Sharon has lent me a pair of size 14 knitting needles…they were to big for the thread I had been using so I seperated the threads of some wool so that I had a single ply…it is bigger than the piece I knitted on the skewers but for this seam bigger may actually be better and it was much easier to knit with the metal needles…Sharon also suggested that I put coins in the photo to give an idea of relative size.
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Above is my Visual Journal sketches for this kite scene seam, which wasn’t working untill I added the cloud…
The cload is a piece of cotton batting stitched on with buttonhole stitch.
An appliqued kite with embroidered cross bars would have been just as effective but I couldn’t help myself from making a miniature kite from wire and fabric.
A bead doll is flying the kite.
I like this seam because it is the first of the scene seams that I have been able to work onto a vertical seam…
Below is the finished block 23…7 to go.
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Above is the sketch in my visual journal for a knitting scene seam…I can remember my mum knitting, she did it because she had to but she hated it, until she got a knitting machine…A knitting machine would be very difficult to embroider but I reckon hand knitting will remind the family of the knitting machine that mum did love.
I used an emery nail file to file the ends of skewers to make needles small enough for the miniature knitting I need for this seam, The first piece below is a practice run to get the feel for the size, the second piece to work out the pattern that I want to do…The pattern is in memory of a much loved jumper that mum did hand knit from scrapes of wool, it had rows of diamonds about an inch high and was passed down from child to child.
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I started this seam with the ric rac braid held on with herringbone stitch and the colonial knots…I then went looking for beads that weren’t a circle and came up with bugle beads, when I tried the red ones the seam looked christmassy so I used the irridescent ones (left hand side) but they looked a bit dull so I added the red beads to them anyway, it still looks a bit christmassy but that is OK because there is many family christmasses to be remembered.
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I realized that I had not done any of the Whipped Wheels from this weeks TAST challenge so I have rectified that by doing a seam of them…I varied the sizes and I used a couple of different varigated threads to make them a little different…Whipped Wheels always remind me of Star Fish
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I didn’t get any stitching done today but even when I am not stitching I am still thinking about mum’s quilt…One of the Seam Scenes that I want to do is a cloths line and the image below is part of my inspiration…The image is of a Miniature Quilt (5 x 6 inches) that I made in 1985.
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 Today I found a photo of a nephew that I have been trying to find for the last couple of months only to find that the image was just to small for what I need…The other place that I might have a better quality photo of him was from when he was page boy at my wedding, it only took me a couple of hours to find that lot of photos and I was rewarded for the search with a lovely image so I was able to get another block pieced today.
When I had the block pieced I felt that the bottom right fabric was a bit bright and that it would need a wide stitch in a neutral colour to tone it down a bit, this Cross Stitch from TAST week 9 worked to do just that.
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I decided to put lace on this seam and while I was looking at the laces and thinking about what embroidery I could do on them I realized that this lace had webs on it that reminded me of this weeks TAST stitch woven wheels…
I had to add an extra spoke because the weaving needs an odd number of spokes and a colonial knot to fill the centre.
And that finishes block 22 for mum’s memory quilt.
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This seam started with the flowers in details 246 and 247 and grew in the haphazard way that my real garden dose…I added a small butterfly bead for interest…Tip: seams like this are a great way to use short lengths of thread and silk ribbon.
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When I did my stitch Yesturday I thought that I was doing it similar to what Elizabeth had but it turns out that I was so focused on the tear drop shape that I didn’t see the rest of her design and was actually doing something different…the interesting thing is that if I hadn’t been so focused on that one tear drop shape I would have seen the whole stitch but if I had seen the whole stitch I wouldn’t have thought of putting it end on end.
I was thrilled that Elizabeth was then able to take what I did and work it back into a counted thread design. I think it is exciting that the internet and blogging gives us the opportuntity to bounce ideas back and forth and to learn and be inspired by each other.
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