TAST 2019 - Knotted Buttonhole Stitch

As you see I continued this week's stitch on the same fabric piece as w\Week 4.  I like this stitch because you can work it in just about any direction.  I've used this stitch before, so I did only three things with it this time.  On the left is a green patch where I tried to similate grass using 6 different threads.  I overlapped the rows (working from top to bottom) and made the stems different sizes and working a few of the stitches under previous ones.  The middle section looks kind of chaotic.  What I attempted was to create twigs with the buttonhole stitches worked from either side.  Most of this area was done in #5 perle, but I used a single strand of Watercolours to work a couple of "sprigs" and also the French knots.  On the right is a spiral.  I love how this stitch holds a curve and how the little stems also curve.  I finished early, so I now have plenty of time to practice bullion stitches for next week.

Below is the whole sampler for Weeks 4 and 5.

TAST 2010 - Portuguese Border Stitch

Portuguese Border Stitch
Originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler

Perhaps I should explain the funky background first. I know you would have difficulty recognizing it, but it's from the same sheet fabric and experimental session I talked about in my previous post. I was playing with Dylon cold water dyes. I honestly don't remember if this piece of cloth was used as a rag for clean up or if I was testing colors. Whatever. I rusted the colored results, the ran Shiva paintsticks over a rubbing plate. I found this piece stored with my textured surfaces samples. The lines on it made me think about the spirals and concentric arcs I wanted to try with the challenge stitch. I was thinking about the paintstick lines as a shortcut for marking where I wanted the foundation straight stitches.

I covered the area I planned to stitch with straight stitches following the contours of metallic lines.  I left some of the even stitching bare, as you can see, but hidden below the overweaving are straight stitches of varying length and orientation.  I tried several alternatives weaving over the bars:  1) changing direction from one row to the next; 2) single passes only
(eliminating the second journey); 3) changing direction of the single journeys from row to row; 4) working the two journeys over side by side short stitches instead over one longer base stitch; 5) I tried stairstepping using the two stitches in (4), alternating from one side to the other trying to make a zigzag appearance; I could not get it to work, and 6) weaving or lacing in such a way there is only a single strand look; result -- looks like the rungs were just looped or laced; I couldn't get the same V shape as in the original stitch.

Cotton perles were used and in one instance two strands of floss.  I'm not sure what the variegated boucle is, but it certainly enhanced the texture.  The rows below it were worked with a single strand of Watercolours with very subtle changes.

REALLY LATE HOMEWORK

 A year ago I was happily absorbed in an online class with Linda Monk and Carol McFee.  Please refer to my only public post (there was a wonderful disscussion forum with the class) for a little background and a feel for my obvious exhuberance.  Despite other projects that did get blogged, I never stopped working on my textured surfaces.  I spent happy studio hours until the day before I left for CA for the summer.  I regretted having to leave the work behind and also that Linda's and Carol's incredible book, Stitching the Textured Surface was not yet available.

Last fall I did get the book and downloaded the accompanying online class, a truly exceptional bonus, but have not had time to get back in the groove.  What I'm going to show are experimental samples.  The mediums and background treatments are recorded in a notebook.  It's the notes I was after to work on a mullti med  project for , yes, another class I'm presently taking, Kimono Collage with Jane LaFazio.  More about that in the next post.

You can see all of the samples with brief descriptions here on my Flickr site in the Textured Surfaces set.