The TAST Elephant Sampler
Inverted Feather Stitch
One of the advantages of not stitching along on a week by week basis with TAST is the ability to pick and choose whichever stitch takes your fancy. Certainly an advantage when you are working your sampler on a particular image!
After having a look through a number of the TAST stitches, I settled on TAST Stitch 60 – Inverted Feather Stitch. Sharon did point out that despite the name, it isn’t really a feather sititch, and I would have to agree! If anything, it is a variation on chain stitch.
Thread Choices
Sharon recommended stitching this stitch in a twisted thread like a perle. I decided to follow this advice, and stitched it in a perle 5. To me however, this is a bit ‘heavy’. I feel I either needed to work it in an area where the stitches could be about double the size they are, or use a thinner thread. It just looks clunky.
For detailed instructions on how to work the stitch, I’ll let you head over to Sharon’s instructions. But in short, you create a chain stitch with a straight edge, and almost complete a box by creating a second chain stitch, but you have created a loop a little differently for the second stitch that forms part of the pattern.
Stitch Difficulty
This was a quick and easy stitch to get the hang of, and worked up quickly. It would probably look much better on something like a crazy quilt seam than in the small area’s I’ve stitched it, but overall I’m happy with my attempt. In the samples at the top of the legs, I was trying to keep in line with the stitches above it, so my squares didn’t quite work. And like a lot of the TAST stitches, it would have been easier on an evenweave!
But, that is one more area stitched, and one more stitch attempted!
Your elephant is beginning to look like a real Indian elephant decorated for a festival 🙂 You might not feel the stitches are perfect, but I love the overall effect!
Thanks Kate! It’s not a piece I’m overly worried about the stitches being perfect (though it would be nice if they were!), I’m just enjoying the experience of learning stitches I’ve never heard of!
He’s getting to be a very fine fellow indeed. I’m not sure I’ve seen that stitch before, and it has real potential!
It’s not a stitch I’d heard of before, but that is the great thing about the TAST stitches – so many that I wouldn’t have known existed! You are right about the potential for this stitch. I think you could do quite a lot with it in a variety of different scenarios too!
He’s looking great. I think you did a great job on your feather stitch.
Thanks Linda. I was starting to get the hang of it after my few little samples!
He is beautiful. Love all the different stitches.
Thanks Cindy. A sampler with a twist, but it’s been great to try such a wide variety of stitches.
How pretty! I cant wait to see it finished. Very nice work!
Thanks Tammy. I’m never sure where this piece will lead, so you just don’t know what might be next, or indeed, when it might be finished!
I really like that fabric you’re stitching on. What is it?
Love the chevron embroidery and the stars too 🙂
It’s a fabric which is traditionally used for crewelwork – linen twill. I’m not sure why I decided to stitch this sampler on it, but it’s a nice thick fabric which holds the stitches well. I couldn’t resist the little bit of bling with those stars 🙂
a lovely combination of stitches and colours ^^
Thanks Claire, it’s an eclectic mix, but it is fun to work and play with!
I agree with you the perle does look a lot thicker – but I think it works near the base of the foot. Look forward to seeing further progress.
Yes, I think you are right! Perhaps using two thicknesses of thread was the way to go!
Love the new stitch. I haven’t seen that one before but it looks so pretty.
It’s a new one to me too Carole. It was a fun stitch to learn, even if I perhaps should have used a different thread!
Love the elephant! Your inverted feather stitch looks very neat, I struggled with this one, in fact I’ve just looked back at my feather stitch page and my comment was ‘I don’t think I’ll be doing this one again’!!!
I’m not sure I completely got it right, but it was an interesting stitch. One for specific uses I think!
This is a lovely, fun project! I wonder if perle cotton no. 8 might have given you the result you were hoping for. It has the twist but is quite a bit finer than the no. 5. Just a thought. I love the stitch variety, what a great way to learn new ones.
Yes, definitely something thinner and less dominant, but I just went with Sharon’s suggestion. But an interesting stitch regardless!
He’s a lovely variation on a sampler and I think it’s always nice to explore new stitches.
Thanks Alex. A traditional sampler didn’t really interest me, but this seems to be a good solution!
This seems like such a lovely project for experimenting with new stitches. It’s looking really good so far.
Thanks Julie. It’s a great project to be able to play with stitches without worrying too much about how it will all work out!