The Take it Further Design concept for February is What are you old enough to remember…I remember my aunty taking me to the Lismore Agricultural Show when I was 4 years old (1960), I remember boats floating around in a tank of water, I remember performing bears, dressed in cloths, riding bikes and pushing prams, I remember fairy floss and I remember being car sick on the windy road home…and I still have a silhouette that was cut that day
Today I went to the Royal Canberra Agricultural show, on the way in I was telling my friend what I remembered and when we came across the same guy that had cut the silhouette in 1960 and couldn’t resist having him cut another one.
Without kids we had a lovely day, we wandered around at our own pace, checking out the animals, looked at the crafts, we watched the family circus and had a ride on the ferris wheel (the capsules were air conditioned with piped music), we watched demonstrations, we sampled products and sat in the massage chairs and on the way out I bought some fairy floss.
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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.
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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.
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Top row…Buttonhole Stitch with stepped arm lengths, worked with a varigated silk thread.
second row… Buttonhole Stitch with stepped arm lengths and flipped from side to side, trimmed with beads held on with a straight stitch that bends when threaded through the bead…3 strands of cotton floss.
third row…Buttonhole stitch with long and short arms flipping from side to side…Thread strands of cotton floss.
Bottom row…2 rows of Buttonhole stitch in groups of 3, flipped from side to side, the second row worked into the spaces of the first riw…Blue thread 3 strands of cotton floss, mustrard colour thread is wool.
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For the smaller alphabets I looked at them in the book but when it came to stitching them I shaped them for myself which was easy because of the common shapes shared by letters.
Capital Letters…Back Stitch with 2 strands cotton floss.
Lower case alphabet…Back Stitch with silk Buttonhole twist thread.
Numbers…Back stitch with 2 strands of cotton floss.
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 The Box of threads on the right is my selection of The Take It Further February Colours.
The next thing that I have stitched on my Sampler is an Alphabet…The letters are easy enough to form on the spot but by having an alphabet to reference then it will be easier to space words for best visial effect.
 This Cross Stitch Alphabet is from Simple Samplers by Yvonne Mathieson…I adapted a few letters where I prefered a different shape…All Letters are stitched with Stranded Cotton Embroidery Floss but each colour is a different number of strands making some letters heavier than others.
A to E has 6 strands
F to J has 3 strands
K to P has 5 strands
Q to Z has 4 strands
Bottom row…the Cups and Saucers are from an Ondori Book Cross Stitch 300 Motifs I adapted there tea pot so that it is short and fat rather than tall and skinny and the jug is adapted from the cups…these are stitched with 4 Strands of cotton floss.
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The January Take it Further Challenge design Concept was ‘who do you Admire’ , the answer to that question for me is that I admire my Friends, on my post card I wrote the word Friends, for something different on my sampler I googled Chinese Symble for Friends.
The backing fabric prooved to be handy in executing this design, I traced a reverse image of the design onto the backing fabric and then using a single strand of black silk floss I backstitched the design through to the front which gave me a crisp clean outline which I filled with close rows of Stem Stitch.
 
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 Last week I decided to withdraw from the Take it Further Challenge…I hadn’t been real happy with my January post card and when came to interpretting my February design thoughts onto a post card I hit a brick wall, I am so enjoying my band sampler that I didn’t want to stop to think about other techniques needed to do a postcard…It goes against my grain to quit but I just wasn’t enjoying it and decided that the best thing to do was to withdraw.
A few hours later I rejoined when I thought of a way to incorperate the TIF challenge into what I am enjoying…For each month I will select threads and beads in the colour scheme and stitch 12 inches of my sampler with them and do a detail inspired by the design concept…
I have spent the last week doing a catch up using the January colours, below are the threads and beads I selected to work with and the image on the right is the 12 inches of sampler stitched with them…Working with the TIF colours is still a challenge particularly when they are colours that I don’t particularly like and would normally never use. The interesting thing though is that whilst I would never have chosen to use the January colours I do like how they stitched together.
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Top Row…Buttonhole Stitch in the shape of hills, When you change direction at the top of the hill the buttonhole stitch can slip at the peak this can be overcome by sealing the top stitch and coming up in the same hole to start again for the downhill slope, on this seam I have sealed the top stitch with a Colonial Knot…Thread is 3 strands of cotton floss.
Second Row…Overlapping rows of Buttonhole Stitch…The light green thread is 2 strands of cotton floss the other 4 colours are silk buttonhole twist.
Third Row…Buttonhole Stitch Hearts…Happy Valentines Day…Cotton Pearl size 5 thread.
Bottom Row…These sweet cross Stitch hearts are from my Miniature Sampler, on the miniature sampler I worked the crosses over a single thread, for this sampler I worked the crosses over 2 threads…I have stitched them with 4 strands of Red silk floss.
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Today has been an Historic Day for Australia … Our new Government has said Sorry to our indiginous people … I have celebrated this decision in Stitches.
Top Row…Buttonhole Stitch, stepped and flipped from side to side, both purple and green are 4 strands of silk floss.
Middle row…’Sorry’ is cross stitch done with cotton pearl size 5…The date is Backstitch done with 2 strands of silk floss
Bottom Row is Buttonhole done with 4 strands of rayon thread and trimmed with detached chain stitch and colonial knots done with 6 strands of cotton.
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