Annies Crazy World

I have used Couching the TAST week 12 Stitch for specific purposes (The rocks under the light house on block 14 are couched ribbons) but have never designed with it and have had no creative ideas for it, in the mean time I have done this simple seam using fly stitch to couch the green chenille thread along the seam and finished it with detached chain stitch sealed with Colonial Knots done with a varigated thread..

I described how to stitch these little Christmas candies in this previous post …This time I have done them with different coloured wrappings.

An advantage of working on the sampler is that if I have an idea I can try it and record it at the time, as I was stitching the candies I realized that longer stitches would probably make a Christmas BonBon/cracker I needed to put 2 couching stitches at each end to get the shape of the cracker end and the tension of the outside stitches is a little harder to gauge but on the whole it does make a good BonBon.

Bokhara Couching, Roumanian Couching, Trellis Couching

The basics of doing needlelace are to have a base to draw the pattern and work on, in my sample I have calico stretched into a small hoop with the pattern drawn on tracing paper. Thread or wire is couched to the pattern outline, I use a bright contrasting thread for the couching so that it is easy to see when it is removed at the end…The area inside the couched threads is filled with Buttonhole filling stitches which are done done on the surface, in my sample I still have the top right portion to fill…when the area is filled the couching thread is removed leaving you with a free standing piece of lace.

Tonights Detail is some of the many Buttonhole filling patterns used for needlelace.