Annies Crazy World

The Third unit of 6 blocks is done.

The stitches across the new join are…

In the first section I have used Silk Ribbon to do Pistol Stitches set end to end…Pistol Stitches are formed by working a Colonial Knot or French knot but instead of going down close to where you came up go down a stitch length away so that you end up with a knot on the end of a straight stitch….I also added an extra red heart bead.

The stitch in the third segment of the join is Triple Palestrina Stitch

The seam in the middle section of the join is a combination of Herringbone and Palestrina Stitches Done with the thread doubled to make it thicker.

To work the above variation start with a Herringbone Stitch

Work a Reverse Palestrina Stitch over the thread.

Slip the needle under the end of the Stitch.

A Tip I have done the above illustrations with the point of the needle for clarity, what I actually do is use the eye of the needle so that it doesn’t catch on the fabric but as you can see it looks messy in the photo.

Another pair of blocks joined.

The Stitches down this join are Loop Stitch,

Cretan Stitch,

The third stitch is Portugese Stem Stitch done with a tubular nylon floss and misstitched in that I didn’t do the wraps aroung the right part of the stitch…misstitching is an easy way to discover new stitch variations.

Next…When I did the Fish for Dinner Scene I was asked if I was going to put a frying pan on it, too? my answer at the time was Yes….No…Maybe…When I join the blocks there is room for one on the left hand side…I do Have one in my dolls house…but the one I have is plastic and the handle would be at risk of breaking so there may be technical problems in attaching it.

Today when looking through some boxes I found a miniature copper frying pan…pity the handle had been broken off

Could I add a handle…wire is the only thing that I could think of that would be strong enough…I drilled a couple of extra holes in the pan and used a stiff wire to form the base of the handle

I then used a fine beading wire build up the structure of the handle.

At this stage I was thinking that I would wrap the handle with thread held in place with PVA White wood Glue but before doing that I did a mental wish list of what would work well if only I had the materials/skillsm some sort of resin to mould the handle is what came to mind and then I remembered that I had just what I needed….I used My Acrylic fingernail resin to mould a handle around the wire.

Then it was just a matter of painting the frying pan, The bottom of the pan won’t even be seen once I sew it on but I still felt compelled to paint it.

And the top of the Frying Pan, photographed with a coin to show the size.

At the bottom of the same Fish for Dinner Post I commented that I would have to go shopping to try and find a lemon button…The next Day Kathy M contacted me and said that she had some lemon beads that she would love to send me…They arrived today together with some adorable kangaroo buttons.

…I hadn’t dared hope that they would actually be exactly what I wanted…I did a happy dance when I opened the package to find that they are just that the exact size perfect little lemons for my scene…

…And the little lemon is even more perfect because most of our lemons came from the neighbours tree and now the lemon for my quilt has come from a cyber Neighbour…Just Perfect.

The first stitch that I did today was a seam of detached Twisted Chain Stitch from this page of ideas I did in my visual Journal back in January.

I like to use Metalic thread for twisted chain stitch…My spacing went a bit astray towards the end of the seam but I had finished the seam before I noticed just how off skew the stitching had got and figured that if I didn’t notice it till I had finished then it was probably not worth redoing it so I left it as is.

To finish of the top edge I added a row of Stem Stitch.

Note re TAST Week 25 the long and short stitch…I haven’t forgotten it, I do have plans to use it but it will have to wait because it is not one I can fit along a seam which is what I have been concentrating on.

And TAST Week 26 to the rescue…I have been struggling to think of seam treatments for this block that I haven’t already done so I was delighted this morning when I looked to see what this weeks TAST stitch was and found Half Chevron Stitch which was just perfect for the last seam on this block. I introduce a little more colour on the seam I added gold seed beads into the little spaces formed by the stitch.

To finish the block I added a small butterfly button just above my nephews hand because it looks to me as if he has just been holding something very delicate.

Just for the record I have just noticed that the perma link for this post indicates that this is my 500th post for this blog.

This stitch is a variation of Italian Insertion Stitch…click here to see Italian Insertion Stitch and a couple of variations.

I have googled Italian Insertion Stitch but found no link to any instructions so tonight I have worked a sample to photograph the steps for working the Stitch.

Start by working 2 cretan stitches, make tiny stitches spaced wide.

Go back up to the first stitch, on the left and work a buttonhole stitch over the threads.

work a total of 4 buttonhole stitchs from the centre out to the edge.

work another cretan stitch below the first one and then Go back to the second cretan stitch, on the right and work 4 buttonhole stitches over the threads from the centre to the edge.

work the next cretan stitch below and repeat working from side to side.

For the Variation I have done work as above except the 4 buttonhole stitches are worked from the edge to the centre, the first of the 4 buttonhole stitches is worked over 2 threads…

…the other 3 buttonhole stitches are worked over 3 threads.

Further variations can be achieved with different spaceing of the creatan stitches and different numbers of buttonhole stitches. Different threads will also change the appearance of the stitch.

I chose the fabric and embroidery thread colours for this seam so that they would blend in with the photo so that I could add more background to the top of this photo so that it wouldn’t look cramped…after working the varied length Buttonhole Stitches I added a dark bead to the end of each stitch to form a frame for the top of the photo.

For these flowers work a French knot in the flower colour and then use a thinner green thread to work 3 french knots around the flower knots.

I have also joined the right side blocks to make this into another unit of 6 blocks…I had a bit of difficulty with the lower part of the seam with the ball of wool makeing it bulky and the velvet making it slippery…I had to unpick my first effort and unpick the ball of wool and then I tacked the seam before machine stitching the seam.

I have used double knot stitches in both directions on the new intersection.

knotted cretan stitch

Tonight I went to the canberra crazy quilters monthly meeting, I often resist taking any of the fabric that is always there to share but tonight I grabbed several pieces that might go well in the last few blocks that I have to make for this quilt.

I now have a unit of six blocks…I used a 6″ in wide strip of Freezer Paper to size the blocks, I ironed it on to what was to be the middle row matching one edge to the seam below and stitching along the top edge.

I have done Up and down buttonhole in the last section of this new seam.

We lived a block from North Creek and probably spent more time at the creek then the coastal beaches. As well as swimming and fishing we collected oysters off the rocks, sun bathed, built sand castles and chased soldier crabs, as my sister said it was both a place to be when needing time alone and a place of fun.

I also used this seam to put the miniature coke bottle for the memories that my brothers made their pocket money by collecting discarded glass drink bottles and returning them to the shop for the 5 cents refund.

Last week was the Queen’s Birthday long weekend which is cracker night in states that still allow fireworks to be sold but the fireworks sold today are nothing like the crackers of our childhood…Each year my uncle would build a 6 foot high bon fire in the cow paddock next to his house where several familys congregated, each bringing a box of crackers, we would dress in our little great coats and walk around the corner for what was one of the best nights of the year…

French Knots,This weeks TAST stitch combined with tiny straight stitches done in metalic thread make perfect fireworks.

The Bon Fire is straight stitches done with black, grey and red silk ribbon and black, red and gold metalic threads.

I have also used french knots to start the embroidery on the seam across the middle of the 4th unit of 4 blocks.

For the first part of this seam a couched green silk ribbon with pink silk ribbon French Knots.

the next part of the seam is a narrow herringbone stitch done on one side of the seam, on the other side of the seam I did french knots on the herringbone, this is very subtle in that the french knots are barely visisble but the addition of the french knots anchored the herringbone to the other side of the seam.