For the love of Stitching sampler band 534

This area is part of section 36 on of the For Love of Stitching band sampler.  This area sits near the quote by John Updike featured in my last post in this series. 

Thread:

The threads are perle#8

Fabric:

Hand dyed linen 

Date:

This section of the sampler was worked early 2009.

Size:

The For Love of Stitching Band Sampler is 15 cm (6 inches) wide. It consists of different strips of fabric which are are stitched together to form one long band sampler.

The needlework band sampler is currently 74 ft 8 inches or 896 inches (2275.84 centimetres) or 24.8 yards  (22.75 metres) long and I have more to add. I will stop when I get bored with playing with it! 

Click on the thumbnail image and you will see a larger version.

The back story:

This series documents part by part, a hand embroidered needlework band sampler, which is still growing as I still stitch it.

If you are interested in the how and why this needlework sampler came to be made have a look at the Introductory Post  to the series. Also I answered a few questions about fabric choice and width. 

Also blogging has influenced this sampler. 

Here is a list of previous sections: 

Sections 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 

Sections 15-24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28, 29 , 30 , 31, 32,  33, 34, 35 , and 36

Each section of the sampler is joined to the previous section to form one long strip. In other words, one long band sampler!

If you want to know more about the process you will find information in how I Extended and backed the sampler.

Friday Freebie A hand embroidery pattern

Here is another small embroidery design. It could be used whole or in part as a motif on a crazy quilt block or any item that needs a bit of decoration. In th edip you could add a special button, or ribbon bow or a little fabric flower. You could combine it with fused applique, couching and beading to give it a completely different look. 

This pattern is part of the Friday Freebie series where I offer a free pattern for you to stitch, clean up a free vintage pattern or point out free pattern resources online.

All posts in the series are in the  Friday Freebie category I hope you enjoy them

Click for a larger version and right click on the pop up image to save to your computer. 

These are for non commercial use and I ask you to attribute the work to me, with link back to this blog. You may not republish them online, as that is not in the spirit of sharing. So link to them but not re-publish. OK?

CQ detail 367

This embroidered seam is found as part of block 54 of the I Dropped the Button Box Quilt.

It is so small it is barely noticable. It is made up of French Knots, Fly stitch and Creatn stitch 

What is the story?

This regularly published series aims to illustrate and document the hand embroidered seams, embellishments and decorations on my crazy quilt I dropped the button box.

Want to see the whole series?

All articles are categorised under  Crazy Quilt details which enables readers to browse back through the series.

Free Crazy quilt block patterns

In the process of documenting these seam decorations I am diagramming out each block for readers as a free crazy quilt pattern. Links to these free pattern pages are listed below.

If you click on the thumb nail you can see the whole quilt.

Links to the blocks and the free crazy quilt patterns in the series so far:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 

11, 12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,

21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 

31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 , 38,  39, 40,

41 , 42 , 43 , 44, 45 , 46, 47 , 48, 49, 50 , 51, 52 , 53 and 54

Work in Progress Wednesday: CQ Journal challenge

Well here I am running through the door waving an 8 inch block in my hand. This year I am participating in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 and I really did wonder if I was going to find the time to do this block. 

Life has been very busy here as I have explained in previous posts Eve our daughter is a circus performer and after 10 years in the business she is in the process of staring her own Circus. A lot of costuming has been going on and I used some of the scraps from Eves costume. In this show she is a toy ballerina and the storyline is a bunch of toys come to life. It's an old storyline but you can stll do alot with it in a circus performance!   Eve is keeping a blog  Stardust and Sledgehammers covering all the behind the stuff of life in a circus!  Anyway the fabrics are scraps from the costumes. 

Last week I demonstrated how I used mistyfuse to secrure the shapes to the block. This week the block is done. Someone, somewhere (I cant remember which forum and it is not in my comments) asked how long it takes me to make a block. This one I kept track of as I worked and it took 17 hours from assembly to looking like this. 

If you click on the image you can see a larger version. 

Take a Stitch Tuesday week 4

Once again I enjoyed seeing the samples created last week. This week the stitch for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge is Cretan stitch which can be worked in an open or closed manner. For centuries women on the island of Crete, have used this stitch to decorate clothing. Hence the name.

For those who are new to embroidery you will find aspects of the hand movement needed to make this stitch  are similar to those learnt in feather stitch so indirectly this stitch is related to the buttonhole family. If you cant see what I mean, take a look first at the Open version of Cretan stitch in my stitch dictionary, then take a look at the closed version of Cretan stitch.

Once again the challenge is:

For new hands to learn the stitch 

Or

If you are an experienced stitcher take the stitch and push it a little further in a creative manner. 

Rows of the stitch can be built up to create patterns.

Try working it different threads, or on different fabrics. Play with the spacing of the ‘arms’  working the parts closely together, or work them far apart, change the height of the arms.

You can overlap lines of the sttich to create other patterns.

You can add beads,  or use it to couch down another thread or ribbon.

No matter what you do with it explore the stitch. 

If you have worked a sample in a previous challenge that is great and feel free to post a link in comments as it will inspire people (I am sure folks learn most form the eye candy provided by the community) but if you have time do try another sample and do something different and new!

How to join in

Stitch a sample,  take a photograph of it, put in online in your blog, flickr site or on stitchin fingers page, swing by here and leave a comment with your full web address so people can check out your stitching. 

When you leave a comment 

When you leave a comment leave it on this post. There is a practical reason. People will not find your comment if you dot them all over the blog and this means you will get less visitors for you! That is sad after going to the effort of stitching a sample then photographing it and getting it online. 

How do you know what this post is? Click on the title and you will be taken to an individual page. You can favourite it or copy and paste the URL as a note to yourself so you can return to this page again.

Don’t forget to leave your full web address including the http:// bit as this will then become a live link that people can follow. Leave it in the comment itself so people can just click on the link and they come to your site. 

Visit a few sites of people who have already left a comment. See what they have done. I am sure everyone will enjoy following the links left in the comments. If you have time, let other people know that you have seen their work on their site.

Where is the comments link?

Look under the title you will see comments. Click there to be taken to a comment box.

Any special rules?
There are no rules but I do have a request, please link back here. 

Interesting work will be featured

On Pintangle I will feature samples that participants have stitched as part of the challenge. These feature spots draw attention to particularly creative and interesting work. This will mean some people’s work will be re-published here. Obviously  I will  credit them and link to their website.  I am going to assume that when you leave your link here if you dont say anything, I have your permission to feature your work. If you do not want your work to be featured in the highlights series please state this in the comment you leave.

Other groups and networks

You can also share your explorations with other members on the social network site of your choice. There is a Facebook TAST 2012 page,   stitchin fingers group and the flickr TAST site. All these sub groups are set up at request of members. 

Although I do watch these groups my main focus is here and if you want to contact me do so here as with so much activity I might miss you on the other sites. 

Guidelines to the challenge are to be found here and all posts relating to TAST are in the Take a Stitch Tuesday category

In my side bar I have a feature where you can have PinTangle delivered daily to your email inbox. If you find this a more convenient way to track what is going on here please sign up. 

Have fun! Enjoy the stitch.