TAST ongoing stitch sampler

Dear creatives, you might not remember
my post from early this year about TAST or the meaning of that challenge? But the truth is that I’m still doing it -and I’m very proud of my determination – and my growing Stitch Sampler! I didn’t have the ambition to post my stitch trials weekly (thank god!), but occasionally I’ve posted photos on flickr or tweeted about my stitching. Today I wanted to post a little update post about this project, called TAST.

TAST is this year’s year long project where I, and many others around the world (my mom included!), are learning a new stitch each week. The stitch’s name is posted on Pintangle every Monday evenings in Europe (that’s Tuesday mornings in Australia where Sharon of Pintangle lives). Hence TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday.

I’m stitching/learning the weekly stitch on a new piece of cloth each week, and when it’s finished I attach the cloth after the other pieces in a long row, using the sewing machine.

My Stitch Sampler

This is how it looks, raw edges and all:

TAST ongoing stitch sampler

The sampler is over 2 meters long right now (week 30). The edges look a little uneven (to say the least) but I have a plan on how to fix that. I will sew a lining to the back. This will cover the backside of my stitching – and make the sampler a bit sturdier. I am having fun with the stitching and encourage everyone to try a new stitch every now and then. I always say to myself how boring the example stitch look (or difficult or similar to something else or…), but once I’ve try it I really enjoy doing it! I quickly find a flow and hope to remember at least some of these to try in future embroidery work I do!

My ideas about stitching the sampler:

  • Keep the initial, often ugly, first stitches
  • Learn by doing
  • This is about process, not outcome, though I do think the outcome will be a rather colourful and fun Stitch Sampler
  • Just try the stitch a few times, or as many times as I want to, and then move on
  • Don’t be neat about your sewing, just get it done
  • Take a photo of each piece of cloth while sewing on it (or once it’s finished) to document the process (I think I have done this but I haven’t gone through all the photos so I’m not sure)
  • No need to be elaborate or figure out fun motives to stitch either, just a row is fine
  • Have fun!

Previous projects include ICAD (Index Card A Day Summer 2011) and DAC (Daily Art Cards 2008)!

How do you challenge yourself – or others?