Annies Crazy World

Top row is a Basic Herringbone stitch done with 6 strands of cotton thread…Leaves are Straight stitches with 4 strands of cotton…plastic flowers stitched on with a bead complete the row.

bottom row is Linen hem stitching done with size 8 crochet thread…I am leaving the back of my sampler showing so that the back of the stitches can be seen but I don’t want seams showing on the back so I have hemmed the ends of the panel and will ladder or faggot stitch the panels together…

The first completed panel of my Band Sampler is 30 inches long and has 41 stitch variations.

For the hem at the top of the panel I stitched over 3 threads which has given a bigger hole which I prefer.

The only other time that I have hemmed Linen was 35 years ago when I hemmed a 50 inch square of Irish Linen for the Tablecloth that I embroidered with Spanish Blackwork for my School Certificate, which was enough hemming to imprint the how to on my brain forever because I had no trouble remembering how to do it…below is the tablecloth (which took me 12 months to embroider) and a detail of the embroidery.

Top Row…Is the same variation as the bottom row last night, but done one sided with different stitch lengths with a Rayon Thread and trimmed with tiny straight sitches (stranded cotton thread) and beads.

Middle row…This Loopy line, of Stem Stitch worked with silk buttonhole twist thread, seperates TAST week 1 stitching, which has taken 2 weeks to stitch 33 Herringbone variations, from…

Bottom row…TAST week 2 which was Buttonhole Stitch the first half of the seam is buttonhole stitch as used to make buttonholes, right side of the seam is Buttonhole Stitch as used to hem blankets and also known as Blanket Stitch…and my Buttonhole Stitch is worked with Silk Buttonhole Twist Thread.

Spot one uses herringbone stitch in a a circular design inspired by Rosalie_sews’…the centre is buttonhole stitch and around the edge I used double knot stitch…yellow and varigated threads are 3 strands of cotton, purple thread is cotton pearl size 3.

Spot two is a pattern from Sharon’s sampler, I think the thread is silk and it has a very fine metalic thread running through it.

Spot three…When I saw the pattern in spot 2 I thought Fan….easier thought than done, it is not the shaped fan I set out to make, it is very bulky at the bottom, I didn’t expect the ribbed overlapping of the herringbone stitch to be so high and the stitches are to long not to be held down somehow…I wove a thread around the middle and found that I could pull the crossover threads lower and then continued to weave the rest of it, as it neared completion I started to like it more and more and I really like the scolloped edge, to form the scollops I wove the last 3 rows over and under the same threads and leaving the thread loose on the overweave…all the threads are 6 strands of stranded cotton.

Spot fourTRying the fan again, this time I did the first stitch as a single herringbone and then filled in the curve with closed herringbone making bigger stitches on the outside curve…This time it is the shape I wanted (I drew the curve onto the fabric) and not as bulky, It was quick and easy to do and should embellish up nicely on a crazy block with extra stitches and beads…and maybe a thinner thread, thread used for this one is 6 strands of cotton.

The bottom row is a variation from Quiter Moments TAST stitchings…It plays with angleing the edge stitches up and down…thread is a cotton pearl size 3…I think that I am going to have to do another row of this one leaving room to add a trim that will emphasis the curve formed along the edge…time for bed……….

I am so enjoying my sampler for many reason one of which is that I can take it with me and even on a buzy day I can still get a couple of stitches done.

Top row is a basic Herringbone stitch done with a varigated cotton pearl size 5 thread with a cotton thread woven through it.

Bottom row is a variation that I found on
Connie’s Blog, it drew my attention because I like this use of bugle beads…I have stitched the herringbone with 4 strands of silk floss.

Thus far the herringbone stitches I have used have been obvious variations, variations I have used in the past or variations that I have seen on Sharon’s Sampler…Today I went to the Flickr group and put Herringbone into search tonights stitches are inspired by variations I found there.

The top row is a herringbone variation by Sapphire_Dakini…It is worked with open herringbone at the top and closed herringbone at the bottom…I liked the squares in the pattern and I think that with a second mirrored row it would make a lovely trellis to put vines on…I think that the thread is Linen.

The second row…When I started this sampler I thought that I would be recording known variations but it would seem that I am still playing with the stitches as well because after doing the top row I used the same variation idea and turned it upside down, made the edge stitches smaller, stepped alternate stitches along the bottom edge and finished it with beads.

