TAST Stitches 44 and 77

There has not been much time for crafting this month, and when there has been time, the energy was lacking. Between working and a few trips to the ER with someone dear (thankfully, the issues ended up being side affects from medications and nothing more serious), life has been a bit crazier than normal. My hubby and my boys have been rockstars, taking on some of my chores without even being asked. That was the best Mother's Day gift this mom could hope for! 

Here is a bit of progress I have been hoping to share for a while. (I typed this post over the weekend, to be sure I finally did share it!)

TAST Stitch 44 (part 2): Plaited Feather Stitch

Back in February, I shared the Crossed Feather Stitch. In April, I worked the Plaited Feather Stitch on my TAST sampler using pink and black perle cotton. (The arrow is pointing to it in this photo.)

TAST Stitch 77: Pistil Stitch

I apologize for the photo quality. This was the best of over 10 attempts to capture the snowflake I created with the pistil stitch. 

The bottom snowflake was created with size 12 white perle cotton, 4 pistil stitches, 4 straight stitches, 4 Mill Hill Petite Glass Seed Beads and 1 small white bead.

(Some of the other snowflakes in this photo are partially complete and were created using designs my dear blogging friend shared on her blog, Magpie's Mumblings. You may find the designs here, here and here.)

I most frequently use the pistil stitch to create antennae on butterflies, as seen here. (You may see more of this block here.)

I also used pistil stitches to dress up this seam created with the use of one of Sharon B.'s Crazy Quilting templates. (I am not affiliated, but did receive the templates in exchange for an honest opinion, and I do love using them! You may see more about this block here.)

Pistil stitches were also used with bullion knots to create flowers on the block I embellished for Annette in our Under the Sea Round Robin. (You may see more about this block here.)

TAST Challenge

In April, there was a 2 week TAST break to provide time for some of us to catch up. If you did not need to catch up, you were encouraged to participate in the TAST Break Challenge to create a small project using 3 TAST stitches. 

I do need to catch up, but opted to use the feather stitch, bullion knot, and detached chain stitch to create a gift for Mother's Day. I also used the chain stitch to add "Mom" to the center.

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday. This is a personal challenge offered by Sharon B. at Pintangle.com, encouraging others to learn new embroidery stitches. A new stitch is introduced each week, but participants are able to choose their own pace for working the stitches. You may learn more about it here.

This is the 10th year Sharon has offered TAST and she is celebrating by sharing interviews with some of the TAST participants. Here are links to the interviews she has shared so far (I hope I did not miss any):

Annette of Fat Quarter

Renee of Hand Stitched Treasure

Angela Princess Bubbles Creates

Maureen of CrazyQstitcher

Queeniepatch of Queenie's Needlework

Chitra of Jizee6687's Weblog

Kimberly our Chicken Little Lady

Gerry Krueger of Older Rose

The cover of the Summer 2017 edition of the Crazy Quilt Quarterly features work by Sharon B. This edition focuses on buttons. Adding buttons to my work always feels challenging to me, so I am looking forward to ordering my copy. 

I am not affiliated. You may find the magazine here and learn how to submit your work to the magazine here. 

And, Sharon shared some exciting news about her book today. You may check it out here.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Renee