Time to 'fess up, I haven't done the real thing with
TAST for the last two weeks. Truth is, I got into the idea of running a kit making business again and, as happened last summer when I first had the idea seriously, my interest in stitching more or less disappeared at once. As soon as I decided to drop the idea each time, it returned! Although I haven't done any again yet... This trait is a real pain. As soon as I have to, the 'want to' part goes AWOL - until I no longer have to, then I'm passionate about it again!!! If you know a cure, please send me details express!
Still TAST weeks 9 and 10 being couching and running stitch respectively, I was able to fish out an old City & Guilds sample that contained some of each. The contrast on this first photo is not that good - it's an old one.
The main shell itself is regular couching, although you can see that there is some split stitch 'thickening' the lines in some parts. Better photo of detailed area now:
Here in the shadow line, from the bottom, we have a line of regular running stitch and just above it, two lines of whipped running stitch - one with just light grey, one with both shades. The idea was that I was trying to create the impression of the lines getting lighter as the colour density faded towards the outer edge of the shadow. I tried to do this with both density of stitches and darkness of the grey #12 pearl cottons used.
Speaking of #12 pearl cottons. I put an order from
Tandem Cottage and, although I managed to order mostly colours they didn't have in stock at the time and I'm waiting for most of them, one was in and I was disappointed to note that, although the quantity and quality was the same as ever, the packaging has changed. The new Anchor logo is neither here nor there, but I was sorry to see that they've now begun winding the #12 pearl cottons onto the same sized 'tube' as the #8, instead of using the old small ones. I liked the smaller ones as they're much easier to store. Sigh! The price of a better colour range...=(
© Elizabeth Braun 2012
