This is my entry for Cretan stitch for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. It was lots of fun, but nothing overly inventive. I am really enjoying seeing what others stitch up.

Most of my sample lines came straight from Sharon’s challenge post on Cretan stitch, but I also saw quite a number of participants stitching leaves, so I thought I’d add one, too.

Once again I’ve done my sample on some handpainted Aida cloth. Aida cloth is just so easy to stitch, so I think I’m going to continue using it for anything that requires a straight line for the sampler and use regular cloth for when I do my more experiment samples. All of the sample lines are done with 3 strands of embroidery floss… I decided I need more mileage out of my floss if I’m going to be able to continue doing my samples through the year.

This is my sampler for last week’s Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. I took a few of the stitch patterns off the samplers of other participants… nothing really new or exciting, but I want to make sure I get most of the basics in my stitch book done every week. I’m thinking of keeping this challenge going into next year and revisiting the stitches to expand my book.

On Textile Explorations Susan did these really neat floss wrapped rings that used button hole stitch. I thought they were fabulous, so I tried my hand at a few. Of course, I also forgot how big a 10 cent piece is and mine are a wee bit bigger. The big blue one can actually fit a £2 coin through it’s hole. I’ll have to try this again with smaller forms.

This week’s stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesday was herringbone. Here are a few of my samples:

This was the simplest of the pages I stitched, as I tried to see what I could do with no more than the basic stitch. I started out with the basic herringbone, then add some horizontal and/or vertical stitches were the threads crossed. I did the same with the double herringbone however I played a bit with size and weight of thread. I must say, I love the banding one gets when you just keep layering the herringbone stitch. It’s very effective and I think I’ll be using that idea more often.

On the next sample I wanted to explore the various ways in which weaving could be used in conjunction with this stitch. The top most sample is plain herringbone, the second is whipped with metallic thread. Third is double herringbone version 2. The fourth and fifth samples are woven using the same ribbon but on one the herringbone in only 1/4-inch wide while the other is 1/2-inch. Number six, seven, and eight all explore wrapping the thread/ribbon around the stitches, although number seven has an extra layer using double herringbone. The last four samples on this cloth all use double herringbone version 1 which were then woven with a second (or third) colour. I love the last one with the ribbon woven through. :)

On the third sample I wanted to explore what could be done with beads (and only beads). This sample took the longest, but was also the most fun. To save on space I put several similar explorations on a single line, such as on the fifth, sixth and seventh sample lines of this page.

On my fourth sample, I wanted to explore the effect of combining various techniques (weaving, beading, and extra stitching). These were really quite fun to do as the various techniques gave such dimension to each other. I will admit, by the end of this sample I was growing quite tired and decided ‘lets see what a HUGE herringbone would look like’.

This sample remains incomplete as I wish to add to it in the future as time permits, but it is a basic exploration of couching and stitching down objects. I’m quite keen on the 3rd line of this sample which was actually a suggestion of my husband. Sometimes to find something interesting you merely need to turn the world on its head and ask a non-sewing geek.

There are quite a few other explorations I didn’t have a chance to try, but I am making notes in my book as a ‘to do’ list for the future. That includes Chevron stitch which I just pretended didn’t exist.

Thanks for the challenge, Sharon! I’m looking forward to next week’s stitch, although I doubt I’ll get as much done. If nothing else I’ve got a head full of ideas of what I’d like to put into my stitch book. And really, that’s the point.

I’m sick with cold right now, and not happy about it. Unfortunately, this cold has left me without energy to create… yet I persist onwards (cause, really, what else am I going to do… ). I currently only have the energy to hand stitch, which allows me to work at my samples and fall asleep anytime I need to, usually with the needle still in my hand.

Having said that, my samples for Take A Stitch Tuesday are going much slower than expected, but at least they are going. I’ve got the first sample page done, and I’ll post whatever I manage to finish on Sunday night or Monday morning GMT for all to see.

The Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge is a weekly stitching challenge hosted by Sharon of In a Minute Ago in which we explore a new stitch every week and blog/post our results. If anyone is interested, please check out Sharon’s original post and sign up there.