Friday, March 23, 2012

A Prickly Stitch

This week’s TAST stitch was barred and alternating barred chain. 
It was a prickly stitch in more ways than one.  It really does have a mind of it’s own.  When I first saw it I thought whatever I was going to interpret for this stitch it had to be something spiky or prickly.  A few things ran through my mind – cactus, barbed wire, birds nest, rose branches and crown of thorns. After a search on Flickr (gotta love flickr) I decided to go with cactus.
Wk 12 Barred Chain
The cacti are done in all types of thread, mostly 2 strands of DMC and Shirley gave me the blue wool which was perfect for the border.  Thank you Shirley, you are so wise with these types of things.
The colouring on the background is done with Prismacolor pencils and heat set. (I hope).
You can see more samples on Sharon B’s pintangle site.  Also have a look at the photos on Stitchin’ Fingers – there is so much inspiration on that site and you can join up and look further too.  Check out work by Luiz Vaz he is a real master of embroidery!!!

10 comments:

Petra said...

Beautiful! Nice stitching, motives and colours.

Jen said...

HI! Di, You are very clever with the TAST project and the different stitches,and stitching with the blue wool adds the texture to the piece. It all looks very prickley.

CJ STITCHING AND BLOOMS said...

Hello Di, I also find this stitch challenging. You have done a lovely job of creating this prickly creation. Love all the colors and i see you are also becoming a pencil artist too. Hugs Judy

Suztats said...

Very neat ideas, Di! I just did the practice...I felt so ho-hum about this stitch. Good on you!

Annet said...

Love your cactus!

celle qui rêve said...

Desert plants are just the good design fro this stitch :D

Radka said...

Well thought out and stitched :)

Linda said...

What a great way to use this stitch Dianne. Your little 'Mexican' scene is gorgeous. You are still having such fun with this.

Lins Artyblobs said...

It is a great idea to use the stitch for cactus, really effective.

shirley said...

Cant believe I have been away so long to miss all your posts of your amazing work Di. This is such a clever design and very appropriate for the stitch.