TAST Week Fifty-Seven: Feathered Chain Stitch

This week's stitch for the TAST Challenge hosted by Sharon Boggon at Pin Tangle is Feathered Chain Stitch. It is a stitch that I have used before and is fairly straight forward to learn.  You can find Sharon's excellent tutorial for it here.

I added a new circle to my sampler in the top right-hand corner and stitched it using variegated fine silk thread.  I varied the stitch size a little as I progressed around the circle to add a bit of extra interest.

It was fun to stitch. You may be able to see, I have marked a square outline onto my background fabric which I want to stay within so that I can create the same sized picture as I did for my previous sampler.

I am not sure whether to stitch this marked square or not.... I think I may stitch it with stem stitch which is the stitch that I used to edge all the little squares on the previous picture.  I have nearly added enough stitches to the circles sampler to make another picture.... I'm looking forward to adding it to my sewing room wall!

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet......

Eating her curds and whey

Along came a spider

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.....

All day yesterday while I was putting together my latest project I had the 'Little Miss Muffet' nursery rhyme stuck in my head.

You may remember some fabric pieces that were sitting on the ironing board when I showed you a glimpse of my new sewing room.  They were pieces for the front of what I like to call a 'tuffet' cushion which my eldest daughter asked me to make for her to put in her bedroom at our new house.

The pattern I used is a free tutorial pattern from Allison Harris at Cluck Cluck Sew.  Allison calls it a 'sprocket pillow' and the pattern comes in two sizes.  I made the large version and I think I stuffed it a lot fuller than Allison which is, I think, what gives it its more 'tuffety' (yes, that is a word!) appearance.

There is also a really cute 'sprocket pincushion' tutorial on Allison's blog which looks like a lot of fun to make.... maybe my next project?  Have a good week! 

TAST Week Fifty-Six: Lock Stitch and Double Lock Stitch

This week there are two stitches for the TAST Challenge hosted by Sharon Boggon at Pin Tangle: Lock Stitch and Double Lock Stitch.  I hadn't heard of them before but they were fairly straight forward to learn.  You can find Sharon's excellent tutorial for them here.

This week I used perle cotton thread in a single colour for both stitches.  I could tell that they were the sort of stitch that would need a heavier thread than I usually use.

I filled the inside of my up and down buttonhole circle from last time with the two stitches. The double lock stitch is the light lilac thread at the bottom of the circle and the simple lock stitch is at the top in pink.

I liked these stitches and I like the texture they have added to my sampler.

PS. For some strange reason I am having trouble linking to Sharon's website at the moment but hopefully the links will work eventually. 

Finally a small sewing project completed....

Yay! Today I finally had the time and the motivation to finish a small sewing project!

My youngest daughter returns to university this coming week and, had asked me if I would make her a laundry bag to take with her so that she can keep her laundry off the floor of her room. Liking the sound of a tidy room,  I chose some fabrics from my precious 'Tilda' stash and set about making a simple drawstring laundry bag for her.

I wanted to add a label but I didn't have any ribbon or tape with any suitable motifs on.  I sat and gave this some thought and inspiration struck when I remembered that last year I had discovered that I could print onto fabric using freezer paper to stiffen the fabric so that it fed through my printer.  I had learned the technique using Kathy Shaw's excellent tutorial.  I immediately made myself a label which I was very pleased with.

I also added a little piece of trim along the seam between the two different fabrics at the bottom of the bag.

I made the casing by sewing two lines of stitches about three quarters of an inch apart and about two inches down from the top and, I fed the ribbon in through the two side seams.  All in all, I was very pleased with the result and I hope my daughter will enjoy using it! 

Sorry the photographs aren't brilliant but this wasn't the easiest project to take a photo of!

TAST Week Fifty-Five: Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch

This week's stitch for the TAST Challenge hosted by Sharon Boggon at Pin Tangle is called Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch and, is exactly that.  One part of the stitch is stitched up and the other is stitched down.

I really love this family of stitches, so I really enjoyed working this onto my sampler.  I had already drawn a circle onto my background fabric ready for the next stitch when I worked on last week's stitch (you may have spotted it in the photograph I took on the top left side).

I decided I was going to work the vertical part of the stitch away from the circle but, as I got to the bottom I realised that I hadn't left myself room, so I switched to putting the vertical part of the stitch on the inside of the circle and then switched back again.  I like how it has turned out.

You can find Sharon's excellent tutorial for Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch here.  Hopefully I will have something other than embroidery stitches to show you the next time I post! 

A few more stitches......

It has been another busy week here.... although the actual move was completed a couple of weeks ago, there has still been a lot of sorting out and paperwork to do.... changing address and opening new accounts all takes time.  This means that I haven't had a lot of time to spend in my new sewing area.  It is all set up and ready to go when I do get some time. Would you like a little peek? Well, here you are.....

It took a long time unpacking all that 'stuff' and, even more time to decide where to put it all!!

Anyway, I haven't been completely idle on the stitching front, I have managed to complete the last two TAST stitches published by Sharon Boggon at Pintangle.  The first one was stitch 53 which was 'Turkman stitch'.  I had never heard of this stitch before but I followed Sharon's excellent tutorial and really enjoyed stitching a new circle onto my sampler using variegated silk thread.

The next stitch was stitch 54 and is called a 'knotted buttonhole band' which is exactly what it is.  I stitched my sample of this stitch using a variegated perle cotton (8) as I tried it with my favourite variegated silk thread but I wasn't happy with the results.  It really needed a heavier weight thread.  I am really happy with the band on my sampler now and you can find Sharon's tutorial for it here.

I am hoping to get back to some of my other projects soon and, I have a new project to complete too.... can you spy the fabric pieces cut out ready on my ironing board?  I'll show you more of that another time!  Until then.....

Finally getting settled in......

Hello! I am finally getting a bit more back to a normal routine after my house move.  It has been hard not being able to stitch, as well as being without internet some of the time during the removal.  We are almost up and running as usual..... there have been a few hiccups.... a leak in the hot water system for one but, that has been resolved now and I am looking forward to getting caught up with you all again.

My first stitches when I had time to stitch them, were to catch up with the TAST stitches published by Sharon Boggon at Pintangle over the last two weeks.  The first stitch was week 51 and was buttonholed herringbone stitch.  You can see Sharon's tutorial for this stitch here.  As herringbone stitch is one of my favourite stitches, I really enjoyed this stitch.

The second stitch I had to catch up on was week 52 which was sheaf stitch. This is a very pretty and versatile stitch which I also enjoyed working. Sharon's tutorial for it is here.

Luckily the TAST group were having a four week break over the period of time when I was moving, so I only had those two stitches to catch up.  I wish I could say the same for the Splendid Sampler..... I have quite a number of blocks to catch up with.  Maybe I will just start from the next block and catch up the missed ones at a later date!

Nice to be back and I look forward to visiting your blogs again and seeing what you have all been up to!