Personal Library of Stitches Lesson One

Yippeeee! After finally finishing an urgent paid job, I have some time to rest, recuperate from a minor illness, and stitch!! A whole day and night spent exploring lesson one of PLOS. I really enjoyed trying to find some different ways of presenting Guilloche stitch. I tried some of Sharon's suggestions with very pleasing results. This could be a border stitch, I think you'd have to use it sparingly if you worked it as heavily as I did on some of the rows. They feature silk, cotton, stranded and metallic threads, beads and bugles, French knots and running stitch as well as the traditional lacing found on Guilloche stitch. The outline of the postcard sized piece is Portugeuse knotted stem, not sure if I'd work that again along a withdrawn thread, it tended to wobble about a bit. I decided to use the "window" method of hooping up the 26 count oatmeal coloured linen in the end, stitching it by machine to a piece of calico and cutting away the area to be stitched from behind. That way I could use my large table hoop which prevents me stooping over the work and so is easier on my arthritic neck.
Now on to lesson two!!!

TAST Catchup part 2

CROSS STITCH
Here is another sample, see below, stitched 3 years ago. Another pieced silk background, and this time the colours are more like my current tastes. Again, there are a few beads and this time some sequins as well for sparkle!! My tutor commented on the movement I achieved in this piece, but I can assure you it was quite by happy accident. Perhaps because I really liked the colours it just evolved.

TAST catchup

FLY STITCH
I've been a bit pre-occupied I'm afraid with an urgent paid costume sewing job, so thought I'd share a sample stitched in an EG course 3 years ago (was it really so long ago, wow!) The module involved creating backgrounds on which to stitch and this one is little pieces of silk arranged and stitched down to a larger piece, then stitched over. There are a few beads for sparkle (my work nearly always has a little bit of sparkle, have you noticed, gggg). There is also a bit of line stitching which I recorded as raised chain band, although now I can't really see the chain stitch, but that must have been the method. Funny also how much my taste in colours has changed, this now looks particularly dull to me.