Annies Crazy World

Algerian eye stitch is not a stitch that I will do often, partly because I find counted thread work hard on my eyes and partly because it needs a hoop and I don’t use a hoop for crazy quilting…but for the TAST challenge I found an orphan block that I could get a hoop onto and Sharon gave me some waste canvas so that I could do the stitch on a crazy block…

To remove the waste canvas damp it slightly which softens the fibers and breaks the bond holding the fibres together so that you can use tweezers to pull the threads out one at a time.

I had stitched a heart shape but after removing the waste canvas I thought that it looked to squared off on not well defined so I used a metalic thread to do a buttonhole stitch which I worked between the spokes of the Algerian eye stitch.

I liked the way the buttonhole worked but it still didn’t look finished to me…

I thought I would try a heart shaped bead in the middle…as it turned out I decided that a tiny red crystal finished it off nicely.

The Stitchinfingers Hand Embroidery group have started a Stitchalong…I have recorded the stitch along on my sampler with the stitching fingers URL and because this is a world wide Stitch Along I thought that it would be nice to use the globe bead that I bought at the craft show but the bead is a 1/2 diameter, a little to bulky to roll into the sampler, I pinned it to the edge while I thought about it, I liked it on the edge and I have a few more ideas for charms that I can attach on the side after I put the binding on…Adding charms to the side is a new design element for me to play around with, when I showed Sharon she called them Tags.

As I have now joined the Stitch Along I am changing from following the Take a Stitch Tuesday list to the Stitch Along stitch List. The first stitch on the List is Algerian eye Stitch, which is the last stitch I did, next stitch on the list is Arrowhead stitch which I have started with a row of the basic stitch.

This is also this start of my Take it Further July Colours

It is 6 Months since I started this sampler and to mark the 6 months I have started the 5th panel with a summary of the information that I record on the back of the sampler.

The seam at the bottom is a row of elongated Algerian eye stitches.

I started backing the panels of my sampler with a light weight fabric because I like the firmer feel of the double layer of fabric…I then realized that I could also use the backing fabric to record statistical information…the number on the right hand side are the blog post detail numbers, numbers preceded by letters are the stitch count ie ch29 is the 29th chevron stitch variation, the number on the left side is the running count of details on the sampler, I also record the panel number and the date I start and finish each panel and along the edge I mark the length in feet and metres.

Top Row…while I was stitching the seams with the bar crossing over the central stitch I thought what if I angle the stitch out from the seam, the result is this delightfully simple seam of zig zag with a dashed line either side.

That is the end of my ideas for Chevron Stitch and I am now moving on to Algerian Eye and Eyelet Stitch, The week 6 TAST stitch. On the left there is an eyelet stitch, the middle stitch is Algerian eye stitch and on the right a heart shaped eyelet stitch.

The bottom row is 1/4 Eyelet stitches that I will use to join this panel to the next one.