TAST 12

This week´s TAST was the Barred Chain and Alternate Barred Chain. I knew the stitches, but never worked these chaines. I used both to complete my block of last week, which is now a real spring block which reflects perfectly the wonderful weather which we have this March. I had a lot of fun to experiment and work the heart, the rose bush and the seam embellishment.

 And this is how the complete block looks like:

TAST 11 - whipped wheel

This week, Sharon asked for variations and creation on the whipped wheel  (TAST 11)- a stitch that I really love. After my first mountain bike ride into the forest of the Rheingau region/Germany for this year my idea was to stitch my bike leaning on the flowery wall in my garden and waiting for me...

This is a real spring-block - with the rainy day in spring from a 2 weeks ago and now the sun shining on my flowers and my bike ;-)

TAST 10

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The stitch of the week is the running stitch (see TAST), a stitch that I never expected to be creative. But the work of the other participants on Facebook and Pintangle showed me that the possibilties of this stitch are huge and can be wonderful.

However, as I´m currently quilting my Flower Jane, I´m doing lot of running stitch ;-)
Therefore I decided to show you a selection of my quilted block and hope that this counts for the experiment on running stitch

 



TAST 9 - couching

This week, Sharon asked us for couching - and this is rather unfamiliar to me.
But after a while and after admiring the work of my fellows, I started without a plan and finally finished this block: The long dark line was the first line - it is a very thick threat and I tried to trim it with a perl threat in rose.

 This was the easiest: a rest of wool which I used year ago for a pullover for my daughter.

 And here, I tried to draw the lines of the rose with perl threat.

This threat was quite difficult to couch because I didn´t want to couch the "hair" - therefore it had to be done with utmost care.

TAST 7 + 8: A rainy day in spring

This week, Sharon asked us to work on the Chain stitch (TAST week 8). As I was not very creative last week, when it came to work on the Detached Chain stitch, I combined both of them this week and work on a small impression on "A rainy day in spring". This is the outcome:

Almost everything is worked in Chain or Detached Chain stitches, only mixed with a few fly stitches in the umbrella and a few dots in the flowers.

TAST 6

This week we were asked to experiment with Chevron stitch - I like that stitch but never experimented a lot on it because I just like it for itself. But now I took my time to be more creative. Here are the results. The complete block looks like that:

And here are the details: cominbations with other stitches:

And here some overlaying Chevron stitches in two variatons:

TAST 5

This week´s TAST stitch of Sharon´s challenge has been heringbone stitch. And this time I only worked on one combination which includes 2 heringbone stitchen combined with buttonhole stitch, chain-stitch, knot stitch and fly stitch. It seems to be rather colourful, and it is indeed - may be a bit too much.

TAST 4

This week, the selected stitch of TAST was Kretan stitch - and I never knew how creatively this stitch could be used until I tried tonight. This time, I tried some stitch combinations - all of them on the basis of Kretan stitch. And these are the results.
The complete block looks like that:

It was a block from a crazy swap and it seemed the right one to bring forward the effect of the stitch.

Picture below: On the left, I made a pattern of Kretan stitch, combined it with some kind of weaving and a detached chain stitch. On the right, another pattern combined with dross stitch, knot stitch and detaiched chain.

On the left, a third pattern and buttonhole wheels. And on the right a pattern which can be easily used to fill a complete field.

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On the left a furhter pattern, combined with fly stitch and detached chain. An the yellow one pure Kretan.
And below, just a fantasy line with Kretan stitch.

I really liked this one and am looking forward to next week´s task.

TAST 3

This week was rather difficult for me. First, I tried variations with the demanded Feather Stitch without using other stitches. The first results were disappointing: the first was not very nice and the second one not very creative.

Slowly, results became better:

And I really liked the last one, were I combined Feather stitch with other stitches.

The final block is acceptable, I think:

I wonder which will be next week´s block ...

TAST 2

Oh, I liked this new TAST stitch of Sharon B which was communicated yesterday in the late evening under http://www.pintangle.com/journal/category/take-a-stitch-tuesday . The challenge of the week was the Buttonhole stitch, and I was so excited to experiment with it that I finished the block of last week just with Buttonhole combination. This is the complete block:

 


The details come out more clearly on the following fotos:

Thanks to Sharon who organizes all this for us - this challenge is very motivating and the work of the participants is really inspiring.

TAST 1

Just back from the winter holidays with some skiing and lots of snow I started the TAST of Sharon B.  As I have a large stock of crazy blocks to embellish I will use the TAST to decorate them. The stitch of this week was Flying stitch, one of my favorites. The pictures above show my two versions - one pure Flying stitch variation and one combination with other stitches.