I'm Beginning To Think I'm Brain Dead

I'm beginning to think I'm brain dead. Well, maybe not brain dead, but certainly there's some sort of stitching block that didn't exist earlier in life. Sigh. The cretan stitch for week four of Take a Stitch Tuesday was difficult for me to do, at first. I kept getting backwards where the thread was supposed to be.

But I did manage to finally get it, I think. After fumbling around with it for awhile, I did a seam and came up with this:

About the pink spider rose, welllllll, I messed up the fabric in that area pulling out some other stitches, so the fabric was a little tattered-looking and frayed. I couldn't think of what to do with it, so I just added a little spider rose. I know it doesn't really look like it belongs there. Actually, it looks more like it belongs there in the photo, but on the block as a whole, it doesn't really look like it belongs there. I'm pondering what else I might do to make it look like it does belong there. Meanwhile, there it sits.

Then I spent a little time trying something different with the cretan stitch, and came up with this:

Definitely not the most creative thing you'll see among the TAST needleworkers, but I'm a beginner, so cut me some slack! I'm rather proud that I even tried doing something different. I would love to be more creative, but I don't seem to have given myself permission yet to be so. Maybe by week 52, I'll have broken through that barrier!

So, this is what the block is looking like right now: It's slowly but surely getting some personality. And for those who notice that the stitching on the seam to the left of the heart, which is the buttonhole stitch with a backward slant, looks different on the top than it does on the bottom, those parts were done at different times. And, as fate would have it, I'd managed to stretch the fabric in such a way that while I was doing the upper half it looked like it was lining up with the bottom section. I was trying a different kind of embroidery frame, because the hoop just wasn't working for me. The frame didn't, either. I think if the block were larger, either would have worked better, so the next block will definitely be bigger.

What did I learn this week? Trying something different is fun and not as scary as I kept thinking it would be. And I need a bigger block or to baste the block to a fabric frame to make it larger so the hoop holds it better and I can work better. I learned that I really need to make sure the fabric is in the hoop or frame straight and not twisted akilter.

I also learned that I'm still enjoying the TAST challenge. It's been more challenging than I thought it would be, but less challenging than is uncomfortable. So, a nice kind of challenging. Perfect.

The Internet Lies!

I'm not very good with written stitch instructions, or static images, for that matter, so for each of the TAST stitches, I've gone to YouTube to find a video showing how the stitch is done. For the Feather Stitch, I  even watched three or four different videos to make sure I got it right. Then I did a seam of it on the Crazy Quilt block I'm working on. I was finished with the TAST stitch this week on Monday night. Yayyyyy!

My task done, I started looking at the work of others, to see what wonderful things they'd done, only to find to my horror, that the stitch everyone else was doing wasn't the one that I'd done. Gasp!

Button it up!

I'm still loving the TAST challenge, but this second week was also a challenge of finding time to button this one up! Finally, tonight, I just did a simple alternate short and long angled blanket stitch on the crazy quilt block that was also ignored this week.

I used three strands of regular embroidery floss, and when it was done, it just looked so plain,

Amazed and Awed

I've spent some time the past couple of nights looking at the work done by some of the others who are participating in Take a Stitch Tuesday, and all I can say is WOW.

There's some amazing work out there. Just seeing what people have done is inspiring. They're showing off what can be done when you open your mind to creativity.

I'm in awe. It makes me want to study what they've done and learn from them. What a unique opportunity to experience how others have taken a stitch you are learning to a whole different level, and learn from what you do as well as from what they do.

I'm sooo glad I decided to participate in this!

Flying High

Fly Stitch, Block 1

TAST has started! Our first stitch is the fly stitch, which I hadn't done before. Both sections of embroidery on the block to the left are solely fly stitch.

The first thing I did was the top green section. Actually, the first thing I did was try to thread the needle and add "needle threader" to my shopping list.

Framing a Quilt Square

I'd Googled for crazy quilt patterns, and had found some royalty free ones, but decided at the last minute last night to just try putting things together and see what happened for the first quilt block. While sewing piece to piece, it occurred to me that it would be helpful to have a 6" frame, so I could make sure the piece was big enough (the minimum required size for CQJP is 36 square inches).

Raw form, just sewing pieces together on whim

So I cut a frame out of a cardboard box. 6" x 6" looked a little small, so I cut out an even larger frame of 8" x 8".  Then it dawned on me I could have done it with fabric instead of wrestling with a cardboard box and box cutter. Oh, well.  The concept worked, anyway.

6" Frame

8" Frame

It sure helped to conceptualize the block, and massage it a bit in determining where I might cut it, later.

So, what have I learned so far? It would help greatly in sewing to iron some light weight interfacing to the back of slinky or velvety fabric. I didn't, and small puckers can be seen above. I hope to be able to cover those with embroidery, rather than having to tear the seams apart and sew again. I'm pretty sure the imperfections are small enough, and I think leaving them alone and seeing what can be done will be more informative than making them perfect right now.

I've also learned that using a frame when not using a pattern helps a great deal to figure out how to cut the block. So, two things learned already. Next on to the embroidery!