 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.
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Over the last few weeks I have shown you my miniature cloths line quilt and my visual journal sketches of ideas for this cloths line seam…Below is a 1″/12″ scale cloths line that I modeled on the one from home, I made it to display my miniature quilts at a quilting exhibition, the Amish quilt on the line is 4 1/2″ square.
 I have also shown you the garments that I have knitted and sewn to go on the line. The photo on the right was the idea behind the dress, mum described the dresses as being like a T shirt with a skirt on the bottom…I have also chosen to use a pink singlet, a G string, and the Y Fronts.
I have chosen the items for the line so that they represent the washing of the young and the old, boys and girls and from long ago and recent times…
some of the cloths are pegged with dolly pegs, some with coloured plastic pegs and some with cyclone pegs which a brother made from twisting plastic covered wire into shape, called cyclone pegs because they hold the washing on the line in very strong winds…I finished the scene by adding a tennis racket leaning on the post and and a pair of thongs in the foreground…I have uploaded a bigger image on flicka
This seam is not the first quilt that the cloths line from home has inspired…a few years ago one end post which had rotted over the years snapped of at the ground when a nephew was swinging on the line…his younger sister started using the pole as a balance beam and joined by her sister they danced on it, I took some lovely photos of there dance and a friend used those photos to make the journal quilt below as a sample for her book A moment in time, available from Creative Living Media.
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On this seam I did tiny Fly Stitches to mimic the perferations on the edge of stamps…I have also used t shirt transfer to make the extra stamp, I will probably add more stamps to this seam but will wait until I have stitched the seam at the side.
 The plan was to use T Shirt transfer for the Y Fronts on the line but I have been unable to get a clear transfer and then today when I assembled all the garments and took a good look the T shirt transfer looked flat and out of place against all the 3 dimensional garments…so what else could I do but knit them…I used a single strand of stranded embroidery thread for the knitting and a white rayon thread to define the lines at the front and to work 2 rows of buttonhole stitch around the top for the elastic…and I won’t tell you that there is an opening in the Y Front.
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I got quite a few things done for the quilt today but when it came to photographing what I did I only had one short seam that was finished ready to be photographed.
It is another seam of double knot stitch but this time just to make it a little different I flip flopped the knots from one side of the seam to the other…
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This is the second set of 4 blocks and again I split the seam across the middle into 3 sections.
The first section is more Portuguese Stem Stitch, which has become a favourite stitch, I find it very rythmic and soothing to work.
 The middle section is double knot stitch above which I added a cuppa tea scene…The Tea Pot is cut from a cotton print fabric and put on with needle turn applique…I put the tooth pick in the picture to remind myself to tell you what a wonderful tool it is for needle turn applique, I have never enjoyed doing needle turn applique until a friend showed me recently how to do it using a tooth pick and it makes all the difference, when turning the seam allowance under with the toothpick the wood grips the fabric and makes it possible to make the fine adjustments required for needle turn applique….I painted the cup charm using acrylic model paints.
The third seam is Split Stitch done with silk ribbon.
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 I have now joined 3 groups of 4 blocks but only got the embroidery finished on one.
Below are the 3 stitches that I did on the join running across.
Coral Stitch
Double knot stitch
Scroll Stitch with narrow (1 mm) silk ribbon
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Portuguese Stem Stitch is a satisfying stitch to work, it is only a thin line but with a thick thread it has a lovely texture.
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I am still feeling my way with the embroidery on the seams that join these blocks, the ones I have done have had similar colours both sides so it was easy to find a thread colour that blended into both, this join has different colours both sides and I didn’t know which colour to go with but Chequered chain stitch, from the Anchor book, solved the problem because I could just use both colours.
I was asked about the ‘Anchor 100 embroidery Stitches’ book…The copy I have was printed in Australia and purchased in the 1980’s…I have photographed the details of the company that published it and the cover.
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 The green stitch on the left is 3 prong up and down buttonhole stitch done on a slope.
the stitch on the right side is wheatear stitch
This stitchon the left is double knot stitch which I found on page 29 of the Anchor 100 Embroidery stitches book…the stitch on the right is cable chain stitch from page 26 of the Anchor book.
I intended this yellow motif to go over onto the next block but it went to far over…umm I cut half of it off but then it didn’t go close enough to the seam so I unpicked the other half and replaced it so that it just covered the join seam…the stitch that I did above and below is double knot stitch.
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I covered one join with Wheatear Stitch, this weeks TAST Stitch… if you look carefully you will see that the stitches on the right are slightly different to those on the left end, I was going under the loop instead of under the straight stitches…it does look better when done under the straight stitches but I didn’t bother redoing the missdone stitches because the thread almost blends with the fabric and you do really have to look carefully to see it.
 Some years back mum settled on a style of dress that is quick and easy for her to make, she varies it with different colours, trims, made from cotton jersey it is easy to care for, it can be dressed up or down, looks nice on her and most importantly is comfortable, she has many of them and I wanted to make one for my clothsline…Jersey is not a favourite fabric of mine and at first I thought I didn’t have any, then I remembered the box of Barbie Doll cloths where I found a lovely print jersey that I think mum would like, it is an outfit made by my daughters other Granny and the Question is Do I Cut it Up? How far do I go in the pursuit of creativity?
Umm best do an experiment to see if I can actually make a dress as small as I want it, (about 1 1/2 inchs high)…For my experiment I used a piece of very old T shirt that I use to clean my glasses…it took a bit of trial and error but my experiment was so successful that I won’t need to remodel Barbie’s dress, even the colour looks good on the background that it will be on.
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