Take a Stitch Tuesday

I've made a start on the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge - again - the photos are in reverse order. The threads I've used so far are fine pearl type threads in varigated colours. I set out with the idea of using monochromatic colour scheme. I've used various shades of white on white and cream on cream 100% cotton and perhaps I would have been better to have used a counted thread background for some of the stitches. Week 4 was Buttonhole Wheels, some are with the bars on the outside, some with the bars on the inside and some have an extra detached row of buttonhole stitch.

Week 3 - Arrowhead stitch, not one of my favourites and I'm quite sure I could have done a better job if I'd thought about it a bit longer.

Week 2 - Sheath Stitch, not a stitch I'm very good at, I find it difficult to make the stitch length even but perhaps that's more to do with the fabric I think this is one that would have been easier on counted thread fabric.

Week 1 - Bullion Stitch I know many people don't like this stitch but its one of my favourites.

I've been collecting Quaver packets way back when I did my C&G I used to make fabric with these sorts of packaging and at the back of my mind was the intension to make something 'useful'. Ah, the useful items proved to be atc's for the Surface Design Group 'Technique' ATCs. I bonded the crisp packets onto a fabric backing and cut the resultant fabric into strips. I wove the strips together and zigzagged them in place onto another piece of cotton (one of my son's old shirts). The flowers are again recycled sheers, old blouse and bits of left over fabric from other burning projects. Using a metal stencil I burned out the flowers and stitched them onto the background using beads. My techniques are burning, bonding and recycling.

When I put them together I thought they'd make quite a nice bag so I'd better start collecting more bags.

My elder son Marc has spent the weekend cycling the 'Coast to Coast' route from Whitehaven to Sunderland, about 144 miles in aid of breast cancer. One of their friends is undergoing chemotherapy at the moment for breast cancer and she is in her very early 30's. As his partner Alix's mum died of breast cancer and I'm a breast cancer survivor he thought it an appropriate charity. He did the ride with two friends and they set out on Saturday morning in a gale force wind with lashing rain. He said by the time they'd got to Keswick (about 30 miles away) they were ready to give in but they didn't. Today he is stiff, sore and achey but they've raised nearly £300 and are planning to do it all again next year but in one day!!! My own little action man.