WIPW - Insect Repellant Bags

I didn't think I would have the energy to make a Work In Progress Wednesday report for this week. I met with an accident late last week, and so was unable to prepare a new stitch for Sunday Stitch School. Luckily I am now well on the mend and can function as usual.

Fortunate was also that I had already made some progress on my other projects, and furthermore had just completed a set of 

Insect Repellant Bags

that I made for a friend out of scraps of kimono silk.

In Western countries we often fill small pouches with lavender or other fragrant herbs or flowers to place in the linen cabinet. To keep clothes safe from insects we may use smelly moth balls.

These pouches contain powdered incense which has a very distinct scent. To me it is a very pleasant Japanese smell, but I must admit the perfume goes well with kimonos, but not with bed linen. It certainly is nicer than the naphthalene of traditional moth balls!

Velveteen Cushion

Here I had added four smaller stars in the lower border.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

These stitches had also been added inside the ovals.

#20 Tete-de-boeuf 

#57 Figure-Eight Knot

#117 French Knotted Lazy Daisy

#118 Lazy Daisy Picot

#125 Carina's Knot

So all in all,  a good show, I think.

TAST #130 Double Lock Stitch - turns into a birthday card

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday.
Sharon teaches you a new stitch on her blog, Pintangle, on a Tuesday. You learn it, photograph the result and post it on your own blog. You then leave a comment on Pintangle with a link to your blog so other members can see how you interpreted the stitch. Why don't you join in?

Having said all that, I must admit that for TAST #130 Double Lock Stitch, I felt like not blogging about it at all!
It is a version of #129, and equally hard to get the tension even.

On Aida, using yellow Cotton a Broder and blue Perle #8.

Here is a strange thread combination, black Perle #3 and variegated nylon thread, or is it string? It is something I picked up at Festival of Quilts some years ago.

I thought that one day I will try these stitches again, and hopefully they will fall into place in my mind and hands!

Well, that day is already here! Thanks to encouragement and inspiration from other TAST members (read the comments on my previous blog posts and you can see how much support I get from my online friends) I decided to put in some more work into this stitch.

Annet, always a source of knowledge, advice and inspiration, mentioned that she prefers doing the second part of the stitch from left to right. So I gave that a try, hmm, yes, easier but still the tension was not good, and I was using a hoop.
Then suddenly the name struck me, Lock Stitch, of course that could mean that you 'lock' the stitches by pulling tightly on the thread!
After looking through my library of embroidery books I finally found one that contained the Lock stitch; the Danish Jytte Harboesgaard's Brodera - Stygn, sömmar och tekniker (Swedish translation). She stitches from bottom to top, like this:

See how the direction of the needle moves and that the thread is always behind the needle.

I think my tension was poor because I was confused about the direction of the needle and the thread!

Chitra is often using a paisley design, or making flowers or curves for her TAST samplers. Maureen made some fantastic Christmas wreaths. It was time for me to try some other shapes and different tension.

In the green hexagon shape I worked two rounds of white thread. Instead of Straight stitches I tested the stitch on orange Buttonhole stitches. By pulling the thread tightly, 'locking' the Lock Stitch, you get almost an Up and Down Buttonhole look like in the variegated circle. However, can you spot the mistake I made?

Then I felt I wanted to use the Lock stitch in a project and made this birthday card for my uncle:

Check out the flowers made up of orange and yellow Lock stitch, and the green leaves! Are they all the same stitch? YES!

Isn't it great when a stitch you did not like becomes something you love? NEVER give up!

Fore more fantastic Lock stitch eye candy, have a look at six days work of Quieter Moments.

A birthday card made from orts

I made a very simple embroidery for a birthday card for my aunt.

It was an effective way of using up the stray lengths of perle 8 and the left over beads from my travel projects.

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to judge how much thread I'll be needing for a seam. Often I am left with a length that is too short to use, and too long to throw away, if you see what I mean. Such snippets of thread, or (long) orts,  are just right for a Lazy Daisy chain stitch flower.

From now on I will collect my stray ends in a jar and eventually make an orts embroidery.

What do you do with your left over thread?

Look what I was given!

While in the UK I had the opportunity to meet embroidery oracle Pamela Allen of Hokkaido Kudasai.

Although Pamela and I both live in Japan, our homes are so far apart it has been difficult to meet there. By chance we were both in London at the same time this summer, and after various setbacks i.e. seriously delayed trains, me running out of pay-as-you-go airtime balance, heavy rain showers, we finally found each other amongst the crowds of central London.

Oh, what a delightful person! We had a great time chatting and I felt as if we had know each other a long time.

Anyone who has followed Pamela's blog knows her love for Japan and Hokkaido, but especially her passion for needlework. Pamela is so open minded about stitching and tries her hand at all sorts of techniques. She is also fast and blogs about one finish after another. Right now she has a series of Christmas ornaments that she made, mounted, photographed and prepared for one-a-day postings on her blog while in the UK. You see, she is organised as well!

Look what she gave me:

Isn't it a delightful scissor fob? Pamela has combined her skills of embroidery, beading and cord making.

THANK YOU, Pamela for the beautiful gift, and for taking time out of your hectic schedule to spend a few hours with me. Next time I hope we can find each other in the crowds of Tokyo, maybe at the quilt show in January.