My Couching Sample

I put this off for a while, knowing I wanted to use the beautiful cotton fibers I was given, but a little intimidated. I worked up my courage and finally got it done!

A friend/workmate of my daughter who lives in Arizona grew some cotton for a program, and  lucky, lucky me, I was given a whole shopping bag full!!! It has been ginned, but below you can see at least one little cotton seed hung on tight and made it through! I like that.

The fibers are silky and long — it must be a pima-type of southwest USA cotton fame. I was told, but I have forgotten. I started adding in the cotton near the end: some finger-made strands I found in the top of the bag, and a tiny clump I played with first.

I couched using DMC flosses in increasingly brilliant pinks and oranges, and couched down some old crewel yarns I had leftover from probably these basket of flowers and apple kits I did when I was about 12.

I couched those yarn ends (they were hard to break/shred!) down to the very last fibers 🙂

The background is a polyester special occasion fabric I picked up a remnant of, just for my CQ basket. It is a changeable olive/antique gold.

I look forward to doing some more formal couching on CQ blocks, but this has definitely shown me how much fun I could have using couching in my doodle stitching, too!

Happy Stitching!

Gail

Stitch of the Week 9: Couching

Take a Stitch on Tuesday, March 12, 2013   Welcome to week 9! (Update from me at the end of this post)

This week’s stitch is Couching. Here is the SharonB’s Stitch Dictionary pages with instructions on how to do it.

• Couching:  http://inaminuteago.com/stitchdict/stitch/couching.html

There are no Stitch Dictionary entries for variations, but the same effect can be achieved using many different stitches. In the last paragraph of the stitch dictionary Couching entry (the link above,) several stitches are mentioned: arrowhead (angled straight stitches,)  buttonhole, detached chain, fly, herringbone, and satin stitch. I personally want to try it with the double row of Cretan stitches I worked on my sample.

Here’s what SharonB wrote for TAST 2012 Week 9: Couching. You can read her instructions and see inspiring examples there.

• http://pintangle.com/2012/02/27/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-9/
• http://pintangle.com/2012/03/04/tast-week-9-highlights/

Please follow her procedure and put a link to your published Couching stitch samples in the comments of the latest TAST post here. Just click the post title, and scroll down to the comment section!

Please post the link to your Couching photos in THIS comment section if you also wish to share it here.

Of course, I will be putting my TAST 2012 Re-run stitches right here on this blog, because that’s why I started it in the first place 🙂

I am currently still plugging away on my combined Detached Chain, Chain and variations, and the 3 new Chain variations that were introduced for this week (58) and last week (56 & 57) at Pintangle! Almost done and I can’t wait to post it! But that’s why, once again, I didn’t put a Recap post up earlier on Monday. *pout* I  feel all alone in my little rerun world 😉

Happy Stitching!

Gail