I started with a short seam of Crossed Button Hole Stitch on my sampler block.
A couple of quick sketches in my visual journal…
After piecing the another block for mum’s quilt I tried the stitch I had sketched…I only crossed every second pair of stitch, the alternate pairs of stitches are splayed out to meet the top of the crossed stitches…I am not sure that I really like it and may have unpiked it except that it would have left big holes in the slightly plasticed surface of the T shirt transfer that the image is on…when I looked back at the Visual Journal I realized that when sketching I must have been seeing volcanoes in it, evidenced by the puffs of smoke on the bottom line.
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A couple of weeks ago Here and Here and Here I showed the designs and miniature knitting I did in preparation for this seam.
The knitting needles are made from a 2 inch lengths of stiff wire which I sharpened at one end and glued a bead onto the other end, To hold them in place I put glue along the back of the stitches on the needles and uses a silver maetalic thread to put stitches over the knitting needles where they cross, at the end of the knitting and on the ends, I also glued 2 stitches around the beads on the end, the stitches I glued on will not only prevent the needles from being pulled out but improved the look of the knitting needles because before I added those stitches the knitting needles looked more like nails.
I had made balls of wool for each colour in the knitting but they made the seam look clutttered so I went with just the 2 colours that I had on the knitting needles.
I now have 25 blocks made which leaves 5 to go.
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For this seam I have chosen a low key stitch for a couple of reasons…firstly because I need a few basic stitches to tie the new blocks together with those I did nearly 14 years ago…the other reason is that the over the top showy seams need some less showy seams to balance them and avoid competition… the seam I have done is Feather stitch with detached chain stitches
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No prizes for guessing that this seam idea came from the pattern in the fabric…
The dangling beads are done by threading beads to desired length of dangle, select the end bead and go through it only once before putting the needle back through the rest of the beads in the dangle and through to the back of the fabric…leave thread a bit loose when securing thread on the back, if thread is to tight the dangle will stick up instead of dangling
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 More often than not when a repeat a seam treatment it will look quite different the second time…This one surprised me at just how much the same as the first one, that this one looks…I just love how delicate this seam looks.
I refined it a little more the second time by doing the second twisted chain on each butterfly over all 6 of the foundation stitches, by doint this I was able to get the body of the butterfly looking much tighter and neater…and then I couldn’t resist adding straingt stitch antenna.
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Ballina is a man made Island, A creek and a river connected by a canal, surrounded by water with wharfs and bridges, boats and beaches to fish from, fishing was a common occupation and fresh fish a big part of our diet…I didn’t do much of the fishing but did help to cook them and they were always crumbed and fried.
I reduced the visual journal thoughts to the basic ingredients…
To cook fresh fish dust fillets with flour, dip in beaten egg and milk, coat with crumbs, fry in oil untill golden brown, season with salt pepper and lemon or Malt Vinegar…
I hope that I will be able to find a Lemon shaped button or charm which I will put at the bottom of the vinegar bottle…I made the packets and bottles by photographing the items, printing them on T shirt transfer and then cutting oround the edges of the items before ironing to the fabric so that when I appliqued them I only had fabric to turn to the back…The applique was a bit fiddley but not to bad because the T shirt transfer meant that I didn’t have to worry about the fabric fraying…I padded the eggs for extra effect.
And Below is the finished Block 24.
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The Big news today is that I am an Aunty again, I had the phone call from my brother earlier today and was delighted when he told me it’s a girl.
I found tonights stitch Chained Feather Stitchon Page 22 of The Anchor 100 Embroidery Stitches Book,
Sharon has a similar sititch in her Stitch Dictionary.
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When Sharon loaned me the size 14 knitting needles she also showed me some old needles that were bicycle spokes that had been sharpened to a point, I wondered if the emery board would be sharpe enough to file metal…I found some wire that doesn’t bend easy and the emery board did the job, they are not as nice to knit with as the commercial needles but they did work…
…So what can I knit with them…Ummm I will want cloths to hang on the cloths line…It took me a few attempts to get the sizes and patterns but I am delighted with just how well they worked, particularly the 3rd singlet which I did with crochet cotton and…
…the third dress which I did with a fine embroidery wool. I started with twice the number of stitches as I wanted for the finished bodies and knitted knitted 2 stitches together for the row between skirt and bodice…I knitted the back and front at the same time so that I didn’t have to count rows, did the skirt in garter stitch because it is easier to do and has added a nice contrast and crocheted, using a tiny hook that I inherited from my Nanna, the sleeves after joining the back to the front at the shoulders (the image shows it with 1 sleeve done), I also ran a thread around the neck line to tighten it up…I have found knitting these quite addictive and do hope that I have it out of my system now.
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I thought that the block needed a quite, simple seam to balance Yesturdays seam and chose a seam of
wheat stitch positioned end to end.
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Some of the images for this quilt have been easy to choose, others have been quite difficult…The image for this block has been one of the most difficult…This is my son Sam and I am thinking that maybe I just have to many photos to choose from…I had been hoping to get an adult photo of him but he is light sensative and it is almost impossible to get a photo of him with out sun glasses, today I got out the photos I put together for his 21st birthday and got my sister to help me choose a suitable image of him.
For the TAST Stitch I liked Sharon’s sample with 3 basque stitches hanging off the end of a stem stitch and adapted it to a seam treatment…
I can’t decide if I like it or not, it is certainly different, unlike anything I have done before…even though my seam doesn’t actually look like them I keep thinking of Triffids!
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