Friday, January 20, 2012

CQ Journal Project and 123 TAST!

The last couple weeks have been a flurry of activity, having spent a week in California, then arriving home (with the Great Stash Acquisitions) to sort and fondle them. And cut, dye, and attempt to begin listing them in my Etsy.  (And all my Valentine packs sold out this week!)  And to all this, we have been tending grandkids and I have been stitching and hanging with my friends (to help Lee move and to plan our CQI Retreat with Bev). More on that later.

So, FINALLY, here are my TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) stitches for Weeks 1, 2 and 3.  They are no great shakes, believe me. But I have done them on my first CQJP block, which is now finished. To prove it, here are my pictures.

Completed Block 1 
Fly stitch is not my best stitch by a long shot, but here I have used it, as I usually do, as just little V’s in gold Kreinik (see picture below). Then I did some fly stitch leaves. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have ever done fly stitch leaves, so for me this was a stretch (don’t laugh).  You will notice on the picture above that as you go upper left to lower right on the fly stitch leaf seam, each one gets incrementally better. Another thousand or so, and I should have it down!  ;-)

Outline stitch (wrapped) scallops with fly stitch leaves
I also included some fly stitch lace, so I did three variations of the Fly Stitch.   Week 2 was the Buttonhole stitch, and the pink metallic Kreinik seam below is my first example.  (Can you tell that I like Kreinik metallic threads?)


In the first picture of the full block, you can see I also did the half wheel buttonhole seam treatment (with a nasty thread that shed a lot and was loosey goosey).  Those are not technical terms, LOL.  I should (and may) rip it out and do it over. I also did a reverse buttonhole motif on the green and added a bead to its center. Three examples.

The Feather Stitch is the Week 3 challenge, and I did a basic seam and added silk ribbon roses. It is one of my fall-back seam treatments, and I consider it cheating.  But it finished off the block with the color that I needed there.  I will do another feather stitch variation as I begin block #2 this weekend.  :-)

Now, I just need to figure out where I need to load my pictures and do all the linky things that are the bane of my existence!!

Have a great weekend!
Cathy maroon

8 comments:

  1. Very pretty Cathy! I love that you are working on the black backgrounds with bright colors! Just beautiful!

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  2. Am loving the look of both your stitches and the CQJP!!

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  3. Your first CQJP block is beautiful! Looking forward for the next one :)
    Hugs,
    Annamaria

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  4. Lovely work. I like the lacey buttonhole

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  5. I think your fly stitches are perfect Cathy! And love your first CQJP block. I really need to get mine finished.

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  6. Very nicely done. I have some vintage (or maybe antique by now) kits to do. I hope to do as well.

    Caught your etsy store. Will put this up as soon as I have enough.

    Happy Pink Saturday!

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  7. My long comment went somewhere...Happy Pink Saturday!

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  8. This is going to be something really different with the needlepoint in the centre. Your first block is lovely with splashes of colour.

    What a good idea the CQJP is, just one block a month should be no problem!

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