Detail 620 kept jumping out and telling me that those big spaces should have something in the centres, so I have added beaded flowers to the detail.
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This stitch is another one of the variations on Sharon’s sampler, varying the length of the arms…On this variation the lengths of the Cretan stitch arms are only varied on one side which I trimmed with beads.
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This stitch started as one of the variations on Sharon’s sampler varying the length of the arms…
I didn’t allow enough difference in the length of the long and short arms and with the stitchs widely spaced the pattern formed by the long and short arms couldn’t be discerned…
I have always said that if you don’t like a seam then work it until you do, so with that in mind I did a second row over the top of the first one which reduced the space between the stitches which made it look a little better but the pattern was still ill defined.
To pick the pattern out more I used green thread to do french knots on the long arms and burgundy for the short arms with additional knots in the centres…To further define the difference in the lengths of the arms I did the green knots at the end of the arm making it a little longer while keeping the short arms the same length by covering the end of the stitch with the knot….and I like the final effect.
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The Top seam is Cretan Stitch with long arms and narrow space between the arms and trimmed with beads as I did on my teaching sample…thread is 2 strands of cotton floss.
While I was stitching the top seam I thought that if I can do very long arms then I can do very short arms on the stitch…The Bottom row is the same width and same spacing between the arms as the top seam but has very short arms on the stitch creating very deep Vs, making for a visually very different look to the first seam…O have also arranged the beads in a different pattern just for variety…Thread is size 5 cotton pearl.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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I love detached chain stitch but it is a stop start stitch and I was finding it hard to get a flow of stitching which slowed down my productivity and combined with the added distraction of having my son home and the additional time that we have been spending in the garden the progress on my band sampler slowed and came to a halt over the last couple of weeks.
When I visited Sharon this afternoon she asked me if I knew that April 2008 was 50 years since the Ban the Bomb Peace Sign was designed,
 On her mind tracks blog Sharon has links to a photo essay and an article on the history of the peace sign…I didn’t know but the peace sign was a part of my youth and worth stitching it into my sampler their and then.
 I have also photographed the last section of my sampler to show you how the last few additions fit together.
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 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.
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