kerrykatiecakes

The work of AAQI is drawing to a close at the end of this year.  I have really enjoyed supporting this wonderful grass-roots organization that has raised funds for research into Alzheimers and other forms of dementia.  All good things must come to an end though and the goal of the organization now is to reach  a million dollars raised before they are done.  I think they will make it!  My personal goal is to have my little quilts raise a thousand dollars.  With this in mind, I went into a stitching frenzy as the last day to register quilts for donation and managed to register six on the last day. These first two are entitled Flower Girl 1 and Flower Girl 2.  I found the vintage pieces of surface embroidery in a thrift store and made them into small quilts.  The stitching reminds me of the stamped embroidery I did as a child with whatever threads were available for me to use in my mother's stitching supplies.  I love the exuberant colour...

You can see where this stitch got it's name, can't you?  It looks like a basket!  Basically, it is just a simple herringbone stitch with the top and bottom Vs meeting.  It has some fun possibilities though.  I hope you will enjoy it if you decide to give it a try. I decided to use my sample to make a basket motif and here is what I came up with.  Adding a row of chain stitch at the top and bottom made the basket come to life.  I experimented with making a handle by braiding three group of two strands each of DMC floss.  The handle experiment was not a success but it disappeared anyway when I added the flower filling for the basket later.