TAST Week 9, crazy quilting

Good evening!
What a crazy world we live in! Wonderful but its just too fast. I just don't know how life can be enjoyed when we are so busy speeding along! I say that because not only do I spend alot of time in the gazillions of blogs out there, but I have recently discovered the world of "Pinterest". Good grief! I could spend years there!

I have been looking at blogs for a while now and I will say that I must have hundreds of them bookmarked. So many that it's safe to say that I don't know if I will ever get back to the ones bookmarked because I keep finding marvellous new ones. There are so many incredibly talented people out there. Its mind boggling, humbling and truly amazing how talented people are. And have you tried taking a water colour or acrylic painting class from YouTube? OMG!

Having said that... Why am I here? Well, I can't remember what week I am at with TAST, Take a Stitch Tuesday. Let me check. Week 9 which is the couching stitch. I think I am missing one or two stitches I am getting there slowly! I stitched all day yesterday and all day today and my eyes are a bit wonky and I confess, I am tired! This is what I have done so far on my felted stitch sampler:

I used the buttonhole stitch with some thick yarn around a plastic ring to completely cover it. Then, with some purple DMC perle cotton, I did another row of buttonhole stitch around the outside of the ring. Using two different colours of DMC perle cotton, I did two rows of herringbone stitch to attach the ring to the felted piece.


I then attached two lengths of yarn to the other side of the felted piece. With the yellow/orange yarn, I used a basic couching stitch, and with the blue/green yarn, I used the fly stitch to couch the yarn so that parts of the yarn would be raised and offer a bit more dimension to the piece.

Something I didn't take a photo of, is that I cut three thin curvy pieces of lime green organza and couched them onto the felt piece. They are partially visible in the photo of the buttonholed ring above. The colour is a bit nicer when looking at it in person.

I am almost finished the stitching on the second seam of my crazy quilt block. I just have to finish up the beads. I had to laugh when I sat and had a good look at that second row. If you only knew how much time I spend with my little ruler measuring each and ever stitch that I took. But better than that, I made a big deal in my earlier blog telling you how to take fishing line to mark off lines, etc. and then I had a good look at the purple stitching I did and boy, was it crooked! It was wide at one end and narrow at the end? I don't think I will be marking, measuring and stitching late at night with poor lighting conditions anymore!

Anyways, this is where I am so far:

And a close up of the row I am just finishing up:
I am using a suggested stitch design from Sharon's Encrusted Crazy Quilt course book. There are some wonderful stitch examples in it.

I have to admit that I am a book and magazine addict. After taking Sharon's class, I ordered two soft covered Crazy Quilt books for more stitch ideas. I was disappointed in both and find that the designs in Sharon's class notes are far superior to anything in those books. That is my opinion.

And just as a further note, I finally finished Quaker Diamonds today. I haven't pressed it or anything, so no photos. I am also working on the Mary Wigham Sampler that is being done as a SAL in Sampler World in Facebook. I have about half of the bottom two rows completed. No photos of that either but I will try to get it on here shortly.

And nope, no hints yet on the yarn and sari ribbon posted last time! LOL

If you don't see it soon, send me a kick in the .. motivation!

I am deathly afraid of violating some copyright rule and hope I'm not doing that by ending with this...

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

May you have much joy in your life!

TTYL