It's done--well mostly

I finished the final row on the sampler this weekend. It's only mostly done because the instructions included a tent stitch border with a row of twisted chain to "finish" the sampler (and make it easier to frame or sew into a pillow). I've begun this in the upper right of the picture (which is the bottom according to how it was worked--the sampler's bigger than our scanner bed).

I've begun the rows of tent using basketweave and added a bit of the twisted chain (and ripped, and added, and ripped). The instructions call for two strands of the wool. I didn't like the look so I tried it with a half-step (kind of a back-stitch chain). Didn't like that, either. Then I tried a half-step chain with the perle. No good. This version, which I like, is a twisted chain using perle 3. I think it will provide a nice finishing edge. After I looked at the scans, however, I've decided to rip what I've done and twist the stitch away from the sampler rather than toward it.

Before I scanned most things, I would photocopy them, just to catch this type of thing. I didn't see it at all in the stitched piece.

I spent Saturday having a blast painting and embossing and bleaching fabrics. I used the Take It Further challenge as an excuse to finally try out my Shiva Paintsticks (I've had them since last April). I also wanted to try embossing on fabric, something mentioned in the Fiber&Stitch group. And I had a bleach pen just sitting there waiting to be used!

I spent most of the morning pressing the fabrics, adding freezer paper backing to hold them straight. I also measured, cut and applied freezer paper grids like the grid I drew in my last TIF posting. And finally I made some freezer paper cutouts to use as stencils for practice.

Then I got down to the fun. Here are some samples. I'll post more later on. These two hearts used freezer paper masks and were my first experiments with paintsticks.

They were pretty easy to use, like fat crayons. I found that the gold and silver sticks were crumbly and the tips pretty much crumbled off as I removed the outer dried layer. The purple stick was a sale item I found, it's a glitter paint stick. It is very glittery.

I think my flower is pretty lame.

Then I did this Fleur de Lis rubbing, again with a freezer paper stencil. That's more like it. I used a honey comb stencil--I'd read somewhere that bees were Napoleon's symbol and I always think of the Fleur de Lis as very French.

These designs aren't what I'll use for the TIF design, but were steps leading there.

Cindy: I visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe once many years ago and would love to go back. I had fun exploring your blogs (I'm jealous you got to see BB King last year--my hubby wasn't up to it). I have a friend doing the cirque des circles design, too, and pointed her your way.

Thanks for the comments, Wawanna. I really enjoyed your Krystal Joy blog.