Last year for the Buttonhole Tast stitch I did a Fan and thought that I would do one on my sampler, as it turns out I have done 2…For the first one I used a thin thread (2 strands cotton floss) which caused me to do smaller stitches and I did more rows and because it wasn’t looking very good I wove a metalic thread through the buttonhole and did a row of buttonhole with the metalic thread at the top of the fan…the metalic thread saved the look of this fan but the finished fan is rather complex so I did a second fan with a thicker thread (size 3 cotton pearl) and kept it simple like the original.
 
|
The Heart on the right is on my sampler, inspired by the heart on the left which is on my wall hanging A Secret garden in my Heart.
I cut heart shapes from gold net and buttonhole stitched around the edges with gold metalic thread before decorating with bead flowers and detached chain stitch leaves.
|
Top Row…The first part of this seam is from one of Elizabeth’s tast experiments, I was having trouble with the tension and thought of another way to get a similar effect, I did 2 rows with groups in each row coming together at one point and then straight stitches over the central points…size 8 silk thread.
Middle Row…a simple flipped buttonhole stitch trimmed with straight stitches worked with 2 strands of green cotton floss and red size 5 cotton pearl thread…I like how delicate the straight stitches make this seam look.
Bottom Row…Marking the change of Season….Stem stitch done with a wool thread, it has been such a cool summer we are already thinking about pulling out the winter woollies
|
I have finished the second Panel of my Band Sampler…I have photographed it with the first panel so that you can see how there lengths differ, the second panel is 33 inches long making a total length of 63.5 inches.
My next task is to bind the edges of the panels…originally I was going to bind the panels with black but when I went to purchase some ribbon I thought that the dark red looked much nicer…I am using 5/8th inch Satin Ribbon, using running stitch done with a matching thread I stitched the ribbon to the back of the panel then folded the ribbon to the front and stitched it in place again using a running stitch done with a matching thread.
|
These 3 seams are based on one by Lin Moon.
Top row…With this seam I put the beads on the stitch as I worked it instead of at the ends of the stitch.
Middle row…the top row looked so different from Lin’s that I thought I would do it again with the beads on the ends of the stitch but after doing the row of flipped buttonhole stitches I thought what if I did a second row in the spaces of the first which gave a nice centre to put the long beads….2 strands silk floss and 2 strands of cotton floss.
Bottom row…trying again, this one is very similar to Lin’s but only has 5 stitches on each side because I was at the bottom of the panel and didn’t have enough space for the swing of the 7 stitches….Rayon Thread.
|
All of todays details are based on stitches on skybellarts buttonhole stitch sampler.
Top row…The arms of the Buttonhole Stitch are sloped with 2 or 3 arms sharing the same hole at the top to form triangles….Rayon thread.
Second row…This seam uses the 3 arm triangles which I elongated and flipped from side to side…silk thread.
Third row…2 rows of Buttonhole stitch, with their arms faceing each other and threaded together forming the geometric design…2 strands cotton floss.
Bottom row…2 rows of Buttonhole, the top row with alternating long and short arms, the lower row with very short arms aligned with the long arms of the top row and then threaded with the contrasting colour…Cotton Thread.
|
Top 3 rows are from Sharon’s Sampler
Top Row…Alternating pairs of short and long Buttonhole Stitches, worked with 2 strands of cotton floss.
Second Row…staggered Buttonhole stitches flipped from side to side , worked with 2 strands cotton floss, it looks different from sharon’s because I have used a finer thread, less stitches in each group and the stitches are shorter…I like the way the detached chain stitch (3 strands silk floss) and beads fit into this variation.
Third row…Buttonhole stitches, staggered on both sides and flipped from side to side, worked with a fine silk thread.
Bottom row…Is from a stitch by stitch1peta, I liked the border formed by adding the narrow row of buttonhole to the top of the scollop topped row and the overall fringe looking effect of the combination. Worked with 2 strands of a varigated cotton floss.
|
The Take it Further February design concept is What are you old enough to remember…I interprette that to mean not my oldest memory but the oldest memory that would be shared by others, so from my First Thoughts I have taken the local memory of the New Ballina Catholic Church or more specifically the closeing of the Old Church which I also link to a family memory because my sister was the last baby to be Baptized in the old church in 1962…
The old church was a tall narrow building with steps up to a small porch at the front and painted brown, to me a much nicer building than the modern, blond brick, building of the new church.
Umm, I think that I should have done more experiments with how the fabric pens worked on the linen and then
not coloured the building…it looked a lot better as an outline than it did after painting.
|
My intension for this seam was a couple of buttonhole staggered likc bricks…Once I had Bricks on my brain I couldn’t resist doing a extra rows to make a brick wall.
Bricks are 3 strands of cotton floss, 2 strands of dark brown with 1 strand of light brown, mixing the colours gives more txture to the bricks.
The grass and Flower stems are Random Buttonhole Stitch with 3 strands of cotton floss.
This brick wall completes my 12 inches of stitching with the Take it Further February Colours.
The green at the bottom is an overlapp onto the Feb colours but also if I was working with these colours on a crazy block I would just about always allow myself to use green with them, for leaves and grass.
|
I thought that I was recording known variations of stitches on this sampler but it appears that I am also experimenting with them too…while using Detail 115 as the model for the top stitch I saw several other ways that it could be arranged to form different patterns.
Top row…uses buttonhole stitch worked with an angle, is stitched with ribbon floss and trimmed with beads,
second row…reverses the direction of alternate groups of 3 stitches to give quite a different look which is further emphasised by the addition of Detached Chain Stitches and the arrangement of the beads..Both threads are 6 strands of cotton floss.
Third row…work a second row, which mirrors the first row…the uses of 2 light strands and 1 dark strand of cotton floss gives an extra texture to the stitch.
Bottom Row…work the second row in the opposite direction to the first row…2 strands cotton floss.
|
