Top…2 rows of Cretan Stitch placed side by side with arms touching..Thread size 5 cotton pearl.
The middle and bottom details are both 2 rows of cretan the second row stitched into the spaces and on top of the first row…the middle row is 2 colours …the bottom detail has both rows done in the same colour and with wider spaces between stitches so that the overlap shape forms diamonds which I have trimmed with beads.
|
2 Rows of Cretan stitch, off set so that the rows overlap without touching each other…top colour is 3 strands and the bottom colour is 2 strands of cotton floss.
|
Top row…Cretan Stitch (2 strands cotton floss) arranged to make a long narrow seam and trimmed with detached chain stitch (2 strands cotton floss) and beads.
Middle row…Cretan stitch (cotton pearl thread) trimmed with straight stitches (4 strands of cotton floss).
Bottom row…Cretan Stitch (Rayon Thread) timmed with straight stitch stars (2 strands cotton floss) spaced along the seam in groups of 3.
|
The next stitch is the TAST week 4 , Cretan Stitch.
Cretan Stitch is a versatile all time favourite stitch, to start with I am doing the variations that I did years ago as teaching samples, of which I have done the first 3 today.
The top row of on my sampler is the basic Cretan stitch done with 3 strands of cotton floss.
Second row is Cretan stitch done with cotton pearl thread and trimmed with Colonial knots done with a rayon thread.
Third row is Cretan stitch done with rayon thread and trimmed with 2 detached chain stitches (2 strands cotton) on each arm of the stitch.
Bottom row is Cretan stitch done with 2 strands cotton and trimmed with a single detached chain stitch (3 strands cotton) on each arm of the stitch
|
 I have used 2 coloured detached chain stitch to hold the ring in place…It is much the same as I did on a block I made last year.
|
 Detached Chain Stitch can be worked with 2 needles to make a 2 coloured stitch, thread one needle with the loop colour and one needle with the seal down stitch colour…When stitched with silk ribbon the 2 coloured Detached Chain Stitch looks like rose buds.
|
 With a few small adaptations the Butterflies that I showed you the other night Dragon Fly…Use straight stitches to Stitch a small tappered body, place Detached Chain Stitch wings either side and add 2 French Knot eyes…I used a metalic thread for the wings so that it would shine like dragonfly wings do.
|
The Take it Further Challenge March design is to pay attention to the tiny details…I have been pondering over this all month, so much of my work is tiny detail that not one thing that I had thought of stood out and somehow the question sounded to me to be bigger than any individual tiny detail…
Today, while I was stitching for Earth Hour I was thinking about how my life has changed over the last few years as I have made small changes to do what I can to reduce my footprint on our planet and as I was thinking I realized that this seam represents the concept of the March Design…I have always lived by the philosophy ‘think Globally, act Locally’ and acting locally is looking at the tiny details of how I use electricity/water/petrol and making small changes where I can, those small changes are making a big difference to my power bills and I hope that they help make a difference for the earth…
Stem Stitch done with 2 strands of varigated cotton floss.
|
 Detached Chain Stitches makes lovely butterflies.
The first time I encountered these butterflies was on the cover of Dorothy Bonds book Crazy Quilt Stitches (ISBN 0-9606086-0-5) which look much like the first purple butterfly which is done with silk buttonhole twist thread.
I tend to leave a gap between the wings so that I can add a stitched or beaded body…the second butterfly is stitched with Rayon Thread and has a beaded body.
The 3rd butterfly is stitched with Silk Ribbon and has a stitched body…Silk Ribbon makes a lovely full winged butterfly.
Below is a flight of Butterflies on a detail from my crazy quilt called Butterflies. 
|
When you make a long seal down stitch on the Detached Chain it opens up other possibilities for making patterns with them…the thread I used on this seam is Ribbon Floss
|
