Week 19 - Basque Stitch

[cinzia]

This is definitely a late night posting. My youngest son is home again and I am certain he has taken us over our limit in just two weeks. The internet is so slow we must have been capped.
well talking of slow, last week was definitely a slow week as far as TAST goes with only one sample being posted. Now I have an excuse as I was at camp.... talk about an eye opening experience.. what a coincidence with last week's stitches forming open eyes in some cases:-)
Apart from our group slowing down this appears to have been a slow point with the original TAST group as there are only 30 samples posted, but I must say they are well worth checking over particularly if you like flowers.
step by step directions can be found here.
well only three days to go and then I will be on holidays and so hopefully will be able to catch up.
Hope everyone has their xmas shopping under control because the shopping queues are not looking pretty these days.

[Andrea Carew]

Hi People,
If you need/want a couple more pictures of woven/whipped wheels to look at - there are some on my blog - I have just joined stitchin fingers, and this group, today, but I participated in the original TAST challenge during 2007 - I did at least a tiny bit (and sometimes a whole lot) of every stitch ... and mostly kept up so I was usually only a week or less behind (except for one busy time when i think I got about 5 weeks behind and then did a whole pile of each of them in the week I caught up - lol)
Trouble is - I wasn't always organised enough to post the pictures to my blog as soon as I got the stitching done! ... but what I did was post a few of them every week or 10 - LOL ... and what I didn't always do was then post a comment to say I had blogged that stitch ...
What I might have to do, now that I have noticed this group exists, is to try and revisit any stitches that I have forgotten/wanted to do more with in the weeks that we are doing them here ... but that depends how busy I am at the time ... so it may not actually happen ...
The blog post with my whipped and woven wheels in it is at http://aykayem.blogspot.com/2007/05/stitching-up-some-more-loose-en... (the photos with those in are about half way down that rather long blog post, and if you need a "closer look" - click on the actual photo you will get to see the full size version) hmmm I didn't do that many ... but I guess 6 whipped and 2 woven was enough? lol
Ah - thank goodnes I tagged my TAST posts - that means that they all should (unless I missed tagging one) come up here - http://aykayem.blogspot.com/search/label/TakeAStitchTuesday ... there are also a few bonus things in some of those posts - pictures of other stitches, and even other things, in the same posts with a few of the TAST stitches - LOL
Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop
www.aykayem.blogspot.com
... in here messing around with stuff that could have waited a couple of hours, instead of doing what I came in here to do - e-mail a few Christmas cards! (if you want mine - there is one on my blog ... and a couple different ones on my other (even more neglected) blogs ... some of my blogs have links to some of the others, but the easiest place to find them all is to look at my profile - they should all show up in there - lol)

[cinzia]

Hi andrea,
thanks for the extra links.... hey five weeks behind last time around isn't that bad.. I'm a hell of a lot further behind than that even though I upload the stitches and links every week. I have just been so off track for ages but will take inspiration from you and knuckle down.
hope you had a good xmas
cinzia

[Andrea Carew]

