Annies Crazy World

 
 
 
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    This is Annie Whitsed's Crazy World a world where I stitch the joys and chaos of life into beautifull crazy quilts. email annie@loopylace.com
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My Band Sampler 147 – Details 855 to 863 – Feather Stitch February 8th, 2009

Feather Stitch

The next stitch that I am recording on my sampler is tthe TAST Week 7 stitch, Feather Stitch…Feather stitch is an old time favourite stitch, it is versatile and always look good.

The first thing that I have done with it is to work it in 7 different threads …across the top is a size 5 cotton pearl then from left to right, one strand of cotton, 3 strands of cotton, 4 strands of silk (approx thickness of 6 strands of cotton), a soft size 5 cotton, a rayon thread, a linen thread and silk ribbon…I have used black threads to show the shape of the stitches without being distracted by colour.

My Band Sampler 101 – Details 729 to 732 – Zipping into Spring September 8th, 2008

When I embroidered Autumn and Winter they where small and the colours muted…When I started thinking about what I would do for spring I knew that it had to be big, bright and bouncy…

Zipping into Spring

Top line Spring…For the words I used pekinese and back stitch, the stitches that I have been working on, with detached chain stitch and a colonial knot to dot the i…I have added insects for a finishing touch, the grub on the tail of the g is about 40 tiny sequins with a colonial knot and tiny straight stitches to make the head.

The second line is Laced Triple Pekinese which I recognized as a zipper when I curved the top row, the finishing touch was a zipper pull which I linked to the spring theme by with a watering can….I liked that it has the double meaning of being a zipper and zipping into spring.

The Third line is similar to the variation that I did for TAST Last year, and the bottom row is the same but using groups of 3 rather than 4 stitches on either side of the central row of back stitch.

My Band Sampler 88 – Details 691 to 693 August 1st, 2008

Algerian Eye Stitch and Eyelet Stitch

Top Row…while I was stitching the seams with the bar crossing over the central stitch I thought what if I angle the stitch out from the seam, the result is this delightfully simple seam of zig zag with a dashed line either side.

That is the end of my ideas for Chevron Stitch and I am now moving on to Algerian Eye and Eyelet Stitch, The week 6 TAST stitch. On the left there is an eyelet stitch, the middle stitch is Algerian eye stitch and on the right a heart shaped eyelet stitch.

The bottom row is 1/4 Eyelet stitches that I will use to join this panel to the next one.

My Band Sampler 87 – Detail 690 – The Mission July 30th, 2008

My Mission recorded on my samplerEarlier this month I told you about My Mission, Cold weather has limited the time I can spend outside and what time I have spent has been work below ground so there isn’t much to show for my efforts, I have dug out the foundations so that I can waterproof them with pond sealer and concreted the step outside the door, I will do a castle update when I have something more to show…In the meantime I have recorded my mission on my sampler.

My Band Sampler 86 – Details 683 to 689 and Take It Further June Colours July 25th, 2008

Top line…I had played around,in visual diary, with slopeing the bar on the edge of the chevron stitch but looking at my sketches I didn’t think that it would work but it does,Elizabeth got it working
by having the bars meeting along the edge.

The rest of the details are
a Chevron Stitch variation of Elizabeths, I followed her illustrations for how to do the stitch, Then varied the angles, width and spacings of the stitch, it is amazing how different each one is with only small changes.

I left the side border of my sampler so that you can see where I joined another peice of fabric on to make the panel longer.

Chevron Stitch

Take it Further June ColoursThe first line was also the end of my 12 inches of stitching with the Take It Further June Colours

My Band Sampler 85 – Details 681 and 682 July 21st, 2008

The top line tonight was inspired by one of Lin Moon’s TAST stitches.

The Bottom detail records the visit of my brother and his family.

chevron stitch and visitors

My Band Sampler 84 – Details 678 to 680 July 18th, 2008

Whilst I didn’t get much computer time while my visitors were here I did get some stitching done which I will show you over the next few posts…

Top line is a single row of chevron stitch with one edge as a straight line and the other edge staggered in lengths.

