kerrykatiecakes

Remember the Christmas Crackers I received a little while back from my friends in the CQI Christmas Cracker exchange? Well, finally Christmas came and I could open them! What wonderful goodies I received - I am tickled pink! The one above is from Simona in Italy. You can see the crazy quilt block that was the outside of the cracker as well as the goodies that were concealed inside. There are is a lovely crochet fan to embellish with as well as a beautiful bejeweled crochet angel for my tree. These are so welcome because I myself do not crochet. The wonderful threads you can see here are perle #8, hand dyed from South Africa, and I can't wait to use them - they are so lovely! There were also buttons, ribbons and beads all picked especially to coordinate with the cq block so I can embellish it to my heart's content. Thank you Simona! This second cracker is from Meg in the US - another beautiful crazy quilt block to embellish! Meg included a chocolate bar from Europe whi

Sharon B at Pin Tangles has announced another challenge for this upcoming year. On the 15th of each month Sharon will be posting a little known stitch or style of embroidery, or both, for the participants to explore. I have just signed up - it looks like a wonderful opportunity to stretch and grow. To read more about the challenge, check out Sharon's Pin Tangles blog at: http://www.pintangle.com/community-challenges/2008/12/11/stitch-explorer-2009.html?lastPage=true&postSubmitted=true

I had a great suggestion that the Beaded Feather Stitch would make a good Week 12 for the Build a Seam Challenge so I'm making it official! Here are two variations of it from previous posts and you can find a tutorial on how to do it a couple posts back too. This will give us something to work on during the holiday season, before the next one in the new year. Seems appropriate to be using beads for a bit of glitz and glamour during the holidays!

Hi there! I am going to take a brief break from the Build a Seam challenge over the holidays - sorry this week's never got posted! I will be back and raring to go with this right after the New Year. In the meantime, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and all the best of everything in 2009! Stay warm!

Several people had admired the beaded feather stitch that I enjoy using on seam treatments so I have decided to write up a little "how-to" on it. And since one picture is worth a thousand words I went a little crazy with the pictures! So, you will need a beading needle for this stitch , some seed beads and thread. I like using Fireline now for the security of it but since it shows up better in the pictures I have just used regular DMC (one strand). I have used the floss on this seam many times in the past with no problems. After securing your thread well on the back come up to the left of your seam and then thread six beads onto your thread. You can use more beads but the key is to make sure they are an even number (6, 8, etc). To complete the first stitch you put your needle down to the right of where you came up and then come back up at the halfway mark a bit lower. Pull your thread through and then hold it between the two center beads. This is why you need an even number.

I have just finished my work on Meg's On the Seamy Side RR block. This go around was buttonhole stitch and spider webs. I managed to come up with a small motif of three buttonhole stitch circles, adding the odd bead to them. The second motif I did on Meg's block was the requisite spider web. This time I chose to do a corner one for a change, anchoring the strands of the web to the beads in the adjoining seam. The spokes of the web are done in Japanese Buttonhole Thread and Glissen Gloss and the connecting strands are of Glissen Gloss alone. Both of these threads I received in the recent Threads of Friendship Swap at Crazy Quilting International. I built a spider for the web from some pearl beads. Next I did a couple buttonhole seams. The top one is a curving row of buttonhole stitch with the purple grape bunches added. The second seam was Woven Buttonhole Stitch made of two rows of buttonhole stitch facing each other and with Japanese Gold Thread woven through the two lines

Sorry for the awful picture but here is my sample for the Week 11 Build a Seam challenge. I took the Buttonhole Pyramid stitch and then mirrored it underneath, leaving a space of about a quarter of an inch between the rows. Each peak of the pyramids was topped with a french knot and three detached chain stitches. Then in the center between the peaks went silver spacer beads attached with a seed bead. On either side of the spacers are more detached chain stitches. The quality of the picture is awful but hopefully if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the details.

Well, here's a surprise - I'm early instead of late this week! Here is this week's seam - a pyramid buttonhole stitch, called so because the stitches go and and down in a pyramid shape obviously. Other than that it is just your regular buttonhole stitch. You might notice that mine is above the seam line and wonder why. It is because I will be doing a second row under the seam line mirroring it and then using the space in between for further stitches or embellishments. So, have fun - I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

I have just had the pleasure of working on Jeanne's block in the On the Seamy Side Round Robin at CQI. This round robin dictates which stitch we use each go round of the round robin. This time it was the feather stitch so I used that both as a beaded feather stitch seam as well as for the basis of the silk ribon florals etc I added to the lace already on the block. I also threaded some gold braid through the lace above and below the floral design. Below this I added my first attempt at a Beaded Hedebo Edge that I found in A - Z of Embroidery Stitches 2 book. This edge shows in the picture of the whole block but not in the detail picture above. I really enjoy doing feather stitch in beads as shown. The stitch seems to lend itself so well to being embroidered with beads.

Here is the starting point for this week's seam. It is sort of a vine looking thing - loops above and below the seam line done in stem stitch. I hope you enjoy it!