the knot, specifically a French knot is formed outside  and below the "V".  In knotted fly, the knot is created in the V before adding the stem.  In other words, the French knot is the stem in the Italian version.

I began in the center with a single French knot, around which I placed 4 Italian knotted stitches, knots inward.  Then over each leg I worked the same stitches knots facing outward this time, and I worked in an extra stitch wherever there was a gap. Next I  worked stitches knotted outwards , beginning the legs from the previous row of knots.  The I worked a round of overlapping stitches.  This inner "flower" was done with two strands of silk floss.  I switched to a single strand of Watercolours and worked a circle of French knots around the flower.
From those knots I worked a round of Italian knotted stitch, knots outward and surrounded by two lines of laced running stitch.  The final border is comprised of pairs of Italian knotted stitches worked knot to knot, French knots in between.