TAST 33: Scribbled Pekinese Stitch

Pekinese stitch was very interesting to work with. I had to check out couple of tutorials but it wasn’t too hard to figure out. I had more trouble to come up with the sketch to stitch as I was overwhelmed by all the fantastic antique Chinese samplers I saw. In the end I settled on a loopy scribble, a similar one to my couching sampler.

 Can you see the mistake I made?

 The mistakes show up particularly well in this picture. As I was doing the second round of stitching, the looping, and I was turning around, I kept picking up the floss strands up, leaving them standing up quite ugly.

 Another thing I’m not too happy about, is the way I added the one lonely half-loop. I thought it would be a fun detail but it actually looks very sad and gives the sampler very half-finished look.

 But all in all, I’m excited about Pekinese stitch. It will take some finessing but I think it will lend itself to fashion embroidery quite well. Imagine military detailing…Anyhoo, next in-line is Linked Double Chain.

My other samplers are listed here. Go and have look. Clicking the pictures will take you to the individual posting where you can read more about my process with the particular stitch.

Till next time!

Power Of Three

This week, Craft Your Passion, asked us to create something with triples of things. In my card I had multiple of things in threes. 3 black diamonds, 3 clear ones, 3 layers of paper, 3 shades of grey (heehee) and 3 ways to finish edges; faux stitching, real stitching and doodle framing.

I’m such a multi-faceted crafter with many, many layers of deepiness, deep inside me.

I know, I know. It’s very unattractive to laugh at one’s own joke. But I’m still doing it.

Anyhoo, I used this image by our sponsor, Crafty Sentiments Designs because it reminds me of one of my cousins, Siiri. She’s 8 and she is so sweet and adorable like you wouldn’t believe. Since I’m going to send this one to her, I tried to capture her personality in the card as many ways as possible.

 

First of all, I coloured the girl blond and gave her blue eyes just as Siiri. Last summer she was a flower girl at her aunt’s wedding and wore a dress just like that, so that colour came from there. The flowers are coloured to give an impression of Finnish summer, which means no exotic colours.

 

As for the background…I wanted to emphasize how Siiri and personality always brighten up everyone’s mood, she really is a ray of sunshine, so I decided to go with monochromatic papers. To give the stamped image even more of a pop, I lifted it with foam from the background. The stitching, faux and real, also gives another dimension to this card. Almost as if the image in the center is fabric badge of honour on someone’s grey, floral sleeve.

Oh, I’m such an artist. A poet.

The diamonds in the corners are there because A. they are girl’s best friend and B. Siiri wants to be a pop star when she grows up and naturally pop stars wear diamonds.

 Hope you enjoyed my rambling. Now go and craft and take part in Craft Your Passion Challenge. There are prizes for three this week!

Till next time!

 

 

TAST 31: Algerian Eye Stars

 Algerian Eye Stitch seemed very intimidating at first. How can I ever create such a neat lines?! Answer naturally is to use a ruler, which I did, and create a square pattern on your cloth.

 My squares weren’t entirely even but there’s still uniformity in the stitches. I used steel shade variegated thread in this.

 Wow! Even if I say so myself. There’s something very sexy in this geometric, rigid pattern. I think this would easily translate into fashion.

 Yes, I like this very much. After so many stitches that felt like a chore or too abstract or whatever, this pattern was very refreshing to stitch. I definitely recommend this one too, just make a use of your ruler and tracing pen. I don’t see this one working in a free form stitching too well.

Next in line is Cast On Stitch and it’s still in the works. So far I haven’t been able to make sense of the instructions but I’ll get there. Eventually. Hopefully.

Here is the list of my other samplers. Till next time!

 

 

TAST 30: Oyster Stitch Raindrops

 I have to be honest that when I saw Oyster stitch for the first time, I wasn’t too keen on it. In fact, I cursed for having had to do another chain stitch. (I kind of pointless cursing as this IS voluntary and there ISN’T anyone breathing down my neck and forcing to do this). But we crafters are a weird bunch and I stuck with this.

 I don’t know when did I change my mind. Was it after the first stitch? Or the eleventh? It doesn’t matter now because the end result is simply amazing.

 The texture!!! I could keep running my hand over this for hours. If I was to make one of those sensory books, this stitch would be a front-runner to be featured there. The slightly loose structure gives a sense of coolness which is hard to describe but if you do stitch a sampler like this, you’ll know what I mean.

 I recommend this stitch, I really do. If I knew how to gush, I’d totally do it right now. Just go and learn this stitch yourself, you won’t regret it.

My other samplers are here and the next stitch to show is Algerian Eye.

Till next time!

TAST 29: Blossoming Basque

 I have nothing but good things to say about this stitch. It looks complicated but it’s not and the end result is so, so pretty! A stitchy winner!

 See how sweet it is! I used variagated thread and again it kept throwing me off a little bit, you can see it from the petals which aren’t quite in a straight angle.

 Like I said, nothing but good things to say. You can cover large areas quickly with these flowers!

 I took what seems like gazillion pictures but I’m trying to control myself and only show few. There’s only so many macro shots one can take in.

 Yes, I’m most definitely in love. If you’re interested, my other samples are here. As soon as I can stop oggling these pics, I’m going to post the next stitch, Oyster.

Till next time!