My Chevron Stitch Samples

Chevron stitch, one of the foundations of CQ for embellishing! I am glad to know it better!

The basics.

Change up the angles, so one leg is perpendicular to the direction of the stitch row. This makes me think of goosestepping soldiers.

I added some turqoise straight stitches to the green chevron stitch row. This photo makes it look a bit different. I took it in bright sun and the shadows above the top row end up making it lookec curved up there. In reality, both top and bottom are sharp and angular zig-zags. I can think of plenty of ways to embellish this variation.

The black stitches don’t show any texture here — sorry for the blobbiness. I blame the sun, but I never hold grudges against the sun. Here in the Pacific Northwest USA we cherish every ray 🙂 Anyway, this was supposed to come off as a wave of knots and couching stitches, but wasn’t very successful. I am not much for couching yet, so I see how this really threw things off. But I think it has potential!

Stacked stitches. I’m not sure why the left side looks so wonky! I would draw this out when I do it again. I think it looks argyle-ish. I like it. I want to accent it with a couched lattice overlay in, say, 1 strand of floss to make it look VERY argyle.

This is my favorite, even though the shadows make it look ridiculous! 🙂 The varied heights would be fun to use to set the rhythm for larger accent work.

I like Chevron stitch. I think I have it lodged securely in my head now, so that I can use it instead of just consider it  but then pass on by.

No artsy shots — too many aches and pains to go to the trouble/fun. Please let the weather stabilize for a few days!

Gail

My Cretan Stitch Samples

My set of Cretan Stitch samples (week 4.) Yes, I am a stitch behind! I am on vacation, so I think I’m doing pretty well 😉

I started off with a line of basic Cretan stitch. Then, remembering something from the Pintangle info, I decided to fill a shape. I wanted to see how different placement of the stitches affected the look of the ridge that ran down the middle.

I also wanted to play with working stitches along radial lines. You can see my chosen center points (dots with the purple pen) in the pictures below.

To keep the unique angular look of Cretan stitch, you can’t bring the needle out of the fabric too close to the centerline — there has to be some offset between the ends of the stitches on one side and the ends of the stitches on the other… that might not make sense to somebody else 😉 but at least it will be a good reminder to me.

After stitching my curvy shape, I realized that my basic stitch needed — wanted — a second layer. I like the way one strand of brassy-colored floss looks on top of the size 5 perle cotton. What bugs me about having the Cretan stitch so flattened out is that it looks like a sewing machine zig-zag with bad tension settings.

This is my favorite sample. I love how this nests and goes completely geometric! It also makes me want to grab a narrow ribbon and tuck it under the center. I can see myself couching with this 2-row technique.

Playing with some tone on tone color choices. A slightly bluer green for the under layer, then a green the same hue as the fabric, but more saturated, on top with longer arms and offset.

Being in a hotel room, taking these photos, it’s hard to get them to show the color the way I want even using Photoshop. This looks way cooler in person 🙂

A bit of erratic EKG Cretan stitching to fill in the space. This could be useful!

I picked up this piece of fabric at a closeout-lots fabric store. It is a home decor fabric with a thin sprayed-on foam backing. Luckily it didn’t grab the needle too much. $5.99/yd. I’ll be using it for more than stitching samples but it was nice to add some variety to what I brought with me.

Gail

My Feather Stitch Samples

Of all the stitches I want to master, Feather Stitch is the most confusing to me. I’m not sure exactly why. When I sit down with needle and thread to do the samples, it comes together nicely; I just have to concentrate on the mechanics. Obviously I just need more practice! I made myself keep going on this sample for that reason.

First I worked the larger version here, with guidelines. Then since I had thread left on the needle, I came back the other way and tried some without guidelines. When I started trying the doubled stitches and running out of thread at the same time, I knew it was time to get serious about the variations!

The red stitching is doubled feather stitch (does it actually have a special name when you do this?) with the second stitch’s needle holes lining up directly below (to the left, here) the first stitch’s — the needle holes all fall on the guidelines. The lavender stitching has the doubled stitch’s needle holes aligning with the angles of the previous stitches — they don’t fall on the guidelines but are shifted outward.

I think they each have a distinct look. I will be glad to have this sample to refer to.

I am going to assume you can see my disappearing pen line outlining a paisley shape. I love paisleys! I wanted to see what I could do using feather stitch to fill a shape. I examined some of the 2012 Feather stitch samples by both Sharon and the TAST stitchers and saw how they connected bands of the stitch together. I think this worked well! If I had continued to be ambitious with this, I would have used some buttonhole bars to scallop around the perimeter. But that’s for another day.

I’m uploading a couple pictures of the Closed Feather Stitch checkerboard I attempted. I don’t like it at all, but for the sake of completeness (and maybe to help another beginning stitcher) I am including it. The largest thread — size 3 perle, solid gold — was very hard to control tension-wise even though I was using a large enough needle. Plus it was the first I tried and was still figuring out the spacing etc.

from another angle:

Next I moved on to a (variegated) size 5 perle cotton. It was easier to pull through the fabric but I seemed to have even more trouble with the spacing and tension — it is so uneven!

Lastly I grabbed two strands of floss and worked the last two spaces in my checkerboard. I like this one the best because it lays flatter and keeps itself more normal! Lessons learned!

Feather stitch looks so different upside down. I am stitching on 100% silk dupioni. I have quite a collection of small yardage cuts purchased at 50% or more discount over the last few years just for my “I’m gonna be a crazy quilter!” dream. I thought I’d better start getting some experience with it 🙂

Last, as usual, a camera-play shot… but you can also see what I was trying to explain about the placement of the second stitch of each pair (red, purple).

I picked up a handful of new colors of size 5 perle cotton this week at 25% off. I’m rapidly growing addicted to NOT stitching with stranded cotton!

Gail

What Are YOU Stitching On?

4 days until we start! My fingers are itchin’ to stitch!

KathyR brought up a good topic yesterday. What are you stitching on? What is your format for your samples and projects? (KathyR, please tell your method again in the comments, if you wouldn’t mind taking the time.)

Are you an even-weave fabric stitcher when you first try a stitch. I am. I am a measuring perfectionist so that really helps me get a feel for the rhythm and spacing of a stitch. What do you plan on using for those first tries?

Then, how far are you going to take the stitch? How much experimenting with variations, spacing, threads, etc, are you planning on? Will you end up actually using it on a project right then — meaning, do you have a TAST project that you will be working on?

How I began TAST 2012

I want to learn these stitches for Crazy Quilting. Last year when I started, I did two months like this: 4 weeks of stitches on one piece of even weave fabric (colors geared to what would make me happy for that month/season) and then my plan was to combine that with a CQ block where I embellished with those 4 stitches. Never did the blocks, just the stitch samples. It was going to be a TAST Fabric Journal. I still want to do it that way. Now I realize — I am *always* late in realizing this! — that there is a certain amount of prep work that needs to happen. No kidding, right? 😉

Please share in the comments what your approach is. I think that seeing new and different ideas may help all of us find just the right method.

Thanks! Gail