LOL - for the original TAST thingy I sort of got organised before the initial enthusiasm wore off/before I went back to work after the Xmas break ... after the first couple of weeks I had decided to do it all on the red/black/yellow/white bits of felt in yellow/red/black/white thread ... so the stuff was already together for each week and all I had to do was print off the "how to" page for each stitch and then go for it while sitting watching tv/on lunch breaks at work/whenever else I had time to sew - LOL
... and - looking at my blog posts before - I noticed that there was one where I mention being 20 weeks behind with posting explanations/photos of my stitching! LOL
hmmm ...
... I wonder where I put that folder of printed out "how to" pages? ... not to mention my pile of stitched bits of felt/unstitched bits of felt/matching threads/etc? ... I want to continue using the same felt/threads I was using - but I won't be getting much done if I can't actually FIND them!
Also - in my most recent TAST blog post (that was actually at the start of this year) I mentioned about 3 or 4 challenges I was planning on doing - and how much of those do you think I got done? - almost none! LOL
(all I did was one A4 sized Journal Quilt in about October and started a couple more recently ... I was supposed to have done at least 5 of them to deliver to someone last week so they could be part of a travelling exhibition ... but I have only finished 2 ... although there are 2 more that are well on the way
... but I have not even started the 5th one! ... and I am not sure where, in my pile of mess, number 2 and 3 are!)
btw ... had a nice quiet Xmas - we were all still up at Midnight last night so DD (age 15 3/4) decided that it was already Xmas day so we should do the present swapping thing - so we did that, then DS (age almost 18) decided he was wide awake so he went to his girlfriend's place for the night and hasn't been seen since - LOL (but he did phone his grandma/my mum to say happy Xmas - she told me when she rang me) ... then today DH and I shared a nice Xmas lunch that he cooked (some roasted lamb/beef/turkey/etc, salad, apple pie and cream) ... DD was still asleep - but when she eventually got up she took one look at the nice roast meat/etc and said "yuck" ... DH picked at some leftovers for tea ... and I have only just realised I am finally starting to get hungry now - lol - so I might have to go do the same ... we did the usual "merry Xmas" phone calls to family/etc and took the dog for a walk - so he got a swim in the nearby pond for Xmas - lol
(he is a Golden Retriever - as far as he is concerned EVERY day is Christmas! LOL)
I probably should have posted this BEFORE I went and had tea ... mmmmm - turkey and gravy sandwich - yum!

[cinzia]

Xmas sounded fun at your place. We had the whole extended family get together here but both of my sons deserted ship before the hoards arrived:-)
Youngest said he couldn't stay because they were short on lifesavers at the beach and so he had agreed to do a patrol... in truth he was unfortunate because xmas is such a happy time that they are never short of volunteers (acceptable reason to get out of family get togethers) and so he was only down for one patrol.
Older son sees home as his refuge from the world and so when the hoards descended he went to check that youngest wasn't drowning.
Needless to say shortly after the visitors left boys returned home and we had a great night together.
Have a great day

[Ruth Palsson]

I finished my Basque Stitch a few days ago. I have just uploaded sample one and sample two. I have had a great time with this stitch and it is lovely to be on holidays. Even though I have retired from full time teaching, I only consider myself to be on holidays as it is school holidays and my official retirement date is late January sometime. Now to catch up with the whipped and woven wheels.

[cinzia]

Sample 2 is great ... I wish I had finished my crazy block so I could copy some of your ideas... how's that for blatant copyright violation!

[Miss 376]

I am supposed to be resting my eyes, so cannot do as much as I would like to do, but I did complete my postcard using basque stitch. I have never used this one before, and really enjoyed it. Details are here and a photo on flickr

[cinzia]

I love how you incorporate your stitches into your work rather than having them look like an after thought add on. Will definitely keep track of your blog for the day when I actually get around to making that crazy quilt I dream of.

[Miss 376]

Thank you. It was by looking at other people's work that I had any confidence to give it a go in the first place. I know there is so much more I need to learn, but I'm enjoying the process

[Gina E.]

And it is STILL Good Friday as I type this! I think I'm doing well, and hope to catch up to the rest of you by the time Easter is over. I didn't think I was going to get the hang of this Basque stitch, but I changed to another kind of thread, and it was much better. I started out by printing off a copy of Sharon's instructions for further reference for myself, but now and again the pictures don't print. Basque stitch is one that hasn't printed, and the instructions on their own don't make sense, so I'll have to practice this stitch a few times before I get to use it on anything! It is rather nice once you get the hang of it, isn't it?

[Miss 376]

I thought it was Gina. I loved the finished look of the stitch. Can't wait to see what you have done

[Gina E.]

Oh hi Jane!! Don't hold your breath waiting to see what I've done :-( All I've done is a row of six very straggly stitches, which I would be the only person to recognise as Basque stitch!