butterflychain1.jpg

stitch illustration

I can’t quite believe we are 20 weeks into this challenge. It does not feel that long but it is. I hope everyone is still enjoying it as much as I am.

This week the challenge is an embroidery stitch know as Butterfly chain stitch.

At first glance it looks quite set in its ways but if you vary the length of the foundation stitches and the way you chain it, the stitch becomes interesting.

You can work it row upon row to form a pattern or as a single line to define a shape.

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Shapes such as these squares can be repeated to form patterns

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You can change the angle of the chain to produce secondary patterns

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This sample the foundation stitches are stepped and the angle of the chained stitches are changed to produce a very different variation on what it considered a some what old fashioned stitch

If you are enjoying this challenge you may be interested in my latest classes which are offered on Joggles.com. Sumptuous surfaces is a 6 week online course which will start July 11th. (Details about the class are on the joggles site so follow the link for more information.)

As usual with this challenge when you have stitched a sample swing by and leave a comment (preferably on this post) so people can check out your site. Don’t forget to leave your URL. To avoid spam you must be registered to leave a comment and all comments are moderated. This means when I have read them I approve them and they are published.

Don’t forget that Debra Spincic generously runs a web ring for the TAST challenge which is found here and for those who have a Flickr account there is the Take a stitch Tuesday flickr group

That’s the stitch this week …as usual experiment, explore and Enjoy!