STITCH LINES...... Ramblings on life as a quilter, stitcher, traveler, photographer, gardener and lover of books, cats and fine chocolate....

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Take A Stitch Tuesday Week 4...Cretan stitch

Our world is white today here in Freddy Beach! Yesterday's storm has left us with a clean fresh white blanket.. I don't mind the snow, I just don't like the cold that accompanies it! Hope you enjoyed those summer blossoms I posted last night- at least they remind us that summer is on its way...
Here is this week's stitching - I finished up last night as the freezing rain beat on the window behind me. Sharon challenged us with Cretan stitch this week. It is another of my favourites. I had done a simple sampler before (right) with the basic variations - changing the length, spacing, and slant of the stitch, also layering and stacking. And this week I did another sampler (below). I can't seem to get away from the sampler idea. Guess I'm more focused on "seam treatments" than the wonderful creative things some participants are doing.. Hope you like my efforts...





 In this sampler, the first two rows are "layered" Cretan - the first , two layers with the same Stef Francis hand-dyed fine perle with French knots added; the second row is done with a heavier Stef Francis hand-dyed thread on the bottom and a second layer "woven " on top with a DMC perle 8. The third row is just a very small fine Cretan done with a variegated brown Valdani, with straight stitches added in  a DMC perle 8. The next row shows the Cretan done with a DMC perle 8, and straight stitches added with a variegated fine perle and a DMC perle 12. The fifth row is four rows of stacked Cretan, the top two in perle 8, the bottom two in perle 5. In the last row I have "married" Cretan first with Herringbone and then with Chevron stitch - doing "half a stitch" of each. This thread is a beautiful Sassa Lynne perle 5 hand-dyed called "Summer Forest".



And a closer view...
Click here and go to comments (at top of post) to see what others around the world have done this week with the Cretan stitch.

Peace,
Linda

"If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?" ~Harvey Fierstein

12 comments:

Kathy said...

Wow! Impressive stitching. I love all of your variations and detailed descriptions.

Sparklyjools said...

What beautiful neat stitching, and I do like your stitched wording too - lovely!

Kathleen said...

I am also interested in seam treatments more than being experimenting with creativity in the stitch. May I borrow a few of your ideas on my cq blocks? Kathy http://kathysnest32.wordpress.com/

Linda H said...

Sure Kathy, go for it! I'd be flattered...

shirley said...

Gorgeous work Linda, I particularly that green design in the sentre of the top sampler

libbyquilter said...

i love your seam treatment samples~!
so nicely stitched and your descriptions are helpful as well.

:-)
libbyQ

Raphaela said...

Beautiful patterns and masterly stitched. Wow.

Lakshmi said...

Linda your stitching is gorgeous..

Kira said...

The sampler style of stitching looks really effective with the different colours of thread and the combinations of stitches. I haven't tried any of the stitches like this but it is quite inspiring and I can imagine some really nice uses for this stitch now.

Julie said...

I liked this so much I pinned it so other's could see your lovely work! I aspire to your level of expertise. Thank you!

Linda H said...

Woohooo! Thanks Julie- to my knowledge that's the first time I've ever been "pinned"... Hope you have gone back to look at my other Stitch Samplers too...

Jeannette said...

Beautiful stitching Linda! Really like all of your variations and thread colours. I had never heard of or done the cretan stitch before & it is so neat seeing everyone's creativity.

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