TAST 7 Feather Stitch

I had one of those weeks where I lost track of the days, but that doesn't mean I didn't stitch. For this weeks sample, I tried stitching on a piece of black linen I received in a sample pack. I have always liked to look of black backgrounds, but I've never tried one so I thought this would be a good chance. I was surprised to see that the silver blending filament I used on the third row of double feather and closed feather stitching did not show up that well - even worse on the photo. On the other hand, all the floss colours I tried look quite nice. I especially like the feathered chain stitch - fourth row down in green. Because I am doing a stitch book, I've been trying to only use the one stitch in my sample, but I really like the use of feather with other stitches like the seems Ati has done. Since I mainly do embroidery, especially flowers and gardens, the packed feathered chain in white and purple at the bottom of my sample interest me because I can see doing long arching rows in green to make trees.

Below are a couple of my other projects of the week (I have also been working on a band RR and I had to wait until today to get muslin for more 3-D flowers). The top is purchased bookmark material with horses from a pet cross stitch book. I did the horses in the colours my younger daughter wanted. The left is the Appaloosa pony she shows, the middle is a bay, and the right is a fantasy horse with a silver tail - note that the silver seems to show up better here than on the black.
This bookmark is from a kit we purchased in England two years ago. My older daughter wanted to make it. She decided after starting the border that she didn't like cross stitch so it has been sitting since then. We are now planning another trip to England and I had the urge to stitch something British, so I confiscated the kit and made it up for her, which she was happy with.

I also practiced my lute a bit. I am working on two pieces that have a know tune since that makes it easier to tell if I'm actually playing it correctly. It is sounding a bit better. I received peg dope and some better quality strings for Valentines day (who needs chocolate) so I'm hoping to work with those tomorrow to see if the sound quality improves a bit. I'm hoping the peg dope will make it easier to tune the 13 strings and the better strings should reduce the buzzing on the lower notes. I'll keep you posted.