Third row…I thought this variation of herringbone stitch done by Lin Moon, looked very elegant and refined…I think that Lin might have used a thinner gold thread then the DMC metallic that I used and I think that she may have done bigger stitches than I did because even with petit beads mine is not quite as delicate as Lin’s.

The Bottom row was inspired by the other stitch in Lin’s, image…I liked the way the straight stitches linked the 2 row’s of herringbone…3 strands of stranded cotton thread.

Top row, long narrow herringbone stitches make a nice base for a sweet row of flowers, the flower stems are stem stitch and the leaves are detached chain stitches…Both greens are 2 strands of silk floss

Middle row is a basic herringbone stitch with Detached chain stitches over each cross…Both threads are Rayon Thread…Tip when working with Rayon Thread, damp the thread and let it dry or holding thread at each end pass the thread through the steam of a kettle, it takes the kinks out and makes the thread managable.

Bottom row is a basic herringbone stitch with needle weaving in the V shapes…The second colour was introduced when I realized after doing the first 5 that I only had enough thread left to do 5 more, I did get 6 so I did them at the other end of the row with the 6th one in the middle so the pattern is still balanced…Both Threads are cotton pearl size 5.

Before silk ribbon was available I had worked out a way of stitching baskets using Herringbone Stitch, visit this past post for what lead me to think of the idea and the first basket I stitched. (My photography skills have improve since I wrote that post.)

The Basket on the left is a sample that I stitched circa 1987…The Thread is 4 strands of a varigated stranded thread which I have seperated and put back together with 2 of the strands reversed so that I got a mix of shades along the length of the thread…Looking at the flowers in the basket I must have been using scrapes of thread and experimenting with combing different colours of thread to get the colour variation in the flowers.

I draw the basket shape that I want on the fabric and then fill the shape with short wide apart herringbone stitches that are closed on the bottom and spaced at the top…A line of Stem Stitch across the bottom to give it a base and across the top for a neat rim for the basket…The handle can be done with stem stitch, Chain Stitch or Coral Stitch, I like Coral Stitch myself because the little lumps of the stitch have the texture/look of the knobby bits on cane.

Now if you look at the basket on my sampler you will see that it looks quite different, part of the difference is the thread (size 5 cotton pearl) the other difference is because I didn’t look at the older ones first and instead of doing small spaced stitches at the top I did bigger stitches and closed the herringbone.

For the flower arrangement in the basket I do leafy looking stitches with a mix of green threads and then put the flowers in on top of the green background, I filled this basket with Gathered Silk Ribbon Roses… I got a little carried away and just about covered most of the green background, so I used a thick size 3 green cotton pearl thread and added straight stitches around the edge and a couple of loops amongst the flowers.

Either side of the basket I did a pattern of 3 individual, overlapped herringbone stitches that use the same hole at the bottom but different entry and exit holes at the top…For the left hand pattern I used a Linen thread and the soft thread combined with stitches that are a little to long caused the pattern to be floppy and I had add a stitch over the cross point to hold it in place…For the pattern on the right I used a stiffer cotton thread, did shorter stitches and spaced the entry/exit points further apart.

The Take it Further Febuary Concept is What are you old enough to remember? see Sharon’s post for full details…That is a big question to answer on a tiny post card but that is the challenge.

My first thoughts were to identify early memories…

My earliest memory of an international event that I am aware of is man walking on the moon (21st July 1969).

My earliest national event that I remember is when Australia changed our currency from pounds shillings and pence to dollars and cents on the 14th of February 1966.

My earliest local home town event that I remember is the opening of the new Catholic Church, about november 1962, dated and remembered because my sister at a few weeks old was the last baby to be baptized in the old church before it was deconsicrated and used as a hall.

When I rang my mum to ask how old my sister was when baptised, we were talking about functions that had been held in the old church hall and I remembered the Art book that I won as first prize in a painting competition held in the old church hall… the subject of that painting was man walking on the moon, my earliest international memory.

The rest of the page is random thoughts of a past way of life much different to what we know today…

I think that I need to go back and read Sharon’s post again before further filtering these ideas.

Top Another seam with groups of 3 herringbone stitches, this one trimmed with beads.

Middle is a basic herringbone stitch threaded with ribbon floss.

Bottom row is Buttonhole stitch worked over the threads of the Herringbone stitch…my natural inclination is to work the buttonhole stitch from left to right, after writing the how to instructions for work from left to right I realized that some people would want to
work the button hole right to left, if that is you click here for instructions.