TAST 2010 - EASTERN STITCH

 Take a Stitch Tuesday, Week 2

Eastern Stitch

I wasn't very enthusiastic when I started this stitch, but the more I worked it the less rigid it became.  I could alter the appearance with tension, size and thread, and I found it could go in about any direction.  Take a good look at the bird; the stitches have been worked every which way: horizontally, vertically, diagonally, reversed direction, curved to outline, distorted to fill and taper.  With the exception of the outer border, bird legs, upper beak and eye, all the stitches are the Eastern. I had already stitched the outside border, but those X-stitches could just as well have been Eastern Stitch.

A note about the feed dish.  It's an old button, a 1/4 inch deep cup with scalloped edges.  The flat bottom is a 2-hole sew-through (no shank), which enabled me to stitch in the seed bead corn. Got to fatten the hen, you know.

The Eastern stitch tutorial and more information about TAST 2010

can be found here.  And you can see the work of other TAST participants here.





TAST 2010 - WOVEN TRELLIS & RAISED CHAINS



MY STORYBOOK DREAM

 
I sought a place to have my lunch
Beside a stream of tropical punch.

Fruits and berries came in handy,

But oh! those flowers made from candy.

'Neath leaves of green so sweet and minty

I rested my tummy full of plenty.

Leaning against the chocolate wood,

I tasted some bark and it was goooood.

Fluffy clouds of marshmallow cream

Floated past in my storybook dream.

When at last I woke from my nap,
I found this stitching in my lap.

TAKE A STITCH TUESDAY - WEEKS 27 - 29:  WOVEN TRELLIS and 2 VERSIONS OF RAISED CHAIN.  These links will take you to the tutorials for these stitches.  You can also visit the TAST Flickr Group Pool to view work by many participants.

All of the flowers are woven trellis with the exception of the one centered on the left; it is Version 1 of the raised chain as is the rainbow banner. The circle and scroll are Version 2.  A single strand of Caron Watercolours was used for the major elements, although the rainbow and border straight stitches are done with Caron Wildflowers, a single strand.  The accents on the flowers and other background stitches were rendered with Stef Francis silk or cotton perle.  

At this point I feel obliged to explain the poem.  I wasn't very happy with my woven trellis flowers, but they were better than the ones I ripped off another piece of fabric.  I didn't really want to work any more and decided to put a hold on the sampler until the next TAST.  I worked the two versions of raised chain, and still wasn't at all pleased with the look of the overall piece.  No wonder.  It was clearly hodgepodge and totally unacceptable to me.  I kept coming back to it and adding things, starting with the additions to the major flowers.  Before I added filler stitches I pondered for days about the big rainbow thingy.  I  knew it was a stream of something delicious fed by a soda spring.  But how could anybody looking at the stitchery connect to my childlike fantasy.  So I wrote the little poem to convey the imagery to the viewer, not so much that I thought viewers would be clueless , but more to my thinking the sampler couldn't stand on its own.  I like this stitched piece now.  It makes me happy and evokes memories from the naive imagination of my childhood when my mother read me stories about candylands, sausage trees, lemonade seas and popcorn snorting dragons and Shirley Temple sang about the Good Ship Lollipop.