Wednesday, August 12

TAST 2015 - Blanket Stitch

I've decided to participate in Take a Stitch Tuesday 2015 which Sharon is conducting and will run for 52 weeks - a new stitch to try and explore each week.
It was in 2008 that I first took up the challenge of TAST and the result was two fiber books which have been exhibited and become teaching aides and are very precious to me.  
Since the book form interests me immensely and I've moved to a new place to set up home I've decided to use TAST to explore the use of embroidery stitches on paper and make a journal of sorts.
The paper for the pages will be the brown paper bags and bills on which I intend to do the embroidery stitches.It will be a collage of sorts. Embroidery, writing, ephemera.

So without much ado here's Blanket Stitch done on a brown paper bag from New Indian Bakery.  


 The inside. A recipe and the bill from Dragon restaurant. Panikoorka is Indian Borage and I have a cutting which will be planted in my herb garden and in time Panikoorka pakoras will be made..
I have some catching up to do with TAST.



8 comments:

Penny said...

Lovely idea, I don't think I will be participating this time, I have done it before and loved it but I don't think I have the time at the moment.

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Thank you Penny. I needed a project to put all I was gathering in terms of information and ephemera to have and to hold so I decided a journal was best and it would be good to include TAST it.

sharonb said...

I really like your idea of exploring the stitches in journal format - as journalling that includes ephemera, collage and sketching has taken on a greater interest for me too- I will be fascinated to see what you do I love the start.

evelyn said...

i like the 'contemporary' look and the journal format is great idea

chitra said...

very impressive way to work the TAST stitches. I have been fascinated by your fabric book, that I have started one.
Thank you very much,
Chitra

Asha said...

Oh my goodness this is just absolutely fantastic - we sort of think alike! I have been trying to think of a way to combine things I love - handmade paper and color and threads and stitches and somehow tying in weekly journaling too ... I have a stack of bright colorful handmade paper that needs fiber and bling added to it for sure. Will probably do some of the sewing if not all on fabric and attach to the paper ... not sure I begin to have your skills to sew on brown paper!! I am awed. OK now I seriously need to get started. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE your earlier stitch books – and everything else here - thanks for sharing your process so freely and being such wonderful inspiration! :)

Charlton Stitcher said...

What a great idea. I've not come across TAST before but I'm a fan of stitching or drawing / making a mark every day in a disciplined way and in a book ... very helpful. You remind me I must get back to it.

Marta Brysha said...

I love that you have showed how you can distort blanket stitch to get different and often irregular abstract shapes.

When I was a vet student, just before graduating, I was doing one of my final work experience rounds in a general practice clinic. I was closing up a surgery for the principal vet. He requested that I use a Ford Interlocking suture pattern. I had never heard of it, but I had an idea that what he wanted me to use was blanket stitch (yes it gets used sometimes in surgery for very large incisions - not ideal and not a suture pattern I like to use). I got him to show me a couple of stitches.

Me: that's blanket stitch
Him: No, it's a Ford interlocking, named after the guy who invented it.
Me: What?!!!!!!! Women have been using this stitch for millennia and some guy comes along, decides it would be a good way to close large wounds, puts his name on it and claims he invented it. What kind of bullshit is that?

I didn't get a very good review from that clinic.

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