TAST week 12 ~ barred chain and alternating barred chain

the stitch for week 12 with TAST is the barred chain and alternating barred chain.
 these are stitches that i had never tried before. i found them difficult at first but then realized that it was only a matter of  relaxing my stitches slightly on the barred parts to get them to lay the way that i wanted them to.

 the first stitch photo is the barred chain stitched in dark green silk Aurifil thread (24 wt) onto my own christmas stocking.

i then added bullion stitch rosebuds to my 'bar' in a light pink Anchor perle cotton thread (12).

 

i then added a single fly stitch under each bud in a medium green cotton Aurifil thread (12).

i morphed the barred chain into an alternating barred chain where the seam changed direction. as you can see it was a short distance.

i also added the bullion roses to the bars on this section resulting in buds both on the upper part of the chain and the lower.

i felt like i needed to do more with the alternating barred chain and added it to a lower portion of wonderful husbands stocking.
i followed the quilting lines which resulted in a woven/plaid/trellis type of effect. this was stitched in a dark green 50%wool/50%acrylic Aurifil thread (12).

i really enjoyed this stitch once i got the hang of it which didn't take long~!!~

there are several fun and well done examples of these stitches shown within the comments section of the week 12 post.   

i found the barred chain used as a border which is a great idea. 

there is a beautiful mandala using tatting combined with these stitches (also as borders) and here is a vine type application that uses beads. 

if you think that you may be interested in learning embroidery or practicing the stitches you already know it's well worth a visit to Pin Tangle to join in with this project.

remember last week i showed this same section that i had done as a weaving/mending experiment? well this week i added a few more threads to the mix. they were just small bits that were left on needles from other work. in the lower right hand corner you can see where i added some textural 'play' . . .

i don't think it's quite finished yet . . .

recent gifts include:

• flowers from friends 
• tips of tulip leaves poking up from the rocks
• new threads ~!!~