 Today I finished the block that only had 2 fabrics on it when I stitched yesturdays seam.
I have also pieced an 8 inch block for a friends birthday and done a seam using knotted cretan the TAST week 13 stitch.
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 Even the simplest Braid can be made into a stunning seam treatment with the additon of beads…The beads can be used to stitch the braid on but I find it easier to mange if I start by tacking the braid in place with a matching thread and then stitching the beads on.
I have put the dangling beads on every second pattern of the braid because I thought that the hanging beads would look to congested if I put the them on every space, I then to make them look integrated with the pattern I used different beads in the alternating part of the pattern.
To stitch the hanging beads under the briad bring the thread up at the top of the dangle…put 3 seed beads, I larger bead and 2 more seed beads onto the thread…put the needle back through the first seed bead and back down the same hole that you started.
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  Along the lower edge of the curve in Detail 204 there are some beads stitched on with the thread fanning out below them, I didn’t draw attention to them when I posted because I didn’t have a sample of how to do them…so I have done another seam that shows them off a little more and I have done a sample to illustrate the how to.
You need beads that you can pass the needle and thread through 3 times…Make the middle stitch through the bead first, come up in the same hole and make a second stitch to one side pulling the stitch tight enough to pull the bead to that side, then come up in the same hole again and make the third stitch to the other side tightening the stitch until the bead is again in the centre this locks the beads at one end of the threads.
And below is the 17th finished block for mums quilt
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Having done a couple of story seams I need to do a few more so that they blend in and look as if they belong…I was having trouble coming up with ideas because I was overly influenced by my memories so today I rang mum got her to have a look at the ones that I have done and explained to her what sort of ideas I was needing, at first she said that her memory isn’t what it used to be but as we chatted memories started coming to the surface and I with pencil in hand scribbled them down in my visual journal so that I now have a page of ideas that I can think about and process how I could interpret them as a story seam.
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 This Visual Journal sketch is another idea from a seam in The Magic of Crazy Quilting by J Marsha Michler…whilst flipping through looking for an idea for a seam today, I looked at it and saw Bamboo which reminded me of last nights outing to Varekai by the Cirque Du Soleil which had long bamboo poles as part of the stage props…figuring that to be as good a reason as any to do a seam, I produced the seam below which is straight stitches in a very rough herringbone layout with each stitch couched in the centre.
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I have used Couching the TAST week 12 Stitch for specific purposes (The rocks under the light house on block 14 are couched ribbons) but have never designed with it and have had no creative ideas for it, in the mean time I have done this simple seam using fly stitch to couch the green chenille thread along the seam and finished it with detached chain stitch sealed with Colonial Knots done with a varigated thread..
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This seam treatment is a piece of lace made up of pink hearts which I have further embellished with a row of stem stitch around the edge, a bead flower with detached chain stitch leaves in the centre of each heart and a bead between each heart…I have photographed a piece of the unembellished lace with this seam so that you can see how a little embroidery changes it.
Tip: at the right end of the seam you can see a bead that is loosly tacked to the block, this is so that the matching bead to finish the row is there ready to stitch into place after I stitch the blocks together.
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This seam is wheat stitch which I illustrated on day 15 of the details and is the last seam on the 16th block for mum’s memory quilt.
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In The Magic of Crazy Quilting by J Marsha Michler there is several seams which have a curved line along the seam and I used the curved line as my jumping off point for this seam…I chose stem stitch for the curved line and not wanting to get up from the TV show I was watching to find another thread I did the second line so that I could keep on sewing…Once I had the curved line I decided on the placement of the detached chain stitches and red beads and then filled in around them with colonial knots
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 Inspiration for seam treatments come from many sauces, one of which is my own work, I found the above seam on a block and thought that it would go nicely on the current block.
To make it a little different I made leaves along the green silk ribbon using the loopy ribbon technique that I described on day 8 of the details.
The roses are done by tying a knot in the silk ribbon about an inch from fabric (a little more than an inch if using wider silk ribbon) and doing a running stitch from the knot back down to the fabric, when the ribbon is pulled through to the back the knot stops it going all the way and forms a nice centre for the rose…Tip for finer detail start with a tiny gathering stitch and make each stitch a little longer so that the bottom petals are bigger than the top petals.
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