As well as taking the TAST challenge to expand my stitch repertoire and create a stitch book, I also wanted to experiment with colour and threads, or in this case ribbon. I am trying to over my reluctance to use good supplies (like real silk thread) for practice stitching. There is some Hungarian Jewish guilt there telling me I can't use the expensive stuff unless I'm doing something important. So today, I broke out some silk ribbon and tried stitching. I had used some silk ribbon in my
Chawton Cottage picture, but only as straight stitches. I can't believe how much fun it was to work with ribbon! I'm sure there are some places where you would want to coax the ribbon to fold in a specific way, but for today I let the ribbon do what it wanted with each stitch. According to my Kooler book, the vertical Cretan is called quill stitch and I found the leaf in the old standby, Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, as a closed Cretan. I will be sure to try more with ribbon in the future!
For those hoping for spring I thought you would enjoy my few crocus flowers. I planted mixed crocus bulbs a couple of years ago and the yellow always bloom first. Then white, then purple and purple striped come out last. I don't know if it is because of the cheap Home Depot bulbs I planted (some flowers are quantity not quality for me) or whether this is a common observation. It was the same pattern when I lived on Long Island as well. Whatever the case, I am grateful to have flowers in the garden now that the camellia have stopped blooming.
As well as taking the TAST challenge to expand my stitch repertoire and create a stitch book, I also wanted to experiment with colour and threads, or in this case ribbon. I am trying to over my reluctance to use good supplies (like real silk thread) for practice stitching. There is some Hungarian Jewish guilt there telling me I can't use the expensive stuff unless I'm doing something important. So today, I broke out some silk ribbon and tried stitching. I had used some silk ribbon in my Chawton Cottage picture, but only as straight stitches. I can't believe how much fun it was to work with ribbon! I'm sure there are some places where you would want to coax the ribbon to fold in a specific way, but for today I let the ribbon do what it wanted with each stitch. According to my Kooler book, the vertical Cretan is called quill stitch and I found the leaf in the old standby, Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, as a closed Cretan. I will be sure to try more with ribbon in the future!
For those hoping for spring I thought you would enjoy my few crocus flowers. I planted mixed crocus bulbs a couple of years ago and the yellow always bloom first. Then white, then purple and purple striped come out last. I don't know if it is because of the cheap Home Depot bulbs I planted (some flowers are quantity not quality for me) or whether this is a common observation. It was the same pattern when I lived on Long Island as well. Whatever the case, I am grateful to have flowers in the garden now that the camellia have stopped blooming.
1 comment:
I like the ribbon effect - very nice. Will have to try ribbon myself. I had to laugh at your guilt comment - I don't think it can be Hungarian Jewish guilt, though, as I have the same thing and am neither Hungarian nor Jewish...
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