TAST Week 48

Gosh! Here we are at Take a Stitch Tuesday Week 48. This week presents the last stitches for this year’s TAST. For those finishing up — Congratulations! In the Facebook groups, I have enjoyed watching everyone learn and explore the stitches. It is why I run it each year, as TAST provides as much fun for me as for my readers. For those who have not done TAST before and if you are thinking about joining in, here is the FAQ. No need to register I don’t do the ‘give me your email’, etc, just join in.

For the last TAST of the year, I have two stitches that are a bit different. The first is known as Basque Stitch, which is also known as twisted daisy border stitch. It is a sort of twisted chain stitch that you work in a line or circle — a bit like a buttonhole stitch. You will find a tutorial for Basque Stitch here.

Basque stitch is known by that name because it is found on old embroideries from the Basque region of Spain.  Of course, Basque stitch is not confined to the one area, as you can also see it in Portugal and southern France.

As regular readers know, in 2016, again in 2018, and again in 2022, I walked the Camino de Santiago across Spain. The route is 500 miles long (or 800 km) and we walked, tracing the path of this thousand-year-old Medieval pilgrimage route. We stayed in hostels and carried our backpacks. As we crossed the Pyrenees mountains, we passed through the Basque country which stretches across the border from southeast France into northwest Spain.

One of the treasures of my Camino was to encounter a local fiesta purely by chance. This fiesta was a local event, not something put on for tourists or bus tours. Indeed, bus tours did not go through this village. I think it was probably a wedding — I am not sure, as I do not speak Spanish! This crowd had just tumbled out of the church. And everyone was so busy talking to each other they did not notice us walking by. The embroidered costumes were amazing.

Take a Stitch Tuesday Week 48 Beyond TAST

Fancy Bobbin Edging looks more complicated than it actually is.
As its name implies, it is a great stitch to use as an edging. This is particularly the case when you space the stitches close together.

Since it is a member of the buttonhole family, you can change the length of the arms and create a border, or fill patterns if you work rows of the stitch. The ridge along the base is more pronounced if you use a thread with a firm twist such as a cotton perle. Additionally, I worked several samples using different types of thread and I have illustrated them in the Fancy Bobbin Edging Tutorial

If you are new to hand embroidery the challenge is to learn the stitch and share what you have learned. If you are an experienced embroiderer, enjoy Beyond TAST and give your work a modern twist. And of course, share it online so beginners can see what can be done with a little imagination.

If you are looking for past TAST stitch challenges the archives are in the Take a Stitch Tuesday category

Where to Share

So the idea is to stitch a sample, photograph it, share it in the Take a Stitch Tuesday facebook group, or use the hashtags #TASTembroidery and #PintangleTAST on Instagram.

If you need more information the challenge guidelines are on the TAST FAQ page.

I hope you enjoy the stitches for Take a Stitch Tuesday Week 48.

To all my readers I hope you all have a safe, healthy and wonderful Holiday season, and we’ll see you back next year!

Thread Twisties!

Experimenting with different threads can be expensive. You would normally have to buy a whole skein of each type of thread. My thread twisties are a combination of different threads to use in creative hand embroidery. These enable you to try out stitching with something other than stranded cotton. For the price of just a few skeins, you can experiment with a bundle of threads of luscious colours and many different textures.

These are creative embroiders threads. With them, I hope to encourage you to experiment. Each Twistie is a thread bundle containing silk, cotton, rayon and wool. Threads range from extra fine (the same thickness as 1 strand of embroidery floss) to chunky couchable textured yarns. All threads have a soft and manageable drape. Twisting them around a needle makes experimental hand embroidery an interesting journey rather than a battle.  Many are hand dyed by me. All are threads I use. You may find a similar thread twist but no two are identical.

You will find my thread twisties in the Pintangle shop here.