Middle line is 2 rows of the top stitch with the straight edges meeting in the middle.

Bottom line is 2 rows of the top stitch with the staggered edges meeting in the middle.

Chevron Stitch Variations

My Band Sampler 83 – Details 676 & 677 June 27th, 2008

Chevon Stitch and in memory of Jane McGrath

The line of stitching is one of my TAST stitches from last year,

The second detail…When I heard on the radio that Jane McGrath had died of breast Cancer age 42 I thought I should record her passing on my sampler and then I wandered how her passing did fit into my life and I decided not to but I woke up the next day thinking about it again, I logged onto the McGrath Foundation Website, where you can read her story, and found my breast awarness Pin and thought about how I could use it in conjunction with the words but my designs weren’t working, it got to hard and I decided against putting it on my sampler…But I again woke up thinking about it, after 2 days of pocrastination I thought to ask my son’s opinion, his immediate answer was Yes and he also suggested using the twist of real pink ribbon instead of the metal pin, using real ribbon meant that I could make it much smaller so that it fitted around the words so that my design worked, for the Mcgrath Foundation logo I printed the logo on a pretreated fabric sheet and used fusible webbing to attach it to the sampler…I guess it was meant to be and maybe its place in my life is that I do have friends that have had breast cancer and this is my opportunity to promote breast cancer awareness, in memory of Jane McGrath.

My Band Sampler 81 – Details 665 to 668 June 22nd, 2008

Chevron stitch variations

take it further may coloursThe top line is 2 rows of Chevron StitchThe first row is a wide seam and the second row which I have done in a second colour is a narrow seam.

The second row is a single row of Chevron Stitch worked so that the bars along the edges meet each other as per the illustration below.

detail of chevron stitch variation

The third row is Chevron Stitch used to hold a length of ribbon in place.

The bottom row is a single row of basic Chevron stitch trimmed with straight stitches along the edges and colonial knots in the gaps.

The image on the right is my 12 inches of stitching with the Take it Further May colours.

My Band Sampler 80 – Details 656 to 664 June 16th, 2008

I feel as if I have been making a very slow recovery but today I have felt better than I have been and with my head feeling clearer I have been able to concentrate which has resulted in a productive day of stitching.

The first line of stitching is Cretan Stitch worked with silk ribbon which I have then overstitched with French Knots and Bullion knots done with a single strand of cotton floss.

The first line of stitching is also the last seam of the Cretan stitch variations…As a guide as to what stitch I do next I am using Sharon’s Take a Stitch Tuesday Stitch list, the next stitch is Chevron Stitch from week 5...This time I decided to introduce the stitch by embroidering its name.

Line 3 is the Basic Chevron Stitch worked with 3 strands of pink cotton embroidery floss.

Line 4 is 2 rows of the basic Chevron Stitch worked side by side with a cotton buttonhole twist thread and I added beads in the spaces formed when the second row of stitching is added.

Line 5 is again 2 rows of the basic Chevron Stitch but this time the 2 rows are staggered, thread is 2 strands of cotton floss.

Line 6 is another 2 rows of the basic Chevron Stitch, this time the rows are half overlapped forming a nice zig zag pattern, thread is 2 strands of cotton floss.

putting beads onto chevron stitchLine 7 is yet again 2 rows of the basic Chevron Stitch with the rows fully overlapped and staggered so that the edge bars of the second row fill the spaces left between the edge bars of the first row, thread is 3 strands of cotton floss.

Line 8 as per line 7 but using a second colour thread for the second row, both colours of thread are 3 strands of cotton floss.

Line 9 the bottom line is also as per line 7 but with shorter edge bars so that the edge is not a solid line and with beads threaded onto the centre part of the stitch…To add the beads I put a bead on each centre stitch of the first row and then when working the second row I passed the needle back through the beads of the first row.

Chevron stitch variations